The Anime News Network is reporting that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release the Blood + anime series, which is currently airing on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, on DVD on March 4th.  Sony has adopted an interesting strategy for its Blood + release.  It is releasing the first five episodes of the series on a disk with a suggested retail price of $24.96, which works out to $4.99 per episode, a price that represents a savings over most first run anime DVDs.

At the same time that Sony is releasing the first five-episode disc, it is also making available a collector's set that includes the first 25 episodes of the series for a suggested retail price of $119.95, which works out to $4.80 per episode.

Produced by Production I.G. in 2005 and 2006, the stylish 50-episode Blood + anime series is loosely based on the the 2000 anime film Blood: The Last Vampire, though the Blood + anime series fleshes out the mythos of the vampiric chiropterans considerably and contains only a few allusions to the earlier film.  Dark Horse is releasing the first volume of the Blood+ manga later this month and Blood+ novels starting in March -- and both the manga and novels add considerable background and nuance to the complex Blood+ saga.