TOKYOPOP Inks Samurai Girl - Real Bout High School Anime Series and Announces New Manga Titles at Comic-Con
Date: Thursday, July 19, 2001Hot new Gonzo series is latest addition to TOKYOPOP® Anime line; TOKYOPOP®
Manga continues licensing rampage with Ragnarok and Kare Kano
SAN DIEGO-7/19/01-Stuart Levy, CEO of TOKYOPOP, was joined by Koji Miyajima
of Pony Canyon for the contract signing of Samurai Girl - Real Bout High
School as the latest addition to TOKYOPOP's anime line at Comic-Con on
Thursday. Pony Canyon arranged the US license of Gonzo Studio's off-kilter
martial-arts television series to TOKYOPOP® Anime.
Samurai Girl - Real Bout High School is set in a school where everybody
knows martial arts, and no one is afraid to use them. The series is slated
to premiere in Japan on July 30, and is the latest project of Gonzo Studios,
which is renowned for the outstanding production quality of their titles
including Blue Submarine No. 6, Vandread and Gatekeepers. In addition,
Samurai Girl - Real Bout High School reteams the creators of Gatekeepers,
director Shinichii Tokairin (Street Fighter), character designer Keiji Gotoh
(Martian Successor Nadesico, Sorcerer Hunters and Those Who Hunt Elves) and
screenwriter Aya Matsui (Dragonball and Marmalade Boy).
Actress Ikue Kimura, who voices the lead character in the original Japanese
version of the series, was also present for the signing. Kimura's character,
Ryoko, is an elite fighter who is willing to take on any of her classmates
to prove herself. Based on the series of novels by Saiga Reiji and graphic
novels by Sora Inoue both published by Kadokawa, Gonzo has served up a
tongue-in-cheek production that showcases their impeccable animation and
character designs a work of spin-kicking action.
"Though many of the details are still under wraps until the show airs in
Japan," said Levy prior to the press conference, "I'm prepared to say that
Samurai Girl is Gonzo's next big hit, and a great addition to TOKYOPOP®
Anime. Gonzo's work is second to none, and they have a great, original,
though off-beat, take on martial arts and real-fighting."
TOKYOPOP® Manga announced two more titles to its rapidly growing line with
Kare Kano - He Says/She Says, a new addition to the acclaimed girls manga
anthology, SMILE, and the Korean manga, Ragnarok: Into the Abyss.
Ragnarok (or "the end of the world" in Norse Mythology) expands on the ideas
of genre twisting role-playing games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest
with outstanding character designs by series creator Myoung-Jin Lee. With an
emphasis on kinetic story telling, the series features a shifting ensemble
of swordsman and sorcerers as they face a bizarre host of enemies, unique in
design to the Ragnarok world. Ragnarok, will be the second Korean title
released from TOKYOPOP® Manga after the premiere of the horror series Island
this August.
In Masami Tsuda's Kare Kano, which debuts in SMILE in early 2002, Yukino
Miyazawa is the model student - smart, attractive, athletic and friendly -
she's at the top of her class. That is until she enters high school and
finds herself ranked second behind the even more perfect Arima Souichiro.
While she may look like she's handling the competition like a lady, secretly
she's plotting his downfall, but their rivalry takes on a new twist when
Arima reveals that he's in love with her.
About TOKYOPOP
TOKYOPOP, a division of Mixx Entertainment, Inc., is a market leader of
character-based entertainment from the creative hotbed of Japan and the
surrounding Asian region. Founded in 1996, TOKYOPOP has exclusive rights to
a range of popular properties and releases a growing line of publishing,
film, and music products. With over 2 million publications in print,
TOKYOPOP's publishing line includes several books based on popular cartoon
characters enjoyed by millions of fans, such as Sailor Moon, Gundam Wing and
more. Through its DVD and VHS labels, TOKYOPOP® High Voltage Video and
TOKYOPOP® Anime, TOKYOPOP is bringing Japanese pro wrestling and anime to
the rapidly expanding audience of US fans. In music, TOKYOPOP® Soundtrax is
a market leader in video game and anime soundtracks from titles such as
FFIX, Tekken Tag Tournament and Resident Evil Code: Veronica X. Find out the
latest at www.TOKYOPOP.com.
