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Sony USA to Offer Kurozuka, Ultraviolet, Viper's Creed DVDs
posted on by Egan Loo
Sony Pictures reports that it will release the television anime series Kurozuka, Ultraviolet: Code 044, and Viper's Creed on DVD in the United States on December 4. The company lists each release as "the complete first season," although each of the three anime series ran for one season with 12 episodes. (Sony Pictures' listed running time for Viper's Creed, 279 minutes, corresponds to the anime's entire run.)
Sony Pictures has been offering Made-on-Demand DVD-R releases for many live-action and animated titles in its catalog. Sony's Crackle service has been streaming Kurozuka, Ultraviolet: Code 044, and Viper's Creed in the United States.
In 2008, director Tetsuro Araki (Aoi Bungaku Series, Death Note, Highschool of the Dead) and the anime Studio Madhouse adapted Takashi Noguchi's 2002-2006 Kurozuka manga. The manga, in turn. adapted a supernatural action novel by Baku Yumemakura (Onmyoji, The Summit of the Gods, Amon Saga, Garoden).
The story follows a 12th-century man named Kurō, who was inspired by the real-life historical figure Minamoto no Yoshitsune. Kurō flees into the mountains after losing to his brother Minamoto no Yoritomo — the first Shogun to rule all of Japan. History records that he committed suicide, but instead, Kurō meets a strange, beautiful woman named Kuromitsu in her mountain hermitage. Eventually, Kurō falls in love with Kuromitsu, but then realizes she conceals a dark secret. He learns that he is unable to die and continues to live for a thousand years as Japan evolves into a future society.
The 2008 12-episode Ultraviolet: Code 044 anime adapted Kurt Wimmer's 2006 live-action Ultraviolet film which starred Milla Jovovich. The late director Osamu Dezaki (Ashita no Joe, Aim for the Ace!, Rose of Versailles) worked with the anime studios Madhouse and Tezuka Productions on this project. Romi Park (Fullmetal Alchemist's Ed, NANA's Nana Osaki) voiced the main character "044," a female warrior genetically engineered with high combat skills and ordered by the government to annihilate a vampire army. Sony Music Entertainment had hinted in 2009 that the anime would be coming to the United States "soon."
Shinji Aramaki (Megazone 23 Part III, Appleseed films, Halo Legends, Starship Troopers: Invasion) served as the chief director of the Viper's Creed television anime series at the studio AIC Spirits. The 2009 12-episode anime is set in the middle of the 21st century and revolves around the members of a private military company (PMC) equipped with transforming motorcycle/powered suits. There is uneasy tension between the PMC and the regular military, as they deal with terrorism and the aftermath of a war that caused massive environmental destruction.
Thanks to Daniel Zelter for the news tip.
[Via The Digital Bits]
Images © Baku Yumemakura, Takashi Noguchi/Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan) Inc.
© 2008 Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan) Inc.
© Viper's Creed
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