Sentai / Anime Network Newsletters, Blogs & More!

###YEAR OF SENTAI (YOS)
July 12, 2016

Over the course of the next year I will watch and review EVERY anime given to me by the good folks at Sentai Filmworks for your reading pleasure! If you’ve been wondering “Should I buy that anime?” then keep your eyes open for updates on the site to which anime I’ll be reviewing next!


###TUESDAY NEW RELEASES: RIN-NE COLLECTION 1, STRAWBERRY MARSHMALLOW OVA
7/12/2016 12:03:34 PM

###RIN-NE Collection 1
Sakura Mamiya has been seeing ghosts since she was a child. Now she’s a teenager and they’re really getting on her nerves. But when you’re usually the only person who sees the specters, who can you talk to without sounding crazy? Well, there IS that guy who sits next to her in class sometimes. Rinne Rokudo. But he seems to be absent a lot. And even when he IS there, other people don’t always see him. Because what Sakura doesn’t know (yet) is that Rinne is part Shinigami and tasked with helping ghosts move from our plane to the next. Unfortunately, Rinne’s not as powerful as a full Shinigami and could really use a little help. So… is this a supernatural hook-up made in Heaven or what? And if it isn’t, wouldn’t sending lost souls to the afterlife get deity-approval anyway? Drop your schoolbooks and gear up for an after-school exorcise program like no other as famed creator Rumiko Takahashi unleashes a spooktacular new masterpiece with RIN-NE!

Genres: Slice of Life, Supernatural, Romance, Comedy
Rating: TV-14 [D, V]

###Strawberry Marshmallow OVA
There’s rarely a dull moment when Chika Ito and her friends get together: whether they’re telling ghost stories, playing games, or taking trips to the beach and park, every day brings a new adventure. Of course, not everyone appreciates the constant presence of a pack of 12 year olds, and Chika’s big sister Nobue might sometimes wish that Chika’s friends weren’t always underfoot. Especially troublemaking Miu, whose “help” with Nobue’s job hunt is definitely not appreciated! Then again, Miu can cause problems just about anywhere, even when she hits her head and thinks she’s in Heaven! And when the girls make a trip to the public baths, does anyone think they’ll make a clean escape and scrub away every single piece of evidence? Either way, the funs sure to continue as the whole gang reunites in the complete OVA collection of STRAWBERRY MARSHMALLOW!

Genres: Comedy, Slice of Life, Shoujo
Rating: TV-14 [D]

Sentai Filmworks - Anime Expo 2016 Reel

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(click link to see more merch!)


###MEME MONDAY #4
7/18/2016 4:08:59 PM

Where has July gone?! Perhaps it’s evaporated in this heat… either way, happy Monday everybody!

Well, even if it’s not the most joyous day, maybe we can at least give you a laugh, and direct you to some great anime while we’re at it! Here’s the rundown of Sentai memes from the last month.

###Inspiration Strikes (Onigiri)

So intense…

###Happy Father’s Day (RIN-NE)

Really. Thank you. If you have questions, just watch RIN-NE Episode 10: Damashigami Company.

###International Kissing Day (My Love Story!!)


Well then.

###Halp (Tanaka-kun Is Always Listless)

Same Tanaka… same.

###The Signs (and Their Wingman) (Haikyu!!)
The signs and their wingman

  • Aries: Oikawa
  • Taurus: Sugawara
  • Gemini: Lev
  • Cancer: Daichi
  • Leo: Kunimi
  • Virgo: Kuroo
  • Libra: Bokuto
  • Scorpio: Kageyama
  • Sagittarius: Iwaizumi
  • Capricorn: Yamaguchi
  • Aquarius: Nishinoya
  • Pisces: Hinata

One of my personal favorites, the “signs as” meme, and this particular version is hilarious.

###Feels vs. Me (Ushio & Tora)

Anyone who’s been part of any fandom at some point has experienced this.

###Mixer Problems (Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto.)


He may be a high school student, but he’s got the moves… not to mention:

###How Does Egg (Flying Witch)
When you’re trying to cook and adult, but can’t figure out how to egg.

We’ve all been there, Nao.

###Memeworthy Anime

This was a good haul, and we can’t wait to see what next month has in store. We compile a new Meme Monday every third week of the month, so stay tuned, and keep on memeing! What anime memes are your favorites? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Google+


###TUESDAY NEW RELEASES: SENTAI SELECTS: CHILDREN WHO CHASE LOST VOICES; SOFTENNI!
7/19/2016 8:49:11 AM

###Sentai Selects: Children Who Chase Lost Voices
Life hasn’t been easy for Asuna since the death of her father. With her mother forced to work long hours to make ends meet, Asuna spends most of her time alone, listening to the crystal radio her father left behind. It’s a curious thing, requiring neither electricity nor an amplifier, but the strange music that plays over it is an even greater mystery. Where does it come from? And what does it mean? The answers will lead Asuna into a hidden world filled with incredible dangers, where monsters roam and even the dead can be brought back to life. But there’s a price that comes with unlocking the secrets, and it may be more than Asuna can afford to pay! Join the journey to Agartha as the adventure of a lifetime begins when acclaimed director Makoto Shinkai unleashes CHILDREN WHO CHASE LOST VOICES!

Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Rating: TV-PG

###Softenni!
Playing Soft Tennis (like regular tennis but with softer balls and lighter racquets) is supposed to be the focus of the Shiratama Soft Tennis Team. And for some of the girls, like farm girl/would-be champion Asuna, it mostly is. But when the team’s worst player, Chitose, is also the team captain, could it be that the club is really more about hanging out and having a good time? To be sure, aces Kurusu and exchange student Elizabeth, are great players. But they also seem more interested in cosplay and the team’s dreamy adviser, while violence-prone Kotone might be more at home in a martial arts dojo. And it would certainly explain why they get into so many odd adventures involving things like giant bears, whales, and ghosts rather than playing! Either way, whether they’re going for the championship or simply socializing, the one thing that’s certain is that they’ll be forging bonds of friendship that will last forever, off court and on, in SOFTENNI!

Genres: Comedy, Sports
Rating: TV-MA [S]

###See All the Qs & As at Ask.fm

Q. I enjoyed following along your AX panel on Twitter, but was annoyed with some of the questions that were being asked during the Q&A. I was wondering if you all could set some guidelines as to what to ask in future panels (i.e. We DON’T make anime, cast announcements, new seasons of a series).

A. We just kinda get used to the questions and try to address them via #AskSentai. It helps out in the end though, because we get to see what people REALLY care about (C’mon: if people are willing to ask a question in front of an entire crowd, they must REALLY be passionate about the answer).

Q. Out of the 7 planned dubs, how many collectors editions can we expect? I hope Danmachi, Monster Musume and Food Wars.

A. Still can’t share that part, but thanks for the votes!

Again a bunch of nothing really answered besides the begging for shows to be dubbed, when is XX title coming out or getting a Special Edition, and do you have the Girls und Panzer OVA / movie etc.

How about answering some of the tougher questions like:

-What’s the status of your Bandai rescues? Since Funimation is actually starting to release theirs, when will we start seeing them on the release schedule?

  • What is going on with Phi-Brain Season 3? Is it delayed because the previous seasons didn’t sell like you thought they would and are trying to make the decision to release Season 3 sub only?.
3 Likes

man, season 2 must have been a big disappointment if they’re taking this long to release season 3. we haven’t seen a complete collection for season 1 yet.


###TUESDAY NEW RELEASES: LOG HORIZON 2, COLLECTION 2 AND WHEN THEY CRY REI
7/26/2016 1:45:12 PM


###Log Horizon 2, Collection 2
Having cleared the Abyssal Shaft, the members of the raiding party have returned to Akihabara to consider their next options. First, though, there’s an unexpected lesson in history as the founder of the Debauchery Tea Party, the legendary Kanami, resurfaces with an extremely peculiar entourage and some even more stunning revelations about connections to the outside. But the ramifications of this will have to wait. With new political situations brewing between the Guilds, Shiroe sets Isaac to the task of training Maihama’s knights while the younger members of Log Horizon are sent out on what should be a simple quest. Collecting the materials required to make a magic bag, however, becomes much more difficult when ogres and nightshades get involved! Fortunately, the junior team is about to get a jolt of fresh blood… in the form of a Vampire! The action escalates and the world gets even wilder in the second thundering collection of LOG HORIZON - SEASON 2!

Genres: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Shounen, Comedy
Rating: TV-14 [L,V]


###When They Cry Rei
Having finally escaped the brutal cycle of madness and murder that transformed the town of Hinamizawa into a hell on Earth, Keiichi, Rika, and their friends are looking forward to simply being teenagers and living a normal life. But as strange things keep happening, it soon becomes apparent that fate hasn’t finished toying with them yet. Especially when the incidents escalate dramatically, transitioning from relatively benign and even humorous… to lethal. Struck by a truck, Rika awakens to find herself in another reality, one where most of her friends are gone, yet other elements of her life that she’d previously lost are back. And in order to find her way back to the life she knows, she’ll have to destroy something from this new life forever. No matter what… or who… she has to sacrifice. It’s an all-new ordeal where every solution comes with a horrific price in WHEN THEY CRY - REI!

Genres: Mystery, Supernatural, Horror, Mature
Rating: TV-MA [V]

###Press Release: Wear Your Favorite New Shows and More Thanks to Sentai Filmworks and Ripple Junction Partnership
July 28, 2016

###Clothes Based on Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto, Flying Witch & More Headed to Stores
posted on 2016-07-28 21:00 EDT by Eric Stimson
Sentai Filmworks, Ripple Junction also collaborate on My Love Story!!, RIN-NE, Bakuon!!, Onigiri clothes


###ANIME SHOWS THAT BREAK THE FOURTH WALL
7/29/2016 10:52:40 AM

The fourth wall: that invisible barrier which separates fiction from reality. However, what about those times when that wall becomes so transparent that it’s barely there at all? It takes a specific kind of discernment to recognize one’s fictional existence. These titles, and their characters, have that particular brand of self-awareness that shatters the fourth wall and pulls us into their world.

###When They Cry Kai

The When They Cry series, otherwise known as Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, is notorious as a jarring, gory classic in the anime genre. The subsequent seasons get less gruesome as they go, but there’s still plenty of cringe-worthy scenes throughout the second season, When They Cry Kai. In this scene from episode six, Rika is finally coming to terms with her role in the cosmic loop that her and her friends are stuck in. Speaking directly to the viewer, Rika touches on the atrocities that her friends have committed in each world, acknowledging this world as a different one.

###Student Council’s Discretion

In a private high school where the student council is “elected” based on popularity, you know you’re not in for a run-of-the-mill anime ride. In both seasons of Student Council’s Discretion, the fourth wall gets knocked on quite a few times. Notably, the cast asks “Are we really animating this?” in the first episode, and episode zero of the second season is chock full of fourth wall breaking as the characters discuss themselves as characters, and talk about how they’re getting a second season.

###High School of the Dead

Another classic, this ecchi title is the zombie-slaying king of anime, and surprisingly rich in actual plot considering the amount of other… plot. In all seriousness, HOTD puts its characters into some messy situations with each other (and with the undead, of course). One of the most hilarious, fourth-wall-breaking moments in this show comes in episode twelve. The school nurse, Shizuka, spaces out during a zombie attack, and when Saya asks her why she’s so out of it, Shizuka responds with something like “That’s how my character was written.” Definitely a smash to the fourth wall worthy of a zombie anime.

###Tanaka-kun is Always Listless

Being a main character is the worst thing that could possibly happen to someone who just wants life to be hassle-free. Tanaka-kun, ironically speaking as the titular character of his own show, explains this to his friend Ohta. He mentions how background characters have it easy: no lines, often no actions, sometimes even no faces. As he speaks, the said background characters walking across the screen are gray and featureless, and the above picture is Tanaka’s attempt to reach background character status. Sorry, Tanaka-kun, you’re still the main character!

###Sabagebu!

Shoujo meets survival games in this crazy series that forces Momoka into her school’s survival game club! Though it shoots at the fourth wall a few times, a notable instance is in the first episode when the narrator describes something in the club room and Momoka comments on the random voice. If you’re looking for hilarious shenanigans, plus girls and guns, look no further than Sabagebu!

###Hayate the Combat Butler

We could pick any episode of Hayate the Combat Butler and find some fracture in the fourth wall, though most of the time they’re more like doors. While most titles occasionally break the fourth wall, this show doesn’t seem to have much of a wall at all! With characters that run the gambit from wondering what they’re doing to self censoring; this one you have to watch to believe.

###Climb Through the Fourth Wall!

We all love feeling included in our favorite shows, and that’s what the breaking the fourth wall does - it brings you in! What are your favorite fourth-wall-shattering anime antics? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Google+, and you may see your selection the NEXT time we look into this topic!

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You forgot Outbreak Company when after Myucel gets injured saving Petralka, The beginning of the next episode Shinichi wonders if they skipped an episode because she’s recovering so well.

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##THE ANIME NETWORK ON DEMAND AUGUST 2016 NEWSLETTER
For availability and package information, check your provider’s schedule.

<b>On Demand Shows</b>


Girls Beyond the Wasteland
Starts: August 4
Language: Japanese w/ English Subtitles
Available In: SVOD 45


Bodacious Space Pirates: Abyss of Hyperspace
Starts: August 11
Language: Japanese w/ English Subtitles
Available In: SVOD 45


Gunbuster The Movie
Starts: August 18
Language: Japanese w/ English Subtitles
Available In: SVOD 45


MONSTER MUSUME Everyday Life with Monster Girls
Starts: August 1
Language: Japanese w/ English Subtitles
Available In: FOD 30


HaNaYaMaTa
Starts: August 11
Language: Japanese w/ English Subtitles
Available In: FOD 30


La Corda d’Oro ~ Blue Sky
Starts: August 18
Language: Japanese w/ English Subtitles
Available In: FOD 30


Is the Order a Rabbit?? Season 2
Starts: August 25
Language: Japanese w/ English Subtitles
Available In: FOD 30

###See All the Qs & As at Ask.fm

Q. Why are your releases delayed by a month on Amazon.ca for no reason, when we get our hands on them a month of extra waiting, they are identical to the US releases, I assumed the delay was to print cover art with french text but that isn’t the case.

A. It might have something to do with customs. That’s not something we’re in charge of, so you might want to direct that question to Amazon.ca

Q. What is the difference between your “Collector’s Editions” (Akame ga Kill, Monthly Girls Nozaki-Kun, NGNL etc.) and what you call a “Premium Edition” (KoS: BVattle for Planet 9)?

A. There technically is NOT a difference all - all premium box sets are limited edition in terms that only a specific quantity are made. On our website, we use the verbiage “premium box set”, but some of our partners describe the same product as a collector’s edition.


###TUESDAY NEW RELEASES: GOURMET GIRL GRAFFITI
8/2/2016 8:40:28 AM

###Gourmet Girl Graffiti
Like many Japanese middle school girls, Ryo Machiko is fascinated with cooking. Unfortunately, both of her parents work full time overseas, so she’s spent most of her time living alone since the death of her grandmother a year ago. Ryo’s still practicing and learning, of course, but without someone there to appreciate the fruit of her labors and offer constructive feedback, it’s just not the same. Things have a way of working out, however, and when it turns out that Ryo’s artistically inclined cousin Kirin intends to attend the same Sunday cram school, it only makes sense for her to room with Ryo over the weekends. And that means that Ryo will be gaining more than just an enthusiastic new audience. Together with Ryo’s friend Shiina, she’ll be learning the most important lesson of all: No matter how fancy or tasty the food may be, it’s even better when it’s shared in GOURMET GIRL GRAFFITI!

Genres: Comedy, Slice of Life
Rating: TV-14 [L,V]

1 Like