Gainax, Gurren Lagann, & the Bandais
FanimeCon was held this past weekend in San Jose, & all eyes were focused on three different parts of the fandom that are now connected to each other: Gainax, Gurren Lagann, & Bandai Entertainment. Each had their own big pieces of news to announce at the panel.
Perhaps the biggest for us westerners was the announcement that the two different Bandai companies here in the US will now be joining forces to become one. Bandai Visual is folding into Bandai Entertainment, & this can only be good for the consumer. With their high prices & low episode count (not to mention no dubbing) on their DVDs, Bandai Visual was never very popular with American anime fans. They seemed determined to sell their DVDs exactly how anime DVDs are sold in Japan, despite the fact that no other American licensor does that & Americans don't put up with $40 for 2 subbed-only episodes. But with this new announcement, it looks like things may finally change.
No word yet on what to expect of Bandai Visual's titles. One can assume that Bandai Entertainment will be re-releasing them at a cheaper price, & one can hope that maybe they'll even add dubs to them this time around as well. But it's too hard to say at this time what will really happen. We'll probably get more details when Visual officially folds into Entertainment in July.
Moving along with their big news, Bandai Entertainment was able to finally confirm that yes, Gurren Lagann will indeed be airing on Sci-Fi Channel's AniMonday block this summer. Bang Zoom is zooming through the dub like a bang in order to have 2 new episodes air every week for the entire 27 episode run. Bandai was supposed to announce the dub cast at Fanime as well, but last minute changes caused them to hold out on that for the time being.
They did note that the version of episode 6 shown on Sci-Fi will be the same one that was shown on Japanese TV, as opposed to the redone version for the Japanese DVDs (though the American DVDs will feature both versions). The Gurren Lagann writers original idea for episode 6, set in an onsen (hot springs), was deemed too inappropriate for its time slot, due to the amount of ecchi fan-service it contained. As a result, a much milder version was made for TV, & they went back & redid it for the uncut DVDs. But as someone whose seen the DVD version of ep 6, I gotta it really isn't THAT bad. I was expecting a lot more, but that's probably due to high expectations that grew over time.
In other Gurren Lagann news, Gainax announced that they're not just working on a single movie, but two feature films. Both films are expected to be a connected retelling of the television series. In addition to the movies, Gainax also announced that they're working on two new projects. One will be their newest anime series "Shikabane Hime" (Corpse Princess), which is based on the manga of the same name. Not really familiar with it, but if Gainax is making it into a series, it'll have to be good. The other new project has yet to be announced (although rumor has it it'll be a movie based on the manga "Ghost Rhapsody").
& finally, back to Bandai Entertainment news, they announced a new license at FanimeCon as well (perhaps this was the announcement we were supposed to get at ACen). The title is "Sword of the Stranger," an anime movie about samurai from studio BONES (FullMetal Alchemist, RahXephon, Soul Eater). Bandai will be giving it a limited theatrical release on July 18, followed later by a DVD & Blu-ray release.
Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/