By Andrew Osmond.
The first thing to stress about Gundam 00 is that newbies can most definitely start here. While it’s technically part of the venerable Gundam franchise, it’s also a “new” series, with a new world and characters. Indeed, 00 was perhaps made deliberately to draw in viewers, Japanese and foreign, who hadn’t seen a Gundam show before.
At the same time, 00 has some of Gundam’s franchise fundamentals – young pilots fighting each other in giant robot suits, an epic human conflict between umpteen cultures and ideologies. It also has a clutch of Easter Eggs for fans who have seen other Gundams (for a broader account of the franchise, see here). Continue Reading
Chances are that if you were keeping your eyes on the MCM London Comic Con online channels late last week you might already be aware of this, but if you're not then you're likely going to be very chuffed with their news that at MCM London Comic Con at the end of October there will be not one, but TWO Anime Guests of Honour!
Recently the first part of the new Netflix original anime series by Studio Bones (Fullmetal Alchemist, Wolf's Rain), Carole & Tuesday, was released globally and with the rest of the series arriving on the service just before Christmas it's the perfect time to celebrate the series with Motonobu Hori, director of Carole & Tuesday, and legendary director Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Terror in Resonance), who served as Chief Director on the series!
Both of these wonderful guests will be appearing at MCM London Comic Con on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th October! They will be taking centre stage (pun intended) as they grace the Centre Stage on Saturday 26th October at 11:15AM for the Anime Guest of Honour Panel! You'll also have the opportunity to meet both guests of honour during two free signings sessions on both Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th from 2:30PM to 3:30PM. Location of the signing sessions will be confirmed closer to the event.
If you want to know more about the series, check out a trailer for Carole & Tuesday, streaming now on Netflix, below
Synopsis: Fifty years have passed since mankind began migrating to the new frontier: Mars. It's an age where most culture is produced by AI, and people are content to be passive consumers.
There's a girl.
Scrapping a living in the metropolis of Alba City.
She's working part time while trying to become a musician.
She's always felt like something is missing.
Her name is Carole.
There's a girl.
Born to a wealthy family in the provincial town of Hershell City.
She dreams of becoming a musician.
But nobody around her understands.
She feels like the loneliest person in the world.
Her name is Tuesday.
A chance meeting brings them together. They want to sing. They want to make music. Together they feel like they just might have a chance.
The two of them may only create a tiny wave will eventually grow into something larger...
You can read more about the Anime Guests of Honour below, but first, be sure to purchase your tickets to MCM London Comic Con so that you can have your chance to meet them!
Image from Cowboy Bebop
SHINICHIRO WATANABE
The first of our two guests is the renowned Shinichiro Watanabe, director of the timeless classic Cowboy Bebop (which currently has a live-action Netflix series in development). Born in Kyoto, Japan in 1965, Mr. Watanabe was formerly an employee at Sunrise, where he supervised the episode direction and storyboards of many anime produced at the studio. He made his directorial debut as co-director of Macross Plus.
Mr. Watanabe’s other directorial credits include Samurai Champloo, Space Dandy and Terror in Resonance, before also recently directing an animated short set in the Blade Runner universe, Blade Runner: Black Out 2022. Mr. Watanabe is also the chief director of currently streaming Netflix series Carole & Tuesday.
Image from Carole & Tuesday
MOTONOBU HORI
Also joining us at the event is Motonobu Hori, who serves as the director of Studio BONES’ Carole & Tuesday, where he makes his full directorial debut. His previous roles include working on key animation, animation direction and storyboards for a wealth of anime, including Napping Princess, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc, and episodes of Psycho-Pass.
Saturday 26th October 2019
-- 11:30am @ Centre Stage
The Anime Guests of Honour Panel: Shinichiro Watanabe & Motonobu Hori
-- 2:30pm - 3:30pm @ [Location to be announced]
Free Signing Session #1
Sunday 27th October 2019
-- 2:30pm - 3:30pm @ [Location to be announced]
Free Signing Session #2
We're anticipating there to be quite the demand to be able to get an item signed by the two Anime Guests of Honour, so the following rules/guidelines will be enforced to ensure as many people as possible can get a signature from the guests!
We hope you're excited to meet the MCM London Comic Con Anime Guests of Honour, because we certainly are - see you at the show!
Signing out~!
Jeremy
A film generating a lot of a buzz at the moment is the first theatrical outing from Studio Trigger, Promare, the same studio that brought you the very popular TV series Kill la Kill that was founded by members of GAINAX (Gurren Lagann).
Since the recent announcement that the film would be receiving UK Premiere screenings as part of the Scotland Loves Anime film festival in October, we've had lots of people asking us and other distributors if there were any other screenings planned. Well, today we're delighted to announce that we (Anime Limited) have secured the license to the film Promare in the UK & Ireland!
What's more, we're happy to confirm you won't have to wait long to catch the film on the big screen as we can confirm the film will be getting some select screenings around the UK & Ireland on 26th November (in Japanese with English subtitles) and 28th November (English dub).
And, (yes there's more!), tickets are on sale right now at http://promarefilm.co.uk
NOTE: if a ticket listing appears as "Coming Soon" on the ticket site, check back over the next week (at time of writing) as tickets will be going on sale at those cinemas very soon.
One additional note, be aware some cinemas may refer to English dub screenings on 28th November as "English language". Also we are aware some cinemas are listing any respective screenings they have on 28th November as subtitled screenings. We've been assured they will be dubbed screenings. There are also a few additional dubbed screenings to be added, so check back over the next week for the latest location information!
©TRIGGER,Kazuki Nakashima/XFLAG
The first feature-length film from the acclaimed studio TRIGGER, creators of the hit series KILL la KILL and Little Witch Academia, and director Hiroyuki Imaishi (GURREN LAGANN, KILL la KILL), Promare uses a bold cel-shaded visual style to tell a blistering action-adventure story, and is the spiritual successor to many of director Imaishi’s former works.
Studio: Trigger (Kill la Kill, Little Witch Academia, Kiznaiver)
Director: Hiroyuki Imaishi (Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill)
Synopsis: Thirty years has passed since the appearance of Burnish, a race of flame-wielding mutant beings, who destroyed half of the world with fire.
When a new group of aggressive mutants calling themselves “Mad Burnish” appears, the epic battle between Galo Thymos, a new member of the anti-Burnish rescue team “Burning Rescue,” and Lio Fotia, the leader of “Mad Burnish” begins.
Check out a trailer for the film (originally published for its recent theatrical screenings in the USA) below.
If you can't wait until November, there will be a few UK Premiere screenings as part of the Scotland Loves Anime Film Festival in Glasgow and Edinburgh this month, with the very first UK screening being at the Glasgow Film Theatre on Sunday 13th October!
You can details on those screenings HERE.
That's all you need to know! Go buy your tickets today and get hyped!
Signing out~!
Jeremy
By Jonathan Clements.
After the first five years of festivals, Scotland Loves Anime opened in 2015 with a screening of Attack on Titan so packed that Glasgow required an overflow cinema. SLA risked becoming so successful that it trampled on one of its own stated aims of introducing anime to the public – so many fans were showing up and booking early that screenings often had no space for casual walk-ins. As with previous years, the schedule was crammed with premieres, including Seiji Mizushima’s Expelled from Paradise, in which an agent from an orbital digitally-ingested enclave must slum it on a post-catastrophe Earth in the search for a rogue hacker.
The sold-out screening of Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F began with a public reading of the notorious one-star review it received from the Guardian, which likened it to “Kenny G or Preparation H”, and attacked it for its “money-grabbing… gotta-catch-em-all... trading-card-inspired” awfulness. Audience members were invited to pile on the newspaper’s website for a little martial-arts monkey-wrenching. Continue Reading
Following the excitement of the (now out-of-print) Blu-ray Collector's Edition release of Part 1, today we're excited to tell you about our upcoming release of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Part 2 Blu-ray Collector's edition!
So read on below for details on Part 2, plus an update on Endless Waltz and some details regarding a standard edition Blu-ray of Part 1!
EDITOR NOTE, 16th October: Since this blog post was published the release date of Gundam Wing: Part 2 Blu-ray Collector's Edition and Gundam Wing: Part 1 Blu-ray (standard edition) has been brought forward to 25th November 2019, from it's original December release date. The information in this post has been updated to reflect that.
Obviously, this is the second half of the series we're referring to. So if you're reading this we're going on the assumption you're already aware of what's happened in the story. So if you haven't seen it yet, perhaps slip the synopsis written below.
Synopsis (for Part 2): The actions of Heero and his fellow Gundam pilots have plunged Earth and its space colonies into political upheaval.
The secret society OZ, which took over the world in a stunning military coup, has now split into warring factions and the Gundam pilots are caught in the middle. Only the pacifist Sanc Kingdom, now resurrected under Relena’s leadership, remains an oasis of peace in a world torn by war. But two powerful new Gundams, and OZ’s legions of computer-control - led mobile dolls, are about to escalate the conflict to new heights
You can watch some video previews from Gundam Wing: Part 1 below
EDITOR NOTE, 16th October: Since this blog post was published the release date of Gundam Wing: Part 2 has been brought forward to 25th November 2019, from it's original December release date. The information below has been updated to reflect that.
Product: Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Part 2 Blu-ray Ltd. Collector's Edition
Format: Blu-ray
Release date: 25th November 2019
Cat. No.: ANI8019
Suggested Retail Price: £59.99
Obviously something that so many of you were excited about when it came to the (now out-of-print) Part 1 Collector's Edition set was the awesome box that would store both parts of the series! Now, if you've been collecting other Gundam releases of ours that have involved two parts, you'll know that generally with Part 2 there's an additional item that will comes with it, as there's some extra space inside the box that came with Part 1.
The Gundam Wing Part 2 Blu-ray Collector's Edition release is no different as it'll come with an amaray case to store the four Blu-ray discs and there'll also be a 48-page booklet that is split into sections focusing on the 5 Gundam pilots; Heero, Duo, Quatre, Wufei and Trowa. There is some wonderful art we've been given clearance to include in the booklet of each character, and in addition to that there's also a section focusing on group art with all five of them.
You can see visual for this release below -
The next question you're probably asking is what's on the discs? It'll include the remainder of the series, episode 26-49, with both English and original Japanese with English subtitles audio options. Extras wise, there will be clean opening and closing title sequences, along with a collection of Japanese commercials.
The release date of this is 25th November and pre-orders begin at our AllTheAnime online shop for this TODAY (Thursday 10th October). Read more about below!
This will be available to order from retailers in the coming weeks, but today (Thursday 10th October) we begin taking pre-orders at our AllTheAnime online shop and we have a special limited time offer on this as well!
~ AllTheAnime.com Special Offer ~
Until Thursday 17th October 2019 pre-order Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Part 2 Blu-ray Collector's Edition for £34.99 (SRP: £59.99)
EDITOR NOTE, 16th October: Since this blog post was published the release date of Gundam Wing: Part 1 Blu-ray (standard edition) has been brought forward to 25th November 2019, from it's original December release date. The information below has been updated to reflect that.
The Blu-ray Collector's Edition set of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Part 1 sold like wildfire! So much so that at time of writing it's pretty much Amazon UK and our friends at Gundam Mad that have stock of the Part 1 Collector's Edition. But fret not, as there is a standard edition Blu-ray of Gundam Wing: Part 1 coming! In fact, it'll be released the same day as the Part 2 Collector's Editions set we've been talking about above.
Product: Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Part 1 Blu-ray (standard edition)
Format: Blu-ray
Release date: 25th November 2019
Cat. No.: ANI8040
Suggested Retail Price: £59.99
This will literally be the amaray case with the same four discs as was included in Part 1. So if you missed out, or perhaps you were simply waiting for this version of Part 1 to be available, you don't have to wait long.
And what's more we're having a special offer on this standard edition Blu-ray at our AllTheAnime shop for a limited time too!
~ AllTheAnime.com Special Offer ~
Until Thursday 17th October 2019 order Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Part 1 Blu-ray (standard edition) for £34.99
Promotional artwork for Gundam Wing Endless Waltz - being used here for reference only
We know some of you are wondering if there's an update we can bring you on Gundam Wing Endless Waltz, so we wanted to take a moment to touch on this. All going well (and I want to stress this is still to be full confirmed at time of writing) the plan is for us to be releasing Endless Waltz around mid December time; chances are it'll probably the the last release of the calendar year from us too! We're not able to share designs or confirm exact contents with you at this time; as it's not fully signed off and locked in at time of writing. (Given past experiences, we don't want to jinx anything.) But that at least gives you an idea on when we're hoping to release it.
Another thing we want to touch is a "complete collection" of sorts that we've seen numerous comments about and want to clear the air on, so to speak. We always said there will be an opportunity to purchase a collection of all the Gundam Wing Collector's Edition releases from us in one go, and that has not changed. It will likely be a limited time offer (that also will very likely be extremely limited in numbers), but there will be an opportunity to purchase a bundle from our AllTheAnime online shop containing the Part 1 Collector's Edition set, the Part 2 Collector's Edition set and the Endless Waltz Collector's Edition set. We have made sure sure units of each have been set aside specifically for this bundle offer. And don't worry, we'll make sure to give some notice as to when this offer will be launching. It's not going be a case where we just put if up for sale without warning as we know a lot of people have made it known to us they are very interested in having an opportunity to order this.
We appreciate there's been some confusion on this, which we'll hold our hands up and acknowledge we could have communicated better about this from outset, but we wanted to make everything noted above known now so you all know where things stand on this.
With that being said, if you're someone who wants to purchase all the Collector's Edition sets, given the bundle offer I've just mentioned genuinely will be extremely limited in numbers, we strongly encourage you to purchase the Collector's Edition sets as they become available to order. This isn't us scaremongering, it's us calling it like it is so you know where things stand now to help avoid potential disappointment later on.
As we talked about earlier, (at time of writing) Amazon UK and Gundam Mad still has some stock of the Part 1 Collector's Edition set, so you can still get your hands on that. And we're taking pre-orders for the Part 2 Collector's Edition set now. Pre-orders for Endless Waltz will open in the near future, but we'll obviously make it known when that begins. So keep an eye out for details on that!
We hope all of that helps clarify things, but if you've got any questions feel free to reach out to us through the usual channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, via our online shop) and we'll answer as best we can!
And there you go everyone! That's the latest update on all things Gundam Wing!
Signing out~!
Jeremy