Funimation Entertainment has announced that it plans to “manufacture, sell and distribute” 20 live-action and anime series previously owned by Geneon, according to Anime News Network. Titles include Higurashi (When They Cry,) Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha (apparently retitled ‘Lyrical Nanoha’) Black Lagoon seasons 1 and 2, Shakugan no Shana (’Shana’,) Zero no Tsukaima (renamed ‘The Familiar of Zero’) and Fate/stay night.
First thing I’d like to say about the matter is, ABOUT FREAKING TIME, Y’ALL.
While the renaming of several titles sort of annoys me (heh-llo, where’d the ‘Magical Girl’ in ‘Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha’ go?) it sort of indicates to me that Funimation has done more than agreed to ‘manufacture, sell and distribute’ these titles. Instead, they may have all-out ‘acquired’ them. Meaning that there probably won’t be any copyright drama/lawsuits/whatever flying about in the months to come. I could be very wrong, though, so don’t hold me to that if this all falls to pieces. ^_^;
The press release indicated that Ergo Proxy, Hellsing Ultimate and Black Lagoon would see rereleases first, with Black Lagoon S2, Karin, Kyo Kara Maoh! S2 and ‘Lyrical Nanoha’ (do y’all realize how DUMB that sounds?) being next in line. So why isn’t ‘Shana’ or ‘Fate/stay night’ getting released first? I thought those did better stateside than Ergo Proxy or Kyo Kara Maoh.
But ‘my series FIRST!’ rantings aside, this whole deal is made even more interesting by the fact that Funimation made that streaming content deal with Youtube. Could we see some of these titles on Youtube (eventually) as well? Only time will tell, and we may actually hear more this weekend at AX as Funimation discusses their over9000 tons of new stuff at their industry panel.
(Oh, and if stupid ‘Ninja Vixens’ gets released before D.Gray-man I’m going to be mad. But I shouldn’t be worrying about that <3)
~CJ
(A/N: this is breaking news (sorta) so more to come by the minute~ <3)
Just thought I’d note…Geneon marketed Shakugan no Shana as just “Shana” as well (not sure about Lyrical Nanoha, though)
And yes, it’s about freakin time.
@Josh: Ah, thanks for the heads-up. I guess I got the anime confused with Viz’s novels ^_^;
FINALLY!!!
Now if only there was a way to redistbute other titles…like Last Exile. ;.;
Does it matter how they are going to distribute it?
Funi got all the stuff we want to buy. I say screw the system and let’s just hand Funi all our monies.
The only disadvantage is that the volumes I already own won’t look pretty beside the new Funimation DVD casings! Besides that, I’m really happy about it.
Nanoha~! Finally. I was in a rage for a month after Geneon shut down after licensing Nanoha. Though Lyrical Nanoha does sound really dumb, I can tell why they took out magical girl. Magical girl anime fail when they get liscenced. And hey! there are some other titles I’m interested in too!
Too bad this news comes out the same day as ADV crap (Stopping Kanon…wtf…).