Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Media Blasters Hangs On - Licenses Ai No Kusabi Anime

In a bit of a surprise announcement, the folks at Media Blasters announced yesterday that they have licensed the Ai no Kusabi anime series. The four-episode remake series adapts Rieko Yoshihara's boys-love novels.  So they are still hanging on as a going concern.

Of course, history tells us to be wary of these summer announcements from them - Remember Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei? I hope they get it out though, MB is the only company left on the street that would try to license and release a Shonen Ai title like Kusabi.

They currently 'plan' to release Ai no Kusabi in December. Well see...

Ai no Kusabi Synopsis: The story is set in the future on the planet named Amoi which is controlled by a supercomputer named Jupiter. Among the mostly male human population, the light-haired elite class is allowed to temporarily keep the dark-haired "mongrels" as pets. One elite member, Iason, encounters a mongrel named Riki in the slums and decides to take him in. However, Iason keeps Riki longer than it is socially approved, and rumors abound about their possible relationship.

UPDATE: Media Blasters has also licensed the semi-adult title Aki Sora: Yume no Naka, which they will be releasing under the Kitty label. This is the first new adult license they have picked up in some time. No date or details for the release has been announced.

3 comments:

Harold said...

Yes, what happened to "Sayonara"?

Robert said...

Nothing happened with it - which was the problem. It was licensed summer of 2010 for a fall release, then it was delayed 2 or 3 times, and then never did end up getting published. MB backed out of it and never said why. Maybe they could not afford it at the time, or maybe they took another look at it and didn't think it would sell well enough to invest in further. Only Sarabella knows for sure.

Harold said...

Maybe there is a similar situation with "Ichigo 100%", which I personally think would be a fantastic asset to anyone's catalog.
Who knows? The more you study the process, it is amazing anything gets released at all :)