AnimeVision

No, not a history lesson, but a license announcement - in the same newsletter that confirmed their Hellsing license, Manga UK have also confirmed that they have Origin -Spirits of the Past-, a 2006-vintage theatrical release from GONZO that by the sounds of it has a strong environmental message. No news yet on a release date.

Okay, not quite - but they have licensed the rather obscure series Same Me! Lollipop (aka Mamotte! Lollipop). The show follows the adventures of young girl Nina, who swallows the magical Crystal Pearl after thinking it was a lollipop and ends up being protected by magicians Zero and Ichii as they try to get it back out of her. The full 13-episode series will be released in a single set towards the end of the year.

An interesting new listing has appeared on play.com in the last few days, for the first volume of Hellsing Ultimate. The pack shot on the listing would appear to be fairly good confirmation that Manga UK will be releasing the series. Ultimate is an OVA remake of the Hellsing TV series, and from what I've seen on it improves over the series in just about every way. The listed runtime suggests the release will have the first two episodes - but until there's an official solicitation from Manga, don't take anything for granted.

Two years ago, 4Kids announced they'd picked up the rights to the first season of Pretty Cure - which given their past handling of a certain guilty pleasure of mine wasn't something I was looking forward to. Since then, 4Kids have pulled back from anime-for-girls, so it's with a certain amount of pleasure that I note that Japanese rights-holders Toei are pitching the series at this year's Licensing International Expo in New York - a sure sign that 4Kids have let their rights to the series lapse. Hopefully someone else will pick the show up and give it some decent treatment...

Here's one a lot of people have been looking forward to - RightStuf / Nozomi Entertainment have picked up the license for ARIA, a pretty much indecribable slice-of-life series set in a Martian recreation of Venice. The show features trainee undine (gondola operator) Akari and her friends in a series of stories that are really all about the atmosphere. The first 13-episode season is due out as a sub-only boxset in September. To the fondola!

Two new titles have appeared in the release schedule for the good folks at MVM. First up is the Burst Angel: Infinity OVA, a prequel to the TV series that by most accounts I've read is pretty good. There's also some hard science fiction (with a reality TV feel, if you can imagine such a thing) in the form of Starship Operators, which follows the starship Ameratasu's young crew of cadets as they fight to free their world from invasion. The twist is that, with no way of funding the operation of a battleship themselves, the crew opt to take sponsorship from a TV network in exchange for the rights to film the crew's every moment.

Infinity is due in August, with the first volume of Starship Operators arriving in September.

Manga UK have apparently picked up feature-length anime The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - the story follows the adventures of 17-year-old Makoto Konno who gains the ability to, quite literally, "leap" backwards through time. Using her new power, she immediately sets about improving her grades and preventing personal mishaps. However, she soon realises that changing the past isn't as simple as it seems, and eventually, will have to rely on her new powers to shape the future of herself and her friends. Sounds curious...

According to ANN, GONZO will be streaming an animated version of comedy manga Hennako-chan via YouTube, with the first episode due to appear on April 25th. The story follows the misadventures of a girl who messes with the people and living things around her with her supernatural (and sometimes destructive) powers. The project will digitize this manga and add motion, dialogue, and sound effects for a weekly series of six three-minute, limited animated shorts. If you're curious, the clips will be available through this link, and will include English or Chinese subtitles.

The New York Comic Convention was held over the weekend, with some good announcements coming out from Bandai Entertainment - they've snatched Gurren Lagann from ADV (it'll see a full subtitled release before the end of the year, with a bilingual release to follow in 2009), and have also picked up Gundam 00 and Ayakashi Ayashi. As indicated by the Gurren Lagann release, Bandai have some interesting ideas around release strategies and SE/LE options coming over the next few months that could really shake up the market if they catch on. They're also due to take their first dip into the Blu-ray pool, with Ghost in the Shell: Innocence - they'll be creating a new English dub for the release (the previous US release of the film by Dreamworks was subtitles-only)

FUNimation got the rumour mill running again when asked about the possibility of them picking up any Geneon titles by saying that a lot of companies were fighting over the available titles - so if you're waiting for any of Geneon's abandoned titles to make a reappearance, don't give up hope yet.

...and that was about it - Bandai news aside, it was another disappointing con as far as announcements go.

Dreamworks, the US film producer headed by Stephen Spielberg (amongst other big names), has tied up the rights to produce a live-action version of Ghost in the Shell - the project was pitched to a number of studios by anime & manga producers Production IG and Kodansha, but it was apparently Spielberg's enthusiasm for the idea - he's quoted as calling GitS "one of my favourite stories" - that sealed the deal. Although I'm sure the (financial) success of Transformers did hurt, either. No word yet on when the film is expected for release.