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February 18th, 2009 9:27 PM by Aaron H. Bynum

As early into the anime convention season as it gets, FUNimation Entertainment has already launched into their licensing and localization announcements for the latter part of the 2009-year. This past week at the D.C-area convention Katsucon 15, FUNimation detailed their plans to distribute a few new title licenses, eager to offer anime fans a little bit of comedy, a little bit of action, and a little bit of the slice-of-life in-between. Of the announcements, the following three titles served as highlights: the kendo sports comedy Bamboo Blade, the science fiction drama Blassreiter, and the mecha anime Dragonaut.

from Bamboo Blade, coming late 2009.

The first of which, Bamboo Blade, is a comedy about a band of girl athletes who reluctantly join a school kendo club. To begin with, kendo instructor Toraji Ishida isn't exactly at the top of his game, and the fact that the other teachers have much better structured curriculum and activities only magnify his sad, impoverished state.

But when a fellow instructor of the bamboo blade challenges him, Toraji will have to pull his guile together to make the school's kendo program the best it can be (and winning the bet to earn free food for a year isn't so bad either).

The challenge? To assemble a team of five girl kendo athletes that can competitively master the art in contest against seasoned students other senseis have trained. For Toraji, this is probably easier said than done. As Bamboo Blade continues, the instructor has to train and convince a humorous group of lazy, disinterested, over-eager and/or reclusive high school girls in the art of kendo. Bamboo Blade, produced in 2007, is a full-length anime directed by Hisashi Saito. FUNimation will release the series in two half-season sets in late 2009.

Elsewhere for the anime distribution group, the Japanese animated television series Blassreiter offers otaku another friendly dip into the realm of horror and violence. In modern Germany, a series of mysterious incidents involving hideous beasts wreaking havoc on townspeople have the citizens contemplating if demons are in fact walking the earth. Perhaps more akin to the outbreak of a virus or a plague, these demon creatures are humans whose minds are no longer their own, and now serve to kill and destroy as if born to do so from the start.

Joseph Jobson, one of very few individuals able to control his state of consciousness upon transforming into a beast, remains humanity's final line of defense. In the twenty-four episode anime Blassreiter, Jobson must hunt down his fellow demons while still battling others in this cryptic era whose intentions lie in cursing the world to an even far more grim state of affairs. FUNimation will release the animation through two half-season sets in late 2009.

from Blassreiter

Also announced this past week as heading to home video later in the calendar year is Dragonaut, a full-length 2007 animation production that attempts to combine various elements of fantasy and sci-fi mecha. In this series, a young man named Jin Kamishina makes strides toward becoming an ace mecha pilot in an effort to combat a hoard of frightening creatures that threaten the planet.

Backing up however, Jin, an orphan, upon a near-death experience, reevaluates his life and becomes part of the International Solarsystem Development Agency.

The Agency, which constructs armor suits it names "dragons," holds enough mysteries of its own; but with the Earth's impending destruction at the hand of otherworldly beings if not from an asteroid from outer space, Jin has plenty enough to worry about. Dragonaut is likely to be released in a model similar to the previous two titles, later this year.

In early January 2009, FUNimation announced the acquisition of titles such as the supernatural comedy Soul Eater, the swords-and-sorcery classic revamp Slayers Revolution, the anachronistic samurai action title Samurai Champloo, and GONZO Studios classic Last Exile among others [recent A.I. news: "FUNimation Early 2009 Licensing Announcements" (01/2009)]. Quickly piggy-backing their success in announcing a dozen of title acquisitions a little over one month ago, FUNimation Entertainment is not only the market leader in licensing and distributing Japanese animation, they're hoping to keep it that way for a long time to come.

from Dragonaut

Recent FUNimation News/Reviews at Animation Insider:
"Afro Samurai: Resurrection" at AnimationInsider.net (02/2009)
"Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha" at AnimationInsider.net (01/2009)
"Non-Linear Action Anime 'Baccano!' Coming Soon" at AnimationInsider.net (01/2009)
"Ghost Hunt" at AnimationInsider.net (12/2008)