Durarara!!
By Andrew Osmond.
Ikebukuro, the Tokyo district that’s the setting for Durarara!!, will strike bemused Brit tourists as a cross between London’s West End and a funfair, a cornucopia of neon lights, bars, restaurants, department stores, amusement arcades, cinemas, karaoke chains, manga joints and stone owls. But it will not strike most tourists as an obvious home for headless bike riders, serial killers, teenage gangs and Hulk-sized brawls, as Durarara!! shows it to be. The most daunting thing for most visitors is the challenge of finding the way out of Ikebukuro station where Mikado, the boy from the boonies, arrives in Durarara!!’s first episode. It’s a monster of a station, as this amateur video shows, one of the busiest in the world.
So why turn Ikebukuro into a place of dark thrills and adventure? It’s not wholly baseless; Ikebukuro is the real-world home of a yakuza syndicate, called the Kyokuto-kai. Violence, while very rare, can happen. This writer has visited Ikebukuro umpteen times and always felt completely safe… but this newspaper writer wasn’t so lucky. Tokyo citizens with long memories recall a terrible double murder in 1999, though it wasn’t yakuza-related; it happened in broad daylight in front of Ikebukuro’s Tokyu Hands department store and the oversized underground entrance to the Sunshine City mall. A landmark, the same location is used as a backdrop in Durarara!! – for example in the first series, when a pivotal showdown is resolved by the spectacular use of mobile phones.
Before Durarara!!, Ikebukuro’s dangerous reputation was puffed up by a Japanese book series, Ikebukuro West Gate Park (aka IGWP) by Ira Ishida, in which a group of youths get involved in crime and murder. The books were adapted as a live-action TV serial in 2000, a year after the Tokyu Hands killing. The director was Yukihiko Tsutsumi, who later directed the live-action film versions of 20th Century Boys. Continue Reading
Newswire #26 – 1st July 2015. Your weekly roundup and update of Anime Limited related news.
We have made it to July. So what better way to kick off the month than your latest edition of the Newswire! Read on below for the latest updates on all things Anime Limited.
NEWS/GENERAL UPDATES
~ First of all this week we have two new titles available! Kill la Kill Part 3 and Tiger & Bunny: The Rising are both available to add to your collection today!
~ In case you missed it yesterday, we have licensed the series Aoharu x Kikanju. And we're happy to confirm that it will be simulcast at Viewster.com. The start for the simulcast case is to be announced, but once we have more information we'll be sure to let you know.
~ For those of you looking for a good bargain our web shop Deal Of The Month for July has launched. It's Tiger & Bunny The Movie: The Beginning Collector's Edition Blu-ray/DVD for only £8.99. (Very timely as Tiger & Bunny: The Rising is now available.) You can order your copy from our web shop HERE.
Tiger & Bunny: The Beginning - Deal Of The Month at our web shop
Anime Limited licenses Aoharu x Kikanju. Official UK simulcast to take place at Viewster.com.
We're fast approaching the start of the summer simulcast season and with that notion bring news that we have licensed a new title for the UK, Aoharu x Kikanju. (Also known as Aoharu x Machinegun.)
The story sees Hotaru Tachibana, a girl disguised as a boy, finding herself drawn into the world of survival games (think of them as team battle simulations like paintballing) through strange circumstances by a host, Masamune Matsuoka. The two form a team with Tohru Yukimura, an ero-manga artist and they aim be the best team in Japan.
"The premise of the show is very interesting. I think of it like airsoft meets Ouran Highschool Host Club, one my favourite anime." says Andrew Partridge, President of Anime Limited.“This show also represents our continued support for new directors as Hideaki Nakano makes his full series directorial debut and we can’t wait to see what he does now!"
We're also happy to confirm that there will be an official UK simulcast for the series commencing in July. We have partnered up with Viewster.com to allow UK & Ireland residents to watch the show each week. (Start date to be announced.)
For those wanting a preview of the series, you can watch a Japanese promotional video below.
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- Hotaru Tachibana
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- Weapons used in survival games
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- Masamune Matsuoka
We will have more details on the simulcast of this series for you soon.
Signing out~!
Jeremy
The Anime Streaming Guide 2015
by Chris Perkins.
Not so long ago the dream of the average British anime fan was a 24-hour TV channel dedicated to nothing but Japanese animation. Today, thanks to the streaming revolution, we have something even better. Fans from the four-episode DVD single era (or the three episodes – if you were lucky – VHS era) would have never dared to dream that the majority of currently airing TV anime would be freely available in English within hours of broadcast – and legally to boot. Streaming anime is available from so many sources that it can be all too easy to get confused or stumble upon a less-than-legit site. A standard Google search for a big series like Naruto will throw up a confusing array of options, including numerous pirated stream sites. But fear not, because we’re here today to fill you in on all the legal anime streaming or digital options currently available to UK fans. It will allow you to support the shows and creators you love, often without spending a penny. Continue Reading
Space Dandy season 2
By Chris Perkins
Arriving just months after the first season wrapped up, Space Dandy season 2 landed in July 2014. Thanks to a deal with the US broadcaster Toonami, fans in the west got to see it even before fans in Japan. Although fans have begun to take simulcasts for granted in today's anime scene, Dandy broke new ground. It even arrived complete with a quality English language dub courtesy of US Licensor FUNimation, produced alongside the Japanese version. All this gives off the overall impression that the series is, in many ways, Shinichiro Watanabe's thank-you gift for all the love showered on his earlier Cowboy Bebop by western fans.
The true joy of Space Dandy however, remains in its astonishing variety. Both visually and in terms of storytelling, almost every episode is distinct. Although loosely hung over an 'alien of the week' premise, the series is essentially an excuse for the writers, directors and design team to let their imaginations run wild. Watanabe has again assembled an enviable ensemble of talent and let them loose in Dandy's colourful universe. Continue Reading