London MCM Comic Con May 2016 Anime License Round-Up

May’s MCM Comic Con in London has come and gone, and naturally there were many announcements regarding the upcoming releases of anime DVDs within the UK. I’ll be collecting them all here together and sharing my thoughts on a few of them. This post will round up all of the announcements across the weekend into the respective companies.

Some of these announcements will have release dates, but there will be a fair few without. It’s also fairly safe to assume that shows picked by the different companies will probably get English dubs, unless mentioned otherwise.

Anime Limited

• Persona 3 Movies 1-4
• High School Fleet
• Black Butler Season 3
• Dimension W
• Kiznaiver
• Re:ZERO – Starting Life in Another World
• Sound! Euphonium
• Twin Star Exorcists
• Bungo Stray Dogs
• Death Parade Ultimate Edition, including original Anime Mirai Project short Death Billiards, to be released in 2016.
• Momotaro’s Divine Screen Warriors, the first ever feature-length anime will be getting a Blu-ray release in the UK complete with booklet written by Jonathan Clements.
• Lupin III‘s 2015 TV anime series is planned for release later this year.
• Belladonna of Sadness will get a UK Blu-ray release based on its 4K remaster, as well as some further theatrical screenings.
• The Tatami Galaxy will also be returning to the UK on home video, most likely on Blu-ray.
• Fullmetal Alchemist Ultimate Edition – this will come with an outer box and polystyrene packaging, within which you’ll find a resin 31cm x 25cm replica of the gate seen in the show, within which are contained both of the show’s sets of discs in Amaray cases.
  The release will also feature a 320 page art book, a custom certificate (with an equally custom Alchemist Name for the buyer) and of course all 51 episodes of the show.
  This Ultimate Edition is limited to 970 copies, and will cost £124.99 between now and July 5th, then £149.99 until October 1st. The retail SRP is £299.99.

Some other news about Anime Limited releases: Escaflowne Ultimate Edition will contain original and Director’s Cut versions of the series, both with English dub.
The Eureka Seven Ultimate Edition is still in progress. There’s also a Makoto Shinkai twin pack still in the works – it has been delayed for a while now.

Out of all those things announced above, High School Fleet and Sound! Euphonium are the ones that hold most interest to me. The former is airing currently as part of the spring season of anime this year, and the latter has a second season due to air in  autumn. The Fullmetal Alchemist Ultimate Edition sounds great, but I don’t have that kind of money to be throwing around – not even for the temporarily reduced price.

Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures are bringing Seraph of the End and The Heroic Legend of Arsland to the UK, though that was known before the Comic Con. They did have a couple of new announcements, though.

• Berserk – as in the new TV series due to air in the summer.
• Drifters – another new anime series also set to air this year.

There’ll be Collector’s Editions for both, though the exact details for those haven’t been finalised yet.

MVM Entertainment
MVM have a fair amount of announcements, so let’s just dive in. Just don’t expect a release date for every single series.

• Log Horizon Season 2 Collection 1 – Blu-ray and DVD to be released on 5th September 2016.
• Tenchi Muyo OVA Collection has been relicensed, and will see its DVD edition supplemented by an all-new UK Blu-ray release. It’ll be arriving later this year, with some interesting goodies alongside the discs.
• Chobits will have a Blu-ray release later this year
• Serial Experiments Lain will have a remastered Blu-ray release later this year.
• Owarimonogatari was announced previously, and confirmed to have both DVD and Blu-ray releases.
• Three titles have been confirmed for a 2016 release: Photo Kano, Re-Kan and Sakura Trick. Formats are yet to be confirmed.
• Skip Beat, complete with new English dub. It’s definitely getting a DVD release, and Blu-ray is also a possibility.
• GATE
• Monster Musume: Everyday Life With Monster Girls
• 11 Eyes
• Busou Shinki: Armored War Goddess
• Girls Beyond the Wasteland
• Norn 9
• Nurse Witch Komugi R
• Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle

Phew, that’s everything from MVM Entertainment. Whilst I didn’t pick anything up from them at Comic Con this time around, there’s definitely a few things here that pique my interest. Re-Kan‘s one, but Log Horizon Season 2 and Sakura Trick are probably the things I’m looking forward to most out of all of the licenses announced during the Comic Con weekend.

Manga Entertainment
This includes stuff from Animatsu Entertainment as well.

• Soul Eater NOT!
• Trinity Seven
• HaNaYaMaTa
• Love, Chunibyou & Other Delusions: Heart Throb!
• Punchline!
• Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto
• Digimon – seasons 1 and 2, very likely to be the TV edit.
• Rock Lee and His Ninja Pals, to be released across two half-series DVD box sets of 26 episodes – first one due in autumn, second in early 2017.
• Chinese live action/CG film Monster Hunt
• Death Note will be having a Blu-ray release later this year.

Soul Eater NOT! and HaNaYaMaTa are the releases that I have most interest in here.

So, a whole slew of announcements, as tends to happen during Comic Con. Definitely some great stuff coming up.