ADV Films has announced the August release of the first of four volumes of the 13-episode anime series Samurai Gun, a blood-drenched tour of the bakumatsu years, the turbulent time during which Japan began to emerge from its feudal past.  This is the same conflict-ridden era that has provided the backdrop for Rurouni Kenshin and other key late-era samurai epics.  Samurai Gun's morally ambiguous heroes, razor sharp dialogue, hair-trigger violence, and its overarching conflict between tradition and modernity explain why it has been called 'anime's answer to the spaghetti western.'

Studio Egg and Avex, Inc. produced Samurai Gun, which is based on the popular manga by Kazuhiro Kumagai and debuted on Japanese TV last October.  ADV Films helped fund the series, which explains how the series could arrive here in the U.S. less than a year after it was launched in Japan.  As export revenues become more important to anime producers, more foreign-based distributors are investing up front in key anime series and locking up the rights, which has the effect of reducing the gap between when a series airs in Japan and when it becomes available in the other countries.

The Samurai Gun: Cocked and Loaded DVD contains the first four episodes of the series in both English 5.1 and Japanese 2.0 with English subtitles plus a number of extras including production sketches, an English trailer, a 'Fun with Audio' segment, and clean opening and closing animation.  The DVD, which has a pre-book date of July 19th, will be available at retail on August 16th in both regular (msrp $29.98) and collector's (msrp $29.98) editions.  The Collector's Edition includes a custom series art box with full color artwork.