The April release slate of anime coming from Sentai Filmworks has landed and it’s full of a lot of different things. The continued experiments with subtitled-only Blu-ray releases appears to be going well as series that would normally be sub-only on DVD are appearing once again, though the frustration is felt for those that really wanted a dub for some of these titles. Ebiten finally surfaces after little dialogue for so long as that will be getting a dual format release in monolingual forma, as well as Cuticle Detective Inaba and the Hidamari Sketch X 365 season.
On the bilingual and dual format front, the first collection for From The New World has appeared as well as the second Little Busters first season collection. And finally – finally – Familiar of Zero‘s first season is coming out with DVD/BD releases that will be bilingual as we start working towards the newer material.
Title: EBITEN COMPLETE COLLECTION
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 275 min.
Street Date: 4/1/2014
Format: DVD
Language: Japanese with English Subtitles
SRP: $49.98
SYNOPSIS: Take one group of rabid fan girls with tenuous grips on reality, toss out all rules of proper social behavior, mix them together in a basement with more twisted anime parodies and allusions than you can shake a schtick at, and what do you get? Well, besides a recipe for disaster, if borderline delusional Kyoko Todayama is in what passes for charge, you get the Asstronomy Club, where mayhem rules and the wall between the real world and total fantasy shatters at least once every five minutes! And as if things weren’t wild enough, let’s throw in a “boys love” manga fanatic who always seems to end up in her underwear, a maid on a secret mission, a ruthless arch enemy whose goal is to have the club disbanded, and a CAT as the faculty adviser! And then there’s Itsuki, who inexplicably still thinks this is a serious astronomy club. To be fair, some of the members DO seem to be robots/aliens and/or from outer space. One thing’s for certain though: the Student Council will most definitely NOT approve of what happens when the Insane-O-Meter redlines and freaky fan girls run wild in EBITEN!
Title: EBITEN COMPLETE COLLECTION BLU-RAY
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 275 min.
Street Date: 4/1/2014
Format: BD
Language: Japanese with English Subtitles
SRP: $59.98
SYNOPSIS: Take one group of rabid fan girls with tenuous grips on reality, toss out all rules of proper social behavior, mix them together in a basement with more twisted anime parodies and allusions than you can shake a schtick at, and what do you get? Well, besides a recipe for disaster, if borderline delusional Kyoko Todayama is in what passes for charge, you get the Asstronomy Club, where mayhem rules and the wall between the real world and total fantasy shatters at least once every five minutes! And as if things weren’t wild enough, let’s throw in a “boys love” manga fanatic who always seems to end up in her underwear, a maid on a secret mission, a ruthless arch enemy whose goal is to have the club disbanded, and a CAT as the faculty adviser! And then there’s Itsuki, who inexplicably still thinks this is a serious astronomy club. To be fair, some of the members DO seem to be robots/aliens and/or from outer space. One thing’s for certain though: the Student Council will most definitely NOT approve of what happens when the Insane-O-Meter redlines and freaky fan girls run wild in EBITEN!
Title: FAMILIAR OF ZERO SEASON 1
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 325 min.
Street Date: 4/8/2014
Format: DVD
Language: English & Japanese with English Subtitles
SRP: $49.98
SYNOPSIS: Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière’s name is so long and her spell-casting skills are so poor that everyone at the Tristain Academy of Magic just calls her “Louise the Zero”. Louise’s humiliation only increases during an important second year test, where the other students summon up dragons and other mythological creatures as their familiars, and she inexplicably summons Hiraga Saito, a totally normal teenager from Tokyo. Now she’s stuck with him and Saito’s stuck with the lousy life of being a familiar. Except, maybe there’s more going on than meets the eye, because Saito’s not prepared to accept the social inequities that Louise and other aristocrats consider the status quo, and he may not be quite as normal as everyone thinks. And the reason Louise is so bad at magic might just be that she hasn’t figured out what she’s good at yet. In fact, they might even have the makings of a great team. If they can learn to stand each other first, that is! Will familiarity breed contempt? Will combining two negatives result in a positive? The answer will be spelled out, enchantment by enchantment, in FAMILIAR OF ZERO!
Title: FAMILIAR OF ZERO SEASON 1 BLU-RAY
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 325 min.
Street Date: 4/8/2014
Format: BD
Language: English & Japanese with English Subtitles
SRP: $59.98
SYNOPSIS: Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière’s name is so long and her spell-casting skills are so poor that everyone at the Tristain Academy of Magic just calls her “Louise the Zero”. Louise’s humiliation only increases during an important second year test, where the other students summon up dragons and other mythological creatures as their familiars, and she inexplicably summons Hiraga Saito, a totally normal teenager from Tokyo. Now she’s stuck with him and Saito’s stuck with the lousy life of being a familiar. Except, maybe there’s more going on than meets the eye, because Saito’s not prepared to accept the social inequities that Louise and other aristocrats consider the status quo, and he may not be quite as normal as everyone thinks. And the reason Louise is so bad at magic might just be that she hasn’t figured out what she’s good at yet. In fact, they might even have the makings of a great team. If they can learn to stand each other first, that is! Will familiarity breed contempt? Will combining two negatives result in a positive? The answer will be spelled out, enchantment by enchantment, in FAMILIAR OF ZERO!
Title: FROM THE NEW WORLD COLLECTION 1
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 325 min.
Street Date: 4/15/2014
Format: DVD
Language: English & Japanese with English Subtitles
SRP: $59.98
SYNOPSIS: Born into a world a thousand years in our future, Saki and her friends Satoru, Maria, Mamoru and Shun have lived their entire lives in what seems to be a perfect utopia. Not only is their small idyllic community overflowing with clean rushing water and abundant green foliage, but almost all technology has been rendered irrelevant by the magical power of “Juryoku,” the psychic ability to materialize anything one desires. But when Saki discovers a long lost artifact from the past, the façade of their world is shattered and the cracks that split the foundation of their reality threaten to swallow them whole! Faced with a bloody secret history of how their world really came to be and thrust into a nightmarish new paradigm, Saki and her companions are confronted with dangers they never knew existed and a series of choices that may change the fate of every intelligent creature on the planet – human and otherwise! Yusuke Kishi’s award winning novel becomes an epic new animated series as five young teens fight to survive the shocking revelations that come FROM THE NEW WORLD!
Title: FROM THE NEW WORLD COLLECTION 1 BLU-RAY
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 325 min.
Street Date: 4/15/2014
Format: BD
Language: English & Japanese with English Subtitles
SRP: $69.98
SYNOPSIS: Born into a world a thousand years in our future, Saki and her friends Satoru, Maria, Mamoru and Shun have lived their entire lives in what seems to be a perfect utopia. Not only is their small idyllic community overflowing with clean rushing water and abundant green foliage, but almost all technology has been rendered irrelevant by the magical power of “Juryoku,” the psychic ability to materialize anything one desires. But when Saki discovers a long lost artifact from the past, the façade of their world is shattered and the cracks that split the foundation of their reality threaten to swallow them whole! Faced with a bloody secret history of how their world really came to be and thrust into a nightmarish new paradigm, Saki and her companions are confronted with dangers they never knew existed and a series of choices that may change the fate of every intelligent creature on the planet – human and otherwise! Yusuke Kishi’s award winning novel becomes an epic new animated series as five young teens fight to survive the shocking revelations that come FROM THE NEW WORLD!
Title: HIDAMARI SKETCH X 365 BLU-RAY
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 400 min.
Street Date: 4/22/2014
Format: BD
Language: Japanese with English Subtitles
SRP: $59.98
SYNOPSIS: Yuno, Miyako, Hiro, Sae and the rest of the denizens of the most fascinating piece of surreal estate in Japan are back. And they’re still spurning the “A happens after B, happens after C” pattern so prevalent in the rest of the world. In fact, instead of just taking place after Yuno’s first year at Yamabuki High, this season of Hidamari Sketch continues on both sides, around the edges and in-between. Filling in the details in an ever-expanding collage that’s both avant-garde and slice of life! And if the format’s not completely unexpected, we guarantee that some of the things that you never knew about before WILL be in Hidamari Sketch X 365 – The Complete Collection!
Title: LITTLE BUSTERS! COLLECTION 2
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 325 min.
Street Date: 4/22/2014
Format: DVD
Language: English & Japanese with English Subtitles
SRP: $59.98
SYNOPSIS: As if receiving enigmatic messages delivered by the cats wasn’t odd enough, Riki Naoe’s world continues to grow even stranger. Following the shocking twin revelations of Midori’s missing shadow and the fact that he’s the only one who seems to remember Mio, he’s determined to learn the nature of the connection between them. Meanwhile, some of the secret’s Haruka is keeping about her family are revealed with potentially devastating consequences, and Riki finds himself pressed into a completely unexpected situation when a sleepover held by Rin and the other female members of the team goes out of control. However, as overwhelming as all that seems, it’s merely the preamble to the drama that’s unleashed when Kudrayaka learns that her cosmonaut mother is going to be sent into space! And in between it all, the Little Buster’s first ballgame is approaching, even though they still haven’t found a ninth player. Covert missions are run, long simmering personal rivalries come to a boil and events that are literally out of this world will take an entire country by storm in the spectacular second collection of LITTLE BUSTERS!
Title: LITTLE BUSTERS! COLLECTION 2 BLU-RAY
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 325 min.
Street Date: 4/22/2014
Format: BD
Language: English & Japanese with English Subtitles
SRP: $69.98
SYNOPSIS: As if receiving enigmatic messages delivered by the cats wasn’t odd enough, Riki Naoe’s world continues to grow even stranger. Following the shocking twin revelations of Midori’s missing shadow and the fact that he’s the only one who seems to remember Mio, he’s determined to learn the nature of the connection between them. Meanwhile, some of the secret’s Haruka is keeping about her family are revealed with potentially devastating consequences, and Riki finds himself pressed into a completely unexpected situation when a sleepover held by Rin and the other female members of the team goes out of control. However, as overwhelming as all that seems, it’s merely the preamble to the drama that’s unleashed when Kudrayaka learns that her cosmonaut mother is going to be sent into space! And in between it all, the Little Buster’s first ballgame is approaching, even though they still haven’t found a ninth player. Covert missions are run, long simmering personal rivalries come to a boil and events that are literally out of this world will take an entire country by storm in the spectacular second collection of LITTLE BUSTERS!
Title: CUTICLE DETECTIVE INABA COMPLETE COLLECTION
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 300 min.
Street Date: 4/29/2014
Format: DVD
Language: Japanese with English Subtitles
SRP: $49.98
SYNOPSIS: In a world where half-human, half-animal chimeras live and work alongside normal people, there are sure to be a few bad apples in the bunch. Unfortunately, criminals that are only half-human means there are often non-human clues that leave the police stumped. That’s where lone wolf detective Hiroshi Inaba comes in. He’s literally part wolf and has the amazing ability to extract critical information just by examining or tasting a sample of someone’s hair! Of course, that ability has also resulted in Inaba having a little bit of a hair fetish, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem for his two assistants. Well, at least the cross-dressing one isn’t complaining much. And it’s nothing compared to the strange tastes of Inaba’s nemesis, the omnivorous, half-goat crime boss Don Valentino, who has an appetite for green legal tender instead of tender young greens! Inaba’s sworn to cut Valentino out of the criminal flock before the Don can wolf down more ill-gotten dough, but he’s going to have to chew his way through a lot of evidence to get his goat. Can sheer dogged detective work put the baaaaad guys behind bars? Find out in CUTICLE DETECTIVE INABA!
Title: CUTICLE DETECTIVE INABA COMPLETE COLLECTION BLU-RAY
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 300 min.
Street Date: 4/29/2014
Format: BD
Language: Japanese with English Subtitles
SRP: $59.98
SYNOPSIS: In a world where half-human, half-animal chimeras live and work alongside normal people, there are sure to be a few bad apples in the bunch. Unfortunately, criminals that are only half-human means there are often non-human clues that leave the police stumped. That’s where lone wolf detective Hiroshi Inaba comes in. He’s literally part wolf and has the amazing ability to extract critical information just by examining or tasting a sample of someone’s hair! Of course, that ability has also resulted in Inaba having a little bit of a hair fetish, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem for his two assistants. Well, at least the cross-dressing one isn’t complaining much. And it’s nothing compared to the strange tastes of Inaba’s nemesis, the omnivorous, half-goat crime boss Don Valentino, who has an appetite for green legal tender instead of tender young greens! Inaba’s sworn to cut Valentino out of the criminal flock before the Don can wolf down more ill-gotten dough, but he’s going to have to chew his way through a lot of evidence to get his goat. Can sheer dogged detective work put the baaaaad guys behind bars? Find out in CUTICLE DETECTIVE INABA!
