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Monday 4 July 2016

Industry News: Anime Expo 2016 Announcements Round-up (Part 3: Days 3-4 + Visual Novels Round-up)

The expo has nearly concluded now but there still was a fair few more announcements unveiled. The biggest ones came from Aksys Games and Funimation but there's also the visual novel distributors to cover! This news post will cover the following; Aksys Games, Daisuki, Funimation, JAST USA, MangaGamer, Sekai Project and also a few other bits of new info.


This will be the last post covering the Anime Expo 2016 event.

Aksys Games


Aksys Games have gone through a ton of new acquisitions for the gaming fans. Zero Escape players will be able to play 999: Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors and Virtue's Last Reward remastered/ported onto other platforms (chosen formats to be announced). 999 will also include Japanese voices and keep the puzzles (which the mobile version omitted). For Otome visual novel fans, they will be able to play Bad Apple Wars, Collar X Malice, and Period Cube: Torikago no Amadeus on the PlayStation Vita in 2017. There's also Code: Realize Future Blessings, a fan disc with new routes, but the news is confusing people as to whether it's referring to PlayStation Vita or PlayStation 4.

Fans of Falcom (Legend of Heroes, Ys) will be able to play Tokyo Xanadu when it finally hits the west on PlayStation Vita and Steam at some point in the first half of 2017. Steam owners will also be able to play Aegis of Earth: Protonovus Assault and XBlaze Lost: Memories soon. For Nintendo 3DS owners, Chase: Cold Case Investigations – Distant Memories will be coming to the device as a digital download, this is the same franchise as the Hotel Dusk title released way back on the original DS. Last but not least Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters: Daybreak Special Gigs World Tour (an updated version of Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters) will be heading west for PlayStation 3, 4 and Vita.

In addition to these new acquisitions, they are also working on acquiring and localising Hakuouki: Sweet School Life for the PlayStation Vita.

Daisuki


Daisuki have announced a new premium subscription service for their website. The monthly fee is $5 and will allow users access to anime instantly when it airs without having to wait a week as well as granting access to certain catalogue titles including Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny, Round Vernian Vifam (Ginga Hyōryū Vifam), Magical Sisters Yoyo & Nene, and Vegetable Fairies N.Y. Salad (Yasai no Yōsei - N.Y. Salad). All except for Vegetable Fairies N.Y. Salad will be available for premium members until August 31. Current titles that will be part of the subscription deal (but will still be available for free viewers after 1 week) include Tales of Zestiria the X, Love Live! Sunshine!!, planetarian, Tsukiuta. THE ANIMATION, Regalia: The Three Sacred Stars, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K., Sca-red Rider XechS, and Time Travel Girl.

Funimation


Funimation didn't offer much news but they did showcase some new pieces of info. They reminded folks that they have acquired the live-action Rurouni Kenshin movie trilogy which will receive a US theatrical release during the summer.


In addition they also showed off The Vision of Escaflowne sets that they have planned to release very soon - in fact it's now scheduled for 18th October 2016. The non-backers will be able to own the series across two parts and the movie, in addition to a collector's edition that includes the TV series and films together on Blu-ray. The Blu-rays for Escaflowne will be Region B compatible, and both dubs will be included on the discs regardless of what version you choose.


However they also unveiled another huge title for the same month. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion will be back in print for 4th October 2016 with Season 1 and 2 released separately on different formats (Season 1 Blu-ray, Season 1 DVD etc.) in addition to a collector's edition with both seasons together on Blu-ray plus 16 artcards illustrated by CLAMP. All on-disc versions will have over 3 hours worth of bonus features plus 5.1 Japanese audio mix. Unlike the Kaze version the series as a whole will have 8 Blu-ray discs instead of 4. No content or format is missing compared to Haruhi Suzumiya's Ultimate Collector's Edition.

Afterwards Funimation announced the license for the upcoming anime adaptation of Drifters. Two more licenses were announced from other panels for the distributor also; Makoto Shinkai's new film Your name and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence.

JAST USA


JAST USA have a few titles to announce, all of which are scheduled for 2017. An uncensored version of Eiyuu Senki, which was once released on PS3 (as an All-Ages title obviously) but they'll be coordinating with Fruitbat who worked on that particular release for the PC release. A HD release of Katahane - An'call Belle' was also confirmed. The other two titles were PrincessX - My Fiancee is a Monster Girl, and Sweet Home. Alongside these four new titles are confirmation that both Flowers and Nymposensei Ryoko are coming soon this year.

MangaGamer


MangaGamer have formed a new partnership with Chuablesoft and their first few titles, but the one announced first is If You Love Me, Then Say So! (Watashi ga Suki nara “Suki”tte Itte!). The publisher will also be bringing over the black humor BL title Hadaka Shitsuji – Naked Butlers with their second new partner Mada Koubou, as well as being uncensored plus available for Mac and Linux. From their third new partner Kalmia8, they'll be bringing the Otome game Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome (Bocchimusume x Produce Keikaku.) with both an All-Ages version for Steam and an uncensored version on their main website. From their continuing partnership with Circus (the folks who made Da Capo), MangaGamer will be bringing the Da Capo successor D.S. – Dal Segno – with both an All-Ages version for Steam and an uncensored version on their main website. And last but not least from ClockUp (the folks who made Euphoria) comes Maggot baits, with no more news yet to reveal. More licenses will be announced at Otakon later this month.

Sekai Project


Sekai Project have a few titles up their sleeve from their latest panel. Starting with A Magical High School Girl from developer illuCalab which will be released on both iOS and PC. Popular titles Baldr Sky Dive1 "Lost Memory" & Baldr Sky Dive2 "Recordare" from developer Team Baldrhead are both getting released on Steam. SMILE's Boku to Koisuru Ponkotsu Akuma and Love in Space's Shining Song Starnova are also coming soon with an unconfirmed date/format thus far. And Palette's SakuSaku (Koi ga Saku Koro Sakura Doki) will also be heading to Steam. In addition to these titles is Sekai Project's original IP title Japanese School Life (made with their own studio called Code:jp) which is coming soon with an unconfirmed date/format thus far.

Saving the best for last is confirmation that WORLD END ECONOMiCA from developer Spicy Tails will join Fault Milestone One and Rabi-Ribi to receive a special limited physical release for PlayStation 4 and Vita in 2017 courtesy of Sekai's partnership with Limited Run Games.

Oh and there's even going to be a potential kickstarter campaign for a NEKOPARA anime. Yep.

Other Notes

Degica (the same folks who helped bring Muv-Luv to the west) will be localising Kimi ga Nozomu Eien and may consider a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign.

VisualArts have released the Clannad spin-off Tomoyo After ~It's a Wonderful Life~ on Steam. This is the All-Ages version.

Production IG have confirmed Miss Hokusai has also been picked up, but the license holder is not revealed.

Play Asia on their social media have put out a request form to ask their customers on what titles they would like to see gain an English release (in Asian English form). The winner so far ended up being The iDOLM@STER: Platinum Stars but other titles selected include Tales of Innocence R, Digimon series, Phantasy Star series, Natsuiro High School, Uppers, & way more other games.

Only one piece of info was new to Viz Media's Sailor Moon panel and that was a release date for Sailor Moon S Part 1. Like the previous seasons, Part 1's limited edition will include a box to hold both parts plus a booklet. The release date for this is set to November 15th 2016.

Toonami confirmed some more info on FLCL Seasons 2 & 3 with The Pillows band returning to make more music for the show. Yoshiyuki Sadamoto will return to design the characters and Katsuyuki Motohiro will supervise the series (he worked on Psycho Pass).

Yen Press jumped in at the last minute to announce two more titles; Bungo Stray Dogs with a release date for volume 1 due December and Erased (Boku dake ga Inai Machi) with 2-in-1 hardcover omnibus manga volumes due Spring 2017.

That's pretty much it for this weekend's latest news. It had some ups and downs but overall it was a solid with Crunchyroll stepping up to be the winner this time around (Aniplex and Funimation taking runner-ups for anime news).

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Member of the Anime UK News forum, and also once part of the Sheffield Hallam Visual Arts society throughout 2013-2017. Been collecting anime since 2012 and supported the anime distributors ever since. Also been hanging around on the Blu-ray forum and Fandom Post forums.

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