News

SAO Ordinal Scale, Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry Released Monday

On Monday May 28, Anime Limited will release Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale as a Collectors Combi Blu-ray/DVD, including a 60-page book and a subtitled commentary track featuring the director and Japanese actors. There will also be a standard Blu-ray (which also features the commentary) and DVD editions.

The film's all-new original story takes place after the Mother's Rosario arc, which was the final arc depicted in the TV anime's second season. Original light novel author Reki Kawahara is writing the new story for the film. Tomohiko Ito is returning from the two TV anime series and the anime special to direct the film at A-1 Pictures. Shingo Adachi is also returning from the TV anime to design the characters based on abec's original character designs, and Yuki Kajiura is returning to score the music.

Anime Limited will also release Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry as a Collectors Blu-ray/DVD, including five art cards and an A3 poster. There will also be standard Blu-ray and DVD editions.

In the story, the King of Fiore summons Team Natsu to Crocus in order to entrust them with a very special mission: Zash Caine, a former minister of the state, has stolen the artefact known as the Dragon Cry and absconded with it to the Kingdom of Stella.

Tatsuma Minamikawa (episode director for Aldnoah.Zero, Attack on Titan, Haganai NEXT) directed the film at A-1 Pictures. Shoji Yonemura returned from the previous two television anime series to write the script, Yuuko Yamada (chief animation director for Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East, Persona 3 the Movie #3 Falling Down) was the character designer and chief animation director, and Yasuharu Takanashi returned from the previous anime series and Fairy Tail Zero to compose the music. GAGA is distributing the film. The two-member unit POLKA DOTS performed the film's theme song "What You Are."

Manga Entertainment will release the second half of Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga, carrying episodes 7 to 12, on Blu-ray and DVD.

Manga Entertainment will also release the CG film Blame!, from the manga by Tsutomo Nihei, on Blu-ray and DVD. Hiroyuki Seshita (Ajin), who co-directed the anime adaptation of Nihei's Knights of Sidonia manga series, directed the CG science-fiction film at Polygon Pictures. Nihei himself handled the film's script and character design, and also served as "creative consultant."

The film's official site describes the all-new story:

In the distant technological future, civilization has reached its ultimate Net-based form. An "infection" in the past caused the automated systems to spiral out of order, resulting in a multi-leveled city structure that replicates itself infinitely in all directions. Now humanity has lost access to the city's controls, and is hunted down and purged by the defense system known as the Safeguard. In a tiny corner of the city, a little enclave known as the Electro-Fishers is facing eventual extinction, trapped between the threat of the Safeguard and dwindling food supplies. A girl named Zuru goes on a journey to find food for her village, only to inadvertently cause doom when an observation tower senses her and summons a Safeguard pack to eliminate the threat. With her companions dead and all escape routes blocked, the only thing that can save her now is the sudden arrival of Killy The Wanderer, on his quest for the Net Terminal Genes, the key to restoring order to the world.

Anime Limited will release Studio Bones' 2003 series Wolf's Rain as an "Ultimate Edition" Blu-ray with all 26 TV episodes, plus the 4 OVA episodes which complete the story. The set also contains a 100-page art book, nine art cards and three A3 posters. (A standard Blu-ray edition will follow on June 25.) Funimation previously described the series:

Kiba, a lone white wolf, wanders into a poverty stricken city on a quest. The scent of Lunar Flowers and the will to find Paradise is all he has. Along the way, he runs into other outcast wolves—Tsume, Hige, and Toboe, each with their own story and troubles. Fate bringing them together, they seek out the Flower Maiden, Cheza, and their way to Paradise.

Anime Limited will also release a set containing the first four parts of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin. A prequel to the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam series, the series tells the story of the young Char Aznable and his sister Sayla. The set contains the four films across two Blu-ray discs, plus four art cards.

The individual films are Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin III: Blue-Eyed Casval; Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin II: Artesia's Sorrow; Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin III: Dawn of Rebellion; and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin IV: Fateful Eve.

Anime Limited will also release standard Blu-ray and DVD editions of the cinema feature Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust. Directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Ninja Scroll, Wicked City), the 2000 film is the second Vampire Hunter D anime after the 1985 original video anime (OVA). Both adapt Hideyuki Kikuchi's supernatural novel series of the same name about a half-human traveller who hunts vampires and other monsters in a far-future world.

Anime Limited will also release a Blu-ray standard edition of Sword Art Online II Part 1, carrying the first seven parts of the series.