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Anime Sols to Stream Original Yatterman, Aoi Blink, Tezuka Films

Sam Pinansky of the the upcoming anime streaming and crowdsource service Anime Sols announced four new titles on ANNCast on Friday.

The service will add the original Yatterman television anime series by Tatsunoko Production. The 1977 Yatterman comedy science-fiction mecha series ran for 108 episodes in Japan. The story follows two youths, Gan and Ai, and their robotic dog Yatterwan as they try to stop the villainous Doronbo Gang from collecting Skull Stones. When all the stones are collected, it shows the way to the Earth's largest gold deposit.

Pinansky also announced that Anime Sols will stream Osamu Tezuka's Aoi Blink (Blue Blink) television anime series. The 39-episode series follows Kakeru after he saves a magical horse named Blink. Together the two try to find Kakeru's father, a famous children's author, who was kidnapped.

Coming to Anime Sols' lineup are two Tezuka films: Marine Express (Kaitei Chō Tokkyū Marine Express) and Fumoon. Marine Express was created for the 24-hour charity program "Ai wa Chikyu wo Suku" in 1979. The futuristic story takes place in 2002 on the Marine Express, the first undersea trans-Pacific train. The Marine Express' chief engineer hires private detective Ban Shunshaku, only to be murdered soon after. Shunshaku boards the train to investigate the case. The film's story features many of Tezuka's popular characters, including Black Jack, Don Dracula, and Astro Boy.

Fumoon was produced in 1980 and chronicles a race of mutant humans created by atomic radiation. Empowered with psychic abilities and super intelligence, the Fumoon look to evacuate select humans and animals from Earth as man-made annihilation quickly threatens the planet. The story is based on Tezuka's manga story and includes crossover characters from Metropolis.

Japan's Yomiuri Group announced this crowdsourcing venture with anime studios Pierrot, Tezuka Productions, and Tatsunoko Productions in November. Its launch titles include Tekkaman, the Space Knight, the Bander Book film, Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel, and the 2008 Yatterman remake.

The service will focuses on the North American audience and feature properties owned by the parent companies. Along with streaming Japanese anime titles, the site will offer goods and rewards for fans to purchase as incentives to support various properties. The funding will allow fans to directly support the Japanese companies, receive goods unavailable anywhere else, and give supporters the opportunity to own titles on home video.

Pinansky stated that the service is currently in beta and fans should watch closely for a launch date.