While 2004 was a year in which most American anime distributors treaded water, Media Blasters made considerable headway and released a number of excellent titles including The 12 Kingdoms and Figure 17, which were inexplicably neglected by higher profile rivals. And the enormous success of Media Blasters' Invader Zim DVD releases has undoubtedly helped fill the company's coffers. Now there's a new wave of recently announced acquisitions including four anime TV series and an OAV.
The top new Media Blasters property in terms of recognition here in the U.S. is the Ah My Goddess TV series, based on the Kosuke Fujishima manga published by Dark Horse. Although there have been several previous Ah My Goddesss OAVs, this 2005 anime is the first TV series based on the popular magical girl comedy/romance manga.
Grenadier (Hohoemi No Senshi) is an all out 12-episode action series featuring a beautiful blonde heroine who just happens to be a senshi (an expert with firearms), and though she attempts to spread peace throughout the world, she gets involved in more than her share of gunplay. The success of the 'girls with guns' anime series such as Noir bodes well for Grenadier as does its recent vintage (the series only began airing in Japan in late 2004).
The 12-episode Genshiken anime, based on the manga series by Shimoko Kio published by Kodansha in Japan and by Del Rey in the U.S. (see 'Del Rey Adds Two More Manga Titles'), is a slice-of-life comedy/romance that is quite different in tone and subject matter from Grenadier. Genshiken, which was also aired in Japan in 2004, provides an inside look at the life of an otaku at a Japanese university that should be compelling to hardcore American anime fans.
The third new anime series announced by Media Blasters is Hinotori, based on the classic manga series by Osamu Tezuka and something of a departure from the vast majority of Media Blasters' previous releases. Hinotori (or The Phoenix) is the most highbrow, and in many ways the most celebrated of Tezuka's many manga creations. Viz has published five volumes of Tezuka's Phoenix manga (see 'Manga's Premiere Artist At the Top of His Game'), which should make for excellent cross-merchandising opportunities with the 13-episode Media Blasters series (which first aired in Japan in 2004).
The fourth recently announced Media Blaster acquisition is Phantom, a 3-episode OAV series (also from 2004) about an ordinary fellow who is forced to become an assassin and team-up with a beautiful hit-woman.
