These are the titles (and some various information) requested by the people at Show 5:
Series
Baccano! (TV) - a series of intersecting vignettes (think Sin City) covering supernatural stuff like immortal alchemists down to mafia-run speakeasies from the 1930s.
Likelihood of being shown: Okay, but not soon. No one's picked up the license over here. If there's enough interest, we'll see about finding someone to contact about bringing it through as an R2 show.
Gunbuster (
1? 2?) (OAV) - a couple of short series (6 eps at 30, 27mins respectively) with mechs and girls. Gunbuster 1 is a 1988-1989 vintage series whereas Gunbuster 2 is a recent 2004-2006 sequel.
Likelihood of being shown: Not too bad. We can show them both in one term, we're a little low on mecha series at the moment, and both should be easy to find on this side of the Pacific (Geneon release). Also, there's "The GATTAI! Movie" which is sorta like the first Armitage III movie in that it's an abbreviated look at both OAVs.
Noein - to your other self (TV) - A 24 episode series with time travel, saving the universe, and possibly cool mechs/items. The boxed set was just released by Manga Entertainment in January.
Likelihood of being shown: Not too bad. It's a full-length series, so we may not want to start it in the Summer. Manga is sometimes hard to get a hold of, but if we play our cards right they may send the club the boxed set for free.
Witchblade (TV) - A 24 episode series with scantily clad women, violence, and blood. Recent, well-rated, will be completely released (6 DVDs) by FUNimation by the end of April.
Likelihood of being shown: Not too bad. Again, starting a full-length series in Summer is not something we go for (we don't like having frosh feel like they're appearing in the middle of something), but we can get over it. FUNimation is amazingly easy to get permissions from (If any Operation Anime staff are reading this, keep up the good work!), and from what I hear it's popular enough that we ought to be able to find it easily enough.
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (TV) - A 25 episode mecha/alternate future/war series where the protagonist gets the ability to put people under a geas (like a magically-enforced obligation... it makes people obey him). Rated very well, production qualities look high (CLAMP for character designs + Sunrise for production).
Likelihood of being shown: High, but not this term, since it's been licensed but not released (and there are no release dates on the website). Since it's been licensed, the Japanese company won't give us a go-ahead, and since it's not been released, we could, at best, hope for a pre-release set of screener discs from Bandai... and though it's happened before, I don't know if we can count on it happening again. Look for this one next year.
Genshiken (OAV) - A quick 3 episode continuation of Genshiken, an anime series about an anime club. I mean, how much more perfect could that premise be for CTRL-A? Dude! Plus, there's a 12-episode TV sequel to this sequel: Genshiken 2.
Likelihood of being shown: Extremely high, but not next term. Media Blasters holds the license and there's no evidence of a release date on their terribly designed website.
Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE (TV) - One of CLAMP's more recent adaptations (along with Code Geass) is this 52-episode magic/mystic series that takes Syaoran Lee and Sakura (from Card Captor Sakura) through other CLAMP Universes (from X, xxxHolic, Chobits, and possibly even Magic Knights Rayearth) to meet characters from them and search for Sakura's lost memories.
Likelihood of being shown: Not too bad. Completely released (FUNimation) I know of someone who has the discs. Rated highly, CLAMP's a crowd pleaser...
Koi Kaze (TV) - A 13-episode sad-romance about a Wedding Planner who just can't find romance for himself. Rated quite highly, popular, recent-ish (2003-ish)
Likelihood of being shown: Not too bad. Completely released (Geneon), should be easy to find. Might not be a crowd pleaser, so it may see play in one of the more specialized Shows.
Movies
5 Centimetres Per Second - A 1-hour collection of 3 semi-unrelated short films about distance and emotion. Same guy who did Voices of a Distant Star and A Place Promised in Our Early Days, I've been meaning to watch this for a while. It was just released by ADV in early March.
Likelihood of being shown: Excellent. An anticipated title with an easy-to-schedule length from a distributor that is easy to work with. The matter is just 'when' we show it, not 'whether'.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - 98 min - What the title says, this movie is about a Girl who can literally jump backwards through time to change things. The movie deals with the repercussions of changing history and what it means to her friends.
Likelihood of being shown: Excellent... if it wasn't for Bandai dithering on whether or not to have a theatrical run in 2008 prior to a DVD release. It was shown at last year's WFAC off of a 35mm print, but we don't have the technology to display that. We'll keep plying our sources, don't you worry, to get this as soon as we can.
Appleseed: Ex Machina - 105 min - A sequel to the groundbreaking 3D-CGI-anime film "Appleseed", it revisits many of the same themes of humanity and robotics (it's a Masamune Shirow work, so we coulda guessed that (he's the Ghost in the Shell guy)) and takes place in the same universe.
Likelihood of being shown: Excellent. The first movie was a crowd pleaser and this one is rated even better. It has been released by Warner Bros. (dubbing c/o ADV) so there's gonna be an interesting permissions situation (though according to the copyright board, Criterion does WB in Canada and FedS has a site license), but as an upside, it's seen a Blu-Ray release so we'll be able to show it in Hi-Def!
