UK Anime Round-Up 24-30 September: KyoAni’s Oom-pah Band

UK Anime Round-Up 24-30 September: KyoAni’s Oom-pah Band

0 comments 📅24 September 2018, 15:26

After last week’s lull, all three of the UK’s anime specialists come up trumps today with a medley of new series, collected editions and classic films.

We’ll start on a musical note with Sound! Euphonium, released by Anime Limited as a Blu-ray collector’s edition complete with 52-page booklet. Directed by Tatsuya Ishihara (Clannad, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya), this top notch Kyoto Animation show opens with euphonium-playing protagonist Kumiko joining her high school’s concert band club together with new friends Hazuki and Sapphire and an old classmate – beautiful but aloof trumpeter Reina.

Today also sees Anime Limited release two other Blu-ray collector’s editions into the wild in the shape of Studio Trigger-produced, Mari Okada-penned sci-fi actioner Kiznaiver and BONES’ Angelic Layer, a 26-episode robot girl fighting series adapted from a manga by famed all-female art collective CLAMP. Both come with 40-page art booklets, and Kiznaiver also includes a 116-page deluxe hardcover art book – although the latter is limited to 500 units and is only available from AllTheAnime.com while stock lasts.

Manga Entertainment kicks of the new week with an eight-disc DVD box set for Digimon Tamers. The darker-toned third TV instalment of the Digimon franchise, 2001-02 series Tamers takes place in a different universe from its predecessors and features fresh protagonists – Takato Matsuki, Henry Wong and Rika Nonaka. All fans of the Digimon card game, the youngsters’ adventure begins when they receive real Digimon of their own – although each has different ideas about how their new companions should be treated.

The London-based distributor is also bringing a trio of classic anime films back to Blu-ray and DVD, with Shinichiro Watanabe’s 2001 sci-fi spin-off Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Katsuhiro Otomo’s rip-roaring 2004 steampunk adventure Steamboy and the late, great Satoshi Kon’s final film, 2006 psychological thriller Paprika all hitting stores today.

Meanwhile, The Asterisk War Part 1 comes to Blu-ray courtesy of MVM Entertainment. Featuring the opening 12 episodes of A-1 Pictures’ action-packed harem show, the two-disc set introduces us to the academy city of Rikka – also known as Asterisk City – where superpowered students battle each other in special tournaments. New boy Ayato find outs about duelling the hard way when his attempt to return a handkerchief to classmate Julis results in him accidentally getting an eyeful of the pink-haired princess in her undies…

Also out from MVM this week is a 26-episode DVD collection for Studio Deen supernatural murder mystery series Higurashi: When They Cry Season 1, while a Blu-ray edition of the first half of Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works returns us once more to the fighting fantasy of the Fate franchise’s Holy Grail War.

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