AX 2012: Sentai Filmworks

Sentai Filmworks unveiled the most new anime licenses at this year's Anime Expo (Los Angeles, CA) event. Although a quantifiable majority of the titles conveniently fall into the range of general or romantic comedy, there yet remain a few bright spots, such as Tari Tari, a new coming-of-age story about the nexus of youth and adulthood, and the comedy Space Brothers, about a pair of older siblings who renew their decades-old pledge to become astronauts. Another interesting highlight is Natsuyuki Rendezvous, a curious drama about a flower shop owner who grieves for her husband long after his death, and the part-time worker who secretly pines for her.

from Kokoro Connect

Among these and other notable acquisitions, Sentai Filmworks has also since announced that the science fiction film Children Who Chase Lost Voices (originally, Hoshi o Ou Kodomo), directed by Makoto Shinkai.

Also acquired, three sequel series: the shinsengumi-themed Hakuoki Reimeiroku, the second season of Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, and the sequel season of Someday's Dreamers II (Sora), which returns to the elegant journey into magic and spellcasting.

The Culture Club certainly has its work cut out. Taishi, Himeko, Yui, Iori, and Yoshifumi frequently meet up to discuss all sorts of issues. Issues like: How would you handle living in someone else's shoes? Now, these five high schoolers no longer need to ask. Kokoro Connect is an animated comedy that premiered earlier this week. To be blunt, Kokoro Connect is a body-swap anime; these five characters suddenly and at first inexplicably find themselves swapping bodies with one another -- in middle of night, during class in school -- and no one knows what's going on.

from Kokoro Connect

from Campione!

As Kokoro Connect continues, viewers quickly find that each of these five club members harbor peculiar hobbies that make each of said body swap more than a little awkward. Some of the guys are truly quite nerdy underneath and some of the girls are struggling to hide a more fractured home life than is typically visible. Some are full of quiet mystery while others are, unabashedly, sultry.

The gang thus pledges to follow the clues to the apparently random swapping -- Did their souls swap too? -- and hopes that this supernatural game of sorts will be over sooner rather than later.

Kokoro Connect will be released digitally later this year and on home video next year.

Campione! (originally, Campione! Matsuro Wanu Kamigami to kami Koroshi no Maou), a harem about a sixteen-year-old demigod cast to defend his turf from other beings of fantastical power, is a new series currently on-air in Japan.

Kusanagi, with the aid of a few others, managed to defeat a vengeful war god. In the aftermath, he's claimed unique status and power, along with the title of Campione, which also requires him to combat any heretical gods he may subsequently come across. Kusanagi now belongs to an exclusive club of god killers, but his duties are also fraught with the problem of simply being a little too popular.

Campione! was acquired for digital and home video release; the digital release is pegged as near, while the home video release is scheduled for next year. The anime thus tracks Kusanagi's encounters with fellow demigods, sexy demons, shrine maidens, and more.

The series is directed by Keizou Kusakawa (Sekirei) with music by Tatsuya Katou (Samurai Girls, Demon King Daimao).

SUNRISE Studios, home to many a mecha anime, produced Idolmaster Xenoglassia, based on a series of arcade and console videogames, roughly five years ago. Now coming stateside, the full-length TV anime chronicles the sci-fi exploits of a would-be music idol on a future planet Earth as she encounters the peculiar assignment of piloting giant robots to help protect humankind. Haruka Amami is unsure of herself, but heads to a Tokyo audition hoping for the best. The girl finds her way onto the radar of a promising talent agency and is recruited to attend their private school for presumably prospective pop idol talent.

from Idolmaster Xenoglassia

As Idolmaster Xenoglassia continues, Haruka quickly comes to learn that nothing is as it appears. The private school is actually a training facility, the talent agency is actually pilot candidate project, and the endgame of both is to produce young women who can master giant a robot called an iDOL.

The mecha are used to stave off falling meteor debris that resulted from a century-old cataclysm with the moon (which everyone seems to have forgotten), but Haruka feels there could be more to her training than that.

Sentai Filmworks will release Idolmaster Xenoglassia to digital outlets and subtitled DVD later this year.

On Ryousuke Kaga's list of the top six things he adores about the female form, breasts appear three times. In So, I Can't Play H! (Dakara Boku-wa, H ga Dekinai) Ryousuke is a perverted teen, obviously. What isn't so obvious, is the fact that he was recently duped by a sultry and tsundere shinigami who gets her power by absorbing the naughty energy of her minions -- sucking them dry, so to speak. As such, what might normally be quite convenient (losing one's licentiousness to help out a goddess of death in need), Ryousuke instead finds himself in the unenviable position of doing everything he can to reclaim his immorality. So, I Can't Play H!, a fantasy title with spades of nudity and ecchi humor, was acquired for digital and home video release. Sentai Filmworks will release the anime on home video next year.


from So, I Can't Play H!	from La Storia della Arcana Famiglia

On a Mediterranean island, governed by a powerful mafia organization, the group leader of the Arcana Tarroco has decided to retire. The problem? There's no immediate successor. In the anime series La Storia della Arcana Famiglia (trans. "The History of the Arcana Family"), which premiered in Japan earlier this month, a tournament will determine the future leader of the organization. Given that each member of the group is skilled with magic or some other advanced tarot method, things are sure to heat up fast. Caught in the middle of this entire engagement is Felicita, the only daughter of the now retired organization head. Apparently, Felicita is supposed to marry the tournament victor.

As La Storia della Arcana Famiglia continues, the young girl pledges to fight for her own future. She's a gifted knife-fighter and has a few allies on her side as well. But the tournament is sure to bring out plenty of difficult opponents, some of which are family, angling for the power of the family (and for her hand in marriage as well).

Sentai Filmworks will release the action/fantasy anime digitally this year and on home video next year.

New to Japanese airwaves this month, Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita (trans. "Humanity Has Declined") is about a girl searching for her place in a future where humankind is hardly a necessary entity on the planet Earth. In this future, a decline in global birth rate and a lack of natural resources have pruned humanity to a minority. Fairies, among other creatures, now dominate the planet. As Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita continues, a nameless girl only known as Watashi ("I"), returns to her home village after school to find work as a mediator between the races. What Watashi finds, however, is that this new job is more complex and requires plenty more wisdom than she first imagined.

Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita has thus far been characterized as a weird but satisfyingly dark comedy. The series is directed by Seiji Kishi (Magikano, My Bride is a Mermaid) and features music composed by Kou Otani (Another, .hack//Quantum, Shakugan no Shana). Sentai Filmworks will release the anime on home video next year.

from Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita

from Legend / Heroes: Trails in the Sky

In Legend of the Heroes: Trails in the Sky (Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki the animation), two apprentices to an increasingly influential guild of a small but formidable nation must embark on a mission to rescue their father when word comes that his airship has gone missing. Cassius Bright, father of Estelle and Joshua, is a war hero who ten years ago led a counteroffensive that saved their kingdom. Now, as malevolent forces prepare along the northern border, Cassius has gone missing.

For the protagonists of Legend of the Heroes: Trails in the Sky, in this land of magic, craft, and bravery, every second counts. This series will be available digitally and on home video later this year.

The anime dates to last year and was directed by Masaki Tachibana, who also directed .hack//Quantum and Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, and provided several storyboards for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.