Discotek Licenses Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer, Lupin III and More!

YatsuraBeautifulDreamerBy James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)

Discotek Media announced today their upcoming Japanese anime releases during their panel at Otakon in Baltimore, Maryland. Among some of the titles announced are Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer, Lupin III: Island of Assassins, Captain Harlock: Arcadia of My Youth, and Chargeman Ken.

Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer was the 2nd feature outing for characters based off the Urusei Yatsura manga series by Rumiko Takahashi. Written and directed by Mamoru Oshii, Beautiful Dreamer was ranked number 38 on a list of the top 100 anime by Animage Magazine and was number 9 of the Top 50 Anime Released in North America by Wizard’s Anime Magazine. Beautiful Dreamer will be released on DVD and Blu-ray with both English sub and dub available. The The dubs were pulled from the original master tapes. According to Discotek, the subs are to get a new “polish”. Extras are to be announced at a later date.

Captain Harlock: Arcadia of My Youth was different version of the retelling of Leiji Matsumoto’s Space Pirate Captain Harlock television series. Arcadia was also the last role of acclaimed Japanese actor Yujiro Ishihara before his death at 52 years old. Discotek’s Arcadia will be released on DVD and Blu-ray and will be from the Japanese master. The dub however is extremely old and is from the international Vengeance of the Space Pirate version. Vengeance was previously released by Celebrity Home Entertainment under the “Just for Kids” banner. But according to Discotek the edited version of Arcadia has the best master available. Extras are to be announced at a later date but what has been revealed is the Japanese trailers will be included in the release.

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Discotek Gives Obscure Anime Second Chance at North American Market

MissMachikoBy James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)

Discotek Media is looking to muscle in on North America’s tight anime market by offering a new streaming service that will see anime that was a major hit in Japan, but never saw licensing across the Atlantic, get a second chance. This means older anime series like Yaiba!, High School Kimengumi, Candy Candy, and the ever popular Dragon Quest (based off the Japanese video game series) could find a whole new audience. Discotek will offer the anime in a subtitled format with the possibility of releasing such series on DVD should there be enough demand.

The first series Discotek will make available will be Studio Perriot’s Miss Machiko, based off the manga by Takeshi Ebihara. Originally serialized in Shōnen Challenge from 1980 – 82 Machiko debuted as a animated series a year and a half later on TV Tokyo. It ran for a total of 95 episodes:

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