Bandai Ending Sales of Manga and Anime

Bandai Entertainment announced today the discontinuation of Blu-ray, DVD, comic and novel sales. The final shipment of comic and novels to retailers will be made at the end of October 2012; home video products to their wholesale customers will be made on November 30, 2012.


About Bandai Entertainment, INC.

Bandai Entertainment, INC. is a subsidiary of Namco Bandai Holdings (USA) Inc. and a premier distributor of Japanese animation in North America. Titles include K-ON!, Gundam 00, Code Geass: Lelouch of Rebellion, Lucky Star, Gurren Lagann,The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, Escaflowne, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, My Otome.

If you need to obtain or finish your collection with any of these titles, You might want to get started.



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Toonami Has Two New Anime: Plus Four Returnees

Two anime new to broadcast in the U.S. were included in the Toonami block on Adult Swim that premiered last weekend. Deadman Wonderland aired at 12:30 a.m. ET and 3:30 ET Saturday. The U.S. anime rights are controlled by FUNimation ; home video has not yet been released. Tokyopop published five volumes of the manga.
Casshern Sins aired at 1:00 and 4:00 a.m. ET. The series was released by FUNimation in a complete set,  and in two parts.

Other shows airing in the block are Bleach; Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood; Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG; and Cowboy Bebop.

Keanu Reeves Wants to Play Spike Spiegel in CBB live Action Movie

Keanu Reeves recently talked about the progress that producer Erwin Stoff, who has worked exclusively with Reeves for the past two decades, has made on a live action remake of Shinichiro Watanabe anime Cowboy Bebop in an interview with MTV. Reeves told MTV that he was eager to play the futuristic space cowboy Spike Spiegel.

"We've got the rights, we've got a writer, and he's putting together a scene outline," Reeves told MTV about the Cowboy Bebop project, which is set up at Fox. Reeves explained to MTV why he loved Cowboy Bebop"t's got a Western quality, a Western/film noir aspect to it. It's got so much style to it, and that's part of its appeal-that kind of Old West, bordertown, low-tech science fiction aspect."

According to Reeves the live action film will focus on the origins of the Bebop team of bounty hunters and will incorporate the conclusion to the 26-episode anime and at least some of the episodic adventures explored in the series.

Adult Swim Increases Anime Programming

Starting on November 8th the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim is revising its schedule once again with a 5-hour anime block that begins at 1am (ET, PT). In a major format change, the Adult Swim Saturday night schedule will not involve repeating shows broadcast earlier the same night. The Saturday night Adult Swim schedule begins with two hours of its original English language programming, which is followed by ten anime series including Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit and Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2, both of which had been banished to the “Milkman” hour of 5am (see “Adult Swim Cuts Back on Anime”) and Shin Chan, which had been dropped off the schedule entirely.

The anime portion of the new Adult Swim schedule begins with Bleach at 1am followed by Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit (1:30am), Code Geass (2am), and Shin Chan (2:30am). Then comes a parade of the Adult Swim's greatest anime hits--most of which will start with their first episodes—Fooly Cooly (FLCL, 3am), Death Note (3:30am), Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (4am), Cowboy Bebop (4:30am), Big O (5am), and Inuyasha (5:30am).
The new Adult Swim schedule represents an increase in the number of hours of anime programming from 6 hours to 8.5 hours per week and an even bigger expansion of the number of anime series, due largely to the ending of the practice of repeating the first 3 hours Adult Swim programming during the second late night 3 hour shift. Of course there is no telling how long Adult Swim will stick with this current schedule of anime programs.

Live-Action Cowboy Bebop Film in Development at Fox

The IFMagazine.com entertainment website reports that film producer Erwin Stoff (The Matrix, A Scanner Darkly) is developing a live-action adaptation of Sunrise's Cowboy Bebop multi-genre action anime series for Fox. Stoff told the website that the project is "in the really early stages" since the parties "just signed it the other day." Shinichiro Watanabe's original anime follows the motley crew of the spaceship Bebop as it travels throughout the solar system in search of the next job. Stoff promised "a real degree of faithfulness," and added, “When I met with them in Japan, one of the first things that I brought up was the experience that we had on A Scanner Darkly, and how hard we worked to remain faithful to Philip K. Dick, and that was our big concern here.”

The anime distributor Bandai Entertainment and Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block released the original 1998 television series in the United States, and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the subsequent 2001 animated movie. The anime was also adapted into two separate manga series, and Tokyopop released both manga series in North America. A Bandai Entertainment representative was unable to publicly comment on this report.