anime

Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2 Anime’s Sub Delayed to Wednesdays Worldwide

Posted on by Lesley Aeschliman

FUNimation Entertainment has announced that the English-subtitled simulcast of the second part of the Attack on Titan Season 3 television anime will be delayed beginning with episode 54, which will launch on May 29, 2019 on FunimationNow, Hulu, Crunchyroll, and through all other sublicensees worldwide. New episodes will be delayed from Sundays at 1:35 p.m. EDT to Wednesdays at 9:00 a.m. EDT.

The company explained that sublicensees leaked new episodes for two weeks in a row in two territories before the premieres in Japan. The licensor decided to give show materials to FUNimation after the premieres of upcoming episodes in order to prevent further leaks. Therefore, new episodes will be delayed to Wednesdays “to provide enough time for each company to work on subtitles and quality control, and make sure that all territories can launch at the same time.”

FUNimation clarified that the delay will not affect the simuldub, which will debut on May 26, 2019. The series will also debut on Adult Swim’s Toonami programming block on May 25, 2019.

Source: ANN

FUNimation Entertainment Announces Four Anime Films Added to Its Streaming Platform

Posted on by Lesley Aeschliman

FUNimation Entertainment has added the following four anime films on its Funimation Now service:

  • Ghost In The Shell: The New Movie
  • Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
  • Psycho-Pass
  • Steins;Gate – The Movie – Load Region of Déjà Vu

The films are available both with an English dub and subtitles.

Source: ANN

VIZ Media Welcomes Summer With New Anime and Manga Releases for June 2019

Posted on by Lesley Aeschliman

June 2019 anime home media debuts include Season 5 of Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Part 1 on Blu-ray and DVD, and the complete series run of the boxing anime, Megalobox on Blu-ray and DVD. The series finale of the long-running ninja action saga concludes in Naruto Shippuden DVD Set 38.

New manga publishing titles for June 2019 include Komi Can’t Communicate, a coming-of-age drama about a high school girl’s struggle to overcome her severe social anxiety. A bold art book exploring the widespread impact of Neon Genesis Evangelion on popular culture arrives with Evangelion Illustrations 2007 – 2017.

Under license from The Pokemon Company International, Pokemon the Movie: The Poiwer of Us—Zeraora’s Story, prequel companion to the animated film Pokemon the Movie: The Poiwer of Us, also debuts in June 2019. Meanwhile, Akira Toriyama fans can look forward to collecting reissues of the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z manga box sets. Each box set includes a special bonus booklet and poster along with Son Goku’s iconic adventures.

New Home Media Releases for June 2019:

SAILOR MOON SAILOR STARS PART 1 Blu-ray & DVD Sets
Limited Edition Blu-ray MSRP: $79.99 U.S. / $93.99 CAN · Standard Edition Blu-ray MSRP: $69.99 U.S. / $81.99 CAN · DVD MSRP: $39.99 U.S. / $51.99 CAN
Available June 18, 2019

Sailor Moon and the Sailor Guardians are about to face their greatest challenge yet—high school. But as the girls take their next big step in life and Chibi-Usa prepares to return to the future, a mysterious force frees the evil Queen Nehalennia. While the struggle to contain her old enemy will be difficult, it may be Mamoru’s year of studying abroad that hurts Usagi the most. But there’s even more to take Usagi’s mind off of long-distance love with the arrival of the villainous Sailor Anima Mates and the heroic Sailor Star Lights. Who could be behind this new wave of evil? And why are the Star Lights resistant to working with Sailor Moon? Usagi has her hands full, but she’ll always make time to write a love letter to her beloved Mamo.

MEGALOBOX Blu-ray & DVD Sets
Limited Edition Blu-ray MSRP: $69.99 U.S. / $81.99 CAN · Standard Edition Blu-ray MSRP: $44.98 U.S. / $52.99 CAN · DVD MSRP: $39.99 U.S. / $51.99 CAN
Available June 25, 2019

Bored, resigned, and unfulfilled, a young man with neither name nor past survives by fighting in underground matches of a sport called “Megalobox,” a form of boxing that utilizes powered exoskeletons. Calling himself JNK.DOG, he feels trapped in a world of crime, poverty, and ecological collapse. All that changes when he has a chance encounter with Yuri, the reigning king of Megalobox. Now, obsessed with proving himself, JNK.DOG becomes a man driven to do whatever it takes to fight his way to the top of the rankings and take on the champion.

NARUTO SHIPPUDEN DVD SET 38
DVD MSRP: $39.99 U.S. / $51.99 CAN
Available June 11, 2019

It’s the final Naruto Shippuden box set. The Fourth Great Ninja War is over, and now the Hidden Leaf Ninja return to their daily lives. Some tackle dangerous work—like Sasuke, who tries to uncover the truth about mysterious exploding humans. Others, like Shikamaru, face the difficulty of adjusting to a post-war life. And for Naruto and Hinata, it’s wedding bells.

New Publishing Releases for June 2019:

EVANGELION ILLUSTRATIONS 2007 – 2017
MSRP: $34.99 U.S. / $46.99 CAN
Available June 11, 2019

Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the most enduring and significant touchstones for anime, manga, and pop culture fans over the past two decades, thanks to the groundbreaking television series and beautifully animated movies. This book collects ten years’ worth of illustrations that showcase the wide effect Neon Genesis Evangelion has left on not just the animation industry, but on popular culture in general. Included are illustrations for film posters, CD albums, bullet train designs, video game collaborations, and much, much more.

KOMI CAN’T COMMUNICATE by Tomohito Oda
MSRP: $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN / $6.99 Digital · Rated “T” for Teens
Available June 11, 2019

Socially anxious high school student Shoko Komi’s greatest dream is to make some friends, but everyone at school mistakes her crippling social anxiety for cool reserve. Luckily she meets Tadano, a timid wallflower who decides to step out of his comfort zone in order to help her achieve her goal of making 100 friends.

DRAGON BALL COMPLETE BOX SET by Akira Toriyama
MSRP: $139.99 U.S. / $179.99 CAN · Rated “T” For Teens
Available June 4, 2019

The Dragon Ball Complete Box Set contains all 16 volumes of the original manga that kicked off the global phenomenon. Also includes an exclusive double-sided poster and collector’s booklet featuring fun Dragon Ball trivia and guides as well as an interview with its legendary creator.

DRAGON BALL Z COMPLETE BOX SET by Akira Toriyama
MSRP: $219.99 U.S. / $279.99 CAN · Rated ‘A’ For All Ages
Available June 4, 2019

The Dragon Ball Z Complete Box Set contains all 26 volumes of the manga that propelled the global phenomenon that started with Dragon Ball into one of the world’s most recognizable and best-selling manga. Also includes an exclusive double-sided poster and collector’s booklet featuring fun Dragon Ball Z trivia and guides as well as an interview with Akira Toriyama.

POKEMON THE MOVIE: THE POWER OF US—ZERAORA’S STORY by Kemon Kawamoto
MSRP: $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN · Rated “A” For All Ages
Available June 11th

Ash and Pikachu arrive in Fula City at the start of its renowned Wind Festival and meet Margo, the mayor’s daughter, and Dr. Hawthorn, a scientist. Through the magic of Dr. Hawthorn’s virtual reality technology, our friends experience the history of the city firsthand and meet Mythical Pokemon Zeraora and Legendary Pokemon Lugia. Why did one of them fly off, never to be seen again? And will it return in the feature film, Pokemon the Movie: The Power of Us?

Anime Blu-ray/DVD Combo Review: The Devil Is a Part-Timer! The Complete Series

Posted on by Lesley Aeschliman

The Devil Is a Part-Timer! The Complete Series is a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack that includes two Blu-ray Discs and two DVDs. There are bonus features included on both discs of each format, although the bulk of the features are on the second disc. Audio options for this release include the original Japanese audio with English subtitles and an English dub.

The Devil Is a Part-Timer! The Complete Series
English Publisher: FUNimation Entertainment
Format: Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack
Release Date: July 22, 2014

The prologue of the series explains that in another dimension called Ente Isla, the Devil King Satan has almost conquered the world, but is stopped by Hero Emilia. Satan, along with Demon General Alciel, end up drifting into another world: modern day Japan. Specifically, they both end up in Tokyo. They also discover that they have taken on human bodies and that their ability to perform magic is limited. While Satan still retains some of his magic, Alciel’s is gone.

Through using some hypnotism, Satan learns about Earth and about some of the various things that he and Alciel will need to do in order to survive. Satan takes on the identity of Sadao Mao, while Alciel takes on the identity of Shiro Ashiya. They get identification, open a bank account, and rent a house.

Satan takes on a job at MgRonalds in order to earn money for the two of them to live on, where he works his way up to an A level position by the end of the first episode. Chiho Sasaki, one of Satan’s co-workers, develops a crush on him.

At the very end of the first episode, Satan discovers that Hero Emilia has also ended up in Tokyo and is in the form of a human female. Emilia now goes by Emi, and she works at a call center. Early in the series, Emilia is determined to do what she can in order to defeat Satan and return to Ente Isla. Later, Emilia discovers a secret about someone from Ente Isla that starts to make her question what’s going on.

Later in the series, two other individuals from Ente Isla find their way to Earth and take on human identities. Lucifer, a fallen angel and one of Satan’s generals, takes on the name of Hanzo Urushihara and becomes a freeloader at Satan and Alciel’s place. They acquire a new neighbor who goes by the name of Suzuno Kamazuki, but she is the grand inquisitor of the church of Ente Isla that is tasked with killing Satan.

While watching the first episode, I found myself either chuckling or laughing out loud at Satan and Alciel as they try to figure out how things work in modern day Tokyo. It also helps that Satan and Alciel make for a good pairing: Satan is the “straight man” of the two, while Alciel helps to provide a bit of the humor for the series.

The Devil Is a Part-Timer! has its serious moments, but it’s primarily a light-hearted comedy. While Alciel provides a lot of the humor, the other characters get their moments of funny dialogue that elicits laughter from the audience. When Lucifer joins the series, his NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) tendencies provide some more humor for the series.

Overall, I really liked The Devil Is a Part-Timer! The only complaint I have about it is the fact that it doesn’t truly end. But considering that the light novel was still ongoing at the time the anime was being produced, it’s not surprising that there wasn’t a proper ending.

The Blu-ray video for this set has 1080p High Definition 16×9 HD Native, and the audio includes DolbyTrueHD: English 5.1 and DolbyTrueHD: Japanese 2.0. The audio on the DVDs include English 5.1 Surround and Japanese Stereo.

When it comes to the bonus features, the first disc of both formats only includes a commentary for Episode One. The second disc, however, contains more features.

The most impressive bonus feature is a roughly 13-and-a-half-minute interview with Jamie Marchi, who was a writer for the English dub of The Devil Is a Part-Timer! In this feature, she explains how she came up with the Ente Isla language for the English dub. Apparently, there were no notes from the Japanese as to how they came up with the language or how it works. This was the most interesting bonus feature included on the set, and I thought it was fascinating to learn about the English dub’s version of the language.

The other bonus features included on the second disc are a commentary for Episode 12, one textless opening songs, two textless closing songs, a trailer for the English dub of The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, and a menu of trailers for other FUNimation properties that viewers can choose to view.

I would recommend The Devil Is a Part-Timer! The Complete Series for fans of this anime, because it would allow them to have the series in their anime home video collection to watch anytime they want, and the bonus feature with Jamie Marchi is also worth seeing and owning.

Crunchyroll Announces Four New Additions to Its Anime Catalog

Posted on by Lesley Aeschliman

Crunchyroll has announced that it has added the Welcome, Chitose (Okoshiyasu, Chitose-chan) anime for users in the United States and Canada, with the first eight episodes already available. Eight new episodes will premiere every Wednesday.

The site also added the Osomatsu-kun, Swan Lake, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz anime. Osomatsu-kun is available for users in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland. Swan Lake and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz are available for users in the United States and Canada, and Crunchyroll is streaming those titles with an English dub and English subtitles.

Source: ANN

Anirevo Announces Ryoka Yuzuki as Guest

Posted on by Lesley Aeschliman

Anirevo has announced that voice actress Ryoka Yuzuki will be a guest at their upcoming convention.

Yuzuki’s credits include Satsuki Kiryuin (Kill la Kill), Ino Yamanaka (Naruto), Shamal (Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s), Arcueid Brunestud (Carnival Phantasm), Shizuka Hiratsuka (My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU), Lisa Momioka (To Love-Ru), Naomi Armitage (Armitage: Dual-Matrix), Minagi Tohno (Air), Eruru (Utawarerumono), Charlotte Hazellink (Princess Lover!), Oriana Thomson (A Certain Magical Index II), and Akio Fudo (Trinity Seven).

Anirevo will be taking place at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, Canada from August 9-11, 2019.

Source: ANN

Crunchyroll Expo Announces Yasuharu Takanashi as Guest

Posted on by Lesley Aeschliman

Crunchyroll has announced that composer Yasuharu Takanashi will be a guest at their forthcoming Crunchyroll Expo event.

Takanashi has composed the music for a number of anime, including four anime from the Precure franchise: Fresh Pretty Cure, Heartcatch Precure!, Suite Precure, and Smile Precure!. He has also composed music for Naruto Shippūden, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Sailor Moon Crystal, Fairy Tail, Ikki Tousen, Hell Girl, Gantz, Log Horizon, The Testament of Sister New Devil, ēlDLIVE, GeGeGe no Kitarō, and Zombie Land Saga.

Crunchyroll Expo will be held at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California from August 30-September 1, 2019.

Source: ANN