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Crackle Adds Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer, Lupin III: The Legend of the Gold of Babylon, Wicked City

Sony's video streaming service Crackle added the following anime titles that are licensed for home video by Discotek Media last week:

• Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer (English)
• Lupin III: The Legend of the Gold of Babylon (Japanese)
• Wicked City (English)
• Street Fighter (TV Series)
• Dallos
• Fist of the North Star (film)
• Black Jack The Movie
• Jin-Roh (Japanese)
• Street Fighter II: The Movie
• Cromartie High School

Of these, Lupin III: The Legend of the Gold of Babylon, Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer, Wicked City, and the U.S. Street Fighter series are currently exclusive to Crackle. All titles are English-dubbed except for Lupin III: The Legend of the Gold of Babylon and Jin-Roh, which are both in Japanese with English subtitles.

Crackle's anime catalog also includes Ghost Stories, Appleseed Alpha, Robotech, Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles, Viper's Creed, and several Aniplex titles such as Blue Exorcist, Durarara!!, and Sword Art Online.

Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer is the second film based on Rumiko Takahashi's Urusei Yatsura manga. Mamoru Oshii wrote and directed the film.

Discotek Media plans to release the 1984 film on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on February 27. Central Park Media released the film on VHS in 1993 and later on DVD in 2004.

The 1985 Lupin III: The Legend of the Gold of Babylon was the only anime film directed by filmmaker and actor Seijun Suzuki, who passed away last year. In the film, Lupin deals with two mafia families and Zenigata as he tries to find Babylon's lost gold by uncovering the mystery of tablets found in New York City. During his quest, Lupin meets an old woman who has a connection to the treasure.

AnimEigo previously released the film on VHS and laserdisc, but changed the title character's name to "Rupan" to avoid legal issues with the estate of Maurice Leblanc, author of the Arsène Lupin novels. Discotek announced in 2005 that it had licensed the film, but the prospective DVD release was put on indefinite hold until August, when Discotek announced that it plans to release the film on Blu-ray Disc.

Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Ninja Scroll) directed the 1987 Wicked City film at MADHOUSE. The film is an adaptation of Hideyuki Kikuchi's (Vampire Hunter D) novel series of the same name. Seven Seas Entertainment released the three-volume novel series in English in 2009-2010.

Discotek licensed and released the film on DVD in 2016. Urban Vision previously released the film on VHS in 1999 and on DVD in 2000.

Thanks to Rukiia for the news tip.