UK Anime & Manga Releases - 28/05/2012 to 03/06/2012

(Apart from being one day late) It's that time of the week again where we have a look at the new releases coming to you this week. Sorry for not putting this up over the weekend, I had to take our laptop in to get it repaired so I shall be attempting to post from my phone for the next week or two.

Quite a few releases this week, with quite an even spread of anime and manga releases. Although the releases that will overshadow everything else are the Bleach anime movies, all released today.

Without further ado, here are this weeks releases:

ANIME
Monday 28th May
Baka and Test: Summon the Beast - Complete Series 1
Clannad - Series 1 vol.1
Bleach Movies (1st, 2nd and 3rd)

MANGA
Tuesday 29th May
Fairy Tail - vol.19
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - vol.5
Puella Magi Madoka Magica - vol.1
Soul Eater - vol.9
Sumomomo, Momomo - vol.12
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - vol.12

Bleach Manga entering it's Final Arc

The Japanese Manga publication Weekly Shonen Jump have announced that the long-running manga series Bleach is about to enter it's final story arc.

The manga creator Tite Kubo has been drawing the manga since 2001, and as of writing have released 53 compiled manga volumes, the last being released in December 2011 in Japan. Viz Media, who publish the English version of the manga, will be releasing the 38th Volume of the manga next week.

Manga UK announces Anime Blu-Ray Cancellations

In a rather upsetting and unforeseen piece of news, MangaEntertainment UK have announced that quite a few popular series blu-ray releases are being cancelled. The affected series' are K-ON!, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. They have, however, announced that many other blu-ray titles will still be released as planned, and includes titles such as the first three spinoff Bleach movies (Memories of Nobody, The Diamond Dust Rebellion, and Fade to Black), Samurai Girls, and Mardock Scramble: The First Compression.

A Manga UK representative stated that the cancellations were purely economic, due to the costs of remastering and manufacturing the titles on to the blu-ray format. The representative also acknowledged that UK anime fans would be disappointed by the news, and that it had been a very hard decision to cancel these titles.

In a statement after this announcement Jerome Mazandarani, of Manga Entertainment UK, released this statement:

"I personally, fought to maintain these Blu-ray releases against stiff opposition from my superiors, but the commercial considerations of running a successful company overruled my objections about the damage to our brand's credibility should we not release these titles. In summary, I would say that while we have made a sensible commercial decision, we have created a situation that is alienating to a good deal many of you and I sincerely hope that over time we can make it up to you."