Posted Mon Oct 17, 2011 at 12:00 PM PDT by Tom Landy
Anchor Bay gears up two highly-anticipated anime titles for Blu-ray this winter!
'Redline' won the Audience Official Selection Award for Animation at Fantasia and the Outstanding Achievement in Feature Filmmaking – Animation Award at the Newport Beach Film Festival. It has received rave reviews even from those admittedly not anime fans. From its premiere at Fantastic Fest, Harry Knowles said “Redline' should not be missed, everyone came out smiling and happy. FANTASTIC!” He called it the “…coolest 'Speed Racer' ever…and that counts the Wachowski film.” AnimeNewsNetwork.com called 'Redline' “… the most insanely exciting, visually exhilarating anime film you've seen in decades. Incredible fun!”
'First Squad: The Moment of Truth' has received several awards including the Asteroid Award for Best Feature at the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival and Kommersant Newspaper’s Prize at the Moscow International Film Festival. Additionally, 'First Squad' was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
Written by Katsuhito Ishii (director of 'The Taste of Tea,' 'Funky Forest,' 'Shark Skin Man & Peach Hip Girl' and the anime segment of 'Kill Bill Vol.1') and directed by the up-and-coming Takeshi Koike, who participated in the “World Record” segment of 'Animatrix' (2003), 'Redline' was seven years in the making and proudly demonstrates the new possibilities of 2D animation, amidst the current prominence of 3D animation.
'Redline' is a racing film created by studio Madhouse ('Paprika,' 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time,' 'Summer Wars'). 'Redline' is about the biggest and most deadly racing tournament in the universe. Only held once every five years, everyone wants to stake their claim to fame, including JP, a reckless dare-devil driver oblivious to speed limits with his ultra-customized car - all the while, organized crime and militaristic governments want to leverage the race to their own ends. Amongst the other elite rival drivers in the tournament, JP falls for the alluring Sonoshee - but will she prove his undoing, or can a high speed romance survive a mass destruction race?
Directed by Yoshiharu Ashino, 'First Squad: The Moment of Truth' is set during the opening days of World War II on the Eastern Front. Its main cast of characters is a group of Soviet teenagers, each with extraordinary abilities. The teenagers have been drafted to form a special unit to fight the invading German army. They are opposed by a Schutzstaffel (SS) officer who is attempting to raise from the dead a supernatural army of crusaders from the 12th Century Order of the Sacred Cross and enlist them in the Nazi cause. 'First Squad: The Moment of Truth' was produced by Eiko Tanaka, Misha Shprits and Aljosha Klimov.
Suggested list price for each Blu-ray is $29.99.
You can find the latest specs for 'Redline' and 'First Squad: The Moment of Truth' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where they are indexed under January 17.
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