Section23 Films Announces July 2009 Slate

AN Shows
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[quote]According to the recent Right Stuf updates, ADV Films has license rescued / or will distribute several of Central Park Media titles for reissue in July 2009: Now and Then Here and There (which recently aired on SciFi channel), World of Narue, Grave of the Fireflies, and MD Geist.

Title information courtesy of Anime On DVD/Mania:

About Now and Then Here and There:
Shu leads an ordinary life. At least he did until the day he meet LaLa-Ru, a girl with mystical colored eyes. Attracted by her silent mystery, Shu tries to coax the girl to talk with him, but just when he thinks he might be getting her to open up, they’re both attacked by men riding monstrous machines!

In the ensuing battle, Shu finds himself sucked into a time warp that drags him 5 billion years into the future - to a world that is more like a battlefield than a place to live.

About Grave of the Fireflies:
“Why do fireflies die so young?” Orphaned and homeless, two children set out to survive on their own in post-World War II Japan. But in the face of a society that is no longer able to help them, they begin to realize that they can never escape the hardships of war, or even find enough food to survive. Awarded First Prize as Best Animated Feature at the 1994 Chicago International Children’s Film Festival

About World of Narue:
Narue is an adorable schoolgirl with a secret. She’s really an alien with powers right out of a sci-fi comic! But growing up is never easy, and it doesn’t help when you’re from outer space.

About MD Geist:
Now, Geist is free. Jerra is a planet devastated by war. The cities lie in ruins and roving gangs of bandits wander the wastelands as the remaining Jerran forces battle the Nexrum invaders. But the war is about to end. Now, the military has less than twelve hours to deactivate a doomsday device before the “Death Force” is released - a horde of unstoppable robots that will eliminate all life on Jerra.

To prevent global Armageddon, a renegade soldier - Geist - must infiltrate the impregnable Brain Palace citadel, destroy the robotic sentries, and shut down the doomsday program! Now, Geist must decide: join forces with the army that exiled him to space - or stand back and allow his adopted home world to be destroyed![/quote]Those Who Hunt Elves DVD Complete Collection (Hyb) $39.98 Date Available - Jul 7 2009
Burn Up! DVD (Hyb) $14.98 Date Available - Jul 14 2009
World of Narue DVD Complete Collection (Hyb) $29.98 Date Available - Jul 21 2009
Now and Then, Here and There DVD Complete Collection (Hyb) $29.98 Date Available - Jul 7 2009
Mezzo DVD Complete Collection (Hyb) $34.98 Date Available - Jul 21 2009
MD Geist DVD (Hyb) $14.98 Date Available - Jul 28 2009
Grave of the Fireflies DVD (Hyb) $19.98 Date Available - Jul 7 2009
Nuku Nuku, All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl DVD Complete Collection (Hyb) $39.98 Date Available - Jul 28 2009
Aquarian Age DVD Complete Collection (Hyb) $34.98 Date Available - Jul 14 2009

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So the info I got last month proves true… Very very interesting.

Fantastic move by ADV Films to get World of Narue, Grave of the Fireflies and Now and Then, Here and There.

ADV is making a comeback. :slight_smile:

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Good news for those that missed the older releases of these.

Now and then Here and Again I just lost a few auctions for so this is great news.

Nuku Nuku, All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl DVD Complete Collection $39.98 Date Available - Jul 28 2009 is 800 minutes so it is all of it again even the OVA.

[size=16]YAY![/size]

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I just noticed that ADV lost two titles to its licensing partner Sentai Filmworks. According to Right Stuf, Sentai now holds the license to Burn Up! and Those Who Hunt Elves.

Also it seems the CPM titles will be under the ADV Films label. They will be the first new-ish titles since Kiba under the ADV Films label.

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With the execption, “Now and Then, Here and There” and “Grave of the Firefiles” most of the rest of titles are why bother?

I would have added “World of Narue” to the exceptions, there a still plenty availabe at a much cheaper price, if anything this announcement makes me want to pick up a copy now.

The rest are a bunch of yawnfest, Anime that have been out a really longtime, most of them still availabe. Not that Anime are bad, the market is staturated with these Animes.

Most likely it would have been a better to sit on these for a year or so working on new Artowrk for the box.

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Why so negative? This is all great news for ADV!!

They needed a boost and this is it!

Just because you don’t like them, there are others who do, and there are new people turning on to anime all the time, and they are discovering the ‘old’ anime and it is ‘new’ to them.

If you can’t say something good or nice, just keep your opinions to yourself.

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Uh Horrible, because they sold? Nuku Nuku is one of the highest rated shows and when ADV released a complete collection of it end of last year it sold very well. Aquarian Age is one of the better selling anime DVDs at Brick and Mortar stores.

You’re also forgetting one advantage ADV has… their strong distribution channels that reaches millions through VOD, iTunes, online streaming, etc. There will be a new way to promote future acquisitions, and to get it for low cost… It should help profit margins with DVD sales.

Now and Then, Here and There, Nuku Nuku, World of Narue and Grave of the Fireflies are all great or excellent titles that deserve to remain in circulation… the others are good enough to make business sense.

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With the exception of Nuku Nuku, I am in agreement. Until World of Narue stock runs out, don’t expect goods sales, month or two early. Now and Then, Here and There is now hard to get thank to SciFi. I said that I would buy Grave of the Fireflies for around 20 dollars in another thread. Good pick-ups.

The end of last was not that long ago. I could have bought the complete Nuku Nuku series a few weeks ago. I would have waited before releasing it again.
Aquarian Age is at its saturation point, most likely sales will fall off. A six month hitus would have given both of these shows a better sales bump. Right now too many old copies are sitting around.

Putting out “Those who Hunt Elves” is a good choice, there are always Randy Fan willing to shill out 40 dollars for a MA videos. This is competing with “Shuffle” thin pack. Waiting a few months would have help.

I am interested that MD Giest not being mentioned.

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Narue I have a feeling will do pretty nicely on VOD, especially since not a lot of new people have seen it yet. It’s a good show that I think a lot of people here who have not seen it or those on iTunes or Xbox Live if ADV gets those digital rights for will be. Given a lot of these CPM titles are fairly impossible to find at the big Brick and Mortars… ADV will get a chance to put these out as if new once again.

Certainly ADV riding on the SciFi channel momentum for Now and Then Here and There and MD Geist will do them quite well…

Grave of the Fireflies is Studio Ghibli… nuff said, it will do very nicely for ADV. I hope they push this hard on all available distribution networks.

BUT, we’ll have to wait and see what the situation is on whether these can make it to Anime Network or not.

As far as fast rereleases… reason for that is ADV has been conservative with their print runs so they don’t get bit by returns… that has hurt all anime companies in the US in the last few years… where they print too much stock and it doesn’t sell and it gets returned to make room for other titles – where do you think all these Right Stuf Bargain Bin stuff comes from? These are losing companies a lot of money when they have to sell it for dirt cheap via Bargain Bin.

ADV being conservative allows them to sell out and ADV make new sets to send back to the B&M’s to resupply stock. So in the case of Nuku Nuku it has virtually sold out in most places by now, so it’s about time to get that back out there into the market and hopefully into the shelves again. If they just used the same old versions, it would not get to the shelf unless it was a big name title and seller like Evangelion or Elfen Lied.

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I can understand that AVD has made an investment and is looking to get ROI quickly. My free advice is they would have been better off staggering the releases a bit more.

Since, I posted my remarks, “World of Narue” is less avaialable at the online stores I checked. Remember I don’t have VOD only SVOD on charter. Considering I think VOD is overpriced, I would most likely buy it.

I am happy that ADV did manage to rescue some titles beforer they got locked up in backruptcy proceedings.

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This is the best news I’ve heard in a LONG time!! Go ADV go!! I love NTHT and Narue so those are instantly going to be bought by me. I was planning on buying CPM’s Narue, so I’ll double dip with ADV’s release, and I already have NTHT, but I’ll double dip on that too. It was an older box that’s a little messed up, so it will be worth re-buying that. I already have a good copy of Fireflies, but maybe I’ll double dip on that. I think I’ll pass on MD Geist, because I was planning on buying CPM’s Mecha box that contains that, and no need to own that title more then once.

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Who says they aren’t? :wink: These are only the July releases… we don’t know yet the extent of what ADV got. There are 3 big conventions coming up… Who knows what good news we may hear in the near future as well.

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That was the point I was going to make. These are only a couple license rescues, though arguably two are notable classic titles.

ADV will be attending ACEN, and sharing a panel with Sentai and Switchblade, so I’m expecting we will get a bit more there. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see them pick up some more CPM licenses, and possibly even some title from Enoki.

Let’s not rush to judgments until we see what else ADV/Sentai has up their sleeves.

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Yeah, it will be nice to see some “new” shows with the ADV logo. But the Sentai thing was one of the first things I noticed. Not that I’m bothered by it. I’ve been wanting to see Those Who Hunt Elves for sometime, and now I will get the chance.

I’m pretty pumped about this. Now I’m just hoping we see Utena and Descendants of Darkness rescued sooner rather than later.

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It looks like ADV is scoring big amongst fans all around… have not seen that happen much in the last year and half with last year’s troubles… with exception to the giant announcement of Clannad’s acquisition.

The fact that a lot of industry insiders and armchair quarterbacks were speculating Disney would pick up Grave of the Fireflies shows how major this title is, and now ADV has rights to distributing it… it is big. :slight_smile: Certainly having a major title like Now and Then Here and There is also a major marquee title to have.

Here’s to hoping for more good news!

I’ve said this elsewhere and I’ll say it again, I hope ADV picks up Black Jack OVA, DNA², Utena, Lodoss and Tokyo Babylon. I am eternally grateful to Central Park Media for Black Jack and would love nothing more than for ADV to pick it up so it can be on Anime Network and be purchased easily by new watchers or new fans to anime.

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I say kudos, three cheers, hip hip horray, etc…you get my drift…for ADV. It means they’re finally on stable legs after such trouble times. It also proves their business stragety (slow and conservative) is paying off.

Good for them.

Can’t wait to see what new surprises are in store for the months ahead.

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I’ll probably just end up with the Mecha Masters box and ADV’s release of it need free shipping and want GenoCyber which the Mecha Masters set is the only way to get a new copy for less then $30.00 anyway. Plus I’m a glutton for punishment. :stuck_out_tongue:

One thing to remember is CPM never really did more then a VHS or Laserdisc dump for most of their releases.
Some were mastered from PAL-converted VHS dub masters.
ADV improves them in anyway its worth a pick up.
Hoping they got the original masters but don’t know if they can or if they are in worse shape.

I am not sure any of them will retain the extra’s CPM had for them though.:frowning:
It really depends on if they can get them and on Now And Then’s case if it pushes it to have to have a extra disc.

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These two have been canceled from the list as to why guessing either Best Buy did not want them or ADV realized there is still a lot of the old releases left around.

Also it appears all of the CPM rescues should have cleaned up video and retain most if not all the extra’s.

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It was confirmed on Anime On DVD, that NTHT, Narue, and most of the CPM releases will be getting the extras from their original releases. NTHT will get getting a third disc that will hold the extra content.

I believe the only exception was that Narue doesn’t have commentary for the last two episodes, but several people stated that the CPM disc lacked that as well. Also, ADV couldn’t get the 5.1 sound mix for NTHT, so it will be 2.0 only. But to me, the 5.1 mix didn’t really sound that great to begin with.

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I found out some more information regarding ADV/CPM titles, this is taken from the PDF from the auction site of CPM list of assets:

So ADV & CPM did enter a distribution deal which explains their logos on the packaging and DVDs. I am guessing while CPM goes through the bankruptcy proceedings ADV is still allowed to carry on with the agreement.

I am just wandering if CPM was anticipating they may enter bankruptcy and hand a clause in the agreement transferring the license over to ADV.