The Japanese anime distributor Bandai Visual confirmed on Monday that it will start distributing popular anime on the Blu-ray Disc format throughout the world simultaneously this fall. The strategic shift will represent a new business model which attempts to solve the unauthorized distribution issue by doing away with regional differences in release dates and prices. It confirmed that the Freedom science-fiction anime series will be among the list of popular titles that will ship in staggered releases under this model. The discs will include subtitles in Japanese, English, and other languages.

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As anticipation for the live action Dragonball movie reaches boiling point, Japanese manga magazine Shonen Jump have announced that they intend to produce a brand new (albeit one-shot) Dragonball anime (as well as a new One Piece short film too). Though specific details are few and far between, it's known that the new anime will be shown all across Japan as a part of the “Jump Super Anime Tour”, making it the first Dragonball anime to have been produced since GT ended in November 1997.

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VIZ Media, one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced that it will partner with NCM FATHOM, the entertainment division of National CineMedia, to present the epic action anime hit BLEACH THE MOVIE: MEMORIES OF NOBODY in more than 300 theatres across the country on June 11 and 12. Adapted from the wildly popular animated series and a best-selling manga series (both distributed and published in North America by VIZ Media) by acclaimed Japanese artist Tite Kubo, BLEACH THE MOVIE: MEMORIES OF NOBODY will make its North American debut in this two-night theatre experience including an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the talent behind the characters as well as interviews of this highly-anticipated premiere with the Japanese Director, Noriyuki Abe, Producer Ken Hagino and Character Designer, Masashi Kudo.

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Based off the legendary video game, the film follows Ryu, a wandering, simple martial artist who scowers the world in search of street fighting and his soul. Also scowering the world is M. Bison, leader of the maniacal terrorist organization called Shadowlaw, bent on dominating the world by brainwashing the best street fighters into loyal killing machines for Bison. Ken, Ryu's best friend becomes abducted by Bison, and it is Ryu's mission along with the likes of US military captain Guile, Interpol agent Chun Li, and a host of other street fighters to defeat Bison and Shadowlaw. This was actually my very first expose to anime, I first came across this movie by buying it in my local video store for a cheap price. Needless to say after rewatching the movie on DVD, I'm quite happy this movie was my first exposure. Street Fighter the animated movie is a wickedly fun guilty pleasure for fans and newbies of the classic video game series and those who have never heard of it. Not every anime needs to electrify our brain cells and entice us with compelling complex storylines and philosophical life lessons. Street Fighter is a fighting anime movie and it does a damn good job of exploiting that point. The first thing you'll notice is the unremarkable masterpiece like quality of the animation. The explicitly detailed visual designs of the characters is incredibly exquisite, detailing water droplets from hair strands to even ankle bones in feet. Its hard to imagine what some would call "mindless entertainment" to house such top notch animation artwork.

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What's next after Transformers? Steven Spielberg is moving on to more worldly properties. With the recent acquisition of rights to the Japanese manga "Ghost in the Shell," by DreamWorks is set to to make a 3-D Live-Action version of the cyberpunk crime thriller. Spielberg is said to have taken a personal interest in binging the project to DreamWorks who beat out two other competing studios, Universal and Sony, for the rights. 'Ghost in the Shell' is one of my favorite stories," Spielberg said. "It's a genre that has arrived, and we enthusiastically welcome it to DreamWorks." Published in 1989, "Ghost in the Shell" was Created by Masamune Shirow. Written as a post-cyberpunk drama, the story follows Motoko Kusanagi, a member of a covert operations team that work for the Section 9 arm of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission. Ghost in the Shell documents the team on technology-related crime missions that test their best fighting abilities. The original Manga story has been adapted into several anime films, a television series, video games and other products.

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Viz Media has announced a joint venture with comics legend Stan Lee. Along with one of Japan's biggest artists, Hiroyuki Takei, Stan has created his first magna title. This new title, featuring the hero known as Ultimo, was just published today in Japan. The Editor-in-Chief of Viz Media's Shonen Jump magna magazine, Mark Weidenbaum, lead the press conference today at the NYCC. On the panel were Ultimo's creators, Stan Lee and Hiroyuki Takei, along with a translator. One obsticle to the crafting of this comic book was the fact that Stan does not speak Japanese and Hiroyuki does not speak English. Stan sent his story idea to Hiroyuki who re-worked it to fit into Japanese story telling style and then sent it back to Stan who made further changes. This back and forth continued several times until Ultimo was ready to be unveiled to the world. This title then represents an amalgamation of American and Japanese styles, hopefully representing the best of both and offering great appeal to all audiences. Hiroyuki explained the principle difference being that Ultimo has a more narrative style than traditional magna, a medium he has risen far in.

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We have now added Dragon Half to our Anime List. Dragon Half is a 2 episode OVA which is short (obviously, only 2 episodes!) and funny, and features a rich cast of comical characters. There is a dedicated Dragon Half section in our forums and we have added a Dragon Half picture gallery which at the time of writing currently features 67 screenshots and artwork from the anime.

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VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced its plans to participate in a variety of exhibits, special events, programming, panels and related industry roundtable discussions at the 2008 New York Comic Con, taking place April 18-20 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. New York Comic Con has emerged as the East Coast's biggest and most popular pop culture convention covering the latest in comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, toys, movies, and television. VIZ Media will welcome comics legend Stan Lee, creator of numerous iconic superheroes including Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men, for a very special press event on April 18 in Room#1E09 to discuss ULTIMO – the historic collaboration between Lee and with Hiroyuki Takei, the creator of the popular SHAMAN KING manga series, published in North America by VIZ Media. The event, attended by Stan Lee, Takanori Asada (Editor, Jump SQ.), and SHONEN JUMP Editor-in-Chief Marc Weidenbaum, will highlight the collaboration and shed further light on the development of ULTIMO and the partnership with Hiroyuki Takei, as well as announce exciting news not yet shared regarding this title.

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My brother always tells me I have a problem only picking OVA animes when I buy them. There almost always way too short and they lack the fan power most long running series has. I enjoy OVA because of the rich characters they feature without dragging them on for 200 episodes, that being said, does Dragon half an only 2 episode anime OVA even stand a chance of being good? Life is never easy for anyone, except for Mink its much, much worse, see she happens to be a Dragon half: half human half dragon, and its because of her dragon half that Mink gets into so much trouble. Mink's in love with the number one world pop singer, and dragon slayer, Dick Saucer. Unfortunately, because of her dragon nature, Mink fears he will never love her because it is Dick's job to slay dragons. So Mink and her friends go out on a journey to find a magical people potion to make her pure human. Only problem is, Mink's rival Princess Vina, her father the King and a slew of other crazy bad guys will do anything they can to stop and kill her before she finds the potion.

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One of the hardest types of anime I find are ones about anti-heroes, about bad guys as stars opposed to the good guys. I've only come across 2 shows that have used this idea in my lifetime of anime watching and despite the fact selling (or writing for that matter) a good anti-hero show is insanely difficult, Punk has everything you thought would be in it, and everything you never thought would be in it. In the great Kanto desert, death and despair are the only things to look forward to in this war torn, criminal ridden landscape. Survival comes to those desperate enough to stab each other in the back for it, and treachery and thievery are the only profitable jobs around. Enter Desert Punk, a greedy, smart mouthed, boob crazy little jack ass whose God like gun skills have earned him the title "Demon of the desert". It's life through the sand stained eyes of Punk as he battles crazed mercenaries, handles insanely dangerous jobs, and does every dirty deed in the book all to make a cheap buck.

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