Mardock Scramble, Star Driver at NY Comic Con

Next month's New York Comic Con & Anime Festival will be the latest American event to score a world premiere of an upcoming anime film. About a month ahead of its Japanese debut (on November 6), Mardock Scramble: The First Compression will premiere at the event on October 8 - as confirmed today by Aniplex of America, following an earlier notice stating pretty much the same thing: that creator Tow Ubukata will personally present the movie's world premiere at the NY Comic Con. The screening will come with English subtitles, but also with an age limit: "audience members must be at least 18 years or older to attend". Gee, I wonder why...



This will be the first of 3 anime films planned by studio GoHands, based on Tow Ubukata's sci-fi novels Mardock Scramble. A previous anime adaptation was attempted by Geneon, but that one failed while still in development, and by December 2006 it had been cancelled.

The original novel is about a former prostitute named Rune Balot, who dies as her body is burned by a devious gambler named Shell. However she resurrects as a powerfully advanced cyborg, and sets herself on a path for revenge. Now a cyborg, Balot has not only physical powers, but the ability to disrupt social environments. She chases after Shell, his partner-in-crime Boiled, and faces down a variety of insane villains in this pulse-pounding cyberpunk noir adventure.

Scary bedtime stories aside, the NY Anime Festival (NYAF) will also host the US premiere of another upcoming anime - Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto. This one is an original mecha anime series created by studio Bones, otherwise set for an October 2 TV debut in Japan. Aniplex of America will screen the series' first episode with English subtitles at NYAF, on October 9. And their press release also kindly provides this here synopsis.

In the southern edge of Japan lies the Southern Cross Island where its inhabitants lead a seemingly normal daily existence, but far beneath the surface a monumental secret lingers in silence - that is, until the dubious arrival of a boy named Takuto Tsunashi into Southern Cross High School. When it's revealed that a trove of approximately twenty giant machines called "Cybody" are sealed and hidden underground, Takuto and his classmates become embroiled with a ruthless, clandestine society bent on usurping this newfound power at any cost. The pivotal key to unlocking the "Cybody" lies within a special shrine maiden, and as old secrets stir and new ones begin to arise, how will Takuto deal with his own secrets? An intensive power struggle is about to erupt and tear apart the isle of Southern Cross!

P.S. A local Mardock Scramble gallery has begun its timid growth today. Gief moar fanarts!