K: Missing Kings
By Meghan Ellis.
You might remember K Project as the best skateboarding anime that’s not actually about skateboarding. Or for its gratuitous use of stained glass backgrounds and chromatic phenomena. But since the series and its associated projects are an exploration of how to tell a story in colour, this indulgence is something we can forgive. K: Missing Kings is the next stage in the narrative, and it takes the animation quality that drove people to laud the power of sixty frames per second and gives it the movie budget treatment. Right from the start we’re treated to an explosion (literally) of lights, colours, and prismatic effects: this is what a studio flexing their muscles can do, and creators GoHands aren’t afraid to show it. Continue Reading
The Day Anime Changed
By Jonathan Clements.
He knew that there would be trouble when the 10,000 giveaway posters ran out. The crowd was already way too large to fit into the Shochiku Cinema, and risked spilling out into the street to block the traffic near Shinjuku station. One misplaced surge, thought Yoshiyuki Tomino, and the press would be reporting unruly thugs and broken bones, not the release of a sci-fi cartoon. He had to do something, and fast... Continue Reading
New Releases: 2nd April 2019
We skipped out on our traditional new release post yesterday because... well, frankly, who was going to believe anything we write on April the 1st? But now it's the 2nd of April, we can assuredly tell you about this week's new release, and also remind you of a new Standard Edition title which surfaced last Monday into the bargain. So, without further ado, let us testify about this week's release!
NEW RELEASES: 1ST APRIL 2019
THE TESTAMENT OF SISTER NEW DEVIL BURST
FORMAT: Standard Edition Blu-ray (also available on Collector's Edition Blu-ray and Standard Edition DVD)
BBFC CERT: 18
SRP: Standard Edition Blu-ray - £34.99 | Collector's Edition Blu-ray - £59.99 | Standard Edition DVD - £34.99
LANGUAGE: English and Japanese with English subtitles
Synopsis: “Basara, Mio and Maria return for more demonic antics, with new challenges awaiting this young master and his sexy servant step-sisters.
Although normality seems to have returned to Basara’s world, this status quo doesn’t remain in place for long as new threats loom upon the horizon and intrude upon his everyday school life. With political tension between factions ramping up and Mio summoned to return to the demon realm from which she came, Basara is going to need all of his skills and dexterity to navigate the trouble brewing around him to a satisfying climax. Pleasure and peril collide in this gripping second series of The Testament of Sister New Devil!”
Contents: Contains all 10 episodes of the series in English and original Japanese with English subtitles, plus bonus episode "Tojo Basara’s Perfectly Peaceful Daily Life" and five short bonus episodes.
WHERE CAN I BUY THIS?
Why not buy the series right here, right now from our own AllTheAnime.com web shop? As well as this new Blu-ray Standard Edition, you can still purchase the Blu-ray Collector's Edition, which provides you with the series in collector's packaging and a 24-page art booklet, showcasing some decidedly alluring artwork from the show. We also still have both Standard and Collector's Editions of the first season of The Testament of Sister New Devil too, so there's no reason not to listen to the devil on your shoulder and dip into the series using the links below!
Elsewhere, our Standard Edition of The Testament of Sister New Devil Burst is also available from the following retailers:
order at Amazon
Order at Anime-on-Line
Order at Base
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
- Learn more about the series
As well as the above, we also brought you a new release last Monday, so read on for a reminder on our Standard Edition release of Pigtails and Other Short Stories From Production I.G.
NEW RELEASES: 25TH APRIL 2019
PIGTAILS & OTHER SHORT STORIES FROM PRODUCTION I.G
FORMAT: Standard Edition Blu-ray/DVD (also available on Collector's Edition Blu-ray/DVD)
BBFC CERT: 15
SRP: Standard Edition Blu-ray/DVD - £24.99 | Collector's Edition Blu-ray/DVD - £59.99
LANGUAGE: Japanese with English subtitles
Synopsis: “A Blu-ray/DVD set bringing together 5 short films from world famous Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell, B: The Beginning, Eden of the East, Giovanni’s Island) to Blu-ray and DVD for the first-time in the United Kingdom!
Pigtails Synopsis: “Production I.G’s animated short film based on Machiko Ky’s Mitsuami no Kami-sama (Braided Pig-Tail Deity) manga, won the Platinum Remi Award in the Classic Cel Animation Category at the WorldFest Houston International Film Festival. The story centres around a pigtailed girl who lives alone in a solitary house by the sea after an unspecified disaster.”
A truly fascinating collection of films, most of which is available for the first time in the west exclusively in this release!”
Contents: This collection includes five short films - Pigtails; Kick-Heart; Li’l Spider Girl; Drawer Hobs; Oval x Over - in Japanese with English subtitles on both Blu-ray and DVD
WHERE CAN I BUY THIS?
This collection is available right here and right now from our own AllTheAnime.com web shop, where you can purchase not only this Standard Edition release but also our comprehensive and fascinating AllTheAnime.com Shop Exclusive Collector's Edition, which brings you a massive 156-page storyboard book and 140-page material book within our typical luxurious collector's packaging. You can buy edition edition now using the links below.
Our Standard Edition of Pigtails is also available from the following retailers:
order at Amazon
Order at Anime-on-Line
Order at Zavvi
Order at Base
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
- Read our interview with the director of Pigtails, Yoshimi Itazu
- See a full unboxing of our Collector's Edition release
There are no new releases on the docket for next week, but stay tuned regardless as we have more news in the offing - we'll see you there, so until then, take care!
~Andy H
Testament of Sister New Devil BURST
By Shelley Pallis.
Basara Tojo’s father is locked in a grim struggle with the new Demon Lord, and Basara is stuck with a sorcerous roommate and her succubus bodyguard... but, you know, school life goes on, and he hopes to get onto the festival committee and turn his homework in on time. Testament of Sister New Devil BURST picks up where the first season left off, with a hapless Japanese teenager saddled with a bunch of demonic house-guests, and a conflict in an alternate world that he would really prefer not to know about. Continue Reading
Books: Passionate Friendship
By Jonathan Clements.
Deborah Shamoon’s Passionate Friendship: The Aesthetics of Girls’ Culture in Japan traces the development of a niche in entertainment that is barely a century old, and yet forms a crucial sector within modern media. She investigates a whole series of tropes and traditions, that themselves form the bedrock of today’s Japanese comics for female readers of all ages.
In hard-nosed financial terms, Shamoon observes that it only became economically profitable for families to send a girl to school in the late 19th century. It’s this, in particular in the wake of the standardised national curriculum introduced in the 1899 Girls’ High School Law, which created the true shojo – a term that means “girl”, but might be better parsed as an evolving term for a teenager, a threshold between childhood and adulthood that nobody had really thought about before. It’s this that creates the first glimmerings of Japan’s shojo subculture – a world of entertainments, obsessions and media designed to reflect and shape this new world of teens. Continue Reading