FUNimation Announces New Acquisitions
FUNimation has formally announced its acquisition of distribution rights for the Oh! Edo Rocket, Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo, and Slayers Revolution anime television series.
The 26 episode Oh! Edo Rocket alternate history sci-fi comedy from 2007 was animated by Madhouse and directed by Seiji Mizushima in-between Mizushima’s work on the Fullmetal Alchemist and Gundam OO series. This brilliant show is one of the most criminally overlooked and under appreciated anime of recent years. The series will be released on North American DVD in 2009.
Gankutsuou was previously distributed on American DVD by Geneon. FUNimation has acquired the broadcast, digital, merchandise and home entertainment rights to the series from original producer Gonzo Digimation Holdings. FUNimation will redistribute the series on DVD in the United States only in 2009.
FUNimation’s acquisition of the Slayers Revolution series includes both the thirteen episode Slayers Revolution television series from 2008 and its concluding thirteen episode sequel, Slayers Evolution-R, which will air in Japan in 2009. The complete 26 episode series will be released on DVD in the United States and Canada in 2010.
Related Posts
About The Author
john
Add a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I wasn’t expecting Slayers Revolution, but I should have. FUNimation has adequately re-released the TV seasons on DVD sets this past year with some success.
I still think Funimation may be biting off a bit more than they can chew.
Part of ADV’s problem was getting into too many things all at once and releasing a bunch of shows nobody bought. Geneon also released a lot of shows nobody bought that still have multiple copies available online at very low prices — and the discs still aren’t selling briskly.
ADV and Funimation both had cable channels that ultimately few purchased subscriptions to. ADV eventually fully phased its 24-hour programming in favor of VOD and I don’t think Funimation will be far behind in following suit if it already hasn’t transitioned to VOD from a full-channel.
All this splurging and expansion in distribution makes me wonder what Funimation knows that the rest of us don’t. I just don’t see a lot of those Geneon re-releases selling well unless there are a bunch of people who didn’t get the original releases because of price or slashed print runs in the wake of Geneon closing its US offices last year (2007). A lot of those guys have moved on to other shows and hobbies or probably obtained bootlegs of those shows.
It’d be nice to keep certain perennials in print like the original Tenchi Muyo, Macross and others — and bring back shows that haven’t seen print since the mid-1990s and more of the 1980s classics –, but as has been stated here and elsewhere on the web the current anime fandom is just so faddish and insular that they think anything over 5 minutes old isn’t worth their time…