Nozomi/RightStuf licenses the Aoi Hana anime

June 30th, 2012

Fresh from their panel at Anime Expo 2012, Nozomi/RightStuf announces that they have licensed the anime for Shimura Takako’s Aoi Hana: Sweet Blue Flowers.

Originally aired on Crunchyroll, fans have long wanted to have this series available in English.

TRSI also added Hyakko, an anime based on a 4-koma gag comic that some Yuri fans liked, despite no overt Yuri. ^-^

Here’s the video trailer for Aoi Hana on Youtube via ashi.

17 Responses

  1. Anonymous says:

    Unexpected and awesome!

  2. Ali says:

    Excellent news! It will be a fabulous addition to my collection! :D

  3. Nytestorms says:

    Completely awesome. Looking forward to it

  4. Nytestorms says:

    That is excellent news. Can’t wait.

  5. Eric P. says:

    ‘Hyakko’ so far seems to be a curious pick for Nozomi, just from its trailer.

    As for Aoi Hana–Great! Now we just have to wait until 2013, apparently.

  6. Felix says:

    Wonderful! I loved it when it was shown on Crunchyroll and I’m glad once again there will be a legal way to watch it.

    I still have a small hope there will be a second season.

  7. Anonymous says:

    Just a heads up – Your url to Crunchyroll is wrong so it doesn’t redirect properly.

  8. @Anonymous – Thanks, corrected.

  9. Steven says:

    Amazing news to come home to after work. :)
    I wonder when we can pre-order it…

  10. Cryssoberyl says:

    Incredible. First Utena and now this. Rightstuf/Nozomi are truly saviors.

  11. DezoPenguin says:

    Of some significance is that they’re using these new announcements to debut their new “budget” imprint, appropriately titled “Lucky Penny.” So I’m guessing Aoi Hana is not going to get an artbox or one of those great booklets many of Nozomi’s releases come with. Thankfully, the key element here is the content, so, y’know, they can pretty much just scan my credit card now and save the waiting.

  12. ArcaJ says:

    I was going to shout my happiness from a mountaintop, but I just decided to give Nozomi/RightStuf a bunch of money instead. ^_^

    ::HUGS::

  13. Jst says:

    While it’s certainly great to see Aoi Hana available to a wider audience as a retail release, I’m a little sad to see this title go from HD streams via Crunchyroll to a budget dvd release. I know I’m being unrealistic about the economics of a niche market but those CR streams really caught my eye with their high quality video, so it’ll be a shame to drop back down to DVD resolution.

    I know it’s unreasonable to expect more (Japan didn’t even get a BD release) but that is what struck me first off. Still this is a good result considering that it’s no longer available on CR. An interesting intermediary case of the video side of that magical all digital future Erica wrote about earlier in the week.

    Good new none the less, and I’m sure I’ll be picking up my copy when it does release all the same.

  14. Dop says:

    That’s fantastic news and I’d never expected it to actually happen.
    Definitely on my ‘must buy’ list.

  15. @DezoPenguin – If I understand the issue correctly, there was no “artbox” release in Japan, just the separate DVDs, so TRSI has no access to physical extras for this title.

    I know they were concerned about pricing, so it makes sense to go this way.

  16. Lisa says:

    For the “first press” version of Aoi Hana, each DVD was in a slip case that included an envelope containing several postcards with images from the show or the kind of photos that appear in the companion book to the anime. The DVD folder itself was a different color each time, with an interior of sweet blue flowers. There are also music CDs and at least one drama CD. I suppose the expense / licensing difficulty make it impossible to include any of those things in a North American release?

  17. @ Lisa – CDs and Drama CDs are unrelated to the video material – they would require entirely different licenses.

    My understanding is that the licensing company is not making any physical material available, which is the final word on the matter.

    I’m interested in your description because I have seen the DVDs on sale in various stores in Japan and there were no such postcards or colors, merely plain white DVD cases. Perhaps they did a limited deluxe edition.

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