Broken Frontier

GDH K.K ("GDH"; HQ: Tokyo; President: Shinichiro Ishikawa) announced today that GDH obtained the right to create an animated version of popular US comic Witchblade by Top Cow Productions, Inc. ("Top Cow"; HQ: California, USA ; President & COO: Matt Hawkins). GDH group company GONZO K.K. ("GONZO"; HQ: Tokyo ; President: Koji Kajita) will create the animation.

Witchblade is a very popular representative American comic published by Top Cow and has been popular throughout the US for more than 10 years. Based on the comic, toys began to be marketed, the story became a TV drama and at the end of last year it was announced that a movie was being planned. The basic concept of this action adventure fantasy is that the Witchblade, an weapon passed down from ancient times, selects the next female bearer. This original concept is used but the story is localized as Gonzo original title considering collaboration between the American comic and Japanese animation.   The main character is a Japanese woman and the setting is Tokyo in the near future to meet the condition of airing in Japan . The highlights are GONZO's strength in 3DCG, which will be used to create impressive action scenes, and the original story surrounding the main character.

It is planned to air Witchblade every Thursday morning on CBC, beginning Thursday April 6th at 1:45 am, and every Saturday morning on TBS, beginning Saturday April 8th at 2:25 am. Also, prior to its TV run, in cooperation with broadband Web sites such as BIGLOBE and ShowTime, Internet previews will be available to a limited number of applicants. Applications are being accepted beginning Friday, March 17, 2006 and it is planned to run the preview for three days from Friday, March 31st to Sunday April 2nd.

GDH believes that the company was able to obtain the animation rights for this internationally popular American comic due to the high ratings GONZO titles have received overseas. GDH will take this opportunity to further disseminate the GONZO brand inside and outside Japan while attempting to expand its business opportunities, including secondary use of titles, and will make a continuing effort to provide excellent titles based on the unique nature of Japanese animation.