First New Announcements Coming In from Expo

Some pre-Expo announcements are already coming in. Here's the roundup so far (via my laptop on the road):

1) Funimation has announced that it has acquired the first season of the Sands of Destruction anime series (also known as World Destruction: Sekai Bokumetsu no Rokunin in Japan) from Sega of America. The 13-episode anime series ties into the story of the Sands of Destruction (World Destruction) role-playing game, which Sega will release for the Nintendo DS in Spring of 2010.

2) Funimation has also announced the English voice cast for its release of El Cazador de la Bruja:

Ellis - Maxey Whitehead
Nadie -Trina Nishimura
Blue-Eyes (AKA Jody Hayward) - Clarine Harp
Douglas Rosenberg - Ian Sinclair
Ricardo - Bob Carter
Lirio - Monica Rial
L.A. - Jamie McGonnigal
Dr. Heinz Schneider - Christopher Bevins


3) Nozomi Entertainment (aka Brand X) has announced that it has acquired the licenses to Aria the Origination (season 3 of Aria), Aria the OVA Arietta, Antique Bakery, and two seasons of the Junjou Romantica anime. Antique Bakery adapts Fumi Yoshinaga's manga about four men who run Antique, a quaint cafe that celebrates the small joys of life such as cake, and Junjo Romantica is based on Shungiku Nakamura's popular boys-love manga of the same name.

4) Just when you thought MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter were vampiring all of your time away, Funimation (who is desperately trying to find creative ways to monetize streaming Anime content - because they 'think' online will solve all of our 'shrinking market' problems) is launching a Social Networking site for Anime fans called Shodojo.com, billing the site as a community to offer "1000s of episodes to 1000s of friends". The website is currently in the beta stage, and considering Funi's previous online projects (remember AnimeOnline?), is unlikely to ever emerge from it. -_^

5)ADV has announced that they have aquired "Hokuto no Ken Raoh Gaiden: Ten no Haoh", which is from the Fist of the North Star franchise. John Ledford has licensed the title through his Sentai Filmworks division and then contracted it's release and distribution through his ADV Films division.

6) Central Park Media offered a final farewell message in an ad they placed in the Anime Expo program guide, which read as follows:

To all CPM Fans and Friends:
It has been a wonderful twenty years working to find great anime and manga to bring to the attention of American fandom. As the Bible says: To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted... Well, we've done our borning, planting, and plucking up and dying. We've had a ball doing it and getting to know many of you along the way. We thank all of you who have supported us in our endeavors, and we wish everyone all the best. And as one of our other favorite role models once wrote,'Nuff said!


Farewell CPM. We remember nostalgically when we were one of your only accounts who actually paid our bills on time...

...tell you the truth, we probably still are. -_^

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