Otakon 2015 North American licensing announcement round-up

While we were beavering away at the MCM Manchester Comic Con, North America had a major event of its own in the form of Otakon 2015, and of course that event brought with it plenty of announcements across the spheres of anime, manga and light novels. What can we expect to see arriving in the US in the future, and how much of it will trickle through to the UK? Let's take a look at what Otakon brought to our attention.

FUNimation Entertainment

Starting out with anime, FUNimation Entertainment were the only distributor with anything new to talk about, with their most notable new title announcement being their acquisition of the Project Itoh films on home video. These three films - The Empire of Corpses, Genocidal Organ, and Harmony - are all based on sci-fi stories by Project Itoh himself, and arrive in Japanese cinemas across the final three months of 2015.

The company also picked up some intriguing older titles, as they announced that 2005 series Noein will be getting a Blu-ray release, while going back even further the company has also acquired Speed Racer, the original late 1960s series, which will similarly be getting a Blu-ray release.

Finally, the company confirmed that they have already acquired the second season of Assassination Classroom for North America prior to its 2016 airing.

Discotek Media

This distributor of classic anime series announced their plans to release 1976 series Gaiking, and 1987 Madhouse film Wicked City at unspecified dates, while The Super Dimension Century Orguss and Magic Knight Rayearth will be shipping in September and December respectively, and Samurai Pizza Cats will arrive on a single SD Blu-ray in October.

Vertical Comics

Things were rather busier on the manga front, starting with Vertical Comics, who announced their acquisitions of Mysterious Girlfriend X, to debut next spring in omnibus volumes, as well as Devil's Line and The God's Lie, with more details to follow on those latter titles.

Kodansha Comics

Publisher Kodansha Comics also had some new titles to show off, namely Leiji Matsumoto's 1978 series Queen Emerelas starting from July 2016, as well as tale of a cosplayer Complex Age from June 2016 and Forget Me Not from March of next year.

Viz Media

Similarly, Viz Media had some new titles to tout, with Inio Asano's Goodnight Pun Pun scheduled for 2016, Death Note art book Blanc et Noir picked up for a limited hardcover print run next year, and The Heiress and the Chauffeur finding its way onto the publisher's Shoujo Beat imprint from May 2016.

Sekai Project

Surprise of the show is Sekai Project's entry into the manga publishing business, as they unveiled that they will be releasing the manga adaptation of light novel series (and currently airing anime) GATE. We have no more details on their plans at this juncture, but watch this space!

The company isn't giving up its visual novel roots, of course, with Tenshin Ranman, Nenokami: The two princess knights of Kyoto, Witch Boy Magical Piece and Fault Milestone Two Side: Above all acquired for localisation and release. Fan disc Nekopara Volume 0 has also been announced, with confirmation that existing projects The Fruit of Grisaia and The Devil of G-String have now entered QA and Idol Magical Girl Chiru Chiru Michiru has completed QA and is now ready for release.

MangaGamer

Also in visual novels we have some new titles confirmed from MangaGamer, with their slate of additions consisting of Supipara Chapter 1, Tokyo Babel, The Shadows of Pygmalion, Kindred Spirits on the Roof and Princess Evangile W Happiness.