Yawara Licensed

[Ender]

Ara ra,

This news probably won't mean as much to most people as it does to old-schoolers, but I just thought this is further proof than in the anime licensing world, never say never...

After a contest run on some other anime site ( the name escapes me at this moment, must be one of those small, fan-run sites :P ), AnimEigo bought the rights to 1989's Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl!.

Based on the popular manga series by Urasawa (Monster, Master Keaton) Naoki, Yawara! tells the story of a young girl who is trained by her grandfather to be a judo champion...or something like that, last time I saw this show it was in Italian. In it's native Japan, the show had a time-slot that was right after Ranma 1/2, and between the two shows Yawara! actually got the higher ratings.

I just thought this would be interesting to discuss. Such as, this is AnimEigo's first license since 2001. Do you think AnimEigo will release all 124 episodes? Will they peter out? How long will it take to release all the discs? Could more old-school anime be coming our way? Will Rose of Versailles finally see a stateside release!?

I'm all ears. ^_^

-Prof. Ender

[Kuzu Ryu Sen]

AnimEigo still has money?!

[Ender]

Ara ra,

AnimEigo still has money?!

Unfortunately, the president of the company had his kidney sold in order to bring us this anime. This is why it took so long to license another anime; recovering from hospital testings is very serious business. ^_^

-Prof. Ender

[Zushio]

HOLY CRAP!
Seriously, this is awesome, I mean wow. I never in a million years saw this coming, but holy sweet crap. I've seen a couple of episodes, and read a bit of the manga, and as an Urasawa fanboy this is great news for me.

Also, other than the Monster manga, this is his first work available domestically. (Okay well Pineapple Army and Master Keaton are available, but he only did the art, not the story.)

[Lupin the 3rd]

Im glad that animeigo finally licensed a good older anime title. I was actually about considering downloading this anime a few days back because it sounded intresting, but since this series is getting license, there would be no point! ;)

I hope animeigo could license other older anime like Future Boy conen and Rose of Versailles. But only time will tell if those titles will ever get license.

[soundchazer]

FINALLY!!!!

* soundchazer does the happy happy joy joy dance.

[Starwind Amada]

I thought this company went under after losing Macross.

[Kaioshin_Sama]

Wow I love it when every once in a while something old, classic and good makes it through the tide of crap licenses flooding the country (mostly because of ADV).

[Mana]

Ever since I saw their release of Urusei Yatsura (which, if I ever win the lottery, I am SO hunting down all of the DVDs), I was all <3 for AnimeEigo. I can't understand how they make any money at all sometimes, but they've done a lot of stuff for fans, and give their shows good treatment. I have no doubts that they'll release all of the episodes... unless they go bankrupt between beginning and end.

I remember hearing about Yawara a while back, and looking for it, and not finding anything, and giving up. Sadly, that's about all I know about the series, but now if I can find the funds, I'm tempted to pick it up, because I always wanted to see it, and also to support Eigo, since they need it.

As for a liscence of Rose of Versailles, Eigo's one of the few companies I'd wager would bring it over. I won't hold my breath, but I won't give up hope either.

[Perrin]

This makes me very happy. I was following the fansub of this show because I thought it would never get released. It also gets my hopes up that Monster might be released sometime. I hope they put a decent number of episodes per disk, if not it will take forever to get the whole series.

[Rove]

As if having Yawara licensed wasn't enough good news, the first set will contain 40 episodes, according to AnimEigo's Fall update (http://www.animeigo.com/PDF/2006-10-Catalog.pdf). No date has been set for this release (apart from saying 'Early 2007' on their .pdf page). News from AnimeOnDVD.

Honestly, this makes me love AnimEigo even more than I already do, and wonder how the hell they stay in business. Sure, this 40-episode box set will not be cheap, but still. I wasn't expecting them to release Yawara in 3 to 5 episodes per disc every given number of months either, but damn, 40 episodes in one go. This probably means that they will release the whole series in three 40 episodes box sets, considering that the series is 124 episodes long, not counting movies.

[Emeraldas]

Let's hope this trend continues. I'd love to see other titles like Angel's Egg, Doraemon and Galaxy Express 999 get the same treatment.

[soundchazer]

Let's hope this trend continues. I'd love to see other titles like Angel's Egg, Doraemon and Galaxy Express 999 get the same treatment.

I would like to see that too, but honestly, after thinking about it a bit, I came to the conclusion that this was a safer bet as far as old series go, because they can always put "from the acclaimed creator of Monster and Master Keaton" as part of their publicity, which will mean more sales.

I would love to see Ie Naki Ko, Candy Candy or Rose of Versailles on DVD too. (Galaxy Express 999 is an excellent choice too).

[Emeraldas]

I would like to see that too, but honestly, after thinking about it a bit, I came to the conclusion that this was a safer bet as far as old series go, because they can always put "from the acclaimed creator of Monster and Master Keaton" as part of their publicity, which will mean more sales.

Yeah, I agree. Even the creator of GE999, with all the works he has under his belt, wouldn't stir too much recognition from today's anime crowd.

[Ari]

I'm really interested in seeing this anime. I enjoy the sports genre and I practice judo, so its a nice fit topically... What have people who've already seen it thought of it?