FUNimation & NicoNico Announce US Partnership, Fall Simulcast List

[WTK]

FUNimation.com

• C³ -Cube x Cursed x Curious-
• Guilty Crown
• Haganai (Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai)
• LASTEXILE -Fam, the Silver Wing-
• Maken-ki! Battling Venus
• Shakugan no Shana III Final
• The Future Diary (Mirai Nikki)

NicoNico.com | http://www.niconico.com/anime/, http://ch.niconico.com/

• C³ -Cube x Cursed x Curious-
• Guilty Crown
• LASTEXILE -Fam, the Silver Wing-
• Maken-ki! Battling Venus
• Shakugan no Shana III Final
• The Future Diary (Mirai Nikki)

via PR...

FUNIMATION ENTERTAINMENT AND NICONICO, INC. FORGE U.S. PARTNERSHIP

Both to Announce Fall Slate of Simulcast Series on October 14, 2011

Flower Mound, TX (October 14, 2011) - North America’s anime leader, FUNimation® Entertainment and the world’s premier video networking website, niconico.com, announced today that they are forming a partnership that will begin with the simulcast of several of the newest anime series debuting in Japan this fall. All simulcast episodes will be available at www.niconico.com/anime .
The companies are forming a joint effort where both companies will be contributing to the acquisition of new anime titles from Japan.
“Our goal is to simulcast top-notch anime. It’s an ambitious plan but one in which we are investing heavily,” said Gen Fukunaga, President and CEO of FUNimation Entertainment.

Part of that investment includes supporting niconico.com’s growth in the U.S. market and building toward the site becoming the leading online streaming source for subtitled anime in North America.

James Spahn, CEO of Nico Nico, Inc., stated, “By combining the strengths of our two companies, we have created an all-inclusive anime site for both the anime creators and consumers to enjoy new anime content with a great social experience.”


“Nico Nico, Inc. is the ideal partner for us given its strong relationships with content creators in Japan, not to mention its technical know-how and incredible ability to offer that content far and wide,” said Fukunaga.

“This partnership complements the strengths of each company involved,” added Spahn. “We look forward to working with the dedicated FUNimation team.”

The simulcast titles launching this partnership include the following:

C３
From the light novel series written by Minase Hazuki, comes a story of love, action, and comedy. Yachi Haruaki is a high school boy who is naturally resistant to curses. After his father sends him a mysterious black cube, Haruaki awakes to find a nude girl named Fear standing in his kitchen. She’s the human form of the cursed black cube – and an instrument of torture! Utilizing her special abilities, Fear fights alongside Haruaki to defeat other cursed instruments and their owners.

The Future Diary
This psychological thriller, based on the manga written and illustrated by Esuno Sakae, is about Yuki, a loner who's not very good with people. He prefers to write a diary on his cell phone and talk to his imaginary friend, Deus Ex Machina – The God of Time and Space. However, Yuki soon learns that Deus is more than a figment of his imagination when he makes Yuki participate in a battle royale with eleven others. The contestants are given special diaries that can predict the future, each diary possessing unique features that give it both advantages and disadvantages. Within the next 90 days, the contestants must try to survive until there is only one left standing. The winner will become the new God of Time and Space.

Guilty Crown
In the near future, a meteorite carrying a foreign virus crashes in Japan, leading to a devastating nation-wide infection and total anarchy. Several years later, Shu – a teen with a special ability awakened by the Apocalypse Virus – meets a strange girl who incites him to join the struggle against a government organization’s robotic forces and a secret society whose goal remains shrouded in mystery.

Haganai (BokuWaTomodachiGa Sukunai)
Kodaka Hasegawa has just transferred to St. Chronica's Academy and he's having a hard time making friends. With his naturally blond hair and fierce looking eyes, people constantly mistake him for a delinquent. One day, he runs into his bad-tempered loner of a classmate, Yozora, while she's talking to her imaginary friend, Tomo. Since neither of them have any friends, they decide to form a club and start recruiting some. Little by little, lonely classmates join their club to learn how to build friendships through cooking together, playing games, and other group activities. But, with so many misfits, will the club members really be able to get along?

LASTEXILE -Fam, The Silver Wing-
Acclaimed director Koichi Chigira helms this highly-anticipated follow up to the anime classic, LASTEXILE. High above the sacred waters of the GrandLake, a battle rages between the Ades Federation and the TuranKingdom. Powered by the might of its battle fleet, the federation invades the TuranKingdom. For the TuranKingdom and its princesses, all hope lies with a female sky pirate named Fam. The first episode premieres 11:00 am Eastern, October 17th.

Maken-Ki!
Based on the manga series by Takeda Hiromitsu, this romantic comedy is about Ohyama Takeru, a typical perverted teenage boy. His new school doesn’t require entrance exams, and it just turned co-ed! Unfortunately, his dreams of a happy high school life are dashed when he finds out the school is much more than it seems. All of the students wield a special item – a Maken – to unleash their magical abilities in duels! Can Takeru find a Maken that works for him? Even while trying to fit in at a new school and dealing with all kinds of girl problems?

Shakugan no Shana III Final
A continuation of the previous series (Shakugan no Shana II), both Shana and Kazumi wait for Yuji only to discover that he has disappeared without a trace. As everyone searches for answers as to Yuji’s whereabouts, he reappears in front of them as the leader of Bal Masqué. Now Shana must confront her most unlikely adversary on the battlefield.

[Damius]

Well, in my mind for now this is good news. We already have good news, since we will have HD on Nico Nico now. Now, we need to have a real fullscreen. For me, having more simulcast is a fantastic news. Let's see how this will develop.

[FUNiOP]

Actually pretty interesting reading that ANN article. I hope this brings good things for the future. A great number of shows this season being simulcast and NicoNico getting HD are definitely immediate positives.

[Nebamall]

It's great that Niconico is now streaming in HD, but one thing that really annoyed me with their Guilty Crown stream is that Niconico (or Funi) has made the video much brighter than it should be (in comparison to raws etc).

Some comparisons - http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/87849/

I wonder if their other simulcasts will have the same issue...?

[Nebamall]

Originally Posted by Nebamall

It's great that Niconico is now streaming in HD, but one thing that really annoyed me with their Guilty Crown stream is that Niconico (or Funi) has made the video much brighter than it should be (in comparison to raws etc).

Some comparisons - http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/87849/

I wonder if their other simulcasts will have the same issue...?

This time Last Exile had excess darkness... It isn't too bad in most scenes, but the darker scenes look terrible.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/88314/

To be fair Funi's stream has the exact same issue, and the problem is most likely on their side of things...

[chronoclast]

Originally Posted by Nebamall

This time Last Exile had excess darkness... It isn't too bad in most scenes, but the darker scenes look terrible.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/88314/

To be fair Funi's stream has the exact same issue, and the problem is most likely on their side of things...

I was thinking the Last Exile stream looked too dark and I was right. The gamma is way too low which is causing the heavy black crush. The really low gamma also makes the colors more saturated and garish. It could be a problem with the master but it's more likely an encoding problem which either way Funi definitely needs to fix.

The Guilty Crown stream does look too bright. The raw looks dark though, particularly in shot 4, but I'd assume it's more accurate.

FWIW, I'm using a calibrated monitor with the gamma at 2.2.

[DiGiKerot]

Originally Posted by Damius

Now, we need to have a real fullscreen. For me, having more simulcast is a fantastic news. Let's see how this will develop.

Don't you get real fullscreen if you pay? I mean, it seems like a jerk move, sure, but it's not like other providers don't lock decent quality video behind the pay barrier either. They've simply placed their feature-lock in a different place.

[Damius]

Originally Posted by DiGiKerot

Don't you get real fullscreen if you pay? I mean, it seems like a jerk move, sure, but it's not like other providers don't lock decent quality video behind the pay barrier either. They've simply placed their feature-lock in a different place.

Can you? It seems for now (unless I'm doing something incorrectly) you can only have only be a standard member... If you go to settings, then register for premium member it says that it coming soon...

[Shiroi Hane]

Try https://secure.niconico.com/payment/pre_register

[Damius]

Originally Posted by Shiroi Hane

Try https://secure.niconico.com/payment/pre_register

Weird, it says on status Standard member, but when I go to that page it says: You are already a premium beta user... (which I remember to have paid for). So no ones have real fullscreen it seems.