Checkpoint: Broken Blade, Square, Blu-ray, DVD

Last update - Jan 18, 17:38 GMT (12:38 EST, 09:38 PST)

The first 4 Broken Blade films in this 6-part theatrical anime series will be streamed for free this Friday, January 21, prior to the 5th movie's premiere the following day. Bandai Visual will offer said streams on the Ustream website, respectively starting at 19:00 (05:00 EST), 20:00, 21:00 and 22:00 hours Japan time. The 6th and final part is currently set to premiere there on March 26.




As mentioned here a few days ago, Square Enix is holding a pretty big event today in Japan, where they may (or may not) reveal a Final Fantasy XIII-2 sequel, among others. Since I (may or) may not cover the announcements made there - depending on my comrade's success at luring me to a Guinness session - you might want to refresh andriasang's live-blog of the event every now and then throughout the day.


On to the topic of Blu-ray (and DVD) anime releases, there's some good news and some bad news from Section23; and again some good news from FUNi. The first good news is that Section23's release line-up for April 2011 suddenly includes last year's 3D CG anime film The Asylum Session, as a DVD-only release set for April 26. Their other titles for that month are Special A (DVD, April 5), Needless Collection #2 (Blu-ray / DVD, April 12) and Clannad After Story (DVD, April 19).


The bad news, however, is that Section23 has "postponed indefinitely" the Blu-ray release of Guin Saga, which was supposed to go on sale this March 29, "due to circumstances beyond [their] control". The DVD edition survived, and it remains set for a March 29 release.


As for FUNimation's good news, they are starting to embrace the Blu-ray + DVD all-in-one release format for some of their upcoming titles. Namely for Eden of the East the Movie I: The King of Eden, the regular and limited edition of Ga-rei: Zero, and the live-action film Goemon. These combo packages will include both Blu-ray and DVD discs, "at what appears to be DVD pricing for the most part". Pretty cool.


Fellow number-freaks, gather 'round, for the 2010 circulation numbers for Japanese manga magazines are in! Weekly Shonen Jump über alles.


And for the rest of you wall-of-text freaks out there, eat this: Anime Production - Detailed Guide to How Anime is Made and the Talent Behind it!

Now if you'll excuse me, bitter-sweet Guinness-chan awaits!


*five hours later*... Oh yeah, that hit the spot!



Update: Going for a swim? With $2000 to spare for a new bathing suit? Then how about trying one of the new Evangelion wetsuits designed to match the plug-suits worn in the Evangelion 2.0 anime film by Shinji, Rei and Asuka - quite appealingly pictured above.


Update #2: Also from Section23, today they have released the 2-disc Kampfer Complete Collection on DVD.


Update #3: And yet another DVD release today is FUNimation's Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom, split into 2 box sets.