At the recently concluded Anime Expo Geneon announced seven new licenses and highlighted current releases such as Yasuhiro Nightow's Gungrave, whose heavily armed protagonist (see picture) provided "security" at the Geneon booth. The current stiff competition for anime licenses can be seen in the fact that previous iterations of several of the series announced by Geneon have been distributed by other companies here in the States. Case in point, Saiyuki Gunlock and Saiyuki Reload, which Geneon announced, are sequels to the original 50-episode Saiyuki series released here by ADV. Likewise Geneon's Shin Getter Robo is the sequel to ADV's Shin Getter Robo.
Other new Geneon properties announced at Anime Expo include the Rumiko Takahashi Anthology TV, which includes 13 episodes based on stories from Takahashi's Rumic Theatre anthology manga, and the Mermaid Forest TV, which is essentially the second season of the Rumiko Takahashi Anthology TV. Mermaid Forest will be released in mid-2005 with the first season of the Rumiko Takahashi Anthology TV due out in January.
In December Geneon will release Popotan, a 12-episode comedy/drama about three sisters who live in a house that travels through time, and Earth Defense Family, a 13-episode series about an ordinary family charged with the difficult task of defending the earth from aliens. Earth Defense Family will be known as The Daichis here in the U.S.
Geneon also announced that the live action Tetsujin 28 (Gigantor) film will receive a theatrical release in 2005 with a DVD release following by three to six months.
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