media blasters

Streaming Sleepers: Shunichi Nagasaki’s BLACK BELT Is A Martial Arts Spiritual For The Ages

It’s times like this when I look back on the year, 2007, and wish I still had a computer then. I still had a nascent little blog and some years later, I would finally… FINALLY get around to seeing Shunichi Nagasaki’s period drama, Black Belt (a.k.a. Kuro-Obi [黒帯]), written by Joji Iida (Spiral, Dragon Head). I hadn’t seen any of Nagasaki’s work prior or after, and by then I was already steeped in Asian film fandom with only so much money to spend on DVDs and, like most Westerners, very little access to certain obscure titles. That this particular film ultimately suffered the blow of getting torrented to all hell was probably evident, though still unfortunate, and for all I know, it probably slowed down the film’s traction here in the states, save for a quiet DVD release via Tokyo Shock in 2008 and a little bit of buzz from […]

RISE OF THE MACHINE GIRLS Confirmed for North American Release

Edward Orndorff

The follow-up to the sensational Japanese film The Machine Girls, Media Blasters recently announced the upcoming release of Rise of the Machine Girls for March 22. The original film is a story of revenge, featuring gravure idol Minase Yashiro in her film debut as protagonist Ami Hyuga. After the murder of her brother Yu and his friend Takeshi by members of a ninja-Yakuza family, she seeks revenge. Ultimately failing, they cut off her left arm. She seeks shelter with Takeshi’s family, who fit her with a prosthetic Machine Gun arm. Teaming up with Miki, Takeshi’s mother who wields a chainsaw, they eventually act out their bloody revenge, massacring the clan and eventually the leader of the bullies himself. The film was released by Media Blasters in a special Blu-Ray and DVD remaster in 2019. In this new film, a soft-reboot of the original, we again follow Ami, this time accompanied by her […]

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ALIVE: Media Blasters Readies Ryuhei Kitamura’s 2002 Manga Adaptation For Spring Blu-Ray Release

Lee B. Golden III

We’ll be gladly helping share the mantle going forward as Media Blasters continues to project its predominantly Asian niche anime and live-action releases. The company, which ran successfully for fifteen years until tax complications and other business hamperings all but endangered its longevity, had been quietly awakening among its target consumer base with DVD-on-demand releases for the last two years, and to its credit, is shaping up for an even more formidable show of fan service in the past year. As of Thursday, according to Dawn Of The Discs, one title on deck for Media Blasters that’s reportedly begun prepping a Spring Blu-Ray release is of Ryuhei Kitamura’s 2004 sci-fi action horror, Alive. Starring Hideo Sakaki, Based on Tsutomu Takahashi’s 1999 manga, Alive reunites Kitamura with several cast members from Versus, namely Hideo Sakaki who takes the lead. In the film, Sakaki plays Tenshu, a death row prisoner whose humanity […]