ANIME LEGEND – SHINICHIRO WATANABE TO ATTEND LONDON COMIC CON
CELEBRATING BEBOP WITH STYLE
We’re very excited to announce that Shinichiro Watanabe – director of Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo and Kids on the Slope will be coming to the UK courtesy of London Comic Con as their Anime Guest of Honor for May expo!
It’s something we have had to keep quiet until now – but we’re finally at the stage where we can announce it. He’ll be at the event to promote both the upcoming HD release of Cowboy Bebop as well as his most recent show – Kids on the Slope (Sakimichi no Apollon).
EVENTS AT MCM EXPO:
Asides from him participating in panels across MCM Expo’s weekend - we’ll have some exclusive signing sessions on the Anime Limited booth promoting both shows – with Sakimichi no Apollon coming out from our friends at MVM (www.mvm-films.com).
FOR PRE-ORDERS OF BEBOP ONLY:
Pre-order either at HMV or Amazon before MCM and bring proof of pre-order and while stocks last we’ll give you an exclusive A4 Bebop print to get signed. These are extremely limited in volume so come early to avoid disappointment! Preview image will go up online at AlltheAnime.com at the start of May.
Pre-orders will open no later than May 1st
Look forward to seeing you at London Comic Con!
Top Sellers: February 2013
Here are February's top sellers, so fresh they're still warm! It should be noted that there were only 6 titles released this month, so we've only done top 6 for new products.
Highest sales over all
| RANK | TITLE | LABEL |
| 1 | SPIRITED AWAY | CANAL UK |
| 2 | BLEACH THE MOVIE - 4 HELL VERSE | KAZE |
| 3 | THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME | MANGA UK |
| 4 | MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO | CANAL UK |
| 5 | ARRIETTY | CANAL UK |
| 6 | ORIGIN - SPIRITS OF THE PAST | MANGA UK |
| 7 | HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE | CANAL UK |
| 8 | DRAGONBALL Z - COMPLETE SEASON 5 | MANGA UK |
| 9 | NINJA SCROLL | MANGA UK |
| 10 | TIGER & BUNNY - VOL 1 - EPISODES 1-7 | KAZE |
Highest sales of titles released in February
| RANK | TITLE | LABEL |
| 1 | BLEACH THE MOVIE - 4 HELL VERSE | KAZE |
| 2 | TIGER & BUNNY - VOL 1 - EPISODES 1-7 | KAZE |
| 3 | BAKA & TEST - SUMMON THE BEASTS 2 | MANGA UK |
| 4 | BODACIOUS SPACE PIRATES - PT 1 - EPS 1-8 | MVM |
| 5 | EDEN OF THE EAST COMPLETE COLLECTION | MANGA UK |
| 6 | NEEDLESS - PT 2 | MVM |
What do you guys think? Surprised by what you see?
Top Sellers: January 2013
Following up on our earlier post, here’s a wee list of January’s anime sales. Again, we’ve kept the actual figures ambiguous for previously stated reasons. Makes for interesting reading though!
Here are the sales for all titles in January.
| ALL PRODUCTS | ||
| RANK | TITLE | LABEL |
| 1 | ORIGIN - SPIRITS OF THE PAST | MANGA UK |
| 2 | DRAGONBALL Z - COMPLETE SEASON 5 | MANGA UK |
| 3 | THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME | MANGA UK |
| 4 | MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO | CANAL UK |
| 5 | GHOST IN THE SHELL 2.0 | MANGA UK |
| 6 | ARRIETTY | CANAL UK |
| 7 | AKIRA | MANGA UK |
| 8 | BLEACH COMPLETE - SERIES 9 | KAZE |
| 9 | HIGH SCHOOL OF THE DEAD | MANGA UK |
| 10 | SPIRITED AWAY | CANAL UK |
And here are the sales for just new titles released that month.
| NEW PRODUCTS | ||
| RANK | TITLE | LABEL |
| 1 | DRAGONBALL Z - COMPLETE SEASON 5 | MANGA UK |
| 2 | BLEACH COMPLETE - SERIES 9 | KAZE |
| 3 | BLEACH - SERIES 10 - PT 1 | KAZE |
| 4 | JOURNEY TO AGARTHA | KAZE |
| 5 | CODE GEASS- LELOUCH OF THE REBELLION- S1 | KAZE |
| 6 | PERSONA 4 - THE ANIMATION - BOX 1 | KAZE |
| 7 | BERSERK - FILM 1 EGG OF THE KING | KAZE |
| 8 | SHIKI PT 2 | MANGA UK |
| 9 | THE WORLD GOD ONLY KNOWS - SERIES TWO | MANGA UK |
| 10 | CANAAN - COMPLETE SERIES - EPISODES 1-13 | MVM |
As you'll note - there is still a disparate difference between what is actually the top 10 in volume vs what is new in the UK market. To give some background too - while stats are good sometimes on a month to month basis we find it hard to find a metric that works on numbers. To give you a bit of meat to chew on though - for new titles, to make it to #10 for a new title - you just need to sell more than 100 copies...
Sorry for the wait on this folks, thanks for sticking with us. Keep an eye out for February's figures, it'll be up much quicker (rumour has it even Friday)!
ANIME LIMITED ACQUIRES 009 RE:CYBORG
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10th - 2013, Anime Limited is very pleased to announce the acquisition of home video, digital and theatrical rights for RE:CYBORG-009 in the UK and Republic of Ireland.
Production I.G, the Tokyo-based studio that brought you Ghost in the Shell, Blood: The Last Vampire and Kill Bill: Vol. 1 animation segment, presents 009 RE:CYBORG, a mature and thought-provoking approach to Shotaro Ishinomori’s classic manga, Cyborg 009/
From the director of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Music by Kenji Kawai (Apocalypse, Avalon, Ghost in the Shell, The Sky Crawlers). Sound design by Tom Myers at Skywalker Sound (WALL-E, Toy Story 3). The animation in 009 Re:Cyborg is fully computer-generated (like the Pixar movies) but treated with cel-shader, a program that allows to keep the look of traditional Japanese 2D animation. For this reason, it is called “cel-looking CG animation.”
Limited theatrical release across the UK will begin in Spring 2013 - making it the one of the first places outside of Asia you will be able to see the film on theatrical release.
Exact run dates, cities and screenings will be confirmed very shortly and we can confirm the film will be screened in Japanese with English subtitles in both 2D and 3D.
ABOUT RE:CYBORG-009:
Once there were nine cybernetic heroes who had long fought for justice. But as their struggle finally restored peace, they eventually disappeared from the pages of history and from people’s memory. 2013: skyscrapers across the world are hit by suicide bombers with no apparent connection. The nine heroes gather once again after three decades to fight against this faceless menace. They appear untouched by time, but society around them has changed dramatically, as it has the very idea of “justice” they used to believe in... What is their role in the world now?
ABOUT SHOTARO ISHINOMORI:
Ishinomori (1938 - 1998) is considered one of the most representative and influential Japanese comic artists. His opera omnia, encompassing an astoundingly broad variety of themes, includes 770 works collected into 500 volumes for a total of 128,000 pages, making him the Guinnes World Record-holder for the "most comics published by one author”. He received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, the Japan Cartoonists Association Award and the Minister of Education Award for his work. He also received the special Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize for his long lasting contributions to the manga medium.
ABOUT PRODUCTION I.G:
Established by Mitsuhisa Ishikawa in 1987, Tokyo-based Production I.G is one of the world's leading animation studios and home to all Mamoru Oshii’s animated feature films. With its cutting-edge works, such as Ghost in the Shell (1995), Jin-Roh (1999, Berlinale Official Selection), Blood: The Last Vampire (2000, Fantasia Public Prize), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (animation segment, 2003), Palme d’Or-nominated Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004), Golden Lion-nominated The Sky Crawlers (2008) and APSA winner A Letter to Momo (2012), I.G has gained high reputation around the globe, inspiring Hollywood creators such as James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino and the Wachowski brothers.
Official Website: http://www.production-ig.com
ABOUT ANIME LIMITED:
Founded by Andrew Partridge in late 2012, the company's key focus is to provide a high level of quality both in terms of its acquisitions and the way releases are treated in the UK. Anime Limited strives to deliver top quality anime films on the big screen and to a range of other media too including digital and home video.
Official Website: http://blog.alltheanime.com
Top Sellers – 2012
We're big fans of open data here - it's pretty hard to follow charts for anime too as they're not easily available digitally so we thought we'd do something fun. From now on every month we'll be posting up the top ten sellers of the month, regardless of the distributor.
Why do it if it's not all Anime Limited titles in the top (if ever in the charts)? We think it's interesting to get a picture of the market size just now.
For now though we're going to look back at 2012 though:
| POSITION | TITLE | UNITS | DISTRIBUTOR |
| 1 | ARRIETTY | >40,000 | CANAL UK |
| 2 | ORIGIN - SPIRITS OF THE PAST | >25,000 | MANGA UK |
| 3 | THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME | >15,000 | MANGA UK |
| 4 | MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO | >10,000 | CANAL UK |
| 5 | SPIRITED AWAY | >10,000 | CANAL UK |
| 6 | HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE | >10,000 | CANAL UK |
| 7 | PONYO | >5,000 | CANAL UK |
| 8 | DEVIL MAY CRY | >5,000 | MANGA UK |
| 9 | GHOST IN THE SHELL 2.0 | >5,000 | MANGA UK |
| 10 | AKIRA | >5,000 | MANGA UK |
If you pare that back to reveal the top sellers which were released in 2012:
| POSITION | TITLE | UNITS | DISTRIBUTOR |
| 1 | ARRIETTY | >40,000 | CANAL UK |
| 2 | POKEMON - DESTINY DEOXYS - THE MOVIE | >5,000 | CANAL UK |
| 3 | TEKKEN - BLOOD VENGEANGE | >5,000 | KAZE |
| 4 | DRAGON BALL Z - SEASON 1 | >2,500 | MANGA |
| 5 | NARUTO SHIPPUDEN - BOX SET 8 | >2,500 | MANGA |
| 6 | DRAGON BALL Z - SEASON 2 | >2,500 | MANGA |
| 7 | NARUTO SHIPPUDEN - BOX SET 9 | >2,500 | MANGA |
| 8 | DRAGON BALL Z - SEASON 3 | >2,500 | MANGA |
| 9 | NARUTO SHIPPUDEN - BOX SET 10 | >2,500 | MANGA |
| 10 | BLEACH THE MOVIE 3 - FADE TO BLACK | >2,000 | KAZE |
In the interests of fairness over both of these we've excluded the exact sales numbers and just stated what it was over - meaning it literally could be anywhere over that number. It's not our place to give out exact numbers for non Anime Ltd works but we wanted to give you an impression of size of market here in the UK.
We'll be putting together the top 10 sellers of January shortly too for people with ranking only. Who knows, when time allows we may also dig a bit further back to historical sales over the last few years in the UK market too.
SOURCE: British Video Association