Section23 Films Announces May 2010 Slate

Per PR:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

[size=16]SECTION23 FILMS ANNOUNCES MAY SLATE[/size]
HELL GIRL: TWO MIRRORS Available on DVD May 25th

HOUSTON, February 25, 2010 – Home video distributor Section23 Films today announced its May slate of DVD releases, including the second season of the hit anime series Hell Girl from Section23 client Sentai Filmworks. Sentai will also release three other anime series sets in May, including You’re Under Arrest: Full Throttle Collection 2, Samurai Harem Collection 1 and Eyeshield 21 Collection 1.

Also releasing in May from Sentai Filmworks, Appleseed Blu-Ray Edition which includes an all new English dub featuring the cast of Appleseed: Ex Machina!

Product details follow, in order of release
Coming May 2010

Title: YOU’RE UNDER ARREST: FULL THROTTLE COLLECTION 2
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 300 min.
Street Date: 5/4/2010
Format: DVD
SRP: $39.98

SYNOPSIS: They’re tough, tenacious and would take no prisoners… Except it’s their job! Miyuki, Natsumi and the other officers of the Bokuto police station are back on the case, although in the weird world of Japan’s most unorthodox police precinct, the exact definition as to what constitutes a “case” seems be largely up to individual officer discretion. After all, while working on the set of a documentary film could fall under the category of crowd control, how can anyone classify adventures that range from dog sitting to completing a romantic mission from beyond the grave as typical police work? And that’s to say nothing of pursuing suspects on in-line skates while wearing bikinis and wearing giant mushroom costumes? There are handcuffs; fisticuffs and high speed chases ahead in the second and final collection of YOU’RE UNDER ARREST: FULL THROTTLE!

Title: SAMURAI HAREM - ASU NO YOICHI COMPLETE COLLECTION
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 300 min.
Street Date: 5/11/2010
Format: DVD
SRP: $49.98

SYNOPSIS: His Skill with a Sword is Magnificent but… His SOCIAL Skills Still Need a LOT of Work! After many long years perfecting the art of fighting, 17 year old Yoichi Karasuma is sent down from the remote mountains where he has been raised thinking that he’s going to study some new martial arts techniques… but what he’s really going to learn about are some slightly more practical things, like electrical appliances, modern clothing and, most especially, how NOT to make girls to want to kill you! Unfortunately, that last lesson is one Yoichi may not survive, as his new Dojo is infested with the infernal creatures in the form of the Ikaruga sisters, and they don’t really seem to understand how “proper” girls are “supposed” to behave! Will Yoichi’s bushido blade be struck down by the fearsome charms of Ibuki, Ayame, Chihaya and Kagome? Or will the equally lethal girls from the rival Tsubame School be his undoing?

Title: APPLESEED BLU-RAY EDITION
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 105 min.
Street Date: 5/18/2010
Format: DVD
SRP: $39.98

SYNOPSIS: NOW ON BLU-RAY! Plucked from the last battlefields of the final war, mercenary Deunan Knute finds herself pressed into duty with the ESWAT, defenders of the Utopian city of Olympus. But serpents lurk beneath the peaceful surface of this apparent Garden of Eden, and new seeds of destruction have already been planted! Now it’s up to Deunan and her former lover, the now-cyborg Briareos, to unravel a deadly web of plots that threaten to bring down Olympus from within! With blazing battles between giant Land-Mates and state of the art animation that set a new standard for cg anime, the spectacular feature film from creator Shirow Masamune (Ghost in the Shell) and director Shinji Aramaki is back in an amazing new special edition that pushes home entertainment technology to its limits! Get ready to survive the future with the animated masterpiece APPLESEED!

Title: EYESHIELD 21 COLLECTION 1
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 325 min.
Street Date: 5/18/2010
Format: DVD
SRP: $49.98

SYNOPSIS: Welcome To The Gridiron Of The Damned! Huge hulking bodies throw themselves at each other, while a tiny lithe body runs between them for the goal! No, it’s not a game of Football, it’s Sena Kobayakawa trying to evade the monstrous Ha-Ha brothers down the halls of Deimon High School! But wait! Sena’s incredible skills at not getting caught have been spotted by the devilish (possibly actually demonic) captain of the school’s embryonic American style football team, and when Sena asks to be the teams manager, he gets thrust onto the field as a running back instead! But there are two BIG catches – first, to keep the identity of their new “star” player an absolute secret, Yoichi makes Sena wear an opaque visor on his helmet and gives him the alias of “Eyeshield 21.” And the second catch? Well, in order to hit his fastest “speed of light” running mode, Sena usually has to be absolutely terrified… not that THAT will be a problem with the monstrous players that he’ll soon find himself running from! The insanity hits the streets when the feet meet the cleats in EYESHIELD 21 – Collection 1!!

Title: HELL GIRL: TWO MIRRORS COLLECTION 1
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 325 min.
Street Date: 5/25/2010
Format: DVD
SRP: $49.98

SYNOPSIS: They call her Jigoku Tsushin - the Hell Girl. For endless years Ai Enma has served as the embodiment of revenge itself. If you desire to send another’s soul to eternal torment, contact her via the internet and she’ll come from her land of endless sunset to deliver your revenge… at the cost of sending your own soul, of course, but it’s a price a surprising number of people are willing to pay. But things are changing with the Hell Girl. Once seemingly implacable and pitiless, glints of emotion now show through the cracks forming in her emotionless façade. And now there is a new girl with infernal connections who seems to be turning up with alarming regularity. Things are about to heat up in the damnation game in the first brimstone-blazing collection of HELL GIRL – TWO MIRRORS!

About Section23 Films
Section23 Films provides home video marketing and distribution services for a variety of companies, including Sentai Filmworks, Switchblade Pictures, and AEsir Holdings. With its special focus on genre entertainment, Section23 Films distributes some of the very best anime, martial arts, and horror titles on the market today.


RightStuf Links
Hell Girl Season 2: Two Mirrors DVD Collection 1 (S)
Eyeshield 21 DVD Collection 1 (S)
Appleseed Blu-ray (Hyb)
Samurai Harem (Asu no Yoichi) DVD Complete Collection (S)
You’re Under Arrest: Full Throttle DVD Collection 2 (S)

Sentai/Section23 really surprises me with with each press release. I haven’t had really enough reason to buy a Blu-Ray player yet but with a new English dub for Appleseed I am going to have to get one or the PS3.

Hell Girl really shocked me as I thought Funimation would get this show. I wonder if Sentai would dub this season since the first season aired on IFC and they might want to pick up the second season if it did well for them.

Don’t think Hell Girl really did to well for Funimation especially now that Sentai picked up the second season. My guess is this will be sub-only though won’t know for sure until they are listed on Rightstuf. I don’t think the IFC airing did it much good to tell the truth.

Something I am noticing is the retail prices are now $10.00 more on the new licenses. I don’t have a Blu-ray so maybe they will be kind enough to do a Blu-ray/DVD combo so I can hear the new dub for Appleseed. If not I will at some point be getting all of May’s releases except that.

Sentai/Section 23… the company that likes to license titles to complete series and give fans what they want. :slight_smile:

I agree with PP on Hell Girl, I doubt it’ll get a dub… there’s a reason Funimation drops series and leaves fans hanging. :stuck_out_tongue: It likely didn’t do well enough for them to pursuit.

Second, from a business decision it probably wouldn’t be a great idea for Seraphim to highlight VAs not on their usual roster… but who knows. With the business as it is in and Seraphim trying to highlight itself as a studio to fans and investors… they’re gonna probably do all they can to showcase their usual talent. So, I wouldn’t keep my hopes high on HG2 though, unless this sub-only sold real well, they might consider it. But I personally expect it to remain sub-only as I don’t see it doing that much better with a dub… We’ll have to wait and see how it plays out though.

All in all, I think everyone’s been using the word surprise today in a good way. Section23 has been doing a great job this year diversifying and doing new things, but remaining cautious at the same time. Big kudos to them. :slight_smile:

::Just stares at screen for several minutes with jaw on the ground. Picks jaw up:: Holy moly. Hell Girl Season 2 and Eyeshield 21. :slight_smile: Maybe one day Section 23 can license Galaxy Railways 2. It’s another squeal to a funimation series they never picked and never seem to will. I can always dream. :slight_smile: I was wondering when they were going to announce May’s titles. Of course they do when I’m under 20 inches of snow. I don’t buy blue-rays at the moment. Samurai Harem never heard of it but looks. Of course there is YUA: FT Collection 2. :slight_smile: Was wondering when it was coming out and figured probably may.

Eyeshield 21, another Crunchyroll show, no big surprise, sports shows don’t bring in money so I get it being sub only.

Appleseed Bluray with a new dub, oh man Section 23 is this and Halo your 2 dubs, nuts…, not that I am not glad they are having consistent dubs for the two movies, it just makes me sad they are re-dubbing something, it is as pointless as the re-dub of 5 cm per Second.

Hell Girl 2, but Funi said it sold well, there is just some stupid mental block over at Funi that if people buy season 1 they want season 2.

Hell girl! This is one I’ve been hoping they would grab, because it was becoming quite evident that Funi didn’t want it. I can deal with sub only to get more of it. I just hope they got season 3 as well!

And Appleseed on bluray with a Houston dub! SOLD!!!

I really don’t know anything about the other two shows, but I will probably buy them out of appreciation!

RightStuf Links
Hell Girl Season 2: Two Mirrors DVD Collection 1 (S)
Eyeshield 21 DVD Collection 1 (S)
Appleseed Blu-ray (Hyb)
Samurai Harem (Asu no Yoichi) DVD Complete Collection (S)
You’re Under Arrest: Full Throttle DVD Collection 2 (S)

Links to Rightstuf added to first post.

[quote=mitamaking]
it just makes me sad they are re-dubbing something, it is as pointless as the re-dub of 5 cm per Second.[/quote]

How is it pointless? Appleseed is a huge franchise and top seller… and a huge title for one of their best Japanese partners (which is a huge entity in Japan right now) - it makes sense that Sentai wants to please them. It sold really well for Sentai as a re-release DVD, now they’re gonna release it on blu as a “new value add” and sell it to fans and investors with their own mark, to further highlight their studio.

And now that they are doing this, it’ll increase the value of Warner Brother’s Appleseed sequel for continuity. Another big bonus for Sentai to enamor themselves with these big companies.

Considering how significantly cheaper it is to dub a movie vs TV, this is a brilliant move.

I called picking up Appleseed a great move last year when they picked it up, but nothing is a science and no one knows how sales will actually turn out… glad to see things worked out for Sentai.

[quote=zidanetribal2000]
Sentai/Section23 really surprises me with with each press release. I haven’t had really enough reason to buy a Blu-Ray player yet but with a new English dub for Appleseed I am going to have to get one or the PS3.

Hell Girl really shocked me as I thought Funimation would get this show. I wonder if Sentai would dub this season since the first season aired on IFC and they might want to pick up the second season if it did well for them.[/quote]

I never watched Hell Girl. That was a time when I banned everything Funimation. I always wondered how it was.
I haven’t been able to buy much anime lately, but am picking up The Skull Man. Is there anything here that any of the big shots(you know, PP, dragoon, zidanetribal [long time no see, how you been?] , TTT) can recommend? I’m looking for a good Sci-Fi, comedy or both.
Slick

I have to agree with Dragoon that this is a smart move on most fronts. First of all, Appleseed is an established film that sold strongly during both releases. This and the fact that it’s coming in bluray will almost assure it will be carried in most Best Buy stores. Those few extra thousand sales alone will just about cover the sales.

Also, this helps increase the long term value of Appleseed as a franchise by providing continuity. They’ve said there will be more Appleseed and I’m sure Sentai and Seraphim will want in on it.

Not to mention this is a relatively inexpensive way to show fans they can still do dubs.

Will they make as much profit as if they just released it with the original dub? No. But it shows a long term investment in the show, and it gives Sentai and Seraphim an excellent tool to market themselves.

There is one thing that does concern me. Fans have been very critical of Funi and Bandai’s blurays. Sentai will have to be careful here and put out a top notch release, at least as far as video and audio go. But they have a much more solid track record in those departments, so I have reason to be optimistic.

Section23 confirms studio and director for Appleseed redub, Hell Girl S2 subs and new tidbits

Section23 announced and confirmed with me that Seraphim Digital Studios will be handling the dub production of Appleseed movie (2004), they also announced that Steven Foster (Halo Legends, Appleseed Ex Machina, Le Chevalier D’Eon) will be handling directorial duties.

More info on my blog with a full story at: http://www.sxanimedia.com/2010/02/section23-films-announces-hell-girl-2.html

I just pre ordered the four collections. Again I don’t but blu-ray.

At least you’ll probably (not confirmed yet, but likely) will be able to watch the new dub on Anime Network. :slight_smile:

On another move for consistency… Seraphim Digital’s Janice Williams revealed that they have Shoko Oono (former ADV senior translator) - who was the translator who handled Hell Girl Season 1 - handling Hell Girl Season 2’s translation as well.

Very nice! I think we can expect some good work then.

WHAT!!! No Switchblade titles? Why I never!!! HMMMMPHH!!!
:stuck_out_tongue:
But seriously, this is a WTF and Awesomeness all rolled into one. Like I said before in another thread:

[quote]You know what would be hilarious? If a couple of months down the line, Sentai/MB/etc. announces their new anime licenses and they included the 2 seasons of currently licensed Funi series - Hell Girl, Shana, Darker Than Black, Big Wind Up, etc. and sub-only. I’ll be ROFL over the angry mail and comments toward Funi on all the anime forums, but more specificaly those on Funi’s own site.

It’ll be the wake up call for all the dub whynners (hoped that’s spelled right) out there on the precarious nature of anime in today’s age, when their “knight in shining dub everything armor” didn’t get the licenses to their favorite series.

Of course, for those of us who’ve adapted or never had a prob with subs (u know, us “old timers” who watched anime back in the VHS era), it will be anime watching as usual.[/quote]

Ha Ha…

Now if they only released more Happy Carrot stuff then I’d be a happy…um, carrot.:blush:

ROFL! There is a certain bit of poetic justice to it!

Cody… Karma Saiyuki minus Saiyuki? :stuck_out_tongue: