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Column by Scott Green
Anchor Bay Entertainment / Manga Entertainment announced it has acquired U.S. distribution rights to the award-winning animated thriller First Squad The Moment of Truth from LA-based XYZ Films. The film was created and written by Misha Sprits and Aljosha Klimov and directed by Yoshiharu Ashino, and produced by Molot Films and Studio 4C, one of the most impressively innovative institutions in anime (Tekkon Kinkreet, Genius Party, Mind Game). Set during the opening days of World War II on the Eastern Front, its main cast is a group of Soviet teens with extraordinary abilities. The teenagers have been drafted to form a special unit to fight the invading German army. They are opposed by a Schutzstaffel (SS) officer who is attempting to raise from the dead a supernatural army of crusaders from the 12th Century Order of the Sacred Cross and enlist them in the Nazi cause. Anchor Bay is releasing the film on both DVD and Blu-ray later this summer. Colony Drop has what's probably the definitive English language piece on the film here.
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