The Fafner series is old news and was originally published by Geneon in 2005. Geneon went under in 2008, but the old Fafner DVD's have pretty much remained. Ditan had tens of thousands of unsold copies left in their warehouse when Geneon bit it, so the series hasn't ever really been scarce, even after all this time. The film, on the other hand, only came out a year ago and a US release is most welcome. It's quite good.
The Oblivion Island film came out in Japan a couple years ago and is 100% 3D CGI. It won a bunch of awards, and is really excellent. It comes HIGHLY recommended by me, which as you know, I hardly ever do. It's just too bad Funi still has A HUGE lag time between announce and publish, and probably won't get it out on the street until around this time next year.
Fafner TV Series: Tatsumiyajima is the central island in the middle of a small cluster of islands, in a sleepy backwater of the Japanese isles. Not much happens there, and the island's young people go to school knowing that their lives are likely to remain peaceful and undisturbed. Or so they have been taught... but the truth is different. The fate of mankind is on the line, and Tatsumiyajima is the last line of defense against a hostile and incomprehensible enemy. At the center of it all, fighting for Humanity's continued existence, is the giant robot Fafner, the dragon that guards this final treasure of mankind.
Sokyu no Fafner: Dead Aggressor, Heaven and Earth: Two years after the end of the original Soukyuu no Fafner TV series, Tatsumiya Island and its surviving residents have returned to some semblance of recovery. However, things have become desperate for our hero, Kazuki; nearly blind now, and partially crippled from his battles with the Festum two years earlier, he clings to the promise his fallen friend Soushi made to him to return to the island and set things right again. Kazuki's hopes flare when a lifeform is detected within an unmanned submarine that comes floating into Tatsumiya Bay one night, but the person aboard isn't Soushi; it is a mysterious "boy" named Misao Kurusu who may not be entirely human, and who claims to have been sent by Soushi. With Misao's arrival, hostilities break out anew between the Human Army and the Festum, and the Fafner pilots are thrown into the most desperate battle of their lives--this time, with the fate of TWO races riding on their shoulders.
Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror Film: Haruka is a single daughter who lost her mother at a young age because of terminal illness. She continued to live with her father after that but time and the fact that her father is always busy with his work has created an emotional distance between them. When her mother was still alive, she received a hand mirror from her as a present and she treasured it a lot. After her mother's death, she started to forget about the mirror until she eventually lost it. One day, she decides to go to a local shrine and pray for the return of her lost mirror. It is there that she accidentally encounters a small masked creature which she secretly follows to the land of forgotten items.
