Intro

Hello, welcome back to the UK Anime News Roundup for January 2017. Apologies for the slight delay. This post represents the first anniversary of the series, and I'd like to thank everyone who has read and commented on these for the past year! I have to say I'm a bit surprised we're still going, but I'm glad this has found an audience.

Congratulations to /u/kaguraa on winning last months giveaway! Thank you all for participating! This was a pretty fun thing to organise, so I might revisit something similar in the future at some point if the opportunity arises.

A few other pieces of housekeeping. Firstly, I've provisionally decided to stop including the streaming chart in these posts. Due to the timing of these posts at the start of the month, licencing information often isn't released in time for inclusion at the start of each season. Given that complete info usually isn't usually available until the post that comes out few weeks into each season, I imagine most of you already have streaming solutions in place for whatever shows you're interested in. It seems to me like a lot of effort for something that ends up having little use.

Starting next season, I'll cover simulcast announcements in the general news section. If anyone actually used the streaming chart and would like it kept, I'm open to hearing from you. If it turns out there's enough demand I'll keep it going, so please let me know your opinions on the topic!

Finally, Naoko Yamada (Director of A Silent Voice/Koe no Katachi) will be visiting the Glasgow Film Festival this month for a screening of the film and a Q&A session. I will be attending and making a Q&A transcript in the same style as my Iwai and Shiotani Q&A's from last year. I will probably be making the Yamada Q&A a separate post from the UK News Roundup though, so please keep an eye out for it towards the end of Febuary! Anyone else who is planning on going can feel free to drop me a message in a comment or pm or on twitter if you would like to say hi at the event as well!

News

• Anime Limited

  • Tengen Toppen Gurren Lagann is being reissued as a collectors edition. This is a timed exclusive available through Zavvi exclusively for it's initial release. Pre-orders are priced at £29.99, compared to RRP of £42, so worth pre-ordering if you're interested.
  • Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and Evangelion 1.11 have been delayed until later in February.

• Manga/Animatsu

  • Manga have announced that the Naruto franchise has now passed a combined total of 500,000 sales within the UK. Congratulations to them on a great achievement!
  • Manga have delayed the Beyond the Boundary movies from their original March release date to change the packaging to make use of new custom artwork being created for the release.

• Altitude Film

  • Altitude Film have acquired UK rights to Mary and the Witch's Flower, the debut feature by Studio Ponoc, based on Mary Stewarts book The Littlest Broomstick.
  • This has not been officially announced yet, but the Glasgow Film Festival screening of Shin Godzilla credits Altitude Films on their website, so we may see Altitude announcing UK plans for the film sometime soon.

• Crunchyroll

  • CR are now streaming an English dub of season 3 of Gintama, with new episodes being added weekly.

• Animax UK

  • Animax have added the four Persona 3 movies to their service, for all five people in the UK who subscribe to Animax.

• Amazon

  • Amazon are now streaming the Studio Ghibli series Ronja, The Robbers Daughter via Amazon Prime. The is also an English dub available for the show.

Events

• The British Museum will be hosting an exhibition of art by the Japanese artist Hokusai called Beyond the Great Wave from May 25th to August 13th this year. Half the exhibition will be rotated out for different works about halfway through the exhibition period. Tickets are £12 for adults.

• MCM Liverpool, March 11th - 12th have confirmed that voice actress Trisha Nishimura, who played Mikasa Ackerman in the Attack on Titan dub and Makise Kurisu in Steins;Gate, will be attending as a guest.

• The National Media Museum is running a series of Yo-Kai Watch events from the 18th-26th February. Thanks to /u/kingchocobo for the heads up on this!

Upcoming Cinema Screenings

• The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme will be hosting screenings of A Silent Voice in 15 UK cities as follows: London, Manchester, Sheffield, Derby, Leicster, Stirling, Kendal, Edinburgh, Bristol, Belfast, Exeter, Birmingham, Inverness, Dundee and Nottingham. /u/kagamisamaa, this might be your chance to see ASV in England! This will be part of a broader season of mostly live-action Japanese films at each venue. Individual venue screening times will be announced later. The programme runs from February 3rd to March 29th, so make sure to keep an eye on your local venue to make sure you don't miss out! Demand for A Silent Voice is likely to be high, so make sure to book ahead of time. Thanks to /u/purposedevoid for letting me know about this!

• Naoko Yamada, director of A Silent Voice will be attending Glasgow Film Festival for a screening and Q&A session on Febuary 23rd. Tickets available here.

• A Silent Voice is expected to be released into other UK on March 15th. Thanks to /u/DIVOGaming for letting me know that Picturehouse have tickets on sale for the 15th March across multiple locations. A Silent Voice is also appearing on the Showcase Cinemas website listed for March 15th. I also note that ASV is listed in the Arts and Events section of the website unlike SAO which is listed under Films. Set your expectations for a more limited release of ASV. Thanks to /u/PurposeDevoid for letting me know.

  List of Picturehouse and Showcase locations for A Silent Voice here.

  Edit 12/02 - The Electric Cinema in Birmingham will be hosting ASV on the 19th March. Tickets here. Thanks to /u/mjkisgod and /u/PurposeDevoid for letting us know!

• Tickets are now on sale for Sword Art Online: The Movie - Ordinal Scale. Currently, Showcase Cinemas have tickets available for screenings on April 19th, as do some branches of Picturehouse. I expect screenings to be added at other cinema chains for the same date closer to the time. Further news as we get it from Anime Limited.

• The Barbican in London will be hosting a screening of Satoshi Kons film Paprika on March 29th.

• Manga will be releasing the documantary live-action film We are X, about the Japanese rock band X. There will be a premiere on February 28th at Picturehouse Central in London, followed by a one night theatrical release on March 2nd. The films soundtrack will be released on March 3rd in the UK, and a DVD and Blu-ray release will then take place on the 1st May.

• Manga UK have confirmed that they are expecting the film In This Corner of the World to be released into UK cinemas.

• I need your help!! I can't keep track of every cinema that may screen anime by myself. If you know of any other screenings that will be taking place, or if you have a local cinema you can check upcoming listings for, please let me know via PM or the comments. There may well be screenings organised by local independent cinemas that I miss by myself.

Physical Releases in December

This list is not comprehensive!! Dates move around a lot in the anime market. The most reliable source for info is always the distibutor, then the retailer. In the interests of time, my primary source is the UK Anime Network Release Calendar, cross referenced with Amazon/Zavvi for BBFC and episode count info. Date changes may be missed if the UKA calendar has not been updated to reflect them.

If you want to see what's inside a collectors edition before you buy it, you can check the uk-anime.net Youtube, for unboxing videos of most major collectors edition releases, usually around the release date. If they don't have a video for the set you're looking for you may find it useful to check the news section of uk-anime.net or check the distributors website and look through their posts. The relevant sites are blog.alltheanime.com, the Manga UK blog and the MVM facebook page.

Upcoming February Releases

Berserk - Complete Series Collection
Berserk: The Golden Age Arc Movie Collection
Bleach - Complete Series 16
Naruto Shippuden Box Set 27
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX - Season 2
Blood Lad - Complete Series Collection
DRAMAtical Murder Complete Series Collection
Fairy Tail - Part 11
Gurren Lagann Complete Collector's Edition
Mikagura School Suite - Complete Series Collection
Persona 3: Movie 1
Eden of the East - Complete Collector's Edition
Escaflowne - Complete Series Collection
Gurren Lagann Movie Collection
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam - Part 1
Noragami Aragoto - Complete Series Collection
Owarimonogatari - Part 1
Show By Rock - Complete Season 1 Collection
Yona of the Dawn - Part 2
Absolute Duo - Complete Series Collection
Black Butler Season 3
Brothers Conflict - Complete Series Collection
Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone Collector's Edition
Fairy Tail - Part 12
Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! Heart Throb - Complete Series Collection
No-Rin - Complete Series Collection
Persona 3 - Movie 2
Your Lie in April - Part 2
Riddle Story of Devil - Complete Series Collection
Edit: Thanks to /u/TsundereRager for pointing out that Riddle Story of Devil has been delayed.

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That's all for this month!! Thank you all again for supporting these posts so far, and here's to another year! I hope that those of you who are attending A Silent Voice at Japan Foundation screenings this month will find the film as enjoyable as I did! Thanks for reading, and as per usual feel free to leave corrections and comments here or on my twitter.