Funimation Adds Heroic Age Anime
The North American distributor Funimation has announced that it has licensed the Heroic Age television anime series from the Japanese media company Kodansha. Tow Ubukata (Fafner, Le Chevalier D'Eon, Mardock Scramble) created this science-fiction story about the struggle of the Iron Tribe — humanity — against the technologically advanced Silver Tribe that has ruled space ever since the ancient Gold Tribe disappeared. A man named Age (Hiroshi Yazaki) and princess named Deianeira (Yui Ishikawa) are the answers to Gold Tribe's prophecies that bind all the races.
Funimation is streaming a trailer of the anime on a new official English website. Fafner producer Takashi Noto and Fafner episode director Toshimasa Suzuki oversaw the animators at Xebec on this 26-episode series last year. Funimation plans to release the series on DVD in 2009.
Source
ANN
Witchblade Creator Michael Turner Dies
Michael Turner, one of the creators of the American comic Witchblade which was the source of the Witchblade anime series and Witchblade: Takeru manga, passed away on June 27. He was 37. He was diagnosed with bone cancer eight years ago.
The Witchblade comic has been published by Image Comics' Top Cow Productions since 1995. In 2004, Japan's Gonzo studio announced plans to adapt it into a 24-episode television series, which was then aired in Japan. FUNimation Entertainment licensed the anime for North American distribution. Separately, Top Cow also sold the rights for a Witchblade manga. Veteran screenwriter Yasuko Kobayashi, who co-wrote the scripts for the anime series, created the spin-off story for the manga. Witchblade: Takeru was serialized in Akita Shoten's Champion RED magazine and exported back to the United States in two separate editions: as a set of flipped, full-color 32-page comics from Top Cow, and as more traditional unflipped manga-style volumes from Bandai Entertainment.
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ANN
New Gundam 00 Manga Published in Japan
The August issue (on sale on June 26) of Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Gundam Ace magazine has launched Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Aoi Kioku (Blue Memories), Tarō Shiguma's new manga series based on the Gundam 00 anime television series. The magazine summarizes how the manga will deal with the lives of the Gundam Meister pilots by saying, "The present and the past…fiction and memories…the true selves of the boys will be revealed." The first installment, "Memory: 1 Setsuna," covers the memories of the main protagonist Setsuna's early childhood.
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ANN
Enoki Films Seeks Licensors for Slayers Revolution
The animation production company Enoki Films USA is soliciting licensors and distributors for Slayers Revolution, the newest animated television series based on Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi's Slayers fantasy light novels. Enoki's press release describes the general story outline of the 26 planned episodes. The series will premiere in Japan on July 2, and the company indicates that all the episodes will be completed by Spring of 2009.
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ANN
