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NISA Adds Hanasaku Iroha Film, Genshiken 2nd Season Anime

The North American video game and anime distributor NIS America (NISA) announced at Anime Expo on Thursday that it has licensed the Hanasaku Iroha: Home Sweet Home anime film and the Genshiken Second Season television anime series. NISA did not provide any further release details at this time.

Additionally, the Hanasaku Iroha: Home Sweet Home film will screen at Anime Expo on Saturday night.

In Hanasaku Iroha: Home Sweet Home film's brand-new story, Ohana Matsumae, the lead character who moved from Tokyo to a hot spring inn, discovers an old business log. With it, Ohana learns about her mother Satsuki's past when she was 16 years old. That was when Satsuki left her home to pursue her dreams in Tokyo. Masahiro Ando (Sword of the Stranger, Blast of Tempest) returned to direct the film at P.A. Works. Mari Okada (anohana, Black Butler, Toradora!) handled the series composition, and Mel Kishida (So-Ra-No-Wo-To) handled the original character design.

The film screened in four theaters in Ishikawa Prefecture on March 9 before opening nationwide on March 30.

NIS America previously released the 26-episode Hanasaku Iroha television anime series on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in two sets in April and July.

The adaptation of Shimoku Kio's sequel manga Genshiken: Second Season continues the adventures of the otaku college club "The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture." Kodansha Comics published the second volume of this manga in North America in March.

Tsutomu Mizushima (Girls und Panzer, Squid Girl, XXXHOLiC, Genshiken OAV, episode director on first Genshiken) is serving as both director and sound director at Production I.G for the new anime. Michiko Yokote is returning from the previous Genshiken projects to supervise the series scripts, and Junichiro Taniguchi (Yondemasu yo, Azazel-san, Natsuyuki Rendezvous, Mudazumo Naki Kaikaku) is the new character designer. The anime will have a mostly new voice cast, with Nozomi Yamamoto as Chika Ogiue, Sumire Uesaka as Rika Yoshitake, Yumi Uchiyama as Mirei Yajima, Ai Kakuma as Kenjiro Hato (Female), Kazutomi Yamamoto as Kenjiro Hato, Yukana as Kanako Ōno, Jun Fukuyama as Manabu Kuchiki, and Naomi Ōzora as Susanna Hopkins.

Del Rey released the first Genshiken manga series as well as the Kujibiki Unbalance spinoff in North America. Media Blasters licensed the first two Genshiken television anime series, the Genshiken videos, and the Kujibiki Unbalance anime.

The anime will premiere in Japan on July 6.

NISA also revealed that it will release the Brave 10 ninja action television anime series in a two-disc Blu-ray Disc box set on October 8. The release will retail for US$64.99 and will include a 32-page hardcover art book. Video extras will include clean openings and endings, and Japanese trailers. The release will feature Japanese audio and English subtitles. NISA had announced in January 2012 that it had licensed the series.