Sentai Filmworks has set up their plans for the January 2020 release period and it’s definitely a light month, something that a lot of fans will appreciate after the holidays. But there are some neat things in here that will have you taking a look depending on how your purchases went before. With some limited edition sets selling like hotcakes and being unavailable or just plain missed, re-issuing the series with a steelbook edition allows you to get a premium version of the show even if it’s not the big set with all the goods.
This month, they’ve done that with the No Game No Life series with a steelbook as well as Monster Musume. Both look fantastic as they lean into the stylish aspects that define them.
Sentai’s all about new shows after that. Tsurune makes its debut with a regular edition release and a premium edition box set that looks pretty slick. The Price of Smiles arrives in its original language with subtitles as does The Girl in Twilight.
Title: THE GIRL IN TWILIGHT
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 300 min.
Street Date: 1/7/2020
Format: BD
Language: Japanese with English Subtitles
SRP: $59.98
SYNOPSIS: Every day, Asuka and her friends Nana, Mia, Yu and Chloe go to a certain temple to find out if an urban legend they heard is true: that if you set your radio to a random channel at 4:44 PM, and pray really hard, you can open a door into another dimension. It’s a game, really, and the girls don’t take it too seriously. Until the day it works and they find themselves in another world where there are people who look suspiciously like them. But messing around with alternate realities is dangerous, and as the girls travel from one world to the next, they find themselves thrust into increasingly perilous situations. Will they all survive? Will they still be the people they were when they started? The revelations unfold along with the dimensions in THE GIRL IN TWILIGHT!
Title: THE PRICE OF SMILES
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 300 min.
Street Date: 1/14/2020
Format: BD
Language: Japanese with English Subtitles
SRP: $59.98
SYNOPSIS: The orphaned Princess Yuki of the Kingdom of Soleil is still only a young girl, but she’s trying hard to learn the skills she desperately needs. What the Princess doesn’t know, however, is that even her most trusted advisors have been shielding her from a deadly fact: Soleil and its neighbor, the Empire of Grandiga, are heading to war. Meanwhile, in the Empire, a young soldier named Stella Shining prepares for battle. Despite having already lost her parents to conflict, Stella is unusual in that she always tries to keep a smile on her face… even when there’s nothing left to smile about. As Yuki discovers the truth, a new form of weapon is unleashed, and Stella’s smile slowly becomes a deathly rictus grin when two nations go to war in THE PRICE OF SMILES.
Title: NO GAME, NO LIFE STEELBOOK
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 405 min.
Street Date: 1/21/2020
Format: BD
Language: English & Japanese with English Subtitles
SRP: $99.98
SYNOPSIS: For years, Sora and his stepsister Shiro have hidden from reality, rarely leaving their home and unable to stand being separated. Online, however, they’re famed for their gaming skills as the tag-team duo known as BLANK, and there’s no challenge that they won’t tackle. Then a chess match against a mysterious opponent known as Tet turns out to be the opening gambit in something much bigger than anyone on Earth could have ever imagined. Because this game is the ultimate competition, and the outcome determines the fates of not just the players, but of entire civilizations and species! Can two misfits who can barely handle their own lives rise to the occasion and save the human race? The competition is on as the battle begins in NO GAME, NO LIFE!
Title: MONSTER MUSUME STEELBOOK
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 350 min.
Street Date: 1/21/2020
Format: BD
Language: English & Japanese with English Subtitles
SRP: $99.98
SYNOPSIS: No one expected the government to suddenly acknowledge the existence of demi-human species like harpies and centaurs, but when a careless Integration Agent shows up on Kimihito Kurusu’s doorstep with an attractive Lamia in tow, he suddenly finds himself designated as a “Host Family”. This might not be so bad, except that while Miia’s top half is all girl and quickly develops a crush on her new human host, her snakelike bottom half makes that crush literal with a tendency to squeeze the life out of him! Plus, there’s also the little problem that it’s illegal for humans and non-humans to have THOSE kinds of relationships. With woman-in-black Agent Smith always sniffing about for improprieties, things only get more hectic in the Kurusu household when bird-brained Papi the harpy and master-seeking centaur Centorea need places to roost and stable. As the house gets crowded with even more captivating cuties, can any human male survive under such tempestuous and tempting conditions? Find out in MONSTER MUSUME: EVERYDAY LIFE WITH MONSTER GIRLS!
Title: TSURUNE
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Run Time: 350 min.
Street Date: 1/28/2020
Format: BD, PBS
Language: English & Japanese with English Subtitles
SRP: $69.98, $99.98
SYNOPSIS: Becoming a great archer requires more than just a steady hand and a good eye. It takes focus; the ability to find exactly the right moment to release the bowstring and send your arrow streaking to its target. As a child, Minato Narumiya became entranced with kyudo, the Japanese art of archery, but after years of study, he suddenly quit after an incident during a middle school tournament. Now, his high school’s Kyudo Club has approached him, and between the encouragement of the coach and several classmates he used to practice with, Minato is reluctantly convinced to pick up the bow again. But is the timing right? Is Minato really ready for competition, or is he destined to miss the bullseye again? It’s time to take aim and meet the challenge of becoming the best in TSURUNE!
