UFO Princess Valkarie licensed by ADV
 

www.animeondvd.com

ADV Announced the license to 2 Animes and 4 Live Action Movies. Here is what they announced at PMX:

# Rockman: Wishing Upon a Star (anime)
# UFO Princess Valkarie (anime)

Guess that's another marking-off for Animesuki. Not sure what Rockman OAV that is though.

Also known as Megaman in the US.

That's not exactly uncommon knowledge. The question is -which- of the Rockman series it was.

All I know about this particular one is that it's a 3 episode OVA.

I haven't seen this series, but I'm pretty excited about its licensing, because some people consider it a shounen twist on magical girl!! YAY!!!

Ah, UFO Princess Valkyrie. Or Walküre. More catgirls in the first episode than every other anime put together.

UFO Princess valkyrie is licensed??? This is another one to go down in the "WHY?!!" catagory. While I liked it, it wasn't that popular when it was being released. I won't try to claim that I know more about marketing then the experts ADV has, but I would assume that a series that very few people wanted for free will do even worse when people need to pay for it...
You'd think there would be someone working for these companies to keep track of fansubbers and their releases. They'd have an easier time stopping groups from distributing their licensed series, and would be able to keep track of what's popular. It's a good bet that a series popular among fansub watchers will be among the general anime viewing public, and unpopular series will probably be even more unpopular, since hardcore anime otaku who download would be more tolerant of a bad series.
edit: yes... shonen twist... translation - ecchi.

edit #2: does it say anything about december nocturne or is it just the original that's licensed?

The "Why" is very simple:

• There are naked bathing girls in every single episode
• An army of cute catgirl maids
• "Bounciest" transformation scene ever
• Lolicon that isn't immoral because they only look 8

I always figured that licensing was inevitable. I thought it was only a matter of "when not if".

i have ceased to be surprised at anything getting licensed, particularly by ADV, at this point
now if only Popotan would get announced...

It certainly was popular enough to get a second season.

Hmm.. very good points. :heh: Pretty much the same reasons I watched, except for that last one... It's probably enough to get people to buy the first dvd. It's selling the second one that going to be difficult.
True, but that was among Japanese fans. It was considerably less popular among the fansub community. While the "what's popular in Japan will be outside of Japan" theory usually holds true, there are some big exceptions. The fansub community is probably a better indicator of how a show will do in the US, as it is comprised of primarily non-japanese fans. UFO princess valkyrie never really did that well in fansubs, so it probably won't do that well commercially. Now as I said in my previous post, I'm not an expert, so I could be wrong, but I really don't expect adv to make any money at all on this show.

Fansub popularity != mainstream appeal

If I went solely by what the fansub crowd finds popular, I'd have missed out on a lot of great series over the past few years.

heh, this isn't one of those great series.

I love this series, but really: UFO Princess Valkyrie is for the hardcore anime fan, not your casual viewer. There is no way the American mainstream will find much enjoyment in it.

Hey now, don't forget, these are also licensed:

- Sister Princess
- Angel Tail
- Magical Nyan Nyan Taruto
- Earth Defence Force Mao-chan

All of these also fall in the "How on earth will they get people to buy these" category in my opinion.

There is also "Happy Lesson" along the same lines like "UFO Princess Valkarie".

most of the people who buy DVDs aren't "true" mainstreamers anyway
the "true" mainstream watches cartoon network religiously

After just finishing the sixth DVD of Heat Guy J, I couldn't agree more.

2005 Update
 

This release information was probably already in the thread before the data loss, so I thought I'd put it back for anyone interested.

- The title will be UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie due to marketing issues. (source: David Williams, Producer -- A.D.Vision, Inc. (ADV)

- Release date for Vol. #1: UFO ULTRAMAIDEN VALKYRIE VOL 1 "BEDLAM BATHHOUSE & BEYOND" DVD SRP: $29.98 -- around March 2006 (source: January 2006 Diamond Previews)

And unbelievably sexy when in her normal self. ;)


Here's to a hopeful fourth season of UFOp. Wahahahaha.:p