First Squad Anime Film Licensed For Summer

About time! This great looking anime film called First Squad: The Moment of Truth has been ready for public showing for well over a year, yet somehow it's been lacking a proper theatrical premiere or home video release in Japan - and just about everywhere else. Even after having been screened at over 20 film festivals around the world throughout 2009, the only theatrical release it received so far was in Russia, last October.



Now, at last, a North American company called Anchor Bay Entertainment has acquired U.S. distribution rights for First Squad, and is planning to release it on Blu-ray and DVD "later this summer", according to Anchor Bay president Bill Clark (via Mania). The film was co-produced by Studio 4°C and the Russian-Canadian animation studio Molot Entertainment. We have several First Squad trailers in case you haven't seen any of them, and today we also opened a gallery for it.

The story of First Squad is set in 1942, the third year of World War II, at a time when continental Europe lies in ruins, enslaved by the Nazis. But in the East, in Russia, the Red Army is putting up a violent resistance to the legions of the Third Reich. A group of Soviet teenagers with extraordinary abilities have been drafted to form a special unit and fight the invading German army. They are opposed by a Schutzstaffel (SS) officer who is attempting to raise from the dead a supernatural army of crusaders from the 12th-century Order of the Sacred Cross and enlist them in the Nazi cause.

Their regular forces helpless against these supernatural warriors, the Red Army's only hope is Nadya - a 14 year old psychic girl who must cross the gulf into the underworld and recruit the souls of her dead friends, the Pioneers of the First Squad, to fight on Russia's behalf.

Update: Based on a couple of tweets from UK publisher Manga Entertainment (via Anime UK News), it would appear that First Squad will also be released in the UK. Although not by Manga Ent., given their reply to an inquiry on this matter: "Not [releasing] from MangaUK I'm afraid. Expect an announcement from a competitor soon".