Posts Tagged ‘eyeshield 21’

The title wasn’t meant to be a Needless pun. <- That right there. That’s a Needless pun.

Sometimes it’s meant to be. You’re sitting there looking for something to write about and a press release just magically appears in your inbox. Sentai Filmworks have announced their February release schedule which includes the continuations of Eyeshield 21 (Collection 4 due out 2/8) and Gintama (Collection 4 due out 2/22), a You’re Under Arrest Fast and Furious Complete Collection due out 2/1 and the license of comedy action series, Needless.

If you’re unfamiliar with Needless consider yourself one of the lucky ones. Produced by Madhouse and premiering in the summer of 2009, the series takes place in a future where the world has been ravaged. Survival is hard but humans make it even harder by exiling humans called Needless who have contracted a disease giving them special powers. The main character is an orphan named Cruz looking for his family when he meets the odd Eve and her friend, the Kamiya on steroids clone Adam Blade. The series will be released in multiple sets with the first collection being released on DVD and Blu ray on February 15th.

Eh… I know that any license is a good license and I hope this one does well for them. I recall giving this one a chance once and having one of the strongest instinctual rejection reactions ever. It’s a lie to say that I’m looking forward to giving this one another spin though.

 

Full press release below the cut

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So my rule lately has been that if I can’t write about it when it happens, it’s put into the catch up posts. This news though is something that I felt was important enough to get its own post. Early this morning, Sentai/Section 23 released a press release announcing their May schedule and it includes quite a few things to get excited about including the planned releases of Asu no Yoichi (being released as Samurai Harem), Hell Girl: Two Mirrors (Season 2), Eyeshield 21 and You’re Under Arrest Full Throttle Collection 2 (hitting store shelves 5/4). Capping off that list of announcements, Sentai closed the press release by announcing Appleseed on Blu ray.

Highlighting some of the cooler announcements (well, in my opinion at least), Asu no Yoichi originally premiered in winter of 2009 and is a fairly average harem series. What I mean by this is that it doesn’t break a lot of new ground but still has its clever moments and could pull in a new audience. In the dub vs. sub debate I’ve largely remained neutral. If I’m ever watching a series purely for my own enjoyment, I usually stick with the dub track but if a series is lacking in a dub track I’ll still enjoy it regardless. In this case, I do wish that Asu no Yoichi could get a dub track simply because I think there would be a ready and willing audience for it more so than with other harem titles. Yes, it’s not really deep comedy but it’s also not quite as brash with its sex jokes as a lot of series have been in the last couple of years (To Love Ru, Sora no Otoshimono, etc).. The series will be released in one complete set on 5/11.

Season 1 of Hell Girl (Jikogu Shoujo) was originally released here by Funimation in 2007. Obviously though it never got the response that they were hoping for leaving seasons 2 and beyond out of the reach of those of us who really wanted to see more released here. I admit, I will miss Brina Palencia doing Ai Enma but Mamiko Noto is a pretty awesome consolation prize. The first set will be released 5/25 and if you want to see season 3 released here as well someday go support this one right away!

With the license of Eyeshield 21 Sentai seems to be further pushing themselves towards the strategy of getting attached to long term series. Airing from 2005 to 2008, there are 145 freaking episodes to this football series. Yes, that means that not only is Sentai attaching themselves to a long term series, they are attaching themselves to a long term sports series in a country that has already made it pretty clear that they don’t care about sports anime much. In this series, a high school student named Sena is always being picked on and forced to run errands, so many in fact that he’s become incredibly fast. When the American football club needs a new running back, Sena gets the call. The first set will hit shelves 5/18.

Finally, Appleseed will be hitting shelves on Blu ray 5/18. I admit that I wasn’t floored by the overall product when I first saw this feature directed by Shinji Arameki. I was really impressed with the overall look and design of Appleseed. I don’t own a Blu ray player but I can’t help but be curious to see what this one is going to look like after it’s been through the Blu ray process.

So what are we excited about in the month of May? I’ve already got my eye on Hell Girl: Two Mirrors but I don’t know if I’m going to be able to talk myself into getting into Eyeshield 21. Anyone else planning to jump into a 140+ episode football series?

Full press release below the cut

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Got called in for a surprise shift at work today so I gotta make this fast. Crunchyroll has announced that they will be streaming the series ‘Eyeshield 21′ on the site. The first eight episodes of the football (and that’s American football style) series will be streaming for free (via ad support) starting January 2nd. Paid subscribers will be able to see the episodes ad-free.

 

EYESHIELD 21 Episodes in January 2009

San Francisco, CA (December 30, 2008) – Break tackles and “convert” on fourth down as American football comes to Japan in EYESHIELD 21, the hit football manga and anime series. The first eight episodes will be available for ad-supported free streaming to all users on January 2nd, 2009, while Crunchyroll Anime Members can enjoy a higher quality ad-free experience. More information and/or to become a Crunchyroll Anime Member can be found at www.crunchyroll.com/preorder.

Crunchyroll Anime Membership will begin on January 8, 2009-in conjunction with the first ever world wide simulcast of NARUTO SHIPPUDEN and has a SPECIAL pre-order price of $6.95/month. Fans are encouraged to pre-order the subscription plan by January 8, 2009 to lock in the special holiday deal and begin enjoying over one hundred (100) fantastic anime titles in January. All fans can enjoy all content on the site for free, including EYESHIELD 21, but Crunchyroll Anime Members will enjoy some additional special privileges.

Crunchyroll Anime Member benefits include higher quality streams of all shows (in some cases at 720p High Definition Video) with no advertisement and early access to simulcast shows such as NARUTO SHIPPUDEN, GINTAMA, SKIP BEAT, SHUGO CHARA!, WEB GHOSTS PIPOPA, LINEBARRELS OF IRON, THE TOWER OF DRUAGA – THE SWORD OF URUK – and additional titles as early as one (1) hour after their Japan Broadcast. In addition, Crunchyroll Anime Members will be awarded a special NARUTO Headband virtual item for their avatars in the famed virtual world of Crunchyland!

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