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Discotek Licenses Detective Conan: Episode One, Love Hina Again, S-CRY-ed Anime

Discotek Media announced during its panel at the Anime Lockdown virtual convention on Sunday that it will release the Detective Conan - Episode One: The Great Detective Turned Small, Love Hina Again, Memories, A Thousand and One Nights, Combattler V, and S-CRY-ED anime, as well as more of the Urusei Yatsura films on Blu-ray Disc.

The company also revealed details of three other previously announced anime releases. Discotek will release Demon City Shinjuku with English subtitles and a dub on Blu-ray Disc in July 2020. Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro will ship on UHD 4K Blu-Ray Disc at a date to be announced in the future. Lupin III: Dragon of Doom will ship on Blu-ray Disc with both Japanese and English audio on an unannounced date.

Discotek will release the Detective Conan - Episode One: The Great Detective Turned Small (Meitantei Conan Episode "One" Chiisakunatta Meitantei) special in July 2020. The release will feature English subtitles and an all-new English dub with Griffin Burns as Shinichi Kudo and Wendee Lee as Conan Edogawa. Steve Staley served as ADR director, and Marlan Moore handled the ADR scripts.

The two-hour special celebrating the anime's 20th anniversary debuted in Japan in December 2016. The story retells what happened on the day Shinichi's teenaged body was transformed into that of a child. The special adds new material that was not in Gosho Aoyama's original manga or "Jet Coaster Satsujin Jiken" (Roller Coaster Murder Incident), the first episode of the television anime. The story begins when Shinichi sets up a date with Ran at the Tropical Land amusement park, and continues with Shinichi's encounter with Gin and the others at the park.

Aoyama personally supervised all aspects of the special. Yasuichiro Yamamoto, Hiroshi Kashiwabara, Katsuo Ono, Masatomo Sudō, and Terumitsu Okada all returned from the television anime as director/scriptwriter, scriptwriter, music composer, character designer, and editor, respectively.

Discotek will release the three-episode 2002 Love Hina Again original video anime (OVA) project with English subtitles and a dub in July 2020.

Bandai Entertainment previously released the anime on DVD, and it describes the story:

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the Hot Spring! Keitaro and Naru have finally begun college life at Tokyo University! After a long period of studying, bizarre happenings, random trips, and misunderstanding upon misunderstanding, their dream has finally come true! However, their feelings for each other are still a little... muddled. And with a newer, stricter manager to run the Hinata Apartments - Will anyone survive Hinata Boot Camp? It's Love (Hina) Again. Welcome back.

Yoshiaki Iwasaki returned from the television series to direct the anime at Xebec. Kurou Hazuki also returned to handle series composition and the scenario. Akitoshi Maeda, who designed cover art for various Love Hina anime, designed the characters, and Shinkichi Mitsumune (FLCL, Revolutionary Girl Utena) composed the music.

Discotek will release the 1995 Memories anthology film with a newly revised subtitle translation next year. The 1080p Blu-ray release will feature English subtitles, a new English dub, a special preview video, "Cannon Fodder" animated storyboards, interviews, and an art gallery.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the film in North America on DVD, and it describes the work:

Created by celebrated animé master Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira, Roujin Z), MEMORIES consists of three dazzling stories, each delivered with its own astonishing style. "Magnetic Rose," directed by Koji Morimoto (Animatrix) based on a manga short by Otomo, concerns two space travellers following a distress signal drawn into a magnificent world created by one woman's memories. In director Tensai Okamura's (Wolf's Rain) "Stink Bomb," a young chemist accidentally transforms himself into an unstoppable biological weapon set on a direct course for Tokyo. Otomo's own "Cannon Fodder" depicts a day in the life of a city whose entire purpose is the firing of cannons at an unknown enemy.

Australian anime distributor Siren Visual previously released the film on Blu-ray Disc.

Discotek will release the 1969 A Thousand and One Nights (Senya Ichiya Monogatari) film on Blu-ray with English subtitles and a "classic, long-lost" dub thanks to a new restoration.

The United Kingdom-based distributor Third Window Films released the anime film in Europe on Blu-ray Disc and DVD as part of the Animerama film series. The company describes the works:

Animerama (アニメラマ) is a series of thematically-related adult anime feature films originally conceived and initiated by Osamu Tezuka and made at his Mushi Production animation studio from the late 1960s to early 1970s, perhaps intended as animated counterparts to the then-emergent pink films (a direct connection being Shigemi Satoyoshi as the scenarist for Cleopatra).

As well as the erotic themes, they are also defined by mixing more typical traditional animation with sequences of UPA and Yōji Kuri–influenced experimental use of modern design, limited animation, and still paintings akin to Tezuka's experimental short films and like those largely were all directed, sometimes sharing the billing with Tezuka, by Eiichi Yamamoto. The first, A Thousand & One Nights, was the first erotic animated feature film and, at 130 minutes, remains one of the longest ever animated films. The first two are also notable for having scores by famed composer and electronic rearranger Isao Tomita.

Eiichi Yamamoto (Cleopatra, Jungle Emperor Leo) directed A Thousand and One Nights at Mushi Production. Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy, Black Jack) provided the original concept, and he wrote the screenplay with Hiroyuki Kumai and Kazuo Fukasawa. Takashi Yanase (Soreike! Anpanman creator) provided the character designs, and Isao Tomita (Princess Knight, Kimba the White Lion) composed the music.

Tadao Nagahama (Voltes V, Kyojin no Hoshi) directed the series at Sunrise. Nine scriptwriters contributed to the anime. Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (Mobile Suit Gundam, Crusher Joe: The Movie) designed the characters, and Hiroshi Tsutsui (Voltes V, Gatchaman II) composed the music.

Toei began streaming the series on a new global YouTube channel on April 6, but the series is region-blocked in countries including the United States and Japan.

Discotek will release the 2001 S-CRY-ed television anime with English subtitles and a dub. It will not include the 2011 compilation movie, which is a separate license.

The story follows a young mercenary named Kazuma who lives in the Lost Ground, an area created after a strange environmental phenomenon effected Kanazawa prefecture. Kazuma has the Alter ability, which allows him to plaster his right arm and torso with a metallic alloy. He finds himself in a battle against HOLY and its elite member, Ryuho.

Goro Taniguchi (Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, Maria the Virgin Witch) and Rion Kujo (Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero, Samurai Harem) directed the anime at Sunrise. Yousuke Kuroda (Gundam Build Fighters, Mobile Suit Gundam 00) wrote the script. Hisashi Hirai (Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, Fafner) designed the characters, and Kotaro Nakagawa (Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, Hayate the Combat Butler) composed the music.

Sentai Filmworks previously held the license, and Bandai Entertainment released the series on DVD. The anime aired on Adult Swim in 2005.

Discotek will release the Urusei Yatsura: Only You, Urusei Yatsura: Remember My Love, Urusei Yatsura: Lum The Forever, Urusei Yatsura: The Final Chapter, and Urusei Yatsura: Always My Darling films with English subtitles and the English dubs from the previous AnimEigo releases.

The films debuted between 1983 and 1991. AnimEigo released all five films on DVD.

Discotek released the franchise's second film, Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer, on Blu-ray Disc in February 2018. Central Park Media previously released the film on VHS and DVD.

Discotek also noted that the February DVD release of Great Conquest: The Romance of Three Kingdoms will "probably" be the company's final DVD release, due to declining sales compared to Blu-ray Disc. The company explained that "most home video buyers — anime fans, epsecially! — are exclusively buying on Blu-ray now."

Source: Email correspondence