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Well, another saved series for Geneon! Great! But, what about them making taking a shot with 'The Story of Saiunkoku' Season 2?
FUNimation made good use of their Anime Boston panel this afternoon to run through a lot of things. They showed off several trailers for upcoming shows, talked about some of the basic plans and had a good Q&A session that talked about licensing issues, music right issues briefly, a note that we should be hearing some new news about Blu-ray technical aspects on their blog in the next week and plenty of silliness. Along the way we also got several new license announcements on top of the one earlier this week for Black Butler.
FUNimation announced the acquisition of the second season of Spice and Wolf, though no press release has been issued for it yet. The show did very well for them as stated before and they're eager to get on to more of it. Much how Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple was a big surprise for them (four times their expected numbers), Spice and Wolf is a very solid performer that had them looking for more of it quicker than they would normally look. Shows like D.Gray-man for example are still being worked through in the numbers department to see what their plans are for the second two (and final) seasons.
FUNimation made one license rescue this weekend from the Geneon catalog with Chobits. Adam Sheehan of FUNimation explained that after the initial buy of titles made awhile ago, the rights to the majority of titles have since shifted back to Japan and if they're being sought out (and apparently many of them are because they're considered quality titles, but presumably quality titles that were either marketed poorly or suffered from the glut and six or eight disc releases) they have to go through the process as though they're entirely new licenses. This is also why they're not getting dirt cheap releases as the titles have been considered to be "rested" for the last four years or so and are essentially new titles on the market again. With dubs already done and the dubs considered to be high quality, they'd just be reauthored on acquisition and marketed fresh.
In addition to this, FUNimation announced that on top of their previous acquisition of the Eden of the East TV series, they've picked up the three films for release which will be out on both DVD and Blu-ray next year after the TV series is done. Adam had brand manager Charlene Ingram come up to talk about the TV series and confirmed that the opening song for the TV series will be what was used in Japan, something that was of concern because it was a song by Oasis and music rights on titles licensed for the US with music not owned by the Japanese companies are cagey at best.
See the official press releases below along with PV and trailers for the related works done for the Japanese releases:
Flower Mound, TX (April 3, 2010) – FUNimation® Entertainment today announced that it has acquired the home entertainment, broadcast, digital and merchandise rights to three anime movies which continue the story of the series “Eden of the East” (known in Japan as “Higashi no Eden”) from Fuji Creative Corporation.
The three films are “Eden of the East Movie 1: The King of Eden”, “Eden of the East The Movie II: Paradise Lost” and “Air Communication”, all written and directed by acclaimed director Kenji Kamiyama (“Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex”, “Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit”) and produced by Production I.G.
The story continues where it left off from the Eden of the East TV series, and brings Morimi Saki back to the USA in order to find Takizawa Akira. The other Selecao however are actively moving to take part in the game, and a few in particular are making dangerous moves in order to eliminate Takizawa or move towards their picture of a better Japan.
FUNimation Entertainment will release the films on DVD and Blu-ray in 2011.
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Also, regarding the releases of the television series on DVD, we will be using the opening, with original music, as used in Japan in addition to the international version of the show opening.
Flower Mound, TX (April 3, 2010) – FUNimation® Entertainment today announced that it has acquired the home entertainment, broadcast, digital and merchandise rights to the anime comedy “Chobits” from Kodansha.
The 26-episode series is directed by Morio Asaka (“Cardcaptor Sakura,” “Gunslinger Girl,” and “CLAMP in Wonderland”) and based on the CLAMP manga series of the same name about computers known as Persocoms that can be designed to look like toy figures, animals, even people!
FUNimation Entertainment will release the series on DVD and Blu-ray in 2011.
And in case you were curious about the Eden of the East's original opening, it's fully available on YouTube as well which you can see below.
Well, another saved series for Geneon! Great! But, what about them making taking a shot with 'The Story of Saiunkoku' Season 2?
Chobits on BluRay for the ****ing win. Even with an upscale it'll be worth double dipping for. Also, I'm very glad to hear Spice and Wolf season 2 announced already.
justp94- i am also very surprised that no one has bothered to pick up the rights to finish off the Hellsing ultimate series. I don't think it was ever finished.
Hellsing is likely a licensing hell kind of titles. FUNimation has said they want it, but they have to negotiate from scratch to try and acquire it. The fact nobody got it during the time that Geneon had it proper says a whole lot about how complicated it must be - or how pricey.
Chris:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this so-called "licensing hell" apply to pretty much any title formerly held by Geneon USA now held by Geneon Universal? If so, then yeesh. First NBC, now this. Why does Universal hate humanity so much?
Crud no K-on yet. Come on funimation don't let that one slip through your fingers after doing such a terrific job with Beck Mongolian Chop Squad.
Cool to hear that Chobits is being released. I remember this series from awhile back and enjoyedit. Cost will be the deciding factor on wether or not I'll add it to my collection.