Asian Blu-ray Guide Contributor AnimeOnBlu just reported that Well Go USA will release Mamoru Oshii’s Assault Girls not only on DVD (as mentioned here) but also on Blu-ray Disc on October 19th. So Oshii fans have the chance to get their Girls with Guns kick with English subtitles for cheap if they don’t want to import the Japanese release.
My copy of the Japanese limited edition Blu-ray Disc arrived a few days ago and will be the subject of my next Blu-ray Disc Spotlight.
Pre-order Mamoru Oshii’s Assault Girls on Blu-ray Disc at Amazon.com

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Good news for those who’d like to take a closer look at Mamoru Oshii’s Assault Girls without importing the Japanese DVD or Blu-ray Disc that will be released next week on June 23rd.
Nippon Cinema reports that Well Go USA has acquired the US rights for Oshii’s Girls with Guns flick starring Meisa Kuroki, Rinko Kikuchi and Hinako Saeki, and will release it on R1 DVD on October 19th.
This release is supposed to include English subtitles for the Engrish dialogues. Although Well Go USA has already released several titles on Blu-ray Disc, no high definition release has been announced this time.

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Fans of heavily armed and armored girls rejoice! Geneon Entertainment Japan has announced to release Assault Girls, Mamoru Oshii’s quasi-sequel to Avalon on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on June 23, 2010 in standard and special collector’s editions. The latter will include a bonus disc with a bunch of promotion material, the ‘prequels’ to Assault Girls, Assault Girl (Oshii’s segment for True Female Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters, click here to watch) and Assault Girl 2 (taken from the Kiru ~ KILL omnibus), a 92-page storyboard script written by Oshii and an enhanced booklet (16 pages instead of just four).
None of these editions will include English subtitles, but according to some theatrical reviews the films dialogues are all in Eng(l/r)ish anyway. Hopefully our sweet girls had access to better vocal coaches than those cowboys in Takashi Miike’s Sukiyaki Western Django…
[via @wildgrounds]

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Twitch’s Todd has posted a first (?) poster artwork and a full synopsis for Mamoru Oshii’s Assault Girls that will open in Japan on December 19th.

The story takes place in an in-game virtual space called “Avalon”, a barren desert-like battlefield, resembling a devastated world after a nuclear war. “Avalon” is a world full of gigantic monsters. It is a fictional world where an endless “hunt”, known as “play”, repeatedly takes place. The drama centers around a sniper who pilots a camouflage fighter plane; a sorcerer who can freely transform herself; a woman fighter equipped with an assault rifle on a horseback; and a large-framed man equipped with an anti-tank rifle. There is also the “Game Master” who watches the players from the air.

In a world where giant Sunakujira (Sand Whales) monsters crawl the earth, storming battleships fly high up in the sky, and assault rifle muzzle flashes go off everywhere, can anyone shoot down the mutant monster, Madara Sunakujira (Spotted Sand Whale)? If so, who?!

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The official website for Mamoru Oshii’s Assault Girls has been updated with the full theatrical trailer that shows us some more of…well everything! More Meisa Kuroki, Rinko Kikuchi and Hinako Saeki, more (Engrish) dialogues and more of those mediocre CG effects. But to be honest, the latter doesn’t bother me at all when it comes to a new Oshii project…especially if the girls are real and armoured

[via Nippon Cinema]

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I just knew it, nobody beats Nippon Cinema when it comes to teaser and trailers for Japanese films. While the good guys from HK Mania “only” posted some teasing screenshots from the first teaser trailer for Mamoru Oshii’s Assault Girls exactly one month ago, Kevin managed to find the teaser in full motion glory!

And yes, the effects look like crap, but come on…three pretty and armored girls named Gray, Lucifer and Colonel fighting giant sand whales? You don’t see stuff like this every day!
[via Nippon Cinema]

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Our good friends at HK Mania discovered a first trailer for Mamoru Oshii’s Assault Girls on the just released Japanese DVD of Kiru ~ Kill. While they didn’t upload the trailer itself (yet?), they were kind enough to post a bunch of screencaps from the video. I just love girls in tight armour…

Visit the HK Mania forum for all screencaps.

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ANN has posted some new/first details for Mamoru Oshii’s upcoming live-action film Assault Girls. According to Hollywood Channel and Cinema Today, the long version of Oshii’s Assault Girl 2 short from the Kiru ~ KILL omnibus will open in Japan on December 19th. The film is set on a desert planet that has been devastated by giant monsters called Suna Kujira (sand whales). For reasons yet unknown, three female hunters played by Meisa Kuroki, Rinko Kikuchi and Hinako Saeki visit the planet to hunt down the most dangerous sand whale there is, the Madara Suna Kujira (spotted sand whale) using assault rifles and other weapons.
Even though the films is getting released pretty soon, only one photo that makes one of the Assault Girls (Meisa Kuroki) look like an amazing mix of Casshern and Oshii’s Avalon has been released so far.

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Geneon Japan will release the Kiru ~ KILL omnibus of sword-fighting climaxes featuring episodes from Ghost in the Shell director Mamoru Oshii, Takanori Tsujimoto, Kenta Fukasaku and Makoto Tahara on July 24, 2009.
As expected from Geneon, the 82 minutes long anthology will be released as a Standard DVD and Special Collector’s Edition DVD set. The latter comes with two bonus DVDs full of interviews, trailers, extra footage, making-of documentaries, a replica of a theatrical pamphlet and a “deluxe” guide booklet. The only thing missing are, just as expected, English subtitles…
For those of you who have already forgotten about the project, here’s the latest (and first) trailer for Kiru ~ KILL:

[via @wildgrounds]

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Auf der Website zum diesjährigen Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) gibt es den ersten Trailer zu ~KILL~, der Kurzfilmsammlung über Showdowns die mit Schwertern (und anderen Dingen) ausgetragen werden, zu sehen. Neben Ghost in the Shell Regisseur Mamoru Oshii sind Takanori Tsujimoto, Kenta Fukasaku und Makoto Tahara mit jeweils einer Episode beteiligt. Oshii’s Episode Assault Girl 2 erinnert dank der verwendeten Farbpalette stark an Avalon, düfte aber aufgrund der offenbar nichtmenschlichen Natur der Kämpferinnen noch einiges an Überraschungen zu bieten. Erfreulicherweise scheinen auch die anderen Regisseure sich schonmal vorab von den Grenzen der Physik verabschiedet zu haben.

[via Twitch]

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