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Sentai Filmworks Licenses Girls & Panzer Film With Theatrical Release Plans
posted on by Egan Loo
North American anime distributor Sentai Filmworks announced on Tuesday that it licensed the Girls und Panzer der Film anime for North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and other territories. The company will announce more details on "distribution, release date, and streaming offerings," and it plans a theatrical release in North America.
The Girls und Panzer film is director Tsutomu Mizushima's follow-up to his 2012 Girls und Panzer television anime about schoolgirls who learn to battle in tanks with other teams nationwide. It opened in Japan last November, and it ranked #38 in the top 39 highest grossing Japanese domestic films of 2015 (tied with Grasshopper). In addition, it has continued to run in Japanese theaters and add to its earnings, almost a full year after its initial opening. It will run on Japanese pay television station WOWOW on October 8, even though certain theaters in Japan will continue to screen the film through its one-year anniversary on November 21.
The film shipped on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on May 27, and the release came with a new OVA that takes place after the events of the movie, as well as an episode of the "Akiyama Yukari no Sensha Kōza" (Yukari Akiyama's Tank Lecture) shorts. The limited special edition Blu-ray Disc of the film sold 162,361 copies in its first week and topped Oricon's overall Blu-ray Disc chart for the May 23-29 week. It has topped the first-week sales of the limited edition Blu-ray Disc release of the Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie Part 3: Rebellion anime film (which sold about 128,000 copies in its first week) to become the fourth-highest selling Japanese animation Blu-ray Disc in its first week ever.
The film won a Seiun Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.
The staff members announced in August that they ware working on another sequel titled Girls & Panzer Saishūshō (Girls & Panzer: The Final Chapter).
