These works will be released during the month of May:
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland
Welcome to the fantasy where dreams of enchanted lands and new friends take young Nemo into an exciting, fun-filled adventure through Slumberland. On one unforgettable night, Nemo falls asleep in his usual resistant manner. Soon, with the help of his flying pet squirrel Icarus and his friend Professor Genius, they journey together into Slumberland. What most fans don’t know is that the production took nearly a decade to complete, and along the way attracted screenplay drafts from Ray Bradbury and Chris Columbus before the final version landed.
Robot Carnival (4K UHD, BD)
Crawling across a desiccated landscape, Robot Carnival comes barreling its way onto 4K Ultra HD for the first time! A visual treat for the eyes as well as the mind, Robot Carnival is an anthology collection of nine short films, many directed by Japan’s top animators before they were famous. From funny to dramatic, artistic to entertaining, each story reaches towards the furthest corners of time and space to bring you a tale of robots and the people who make them.
Whether you have a love for great hand-drawn animation, an appreciation for fine storytelling, or just like robots, this anthology is a must! Worth noting: Katsuhiro Otomo, fresh off the cultural shockwave of Akira, directed the bookend sequences, while other contributors like Hiroyuki Okiura would later go on to make Jin-Roh.
Urusei Yatsura Movies
Although this set of releases does not include the second film, no fan of Rumiko Takahashi may want to pass up picking up this partial set. The reason Beautiful Dreamer sits out this collection is telling: director Mamoru Oshii pushed his vision so far beyond Takahashi’s intent that she effectively had him removed from the franchise, a creative clash that quietly set the template for how manga creators and anime directors would butt heads for decades afterward. To be released are individual discs covering Only You, Lum the Forever, Remember My Love, The Final Chapter, and Always My Darling.
Urusei Yatsura OVA Series Collection
And while everyone is waiting, no collection can be complete without the shorter narratives that spotlight the shenanigans of Lum and the gang. They are like one-shots which consider some minor adventure. Several of these OVAs were originally bundled with manga volumes or released as retail tie-ins, making them early examples of anime used as a direct marketing tool for print media.
On the list are: Inaba the Dreammaker, Raging Sherbet, Nagisa’s Fiancé, The Electric Household Guard, I Howl at the Moon, Goat and Cheese, Catch the Heart, Terror of Girly-Eyes Measles, Date with a Spirit, and The Obstacle Course Swim Meet.
Ghost Stories
When nearby construction disturbs a spiritual resting place, its disgruntled denizens do what any supernatural being would do after a rude awakening: they terrorize the local school. That means it’s up to a scruffy band of young ghost hunters to expel their satanic schoolmates before everyone gets sent to permanent detention! Meet Satsuki, her cry baby brother, the resident class stud, the school nerd and “psychical researcher,” a born again beauty, and a resentful, demon-possessed cat in the funniest, scariest school you’ve ever enrolled in.
The original Japanese series actually performed modestly at best, which is why the licensor gave ADV Films almost complete freedom to rewrite the dub however they wanted as long as the character names and basic plot beats stayed intact. The result became one of the most beloved gag dubs in anime history.