At Anime Expo FUNimation Entertainment announced six major license acquisitions including the science fiction series Steins;Gate, the risqué comedy B Gata H Kei—Yamada’s First Time, the post-apocalyptic Deadman Wonderland, the second season of the fantasy anime Baka and Test, the science fiction comedy Cat Planet Cuties, and the financial thriller {C}.

 

Produced by White Fox, the 24-episode Steins;Gate anime is based on the science fiction thriller visual novel developed by 5pb. and Nitroplus for the Xbox 360 and released in 2009.  The same two companies had previously collaborated on Chaos;Head.  The ongoing Steins;Gate anime series debuted in Japan in April of 2011.

 

B Gata H Kei is a 12-episode anime series from Hal Film Maker based on the 4-panel manga strip by Yoko Sanri that is published in Shueisha’s seinen Weekly Young Jump Magazine.  The risqué comedy centers on the salacious schemes of a 15-year-old high school girl who is obsessed with losing her virginity.  Fortunately for comedic purposes she chooses the shy, inept Takashi Kosuda to accomplish the task, and hilarity ensues.

 

The post-apocalyptic Deadman Wonderland takes place in a Tokyo that has been ravaged by a huge earthquake.  The 12-episode anime series produced by Manglobe is based on the manga written by Jinsei Kataoka (Tokyopop published the first of 10 volumes in February of 2010).  The teenage hero Ganta’s entire class is murdered by mysterious man in crimson armor who frames Ganta, who is sentenced to life in Deadman Wonderland, a theme park-like prison.

 

FUNimation also announced the acquisition of the second 13-episode season of Baka to Test anime (for a look at the first season of the property see “The Top Home Entertainment Release of the Year So Far”) that will start airing in Japan this month and two OVAs that were released in February and March of this year.

 

The 12-episode AIC Plus series Asobi ni Ikuyo: Bombshells from the Sky, which is based on Okina Kamino’s light novel Asobi ni iku yo, is being released by Funimation under the title Cat Planet Cuties.  The romantic science fiction comedy series includes plenty of fan service.

 

Previously Funimation had acquired the simulcast rights to the Fuji TV series {C}-Control-The Money and Soul of Possibility, a financial thriller set in a Japan that has been financially ruined.  Now FUNimation has added home entertainment, digital, and broadcast rights.  Kimimaro is a poor scholarship student, who dreams of a stable life, but one day a man offers him a large sum of money, an action that draws Kimimaro into a mysterious realm known as the “Financial District.”