The Hirameki International Group, Inc., which has brought the AnimePlay line of DVDs to an American audience, will be launching AnimePlay titles on CD-Rom, starting this September. The first release will be Ai Yori Aoshi, which is already a bestselling manga from TokyoPop (see 'Fruits Basket On Top Again') and anime from Geneon (see 'Geneon to Release Second Ai Yori Aoshi Series').
According to Hirameki's Sales Manager, Aldo Donnaloia, who talked to ICv2 at the recently concluded Anime Expo, these AnimePlay titles were originally produced for CD-Rom, which will result in higher quality graphics than if they were reproduced on DVD. The MSRP is still to be determined.
One more of the initial four CD-Rom AnimePlay titles will be released this year, with the remaining two coming in the first half of 2006. The other three titles are Piece of Wonder, Ever 17 and Anima Mundi: Dark Alchemist.
AnimePlay is a combination of anime and manga, allowing for interactive play (see 'AnimePlay DVDs From Hirameki').
