AX 2012: Right Stuf, Inc.

Right Stuf, Inc., eager to give anime fans their money's worth at this past week's AX 2012 convention event, made a few announcements of their own. Anime Expo 2012 (Los Angeles, CA) hosted a pleasurable uptick in licensing, to be sure, but the anime convention also provided the folks at Right Stuf with the opportunity to reaffirm their cause. The company, largely recognized as an e-retailer, acquired three titles: Hyakko, Aoi Hana, and Ristorante Paradiso. In addition to these acquisitions, Right Stuff also shed some light on a new distribution label, Lucky Penny Entertainment.

In a modest realignment of sorts, Right Stuf will be shifting the responsibilities of Nozomi Entertainment from production and localization to that of "limited edition releases for collectors" (or rather, re-releases of previous titles). Lucky Penny, as a result, will take the place of Nozomi, which was founded exactly five years ago to introduce consumers to new, creative, and sometimes niche Japanese animation. Each of Right Stuf's new licenses will thus be released under the new Lucky Penny studio label.

from Hyakko

Hyakko is a school daze comedy. Torako, Suzume, Tatsuki, and Ayumi don't didn't plan on spending their entire first day getting to know one another, knitting together a bond that should last for years. But alas, this quartet of girls is completely lost, literally. The campus of their new school is immense. Fortunately, the cute and quirky personalities of all four girls keeps them focused, sort of.

In Hyakko, produced in 2008, Torako is energetic and a loose cannon, Susume is her best friend who adores food to no end, Tatsuki is the painfully serious one, while Ayumi is the most composed one of them all.

Hyakko finds these four girls trying their utmost to get a hold on the challenges of high school, friendship, and everything in-between. The anime series spans thirteen episodes and will be released in 2013. The series was directed by Michio Fukuda, a prolific storyboard artists whose credits include the goth-loli detective anime GOSICK, as well as Death Note and Kiba.

The anime series Aoi Hana (eng. title Sweet Blue Flowers) is rather straightforward: two girls reconnect after years apart, and although attending different high schools as freshman, each vow to help one another as they grow up, struggle with relationships, and ultimately, become more self-aware. Aoi Hana is for anime fans who are exhausted from the more ostentatious and overly romanticized inclinations of teen romance titles. Instead of searching for a harem or reaching a conveniently impatient comedic stride, young Fumi is just trying to heal her broken heart. Her new school is located in the town she grew up in but left roughly ten years go, yet "home" as it may be, Fumi is a stranger.

from Aoi Hana

And then there's Akira, a childhood friend of Fumi, who bumps into the girl as they make their way to school. Whereas Fumi is a bit shy and withdrawn, Akira is more open and easygoing. The two girls reconnect, and in doing so mange a wholesome friendship that navigates both the dramatic and the problematic.

Aoi Hana, produced in 2009, is an eleven episode animated series currently scheduled to land on the Lucky Penny label, on home video, by 2013.

In modern day Rome, Italy, a determined twenty-something is searching for a restaurant managed by her mother. It isn't enough that Nicoletta find this woman -- who abandoned her as a child fifteen years ago -- Nicoletta has ambitions of outright ruining the presumably plush European lifestyle the woman has cradled for so many years. Ristorante Paradiso is yet another slice-of-life anime and focuses on the relationships of Nicoletta with her mother as well as of the staff of the peculiar restaurant the woman runs.

Once Nicoletta sets foot in the restaurant she notices that something is a bit different. The atmosphere harbors warm smiles and sweet romance. Perhaps ruining the life of her runaway mother will have to wait. In the meantime, Nicoletta gets close to an older man staffed at the eatery and becomes familiar with others who work there. Ristorante Paradiso was produced chiefly as an undemanding romance title for adult viewers. The series is scheduled to hit retail this autumn.


from Ristorante Paradiso

Additional Anime Expo Anime News:
"AX 2012: FUNimation Entertainment" at AnimationInsider.net (07/2012)