License Line: Movie Night

What is License Line? Put simply, it's a semi-regular feature on Nagareboshi Reviews in which yours truly posts about a certain anime/manga series that truly, desperately needs to be licensed and put on my shelves ASAP - from the obscure but well-deserving manga to the stream worthy but not yet DVD licensed anime.

It seems than when it comes to licensing anime, films kind of get lost in the dust of actual TV serfies unless they are part of an established franchise - Bleach, Full Metal Alchemist, Fate/Stay Night, and so on. Recently, there's been a rise in stand-alone films being licensed which is great! But I think we can do better. After all, a lot of anime fans got sucked into anime through film - Macross Plus and Ghost In The Shell and Akira are three of the essential titles that turned me to the otaku side.

Below are some anime films worth bringing over. Get cracking, anime companies! Maiden Japan? Funimation? Anybody?

Houkago Midnighters/After School Midnighters from Studio Koo-Ki.

Mako, Miko, and Mutsuko are three young girls visiting St. Claire Elementary, a school filled with strange legends. They have an abrupt encounter with Kunstrijk, a human body anatomy model, and Goth, a skeleton model. Both haunt the soon-to-be-demolished science room. Seeking revenge for being vandalized by the three girls, Kunstrijk invites them to the school's midnight party in order to scare them. Together, the five go on a quest to collect three mythical medals that can grant a wish and hopefully save the science room. (Source: ANN)



2012 Young Animator Training Project

Four anime works that each received 38 million yen (about US$480,000) from the "2012 Young Animator Training Project." Just like in 2010 and 2011, the animation labor group received 214.5 million yen (US$2.65 million) from the Japanese government's Agency for Cultural Affairs, and it distributed most of those funds to studios who train young animators on-the-job.

(Yes, technically Little Witch Academia - one of the four films in this group - has been licensed. But I want them all!)

Sweat Punch

A series of five Studio 4°C shorts collected as a direct-to-DVD package film entitled Deep Imagination. (Source: MAL)

Pale Cocoon

A future where the continuity of history has broken off, a world of enormous ruins that continues endlessly. Oceans and continents have vanished, existing only within the archives brought up from the remains. Ura works in the Archive Excavation Department, which restores and analyzes the data left behind. One day, he finds a disturbing visual record...  (Source: ANN)


Okay, I've got a lot off atypical choices but I think they're all winners. What anime film do you think deserves to be licensed?