Grave of The Fireflies Blu Ray

Just released on Blu Ray, Isao Takahata's 1998 animation masterpiece. Grave of the Fireflies is a classic and perhaps one of the greatest anti-war movies ever made.  Yes I know it's animation and the content is not for family viewing, but if your prepared to shed some heart felt tears, then Grave of the Fireflies will not disapoint.

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Appleseed Xiii

Not a sequel, but a retelling, Appleseed xiii is a CGI anime adaptation of Masamune Shirow's science fiction manga series Appleseed.

Composed of 13 (22minute) episodes and claiming to follow the original material more closely. Appleseed Xiii is being released as a combination of online streaming episodes, a two film remix, and optical disc sets.  The story follows the exploits of the ES.W.A.T. special forces member Deunan Knute and her combat cyborg colleague Briareos at the city of Olympus after World War V

The films:
Appleseed Xiii Yuigon - Tartoros (In Japanese theatres now)
Appleseed Xiii Yogen - Ouranos (due for release Oct 24th)

The clip above a trailer for the first film

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Official website
Masamune Shirow Wallpaper
Masamune Shirow Wallpaper 2

Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society

Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society (2006) continues the adventures of the cast of Stand Alone Complex, the TV series based on Mamoru Oshii's watershed feature.

The Limited Edition includes a music CD and a second DVD of extras, among them notes on designing the futuristic vehicles in the film, and an interview with Mitsuhisa Ishikawa of Production I.G., all packaged in a metal box. (Rated 13 and older: violence, grotesque imagery)

Plot Details on Wikipedia (spoilers)

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(Limited Edition) available from Amazon.com

Voices of a Distant Star OVA

DVD Region 2 Europe, including France, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Arabia, Japan and South Africa

Voices of a Distant Star is a Japanese anime OVA by Makoto Shinkai. It chronicles a long-distance relationship between a teenage couple who communicate by sending emails via their mobile phones across interstellar space.

A teenager named Mikako Nagamine volunteers for the UN Space Army in a war against a group of aliens called the Tarsians. As a Special Agent, Mikako pilots a giant bipedal robot or mecha as part of a fighting squadron attached to the spacecraft carrier Lysithea.

Official Website
Wikipedia entry

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Available from Play-Asia.com

Blood The Last Vampire DVD

Blood: The Last Vampire (2000) is a Japanese anime film produced by animation studio Production I.G. and Sony's anime production arm, Aniplex. It was distributed across North America by Manga Entertainment. After the film's success as a cult hit, Sony and Production I.G built up a franchise around the film which involved games, novels, and a manga. Initially only released in Japan, the manga and novel have since seen a North American print in English.

A follow-up two-part PlayStation 2 game, produced by Sony's computer game production arm, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan, saw a Japanese-only release in 2000. It featured the same animation quality as the film, and a host of new characters. Due to the game being divided over two discs, retail sales were not as high as anticipated.

Essentially the film is a suspense/action thriller set in Japan during the fall of 1966, when the United States involvement in Vietnam has turned into a full scale conflict. The film features the story of a young girl named Saya: armed with a Japanese sword, she is sent by a mysterious "organization" to hunt down vampires that are hiding amongst the inhabitants of the Yokota U.S. Air Force Base - a small American enclave 30 km from Tokyo.
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Cowboy Bebop: Knockin on Heaven's Door DVD Movie

An animated feature length movie, based on the tv anime series.

A tanker truck is blown to smithereens in the middle of a busy street, and a deadly viral infection is released with the explosion. The Bebop crew - Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine, and Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV - are instantly after the culprit when the gargantuan reward of 300,000,000 woolongs is announced. But the case gets stranger and stranger as the cold-blooded Vincent Volaju, who supposedly has been dead for ten years, seems to be the prime suspect. Meanwhile, Spike encounters the dangerous Electra, who too seeks the madman. Conspiracies and secrets better left alone are uncovered, and Vincent's reign or terror is nowhere near over yet...
The movie takes place between episodes 22 and 23 of the TV series.

Running time 128 mins
Language English/Japanese
Subtitles English
DVD Region 1 encoding: US and Canada

Official Website

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