Looks like we are going to see a much faster turn around for the dub version of Dragon Ball Z: Revival of F than we saw with Battle of Gods, as today FUNimation have announced their acquisition of the film rights so they can create their own dub for the film. The film has had a slight re-title for the English release from Revival of F to Resurrection F. The dub will first launch in theatres across North America in Summer 2015.
In am impressive move that will see the movie screened in the States only 11 days after the first preview in Japan, FUNimation has teamed up with 20th Century FOX & Toei Animation to host the world premiere of Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’ (in Japanese w/ English subtitles) at the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles, CA on Saturday, April 11. A limited amount of tickets to the premiere will be available to fans and the general public beginning today at dragonballz.com.
A tweet from Chris Sabat (director of Dragon Ball Z dub projects) has revealed it is highly likely Chris Ayres will reprise his role from Dragon Ball Z: Kai to voice the main villain Frieza, who is shown to have a brand new form in this latest movie. For all the latest Dragon Ball news including trailers and games such as Xenoverse just follow this link. We hope to have more news on international screenings in the coming days.
Animatsu Entertainment has been quite busy in the last month. They have revealed many new licenses and upcoming releases of both anime and non-anime titles in the UK.
They will be releasing Red Vs. Blue season 11 and RWBY volume 1 on May 4, 2015 on both DVD and Blu-ray. The website lists the DVD releases of both titles as being coded for region 2, which is unusual given that Rooster Teeth titles tend to be released region free.
They will also be releasing Hideaki Anno’s Nadia: Secret of Blue Water on DVD and Blu-ray on June 1, 2015. Unlike with the two above releases, the Blu-ray release of Nadia will be in a rigid box.
All of these releases are now available for pre-order on Amazon UK. For those who missed the announcement, Animatsu’s release of Halo: Nightfall will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 16, 2015.
FUNimation Entertainment has been announcing that they will be producing English dubs for many of the series they acquired from the winter 2015 anime season. Yona of the Dawn, Absolute Duo and Yurikuma Arashi will also be receiving an English dub.
The English dub cast for Yona of the Dawn is as follows:
Yona – Monica Rial
Hak – Christopher R. Sabat
Gija – Ian Sinclair
Yun – Clifford Chapin
Sinha – Eric Vale
Su-Won – Micah Solusod
This dub will premiere at 11am ET on Tuesday, March 17. Season 2 will be dubbed first, but FUNimation will go back and dub season 1 as well and then release it at a later date.
The English dub cast for Absolute Duo is as follows:
Tor – Ricco Fajardo
Julie – Bryn Apprill
Lilith – Caitlin Glass
Miyabi – Ashleigh Domangue
Tomoe – Whitney Rodgers
Sakuya – Felecia Angelle
Rito – Jennifer McDaniel
Imari – Michelle Rojas
This dub will premiere at 2pm ET on Monday, March 16.
Finally, here is the English dub cast list for Yurikuma Arashi:
Kureha Tsubaki – Alexis Tipton
Ginko – Monica Rial
Lulu – Jamie Marchi
Sumika – Elaine Wagner
Yuriika – Colleen Clinkenbeard
Mitsuko – Caitlin Glass
Life Sexy – J. Michael Tatum
Life Cool – Christopher Bevins
Life Beauty – Josh Grelle
This dub will premiere at 2:30pm ET on Monday, March 16, following the dub of Absolute Duo.
Yurikuma Arashi is directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara, the director of Revolutionary Girl Utena and some of Sailor Moon, and is receiving very favourable reviews from fans of Ikuhara’s past works. Unlike with the other recent English dub announcements, FUNimation has not stated whether or not they have the home-video rights to these three series.
Cyber Gadget, a Japanese company that designs video game console paraphernalia, has recently announced a new retro game system called Retrofreak. The details translate as follows:
Retrofreak will allow you to play video game software from no less than 11 different types of cartridges via an adapter that is compatible with retro games, all with a single machine. Note: games may not play properly in some cases. The 11 types of cartridges include:
Mega Drive (NTSC/PAL) (Note: the Mega Adapter can be used to play Sega Mark III games)
Genesis (Note: The North American Mega Drive)
PC Engine
TurboGrafx-16 (Note: the overseas version of the PC Engine)
PC Engine SuperGrafx
Translator notes: the Family Computer, or Famicom, is the original name for what is known in the west as the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES. The Sega Mark III was released two years prior to the Sega Master System, and the two are almost identical in terms of hardware.
A release date for the Retrofreak has not yet been revealed.
The complete collection will be released in North America on June 2, 2015. The set will feature English audio and Japanese audio with English subtitles. On-disc extras will include the textless opening and closing animation, the promotional videos, commercials, music clips, the preview for the OVA episode “Secret Couple”, the OVA itself and ‘Maria Love Theater’.
The set is now available for pre-order here. The suggested retail price is $39.99 USD, however Right Stuf are currently accepting pre-orders for only $25.99 USD. A trailer, synopsis and screenshots of Please Teacher! can be found at the official website here.
Fifteen years on from Banjo Tooie and it’s safe to say that Rare isn’t the revered studio they once were. Six ex Rare developers have now come together to create a studio called Playtonic Games and their first title will be what they themselves are calling a spiritual successor to the much loved Banjo Kazooie franchise. At EGX the team held a press conference showcasing the very first details of this new game currently titled Project Ukelele as well as releasing a couple of background screens to show us the tone of the game.
The full video is available below but for your benefit I’m going to sum up all the most important and meaningful bits below for those who don’t have over half an hour to hear from some of these game developer legends.
– The game will most likely feature two main playable characters just like Banjo Kazooie.
– Multiple characters are being created for this game that will appear in the world somehow. All these characters are envisioned in the future to be receiving their own game where they are the star and the other characters can then appear in their games. Think The Avengers but cuter.
– While Project Ukelele will indeed be a giant love letter to the 3D platformer, the other games with the other characters could be of any genre which will be decided by both the fans and the developers.
– Don’t worry about free to play, micro-transactions, whale hunting or in game-ads. Playtonic are looking to deliver an old school full game experience.
– Playtonic are aiming to give people exactly what they want and expect. The tone and style will be similar to Banjo, the humour, challenges, eyes on inanimate objects, a wealth of NPCs and the classic mumble like speaking will all be in this title. Don’t expect a Nuts N’ Bolts revolution from this title (serisouly don’t, the developers even made a joke about it).
– They are looking to take advantage of the technology leap and bring the 3D platforming genre up to date. New mechanics as well as bringing the classic mechanics back.
– Expect lots of collectibles. One type of collectibles detailed today were called ‘pagies’ which unlock more worlds as well as expand current worlds.
– The characters will have lots of special moves they can learn thanks to their unique characteristics.
– Expect big, beautiful themed worlds that can be explored in a less linear fashion than in previous Rare games.
– The game will be single player.
– Music composers from past games will be coming back! One of them is Grant Kirkhope who has composed a few songs from his home in California. The music will change as you go throughout the level.
– The game will be coming to Kickstarter in May 2015! Regardless if the Kickstarter fails (don’t bet on it) or not the game will be released at least on PC, however it is all but guaranteed additional platforms will be in the Kickstarter tiers.
– Playtonic want to hear from the fans about what they want as Kickstarter rewards. There was even mention of replica Nintendo 64 cartridges and Amiibo! You can get in contact with the team through the forums on the website or their Facebook page.
This is a dream come true for any gamer who grew up in the 90’s and I am sure this Kickstarter will see a lot of support. We will keep you update on the latest news from Playtonic and Project Ukelele as it is released. Be sure to let us know what you think about this newly formed studio and Project Ukelele in the comments below.
Viz Media has just announced that they will be releasing a box set of six original Hello Kitty graphic novels in North America under their Perfect Square imprint.
The six original graphic novels to be included are: Hello Kitty: Here We Go!, Hello Kitty: Delicious!, Hello Kitty: Surprise!, Hello Kitty: Just Imagine…, Hello Kitty: Work of Art and Hello Kitty: It’s About Time. All of these books will come packaged in an illustrated slip case. The box set has a suggested retail price of $39.99 USD.
Artists Jacob Chabot, Ian McGinty, Jorge Monlongo and Giovanni Castro created these full-colour graphic novels, along with guest artists in each volume. The box set will be available in September 2015.
Edge of Eternity’s Kickstarter hit the $130k mark, unlocking possibly the most exciting stretch goal for the campaign, orchestral music composed by famed Japanese composer Yasunori Mitsuda. Mitsuda has composed some of the most memorable JRPG soundtracks, such as Chrono Trigger and Xenogears.
Edge of Eternity is a JRPG developed by French indie developers Midgar Studio. The game’s plot focuses on the siege that has crippled the three realms of Astrya, Junor, and Dehostra for the last 30 years.
The game has already been Greenlit on Steam and has only seven days remaining in its Kickstarter campaign. There are still two tiers of stretch goals left to accomplish that will bring extra playable characters and more summons. Copies of the game start at $15 USD and beta access is available for a minimum pledge of $30.
Edge of Eternity features an ATB battle system that will be familiar to JRPG players. There are three main progression systems in the game: traditional character levelling; a crystal-based system that unlocks bonuses, powers, and skills; and an original weapon customization system that will allow weapons to grow with players.
A pre-alpha demo is available for Linux, Mac and Windows. The full game is expected to launch in December 2016 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Linux, Mac, and Windows.
Right Stuf, Inc, and animation studio Sunrise Inc. recently announced the first title to be released as a part of their distribution deal: Turn A Gundam Part 1. The first half of the 1999-2000 series will be available for the first time in North America on June 30, 2015.
The first 25 episodes of the series were created, directed and written by Yoshiyuki Tomino, the original creator of the Gundam franchise. They will be released with Japanese audio and English subtitles. The on-disc extras will include the textless opening and ending animation.
Bandai Entertainment USA originally licensed Turn A Gundam, but did not release it due to their decision to leave the North American anime market. The upcoming release is available for pre-order from Right Stuf here.
Siren Visual announced in early March that they had a ‘wonderful’ announcement to make, and they have recently revealed what it is that they were so excited about. They ended up making three announcements about upcoming anime releases in Australia.
The first one is something that people have been anticipating for a while: a complete box set of the Monster anime series. It will be available exclusively on their website at some point “over the coming months”. Siren Visual were planning to include a booklet with a brand-new, exclusive translation of the articles from the Japanese booklets, but they were unable to get permission to do so from the authors. They did say that there is a possibility of the booklet being released in Australia at a later date, but they are not hopeful about this occurring.
Next up is Siren Visual’s announcement of Nagi no Asukara: A Lull in the Sea, which will be released in the next few months. They are working with NIS America for this release, and stated that while it will be different from the U.S. deluxe version, the Australian release will “be very cool”.
Their final announcement is that a Blu-ray release of Gainax’s anime series Nadia: Secret of Blue Water is coming in July 2015. Siren Visual did not state whether their release would reflect the U.S. or the UK Blu-ray release.
