Black Lagoon Blu-Ray releases delayed until end of July, DVD collection release date unaffected

Manga Entertainment just announced on their twitter account that the upcoming Black Lagoon Blu-Rays they are distributing with Kaze UK have been delayed until the end of the month, July 30th to be precise. The DVD collection containing both seasons are still set for a July 9th release date.

“Season 1 & Season 2 Blu-ray delayed until 30-July. Massive apologies 2 all our customers. S1&2 DVD box set out 9-Jul.”

You can pre-order both versions at Amazon UK via the links below:
Season 1 Blu-Ray  |  Season 2 Blu-Ray  |  Season 1 & 2 DVD Collection

 

Anime Chronicle on Danish based “Tegnefilm Podcasten”

Anime Chronicle’s own Jeremy Graves & Jimi Hart made an appearance on the Danish based Tegne Film Podcasten (which literally translates into English as The Cartoon Podcast) hosted by Martin Houlind last week talking about the anime studio Madhouse and the film ‘The Girl Who Leapt Through Time’.

You can listen to the podcast over at their website HERE or through iTunes HERE.

The segment involving us begin at around the 7 minute mark. (You can find full details on the timings of the show at their website.)

This podcast is bilingual, having portions in both Danish & English and is the only Danish returning publication of any kind devoted to animated films. They don’t just talk about anime either. As an example a recent episode of theirs focused on YELLOW SUBMARINE, yes as in The Beatles, and included lenghty interview with a Beatles expert and music historian to set up the 1960s and the career of the Liverpool lads for the listeners.

We had a great time talking to Martin and if you have some time spare we encourage you give it a listen.

Animetal USA perform at Anime Expo in Los Angeles + Debut album now released in USA

The power metal quartet that have re-imagined anime opening and ending songs in their own style (complete with English lyrics) we’ve been keeping a close eye on over the past 6 months known as Animetal USA have taken a huge leap forward in developing their international presence with a performance at the world renowned Anime Expo convention in Los Angles this past weekend.

The Quartet performed a thirteen song set combining songs from their debut album “Animetal USA” and their recently released in Japan follow up “Animetal USA W”. Though just to confuse you slightly the set list mainly featured songs included on the North American Special Edition version of “Animetal USA”. The difference between this special edition version and the original Japanese version being that the track listing has been altered by replacing a some songs with ones featured on the ‘Animetal USA W’ album including the song ‘Give Lee Give Lee Rock Lee’.

If you are interested in ordering the North American Special Edition version of the album, you can do so HERE.

The list of songs they played at Anime Expo were:

DVD Review – Roujin Z

Available on DVD & Blu-Ray now.

After reviewing some excellent new titles of anime, especially CG epics and pristine Blu-ray releases, it can be a challenge to re-tune my eyes to older animes, although if you allow yourself to sit back and just watch, you will be thoroughly rewarded and Roujin Z is no exception.

Roujin Z (old man Z) was first bought to us on good ol’ VHS in 1991 from acclaimed Akira director and writer Katsuhiro Otomo, which this re-release definitely capitalises on.

An old widower, Kijuro Takazawa, who is lovingly looked after by a young student Haruko Mitsuhashi and is very much in need of full time care, has been ‘selected’ to be a test subject in a governmental healthcare project where a nuclear powered, robotic medical bed prototype may take over the 24/7 care of Japans rising elderly population, instead of nurses and full time carers, thus, in theory, relieving the strain of an almost overstretched medical service.

DVD Review – Baka & Test: Summon The Beasts

When thinking about the anime’s I have watched recently and enjoyed very much, there has been a clear recurrence of serious and mature animations filling my collection; Akira, Tekken BV,  Evangelion, countless Ghibli’s; so on and so forth. When tasked with watching a Shonen anime, I must admit it was going to be a tough watch; large beady eyes and cutsie dialogue are not per ce, ‘my thing’.

However, I was pleasantly surprised and very impressed that my insatiable lust for fight scenes, complex character divulgence and overall quality had been quelled enough by Baka and Test.

Set in Fumizuki Acedemy high school, we can already deduce that this is no ordinary learning establishment. Fighting in my high school was forbidden and punished very highly, so it came as a shock that this academy is promoting fighting; mixed with an excellent twist. Here, the students grades are their strength, with higher test scores in particular studies being made the ammunition which fuels the students fighting avatars (Shokanju, ‘Beasts’), in battles named ST wars; battles approved by teachers whom can open special fighting grounds for our students to fight in using their avatars, which look wonderfully reminiscent of the characters in final fantasy 3 et al, coated in cool armour and wielding close combat weapons.

VIDEO – Complete ‘Anime Industry’ panel from MCM London Expo

Here is the complete Anime Industry panel featuring Tony Allen from MVM Entertainment, Andrew Partridge from Kaze UK and Jerome Mazandarani from Manga Entertainment UK for you.

Podcast Episode #42 – May 2012 MCM London Expo Preview show ft. Andrew Partridge of Kaze UK

This week join Jeremy Graves as he welcomes good friend of the show Andy Hanley from UK-Anime to bring our traditional MCM London Expo preview program! They take you on a journey of information as to what you can expect at the expo this weekend, well after an initial 15 minutes or so of discussion on a variety of topics including Squid Girl and the Bleach Blu-Ray releases.

Once the expo talk begins we also welcome Andrew Partridge of Kaze UK & Anime On Demand onto the program to gives some insight into how his preparations are going ahead of the expo, what we can expect on the Kaze UK stand and during their panel on Sunday, some Anime On Demand talk on more!

Following that Jeremy and Andy wrap up their expo talk and then discuss what they been watching that includes Clannad, some of the recent Marvel anime series and more! A fun show as always and it’s available for you now!

Download – Right Click, Save As HERE | Download through iTunes HERE.
Duration: 1:22:37

Blu-Ray Review – Bleach the Movie 3: Fade To Black

Release date: May 28th 2012

Returning for its third theatrical outing following two brilliant predecessors, we delve back into the world of powerful Ichigo Kuosaki and the soul reapers in Bleach with Fade To Black on both DVD and Blu-Ray. Though it should be noted that this review is purely based on the Blu-Ray release of the movie.

As was the case with Memories Of Nobody and The Diamond Dust Rebellion, Fade To Black is a standalone original story that has no bearing on the continuum of the Bleach universe. However despite this it serves as a powerful reminder of just how unpredictable and great the franchise is, giving you a great sense of unknowing, a feat harping back to the early days of the series.

Tiger & Bunny UK home video release date confirmed! – UPDATED

DVD/Blu-Ray combo pack of Part 1 due in October

Manga Entertainment have made it known on twitter that we can expect to see the first part of the very popular superhero anime series Tiger & Bunny released on September 23rd in the UK!

The release will be a DVD+Blu-Ray combo pack, meaning you get both versions for one price. Given it’s part 1 of the series, it’s probably safe to assume it will include the first 12 or 13 episodes of the 25 episode series.

Tiger & Bunny will be the first series to be released on home video in the UK after having streamed as a simulcast with the original Japanese audio & English subtitles on the Anime On Demand streaming service. It’s still to this day one of the most popular series available to view on the site so it will be very interesting to see how well it does on DVD/Blu-Ray (with the English dub included too).

UPDATE –
Kaze UK have since made it known on their twitter account that the first part of Tiger & Bunny is actually due for release in October, not September.

Kaze UK also added on twitter “we have something planned for September for [Tiger & Bunny] so maybe that’s what [Manga UK] got confuzzled by – easily done 🙂“. No doubt we’ll find out more details about this “something” in the coming months.

So to reiterate, the Tiger & Bunny Part 1 DVD+Blu-Ray combo pack is due for release in October. This matches the previous report that it would be released in the fourth quarter of the year.
We’ll be sure to keep you up to date with any further developments on this.

Blu-Ray Review – Bleach the Movie 2: The Diamond Dust Rebellion

Release date: May 28th 2012

Following on from its first theatrical outing Bleach returns for a second feature length story in the form of “The Diamond Dust Rebellion” that proves to be a dichotomy from the first, but is still able to provide a great story and power pounding action, this time (following its original DVD release) getting the high definition treatment on Blu-Ray!

This movie sees the captain of the 10^th Court Guard of the Soul Society take a primary focus, a welcome decision in my eyes as he is always a character I’ve wanted to know more about. The higher ranking members of the Court Guards of the Soul Society, while all interesting and unique characters, never really get an opportunity to have their past explored in detail.