When Romance Blooms, Blue Thermal Wants to Soar

Where this movie soars is with the obvious romance that’s developing between student and sempai. Blue Thermal is cute in a vintage 50s kind of way.

Blue Thermal Blu-Ray + DVD Slipcover
Available to view on Amazon Prime or to purchase.

Shout! Factory

Adapting any multi-volume manga series to a single film can be tough, and despite some narrative beats that don’t go too deep, Blue Thermal is relatively engaging. The explanation in the home video release offers insight to the changes, and overall, I didn’t mind how the lengthy tale got compressed.

Any story that involves aspiring to fly high and to achieve your dreams will always capture my interest. Although classic works like Macross Zero, Porco Rosso and Nausicaä set the bar, it’s tough to find new material that can live up to that.

Just where this film fits in is somewhere after the top five lists. I love the title song (YouTube link) and can listen to it all day! As for the tale, it’s not about what’s amazing with the sport of gliding. Instead, the movie is about headstrong Tsuru Tamaki (Mayu Hotta) wanting to fit in. This story is about her entering college life. She’s the type who dreams of white picket fences and meeting that cute boy who’ll sweep her off her feet. But being a freshman is tough at Aonagi University. After trying her hand at different clubs, she literally and accidentally lands into a sport she has no familiarity with.

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Deemo Memorial Keys Offers More Than Sublime Melodies

If anything, Deemo Memorial Keys is designed to put the music on the spotlight than present a straightforward tale.

Deemo Memorial Keys Blu-ray + DVD
Availble to pre-order on Amazon USA

Shout! Factory
Release Date: March 28, 2023

Anyone who has played Deemo, the rhythm music video game, will know how the animated movie Memorial Keys ends. This fact is not too detrimental as it fills in some narrative beats the original incarnation some gamers may feel didn’t get very deep on. Here, there’s more of a world that goes beyond what the game is about. The ideas SIGNAL.MD & Production I.G. presents lets us know that to experience everything music represents is also like therapy for the soul.

At first, I was just as curious as Sania and her friends about the new student with a mysterious past. They attend a music academy and for this girl whose talents outshines hers, trying to figure her out is tough.

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The Deets are Beautiful on DEEMO Memorial Keys Home Video Release

DEEMO Memorial Keys is directed by Shuhei Matsushita and Junichi Fujisaku serving as a general director.

DEEMO Memorial Keys
Available to preorder on Amason USA

Shout! Factory

DEEMO Memorial Keys is now a fully realised story! From the famed animation studios Production I.G. and Signal.MD comes the eagerly awaited feature film adaption inspired by the internationally acclaimed “DEEMO” rhythm video game, which has over 28 million downloads worldwide. Distinguished filmmakers and animators have collaborated to bring the fantastical and touching tale of Deemo and Alice to life.

Featuring visually stunning animation by Production I.G. and Signal.MD, DEEMO Memorial Keys is directed by Shuhei Matsushita (Fuse: Memoirs of a Huntress) with Junichi Fujisaku (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Blood franchise) as a general director. Yuki Kajiura, a prominent music composer and producer who has worked on the scores for multiple anime hits (Demon Slayer, Fate/Zero), created the film’s theme and image songs.

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Shout! Factory Dialed up the Tokusatsu ♡ with 2 Complete Series this Month!

This month brings Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger and Kamen Rider Ryuki to home video, courtesy of Shout! Factory.

Tokusatsu Series Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger on home video!
Available to order on Amazon USA

Shout! Factory

Before Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, there was Super Sentai! This original presentation consists of many series only a superfan of the Tokusatsu genre can make sense of. Not only do we have the (fill in this blank) type ranger titles, but also there’s Kamen Rider and Cyborg 009. They’re all part of the megaverse, a term I’d rather use than meta.

What’s offered started hitting Japanese airwaves in the mid-70s, and to know where everything crosses over means really remembering all that’s been broadcasted since. Thanks to Shout! Factory for providing me with the releases lately, and they’re definitely shows I’m proud to play for my young nieces and nephews in hopes they’ll become fellow otakus.

First, I’ll look at what’s released this week and work backwards:

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Blue Thermal Promises to Fly High in March!

Blue Thermal will make its home entertainment debut on Blu-ray and digital download from Eleven Arts and Shout! Factory, following its theatrical release.

blue thermal
Available to preorder on Amazon USA

Shout Factory
March 14, 2023

From the renowned animation powerhouse Telecom Animation Film (Lupin III movies, Orange) and director Masaki Tachibana (Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, Princess Principal, Barakamon) comes a captivating new anime adventure, Blue Thermal.

Produced by Telecom Animation Film, this movie directed by Tachibana from a screenplay written by Tachibana and Natsuko Takahashi (Farewell, My Dear Cramer), is the long-awaited feature film adaptation of author and creator Kana Ozawa’s popular manga series which ran in Shinchosha’s Monthly Comic @Bunch Magazine for many years before being published in five book volumes.

This artful and beautiful coming-of-age movie captures the tension and excitement of a young college student who joins the school’s aviation club flying for the first time, as well as the beauty and exhilaration of the aerial scenery as seen from the pilot’s seat. The film’s theme song “Blue Thermal” and the song “Beautiful Bird” are performed by the popular Japanese piano rock band SHE’S.

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