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Siren Visual Announces New Releases

Siren Visual released the news on their facebook page in celebration of Supanova Sydney this weekend. No release dates or further information apart from the titles have been given at this stage.

Queen's Blade: Exiled Virgin

Once every four years the Queen's Blade tournament is held to decide the next queen. The tournament is a competition of strength and beauty where the competitor need only be older than 12, they don't need to be human, intelligent or even from the country. And the rules are simple, the winner is decided when the opponent flees or can't move any more. Queen's Blade: Exiled Virgin follows the story of Leina Vance as she travells to Gainos to compete in the Queen's Blade tournament.

The Queen's Blade franchise is based on the visual combat books by Hobby Japan, itself a spinoff of Flying Buffalo's Lost Worlds game series. Since the first visual combat book was released in 2005 the series has had four manga adaptations, three anime adaptations, three light novels, and a video game adaptation. The books have also had two sequels, Queen's Blade Rebellion and Queen's Blade Grimoire and the spinoff Queen's Gate which features combatants from other fighting games.

Queen's Blade: Exiled Virgin premiered on AT-X in April 2008 and ran for 12 episodes. This series was produced by ARMS (Elfen Lied, Samurai Girls) under direction from Kinji Yoshimoto (Genshiken 2, Plastic Little) with art direction from Junichi Higashi (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Girls). The series was followed by Queen's Blade 2: The Evil Eye in September 2009 and Queen's Blade: Rebellion in April 2012.

Queen's Blade: Exiled Virgin will be a DVD collection but Siren Visual have not released any further information for this release at this stage.

©2009 HobbyJAPAN/QUEEN'S BLADE PARTNERS

Night Raid 1931

The story is set in Shanghai in 1931, when the Imperial Japanese Army has been dispatched to mainland China due to the relatively recent First Sino-Japanese War, Russo-Japanese War, and World War I. In this cosmopolitan city of intrigue, there is a special military spy organization called "Sakurai Kikan" that has since been buried in history.

The story is set in Shanghai in 1931, when the Imperial Japanese Army has been dispatched to mainland China due to the relatively recent First Sino-Japanese War, Russo-Japanese War, and World War I. In this cosmopolitan city of intrigue, there is a special military spy organization called "Sakurai Kikan" that has since been buried in history.

Jun Matsumoto (Persona -trinity soul-) directed the animators at A-1 Pictures on this series. Another Persona -trinity soul- veteran, Shinsuke Onishi (The Third: The Girl with the Blue Eye, New Getter Robo, 009-1) supervised the scripts. Code:Breaker and Samurai Deeper Kyo manga creator Akimine Kamijyō created the original character designs which Keigo Sasaki (Sengoku Basara, Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations) adapted for animation. Space Symphony Maetel ~Ginga Tetsudō 999 Gaiden~ composer Taro Hakase scored the soundtrack. Night Raid 1931 was released on Blu-ray and DVD in America by Sentai Filmworks in 2012.

Siren Visual have confirmed that the series will be a DVD only release at this stage and that further information will follow in the near future.

Durarara!!

Ryūgamine Mikado wants an exciting life in the big city and when his childhood friend Kida Masaomi invites him to transfer to a school in Ikebukuro, Mikado jumps at the chance. When he arrives Masaomi warns him of people he shouldn't cross in the city like the strong man Shizuo Heiwajima, information broker Izaya Orihara and "The Dollars" gang. Then Mikado witnesses an urban legend himself, Celty Sturluson the Headless Rider astride a black motorcycle.

The Durarara!! anime adapts Ryohgo Narita's Durarara!! "high-tension suspense action" light novels of the same name. After launching his earlier Baccano! light novel series, Narita set the "warped adolescent fantasy romance" of Durarara!! in a rowdy version of Tokyo's Ikebukuro neighborhood in 2004. He has since written eleven Durarara!! novel volumes, and they have already inspired a manga series in Square Enix's G Fantasy magazine since 2009 and this manga has since been translated and published in English by Yen Press.

This anime adaptation was directed by Takahiro Omori (Baccano!, Hell Girl) at anime production company Brains Base. Suzuhito Yasuda's (Yozakura Quartet, Kamisama Kazoku) original character designs from the light novels were adapted by Takahiro Kishida (Baccano!, Puella Magi Madoka Magica) with art direction by Akira Ito (Bodacious Space Pirates, Elfen Lied) and music by Makoto Yoshimori (Baccano!, Princess Jellyfish).

The original Japanese cast includes Toshiyuki Toyonaga ( Flit Asuno in Mobile Suit Gundam AGE as Mikado Ryūgamine, Mamoru Miyano (Riku in Kingdom Hearts) as Masaomi Kida and Miyuki Sawashiro (Saeko Busujima in High School of the Dead) as Celty Sturluson. The English dub has Darrel Guilbeau (Amaimon in Blue Exorcist) as Mikado Ryūgamine, Kari Wahlgren (Haruhara Haruko in FLCL) as Celty Sturluson and Bryce Papenbrook (Rin Okumura in Blue Exorcist) as Masaomi Kida.

Siren Visual has previously released this series on DVD as both a two part collection and a single complete edition. We will post further information about this release as it comes to light.

© Ryohgo Narita / ASCII MEDIA WORKS / Ikebukuro Dollars / MBS