Toku Week In Review (6/23/2014)

As I was waiting for my download of Awesomenauts to finish on Steam (let me know in the comments if you'd like to be friends), I was looking through my blog here and realized something. It has been one year to the day that I posted an entry in the "Toku Week In Review" series I used to do.

So what better way to celebrate one full year without a post than with a new post? It's time once again for your weekly breakdown on everything that happened in the world of tokusatsu over the last week.

KOICHI SAKAMOTO TO PRODUCE AND DIRECT BRAND-NEW TOKUSATSU SERIES

This past week at the 2014 Licensing Expo in Las Vegas, the ever-busy tokusatsu director Koichi Sakamoto unveiled a new series: GUNBLADE. The series will be a co-production with the South Korean production company A mate Inc. (specifically a subsidiary called Gunblade Industry SPC) and is expected to air in South Korea first next March followed by the rest of Asia throughout 2015 and eventually the United States and Europe in early 2016. Filming is set to begin this August, but visitors at the Licensing Expo got a sneak-peek with an 8-minute short film made for the convention directed by Mr. Sakamoto himself.

You can find the video here, complete with English subtitles.

The show, set to have a $20 million budget, features the Gunblade Team, a special unit gathered to thwart the evil plans of Dr. Dexter and Olympus, Dr. Dexter's super computer. When Dr. Dexter awakens an ancient force of evil called Gothic, the Gunblade Team must act with the help of the "GB Unit" which allows them to transform as well as utilize various other abilities. Check back in for more updates on air dates, licenses for overseas markets, and more.

News courtesy of The Tokusatsu Network.

GARO ANIME FIRST LOOK

At a special Garo event in Tokyo this past week, visitors got a chance to finally catch a glimpse of the first ever anime series based on the popular franchise. The series, called Garo: The Carved Seal of Flames, is set to begin airing this fall from production studio MAPPA (Kids on the Slope, Terror in Resonance). Yasuko Kobayashi, whose works include Attack on Titan, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Kamen Rider Den-O, and Express Sentai ToQger is serving as this show's head writer while directing will be handled by first-time TV series director Yuichiro Hayashi.

You can watch the teaser here.

News courtesy of Anime News Network.

NEW PROMOS FOR GAIM/TOQGER FILMS

After this week's episodes of Express Sentai Tokkyuger and Kamen Rider Gaim, new TV spots ran for both new films.

First, the promo for Express Sentai ToQger The Movie: Galaxy Line S.O.S. features voice-actor and recording artist Hyadain as the film's villain, Count Nil, as well as a look at the movie-exclusive Safari Express Trains. You can watch this here.

Meanwhile, the newest TV spot for Kamen Rider Gaim The Movie: The Great Soccer Match! The Golden Fruit Cup! highlights illustrious kabuki actor Ainosuke Kataoka VI as the movie's villain Kogane/Kamen Rider Mars. That TV spot can be found here.

Both films will premiere on July 19th. Express Sentai ToQger The Movie is written by Yasuko Kobayashi and directed by Noboru Takemoto. Kamen Rider Gaim The Movie is written by Jin Haganeya and directed by Osamu Kaneda (uh-oh).

All footage courtesy of Toei Co. Ltd.


Well, that just about does it for this week. Hope to see you all next week if I don't get bored with this again!