Sentai Filmworks announced their pickup back in 2013 of the s-CRY-ed anime and many other Bandai Entertainment titles, the majority of which never surfaced, citing the acquisition of materials issues most commonly. Back in May 2020, Discotek Media announced that they’ve picked up the rights to the s-CRY-ed anime TV series and will be releasing it on Blu-ray in the future. Ahead of that release, Crunchyroll has jumped in to do some streaming of the series as they’ve added the complete series to their service. It’s available in bilingual form and is open to viewers in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
The home video release recently had its Blu-ray set for an April 27th, 2021 release date for the series. The Blu-ray set is priced at $59.95 in bilingual form where it’ll include the clean opening and closing, trailers, commercials, music score collection, and the nod to more to be determined. Check out the finalized cover to the right!
The 2001 TV series was originally licensed and released by Bandai Entertainment. It was directed by Goro Taniguchi and Rion Kuji based n the series composition by Yousuke Kuroda. Hisashi Hirai handled the character designs with Sunrise handling the production.
The Japanese cast includes Hikaru Midorikawa as Ryuhou, Sōichiro Hoshi as Kazuma, Kyousei Tsukui as Straight Cougar, Masayo Kurata as Sherrice Adjani, Takumi Yamazaki as Kunihiko, Yukari Tamura as Kanami Yuta, and Yuko Nagashima as Mimori Kiryuu.
The English dub was directed by Kirk Thornton for Bang Zoom with a cast that includes Jason Spisak as Ryuho, Steven Jay Blum as Kazuma, Carrie Daniels as Kanami Yuta, Crispin Freeman as Straight Cougar, Dave Wittenberg as Asuka Tachibana, Dorothy Elias-Fahn as Mimori Kiryu, Jamieson K. Price as Martin Zignard, Lara Jill Miller as Scheris Adjani, Lex Lang as Kunihiko Kimishima, and Michael Lindsay as Kyoji Mujo.
Plot Concept: A strange environmental phenomenon 22 years ago in the Kanazawa prefecture caused the land to split and protrude upwards reaching unprecedented heights, creating the secluded area known as The Lost Ground. Kazuma is a young mercenary who lives in the Lost Ground, looking for any work he can find to sustain his livelihood within the harsh environment. He is one of the few people that are gifted with the Alter ability, which allows him to plaster his right arm and torso with a metallic alloy. When this mercenary encounters HOLY, an order whose purpose is to suppress and capture what they call Native Alter Users, and one of the elite members of HOLY, Ryuho, an epic rivalry begins.