Tiger & Bunny Film Premieres in San Francisco
April 2011 saw the release of Tiger & Bunny, an anime about two superheroes competing to be better than other superheroes on a corporate-sponsored reality TV program. It was a sleeper hit, leading to two compilation movies being produced based on existing animation, with new animation added in to smooth over the cut content. The first of those movies, Gekijo-ban Tiger & Bunny -The Beginning-, is premiering this month, not only in Japan, but also in America.
Though Japan gets the movie a week earlier on September 22, the movie is getting its American premiere only a week later on September 29. The event will be hosted at the New People Cinema in San Francisco, with two airings at 4PM and 7PM. Though Viz has licensed the TV series for America and has an English dub lined up, this movie will be shown in Japanese with English subtitles. Advance tickets cost $10, but will net viewers a limited edition Wild Tiger card at the premiere.
Viz is also holding a cosplay contest on Tiger & Bunny‘s Facebook page to celebrate the premiere; the contest runs from September 10-28. A cosplay contest will also be held at the premiere and livestreamed. More details are to follow on Facebook.
I know that it’s not a wide release, but it’s always cool to see anime make it up on the big screen in America, even for limited engagements. If this does well for Viz, they might do a follow-up event when the second Tiger & Bunny movie is released in 2013.
Source: Anime News Network