RIN: DAUGHTER OF MNEMOSYNE © 2007 Xebec- Genco/ Yggdrasil Executive Committee. DRAGON BALL Z SEASON 2: DRAGON BOX © Bird Studio/Shueisha,
Toei Animation. ©1989 Toei Animation Co., Ltd. ONE PIECE: SEASON TWO- SIXTH VOYAGE © 1999 Toei Animation Co., Ltd., Japan. © 2001 Eichiro Oda/Shueisha.
EVANGELION: 1.11 YOU ARE (NOT) ALONE Blu-ray © 2007 Khara/Gainax

Source: FUNimation Entertainment press releases
Special Thanks to Jackie Smith

FUNimation Entertainment has provided details on several new and upcoming Region 1 anime DVDs.

Read on for cover art and specs for SOUL EATER- Part One, RIN: DAUGHTER OF MNEMOSYNE Complete Series, CASE CLOSED MOVIE 6: THE PHANTOM OF BAKER STREET, SANDS OF DESTRUCTION: THE COMPLETE SERIES, ONE PIECE: SEASON 2- FIFTH VOYAGE and ONE PIECE: SEASON 2- SIXTH VOYAGE, KENICHI: THE MIGHTIEST DISCIPLE- Season Two, Part Two, SGT FROG: SEASON 2- PART 1, DRAGON BALL SEASON 3 COMPLETE COLLECTION and DRAGON BALL Z SEASON 2: DRAGON BOX, THE SLAYERS REVOLUTION: The Complete Fourth Season, and EVANGELION: 1.11 YOU ARE (NOT) ALONE on DVD and Blu-ray.
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Australia’s Madman Entertainment brings the Korean hits HAEUNDAE and CHAW to DVD. Photos courtesy of Madman Entertainment.
HAEUNDAE © 2009 JK Film / CJ Entertainment. CHAW © 2009 Big House/ Vantage Holdings and Lotte Entertainment

Natural Disasters and Mutant Animals Terrify and Entertain
Source: Madman Entertainment

Two of the biggest box office hits in Korea last year were the mega-tsunami thriller HAEUNDAE and the killer wild boar horror/comedy CHAW. The Australian distributor Madman Entertainment has picked up both films and is releasing them on Region 4 PAL DVD. HAEUNDAE went on sale last month, and CHAW is scheduled for April.

Neither movie has been released on home video in North America.
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New Anime and Live Action Region 1 DVDs
Source: Section23 Films press release
Special Thanks to Mike Bailiff

DVD cover art for YOU’RE UNDER ARREST: FULL THROTTLE
COLLECTION 1, now on sale. Photo courtesy of Section23
Films.

Genre distributor Section23 Films has announced two new DVDs hitting shelves today. From Section23 client Sentai Filmworks comes the first collection of YOU’RE UNDER ARREST: FULL THROTTLE, the outrageous follow-up to YOU’RE UNDER ARREST: FAST & FURIOUS. Next up is BUYUSENKI BATTLE CHRONICLE, a motorcycle gang action thriller from Switchblade Pictures.

The ladies of Bokuto Police Station are back in YOU’RE UNDER ARREST: FULL THROTTLE, but there have been some BIG changes! Miyuki’s been in the U.S., studying American police techniques while Natsumi’s actually been serving in the military! So have these world-changing experiences had any effect on how everyone’s favorite girls in blue carry out their duties protecting the Japanese public? Have they gained a more “mature” perspective? Well, let’s just say that, if anything, they may be even wilder and less cautious than before!

The streets of Japan will be paved with blood in BUYUSENKI BATTLE CHRONICLE! Kyosuke Jinnai was the leader of the “Buyusenki,” the largest group of its kind in the Kanto region, but sick of the violence, he had planned to give it all up to make a family with his pregnant girlfriend. Instead, all of that was stolen from him in a moment of savage betrayal, and the man who dreamed of a life of peace has instead been transformed into an angel of death!
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Gangster Wong Po (Sammo Hung) battles Detective Ma Kwun (Donnie Yen) in KILL ZONE, coming to this month to Blu-ray and DVD in Britain.
Photo courtesy of The Associates. © 2005 ABBA Movies Company Limited, Stage Empire Ltd

Hong Kong Legends Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung Face Off in Martial Arts Hit
Source: The Associates press release
Special Thanks to Farhana Shaikh

Cover art for the KILL ZONE two-disc Ultimate Edition
DVD. Photo courtesy of The Associates. © 2005 ABBA
Movies Company Limited, Stage Empire Ltd

Winner of the Best Action Choreography Award at the 2006 Hong Kong Film Awards and hailed by Variety as “a must see” for martial arts and action movie fans, the action-thriller KILL ZONE (aka SPL: Sha Po Lang, 2005) comes to Blu-ray and DVD (as a two-disc Ultimate Edition) in March packed with special features that include behind the scenes featurettes, plus exclusive interviews with the stars and filmmakers.

Directed by Wilson Yip and featuring the work of many of the creative talents who helped him in bringing IP MAN, FLASHPOINT and DRAGON TIGER GATE to the screen, KILL ZONE stars Donnie Yen (IP MAN; AN EMPRESS AND THE WARRIORS), Simon Yam (IP MAN; TRIANGLE), Sammo Hung (THREE KINGDOMS; KUNG FU HUSTLE; THE MEDALLION) and Jacky Wu (INVISIBLE TARGET; FATAL CONTACT) and combines hard-hitting martial arts action with gritty police thriller conventions.

Climaxing in a long-awaited, extended screen showdown between martial arts legends Sammo Hung and Donnie Yen and featuring a breathtaking mano-a-mano face-off between Yen and Jacky Wu, KILL ZONE is an electrifying and suspenseful thriller guaranteed to keep action fans on the edge of their seats from start to finish.

KILL ZONE (cert. 18) will be released on DVD (£17.99) and Blu-ray (£24.99) by Cine Asia on 8th March 2010.
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HALO LEGENDS is now available on Blu-ray and DVD. Photo courtesy of Madman Entertainment. © 2010 Microsoft Corporation

HALO LEGENDS on DVD and Blu-ray; DEATH NOTE RELIGHT and NARUTO SHIPPUDEN
Source: Madman Entertainment

The Australian distributor Madman Entertainment is releasing the following anime titles this month on Blu-ray and Region 4 DVD…

HALO LEGENDS
Go deeper into the Halo universe than ever before with HALO LEGENDS, an all-new, CG and traditional anime experience that presents enthralling new stories from one of the world’s most popular video game franchises. HALO LEGENDS is a seven-story anthology – told across eight spectacular episodes – that explores the origin and historical events of the Halo universe and its intriguing characters.

NARUTO SHIPPUDEN Collection 01 (Eps 01-13)
Naruto Uzumaki is back! After two and a half years of training on the road with Jiraiya of the Sannin, Naruto is back in the Village Hidden in the Leaves and he’s ready to show off his new skills. He and Sakura team up to take on their old master Kakashi.

DEATH NOTE RELIGHT – L’s SUCCESSORS (Director’s Cut)
Light and L have battled to the bitter end over the Death Note – but what does the story look like from Ryuk’s point of view? Go back to where it all began and watch the epic battle from a new perspective – through the eyes of the one who started it all!
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DVD and Blu-ray cover art for Hayao Miyazaki’s PONYO, now available in North America. Photos courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.
© 2008 Nibariki – GNDHDDT. © Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Source: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Inc.
Official Movie Site: disneypictures/ponyo
Special Thanks to Jackie Cavanagh

Today, March 2, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment releases several titles from legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. Miyazaki’s latest, PONYO, will be available in both Blu-ray and DVD, while the classics CASTLE IN THE SKY, KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE, and MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO are returning as Special Edition DVDs with brand new extra features.

WDSHE has provided the trailer and a number of video clips from PONYO. For additional information, DVD and Blu-ray specs, and images please see the previous report here on SciFi Japan.
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Source: VIZ Pictures
Official Movie Site: 20thboysfilms.com (US), 20th Boys (Japanese)
Special Thanks to Rieko Fuji

A SciFi JAPAN EXCLUSIVE

Three SciFi Japan readers have each won a 20TH CENTURY
BOYS 2: THE LAST HOPE Gift Pack containing the DVD,
poster, and button. Photo courtesy of VIZ Pictures.
© 1999, 2006 Naoki Urasawa, Studio Nuts /Shogakukan
© 2009 “20th Century Boys” Film Partners

Thank you to everyone who entered VIZ Pictures and SciFi Japan’s contest for a free 20TH CENTURY BOYS 2 DVD Gift Pack. The following randomly drawn entrants correctly answered all contest questions:

Evan Brehany
Joseph W. Whalen
Wilton E. Newman

Congratulations to the winners! Each of you has won a Gift Pack containing the 20TH CENTURY BOYS 2: THE LAST HOPE DVD, button, and theatrical poster. VIZ Pictures will be shipping the Gift Packs shortly so keep an eye on your mailbox.
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Tokyo crumbles in SINKING OF JAPAN, director Shinji Higuchi’s big budget remake of the Toho classic SUBMERSION OF JAPAN.
Photo courtesy of The Associates. © 2006 “Sinking of Japan” Production Committee

Toho Box Office Hit Coming from MVM Entertainment on March 8th
Source: The Associates press release
Special Thanks to Louise Rivers

UK DVD art for SINKING OF JAPAN. Photo courtesy of The
Associates. © 2006 “Sinking of Japan” Production
Committee

The 2006 disaster film SINKING OF JAPAN (Nihon Chinbotsu) will be released on DVD in the UK next week by MVM Entertainment. The movie is based on the best selling novel Japan Sinks by Sakyo Komatsu, and the previous film adaption, Toho’s blockbuster SUBMERSION OF JAPAN (1973).

SINKING OF JAPAN was a co-production among several companies; most notably Toho and Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS). It was co-written and directed by Shinji Higuchi, the acclaimed FX director on the Heisei Gamera series who has gone on to helm hit films such as LORELEI: THE WITCH OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN (Lorelei, 2005). The special effects were directed by Makoto Kamiya of GODZILLA, MOTHRA AND KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK (Gojira, Mosura, Kingughidora: Daikaiju Soshingeki, 2001) fame.

The film was a tremendous box office success across Asia. Distributor Tartan USA acquired North American rights and planned to release the movie on Region 1 DVD as DOOMSDAY: THE SINKING OF JAPAN in 2008, but the company went out of business before that could happen. The upcoming UK DVD will finally give Japanese cinema fans in the west a chance to see SINKING OF JAPAN.
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Source: VIZ Media, MediaLab press releases
Special Thanks to Evelyn Dubocq and Erik Jansen

Packaging art for the NARUTO Uncut Season 2 Volume
2 Box Set. Photo courtesy of Warner Home Video.
© 2002 Masashi Kishimoto

VIZ Media, LLC has announced their list of DVD titles scheduled for release in April 2010. This includes the final box set release of NANA, the next episodic releases of the popular BLEACH and NARUTO SHIPPUDEN series, and the latest box set release of NARUTO SHIPPPUDEN.

Also releasing is the live action feature film, K-20: THE FIEND WITH TWENTY FACES, from VIZ Pictures.

VIZ Media DVD titles are distributed (in English) in the U.S and Mexico by Warner Home Video and in Canada by Allegro.
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Biker Vengeance on Region 1 DVD
Source: Section23 Films press release
Special Thanks to Mike Bailiff

DVD cover art for BUYUSENKI BATTLE CHRONICLE. Photo
courtesy of Section23 Films. © 2008 Zen Pictures

Next month, genre film distributor Section23 Films and Switchblade Pictures will release the unrated limited edition DVD of BUYUSENKI BATTLE CHRONICLE.

Mix motorcycles, drugs and yakuza under pressure and the result is bosozoku, the brutal motorized street gangs that terrorize Japan armed with swords and baseball bats.

Kyosuke Jinnai was the leader of the “Buyusenki,” the largest group of its kind in the Kanto region, but sick of the violence, he had planned to give it all up to make a family with his pregnant girlfriend. Instead, all of that was stolen from him in a moment of savage betrayal, and the man who dreamed of a life of peace has instead been transformed into an angel of death!

The streets of Japan will be paved with blood in BUYUSENKI BATTLE CHRONICLE!
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Source: Section23 Films press release
Special Thanks to Mike Bailiff

HELL GIRL: TWO MIRRORS COLLECTION 1. Photo
courtesy of Section23 Films.

Home video distributor Section23 Films today announced its May slate of DVD releases, including the second season of the hit anime series HELL GIRL from Section23 client Sentai Filmworks.

Sentai will also release three other anime series sets in May, including YOU’RE UNDER ARREST: FULL THROTTLE COLLECTION 2, SAMURAI HAREM – ASU NO YOICHI COMPLETE COLLECTION and EYESHIELD 21 COLLECTION 1.

Also releasing in May from Sentai Filmworks, APPLESEED BLU-RAY EDITION which includes an all new English dub featuring the cast of APPLESEED EX MACHINA!
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Cute Japanese high school girls become undead monsters in the splatter horror comedy VAMPIRE GIRL VS FRANKENSTEIN GIRL.
Photo courtesy of 4Digital Media. © 2010 Pony Canyon /Concept Film /Excellent Film Partners

Source: 4Digital Media, Arias UK Ltd. press releases
Official Movie Site: VAMPIRE GIRL VS FRANKENSTEIN GIRL (Japan)
Special Thanks to Chris Meyer

Cover art for the new British DVD of VAMPIRE GIRL VS
FRANKENSTEIN GIRL. Photo courtesy of 4Digital Media.
© 2010 Pony Canyon /Concept Film /Excellent Film Partners

From Yoshihiro Nishimura, the man behind the outrageousness of TOKYO GORE POLICE and THE MACHINE GIRL comes this crazed response to both TWILIGHT and LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, a film that consistently overwhelms the viewer in its sheer dementia…

Based on a manga by Shungiku Uchida, VAMPIRE GIRL VS FRANKENSTEIN GIRL (Kyuketsu Shojo tai Shojo Furanken, 2008) will be released on DVD (£15.99) in the UK by 4Digital Media on 15th March, 2010.

Handsome high school student Mizushima (Takumi Saito) receives Valentines Day chocolates from a new student, Monami Arukado (Yukie Kawamura). Little did he know that the chocolates contained traces of Monami’s vampire blood. He gets infected from eating them and Monami confesses that she wants to live with him forever as vampires. Keiko Furano (Eri Otoguro), Mizushima’s girlfriend, sees the two on the school rooftop kissing and in a state of hysteria, attempts to throw Monami off the roof but falls off herself instead.

Keiko dies but her father, Kenji Furano (Kanji Tsuda), the mad scientist, resurrects her as Franken girl. Thus begins a deadly combat between Franken Keiko and Vampire Monami in the name of love. As we all know, this kind of Vampire vs. Frankenstein conflict can only be solved by fighting, beating, stabbing, chewing, clawing and a showdown high atop Tokyo Tower!
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New Anime and Live Action Region 1 DVDs
Source: Section23 Films press release
Special Thanks to Mike Bailiff

DVD cover art for MARIA-HOLIC COMPLETE COLLECTION,
now on sale. Photo courtesy of Section23 Films. © 2009
Minari Endo/Shaft

Section23 Films, America’s fastest-growing genre film distributor, is pleased to announce two new DVDs that will blow your mind. From Section23 client Sentai Filmworks comes the fun new anime MARIA-HOLIC COMPLETE COLLECTION, collecting the entire series in one cool set. Next up is RYUJI THE YAKUZA, a hard-boiled thriller from Switchblade Pictures. Both DVDs were released on February 23rd.

MARIA-HOLIC COMPLETE COLLECTION is a romantic comedy set in an all-girls school, where androphobic transfer student Kanako searches for her yuri partner but instead runs into a cross-dressing boy with a sadistic personality. Featuring unusually lush, playful art direction from studio Shaft, MARIA-HOLIC veers wildly from serious send-up to outrageous parody of popular anime tropes. This is one over-the-top series!

Every man needs a code, and RYUJI THE YAKUZA is no exception. Ruthless, cunning and loyal, Ryuji is the perfect Yakuza. But violate his sense of honor, and he’ll take you down – no matter who you are! Like the Man with No Name, Ryuji is an enigmatic, indomitable force for justice.
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Japanese bookstores are now selling the Toho SFX DVD Collection which packages classic movies with a collectible booklet.
© 2009 Toho Co., Ltd. © 2009 KK DeAgostini Japan

Author: Ed Godziszewski
Official Site: KK DeAgostini Japan

Cover for Toho SFX DVD Collection Vol 2: MOTHRA VS
GODZILLA. © 1964 Toho Co., Ltd. © 2009 KK DeAgostini Japan

One of the recent trends in Japan is take movie and TV series that have long been marketed on video, LD, and dvd and repackage them a new way to sell them yet again to the public. The preferred approach is to produce a bare bones DVD, bundle them with an A4-size booklet, and introduce a new volume every 3-4 weeks, thus bypassing video sales arrangements and allowing the product to be sold as a book in bookstores.

Always one to look for ways to sell the same movies to collectors many times over, Toho jumped on this bandwagon recently and intends to sell 55 titles from their special effects film catalog. Sold by a company named DeAgostini starting in September of 2009, the Toho SFX DVD Collection has been a huge seller in its first few months, moving well over 200,000 units of each of the 11 titles released to date. Not bad for films, many of which have had at least at least 6 different home video releases over time.

So what do you get for your ¥1990 (roughly $22 at today’s exchange rate) per volume?
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PONYO, the latest masterpiece from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, will be released on DVD and Blu-ray in North America on March 2.
Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. © 2008 Nibariki – GNDHDDT. © Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Source: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Inc. Press release
Official Movie Site: disneypictures/ponyo
Special Thanks to Jackie Cavanagh

On March 2, 2010, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment will release several titles from legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. Miyazaki’s latest, PONYO, will be available in both Blu-ray and DVD, while the classics CASTLE IN THE SKY, KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE, and MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO are returning as Special Edition DVDs with brand new extra features.
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