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Hanabee Entertainment Announces New Acquisitions at Manifest 2012

At the Hanabee industry panel, CEO Eric Cherry announced that the release date of Dream Eater Merry would be October 3rd. No dates are currently set for release of the following titles.

Arakawa Under the Bridge

Arakawa Under the Bridge is based on the manga series created by Hikaru Nakamura. Set in Arakawa, Tokyo it revolves around Kou Ichinomiya who has accomplished everything by himself due to his father's creed; never be in debt to anyone. One day he falls into the Arakawa River and almost drowns but his life is saved by a homeless girl named Nino. As a result, Kou owes Nino his life and in order to pay her back, Kou promises to be her boyfriend. And thus begins his new life under the bridge. Kou Ichinomiya is voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya (Mephisto Pheles in Blue Exorcist, Yuzuru Otonashi in Angel Beats) and Maaya Sakamoto as Nino (Mari in Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance, Rip van Winkle in Hellsing Ultimate).

The anime adaptation was produced by studio SHAFT with series direction by Yukihiro Mitamoto (Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Zoku Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei), direction by Akiyuki Shinbo (Bakemonogatari, Puella Magi Madoka Magica). Art direction was handled by Kohji Azuma (Baka and Test - Summon the Beasts, Dance in the Vampire Bund) and character design by Nobuhiro Sugiyama (ef: a tale of melodies). The series originally aired 13 episodes in 2010. Hanabee have confirmed that they have the license to it's sequel, Arakawa under the Bridge × Bridge but there are no further plans at this time.

Bodacious Space Pirates

Bodacious Space Pirates (Mōretsu Pirates) is set in the far future and centers around a spirited high school girl named Marika. Marika lives an ordinary life, spending her spare time between the space yacht club and her part-time job at a high-class retro café. One day, two people suddenly appear and claim to be subordinates of her dead father and they demand that she assume command of the space pirate ship Benten Maru. A privateer ship's compact was made during a war of independence a century ago and according to that compact, the ship must be inherited by the captain's next direct descendant. So for the Benten Maru to continue legal operation Marika becomes the ship's new captain and begins her life as a space pirate.

The title is an adaptation of Yuichi Sasamoto's Mini-Skirt Uchū Kaizoku (Mini-Skirt [Space] Pirates) space-opera novels. Tetsuo Sato (Martian Successor Nadesico, Stellvia) directed, wrote the bulk of the screenplay and oversaw the scripts. Art direction was handled by Akira Ito (Baccano! Durarara!! and Elfen Lied) with character design by Noriyuki Matsumoto. The series was originally screened in Australia through Crunchyroll in 2011. Hanabee has confirmed that the 26 episode series will be released on BluRay.

ef: a tale of memories / ef: a tale of melodies

ef: a tale of memories and ef: a tale of melodies are an anime adaptation of popular Japanese visual novel ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two (consisting of ef: The First Tale and ef: The Latter Tale) published by Minori. The adaptation follows three protagonists as they interact with various girls and eventually fall in love.

ef: a tale of memories adapts the first part of ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two (ef: The First Tale) and follows three main characters. Renji Asō (Motoki Takagi / Clint Bickham) meets a girl named Chihiro Shindō (Natsumi Yanase / Monica Rial) who suffers from a form of amnesia where her memory only lasts 13 hours. Chihiro's condition makes her dream of writing a novel difficult but Renji decides to help her fufil her dream. When Hiro Hirono (Hiro Shimono / Greg Ayres) crashes into Miyako Miyamura (Hiroko Taguchi / Luci Christian) they discover that Miyako attends Hiro's school and they start hanging out together. This makes Hiro's childhood friend, Kei Shindō (Junko Okada / Brittney Karbowski), feel left out so she starts to compete with Miyako for Hiro's affection. Kyosuke Tsutsumi (Hiro Shimono / Chris Patton) goes through some life changing decisions after he takes a photo Kei running down a street. He doesn't recognise Kei but he decides to pursue her all the same.

ef: a tale of melodies adapts ef: The Latter Tale and follows two stories, one set in the past, the other in the present. The first story focuses on Yū Himura (Kouichi Toochika / David Matranga) as he meets Yūko Amamiya (Yumiko Nakajima / Carli Mosier) who seems to know him from his past, but he cannot remember her. Yūko soon reveals that they knew each other when they were far younger and that Yu was Yūko's first love. The second story focuses on Shūichi Kuze (Kenji Hamada / Illich Guardiola) and Mizuki Hayama (Mai Goto / Hilary Haag). Mizuki is the cousin of Renji Asō and living with him while he studies for exams. Mizuji is introduced to Kuze and they spend a lot of time together. However what Kuze isn't telling Mizuki is that he has a fatal illness and does not have long to live. When Kuze decides to break off the relationship, Mizuki tells him that she loves him.

The series was directed by Shin Ōnuma (Baka and Test - Summon the Beasts, C³) and produced by studio SHAFT with screenplay and series composition by Katsuhiko Takayama (Baka and Test - Summon the Beasts, Majikoi - Oh! Samurai Girls). Character design was handled by Nobuhiro Sugiyama (Arakawa Under the Bridge) from original designs by 2C=Galore and Naru Nanao (Sola, D.C. ~Da Capo~). Ef: a tale of memories was originally broadcast in 2007 and runs for 12 episodes. ef: a tale of melodies is of 2008 vintage and runs for another 12 episodes.

UPDATE: Hanabee Entertainment confirmed that they have licenses for ef: a tale of melodies and Arakawa under the Bridge × Bridge. We have added in some additional information for ef: a tale of melodies to reflect this.

Additional Source: The Otaku's Study.