UK Anime Update: Patema Inverted Kickstarter Triumphs, Ghost In The Shell Goes Blu

Over the Mayday long Bank Holiday weekend, a couple of major stories broke in the UK anime scene. On Friday the Patema Inverted Kickstarter from Anime Limited launched. Although their previous Mai Mai Miracle Kickstarter had reached it's initial target within the first 24 hours, this was a whole new test for the fan-favourite company. While Mai had been open to backers across the globe (bar Japan) the new campaign was UK focused. Although also open to backers from France, Ireland, The Netherlands and a few other European territories, it didn't have the advantage of the United States's relatively massive fan community. Would the UK scene alone be enough to support this ambitious endeavour? The answer was clearly a resounding "yes" as the project reached it's minimum target just hours later, around 11pm. This is obviously excellent news, and is great vindication for their groundbreaking strategy.

Of course there's still plenty of time to Back Patema, and Anime Limited have added a number of stretch goals to make the deal even sweeter. So far these include a specially commissioned illustration, and (hopefully) the official soundtrack. It's also been confirmed the release will include both English and French dubs in addition to the original Japanese version. The English cast will feature Michael Sinterniklaas and Cassandra Lee Morris in the lead roles, with support from such dub legends as Richard Epcar and Stephanie Sheh.

From the UK's newest anime distributor to it's oldest, Manga UK also had some big news to share. It has previously confirmed that the cyberpunk classic Ghost In The Shell was coming to Steel-book Blu-ray, but now we also have a release date: September 29th. Although the "Special Edition" version Ghost In The Shell 2.0 has already been released on Blu,  this is the very first time fans will be able to get hold of the untouched 1995 original in shiny HD.  They also confirmed release dates for the much anticipated Attack On Titan home release. Series 1 part 1 will come to the UK on September 15th, and part 2 will follow on 22nd December.