TRSI added a bunch of items to their online catalog today and along with many repackagings and consolidations in FUNimation’s September solicitations, there were many previously unannounced items and details to be found as well.
(UPDATE 6/24 3:44PM PDT: Robert of his eponymous Anime Corner Store wrote a post [saw via scottfrye] saying they now have pretty much all the same items up for pre-order.)
GONZO anime Burst Angel is evidently getting a Blu-ray release on September 29th at a list price of $79.98. (TRSI’s pre-order price is currently $60.) It will have all 24 TV episodes and the Infinity OVA, just like its Viridian Collection release in June 2008, except now in high-definition.
Nabari no Ou will have its first 13-episode set come out on September 22nd at a typical $59.98 price point. The ninja action series was one of Funi’s New Show A Go Go licenses last December and the manga is currently being published by Yen Press.
Sgt. Frog (aka Keroro) Season 1 Part 1 comes out on Sept. 22nd. That date was announced during their main panel at Anime Next but not the “budget” list price of $39.98 for 12 episodes. That’s at the same level as their Shin-chan releases but this will be a hybrid release (remember their test episode from November?) unlike the dubbed only Shin-chan.
Other first-run releases include the second half of Big Windup! sliding home (TRSI; RACS) on Sept. 29th ($59.99 MSRP), 6 weeks after the first half; the second half of Kaze no Stigmadropping on Sept. 1st ($59.98 MSRP); and One Piece Season 2 Part 3 continuing the adventures of the Going Merry crew on Sept. 29th ($49.98 MSRP). RACS also has that One Piece box set listed, saying it contains episodes 79-91.
After having finished with their Dragon Ball GT and DBZ uncut box sets, Funi will give the same treatment to the original Dragon Ball series when they release the first season uncut DVD set on Sept. 15th for $49.98 MSRP, the same price point as their previous uncut box sets from the franchise.
I’ll wrap up talking about Funi with some former Geneon releases. On Sept. 29, a box set of Heat Guy J will come out at $49.98 MSRP (TRSI) and both Black Lagoon seasons are being repackaged into a single box set at $69.98 MSRP, also on Sept. 29 (RACS; TRSI). There will also be a number of repricings of their $69.98 Geneon box set reissues last year: Ergo Proxy on Sept. 29th (RACS; TRSI), Fate/stay night on Sept. 1st (RACS; TRSI), and Shakugan no Shana on Sept. 15th (RACS; TRSI).
Finally: there are some Nozomi releases of some decades-old series. The first of two Kimba the White Lion mini-collections come out at $49.98 MSRP on October 6th (link), the second Gigantor collection on Sept. 15 for $39.98 MSRP (link), and two mini-collections of Astro Boy, both on Oct. 6th at $49.98 MSRP apiece (set 1, set 2)
Whew, that was tiring to put together!
UPDATE 6/23 11:10 PM PDT: I later found out that Nozomi had issued separate press releases about the Kimba and Astro Boy mini-sets.
This is a follow-up to Monday’s post about Funimation joining Comcast’s video on demand service. I didn’t start up any of the episodes because I wanted to keep the video relatively short so I don’t know if some of the content that is originally widescreen would have been displayed as such, though I imagine it should.
A few things I’ll point out:
1) There is a folder for Ouran Host Club but no episodes are there right now. I looked at the online listings and episodes 1-5 should have been there. Episodes 1 & 2 are set to expire tomorrow (May 15th) and episodes 6 & 7 should be added tomorrow as well.
2) There are entries for Aria ep. 1 and Maria Watches Over Us ep. 1 under Anime Network’s free offerings. (as reported here) Both are set to expire after June 3rd.
3) Under Movies & Events – Anime Network, Clannad Vol. 3 and Vol. 4 (both 97 min.) are available for $3.99 each. It’s not a wild guess to think the former contains episodes 7-9 and the latter has episodes 10-12.
FUNimation announced Monday (saw this on Anime Vice) that they have joined Comcast’s On Demand service through two folders: The Cutting Edge, where other anime video-on-demand offerings like Anime Network reside, and Movies & Events, where pay-per-view content can be found. While the addition of already-released series through a standard free VOD model is nice for me as a customer, I’m finding “pre-release pay-per-view access” that “provides unprecedented sneak peek access to brands before the release on DVD” a little more interesting. PPV offerings for this month will include xxxHOLiC, Devil May Cry, and Tsubasa while Honey & Clover and NANA are mentioned among those slated for this summer. (I shouldn’t have been too surprised to see those last two considering this but I still was.) I will try to explore both folders tomorrow and maybe I’ll shoot a video while doing that.
This story reminds me of one that may not have received much press when it came out in mid-April: the appearance of streaming and DTO labels on Viz’s websites for the Honey & Clover and NANA anime. Both components are currently unavailable but at least one of them is likely to be enabled this summer since the first NANA box set is supposedly due out July 21st.
The DTO episodes should carry the now-standard price of $1.99 per episode for downloadable videos and could just entail links to various download services (iTunes, Zune Marketplace, et al.). I wonder what their PPV price on Comcast might be – according to their VOD blog post, Funi has their new dubbed series pre-DVD release series pegged at 99 cents – a very reasonable price point considering you’ll if you choose to watch that way – so it’s very likely that Viz’s will bear that price as well, but there is still a chance it could be a little higher. Their $2.99 price point for movies is the same that Comcast offers for library titles on their general Movies on Demand service and that Apple does for library titles on its Apple TV and through iTunes. I suspect that the streaming component might involve Hulu if they are planning to embed episodes onto each respective show site since Viz also uses that for Naruto.com.
FUNimation’s foray into PPV adds another method of non-DVD distribution for the company along with streaming episodes through Hulu, YouTube, Joost, Veoh, and their own video portal as well as offering download-to-own episodes through their web site, iTunes, Xbox Live & Zune Marketplaces and, most recently, the Playstation Network. Viz has been making similar strides into “alternative” distribution with a presence on many of the same video portals and marketplaces that FUNimation is on. They also brokered an arrangement to stream newly-aired-in-Japan episodes of Naruto Shippuden on Crunchyroll, Hulu, and their own Naruto site.
The “octopus approach” operated by both companies continues to take them to new platforms, though Viz has some catching up to do. Meanwhile, Bandai just began on putting episodes on YouTube in February and currently have Code Geass season 1 and Gundam 00 up there. They don’t have the financial flexibility to venture out as much as the other two do but at least they’re starting to experiment with it.
P.S. I know this is all US-centric stuff so if you choose to make a comment, don’t just complain about regional restrictions. By the way, Evan Flournoy, Manager of Brand Protection and Rights Enforcement for Funimation, said last week that those restrictions are mandated by the licensors.
This spring season features the highest amount of premiering anime being streamed legally with more than a half dozen premiering series currently “simulcast” on the Internet. Most of them are on Crunchyroll – Saki, Hayate no Gotoku!!, Natsu no Arashi, Shangri-la, Mainichi Kaa-san, and Ristorante Paradiso – while FUNimation is following up Shikabane Hime with Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood except this time, they are restricting the new episodes to their video portal.
The ball got rolling in spring 2008 when Gonzo GDH placedTower of Druaga and Blassreiter onto YouTube, BOST, and Crunchyroll (CR); Strike Witcheswent onto those same three services that July. October saw CR play host to premiering series Linebarrels of Iron and FUNimation push Shikabane Hime onto YouTube, Hulu, Joost, and their newly launched video portal. Crunchyroll addedShugo Chara and Skip Beat in November; in January, they took on Gintama, Natsume Yujincho and Naruto Shippuden, the latter of which Viz also streamed through Naruto.com, Hulu, and Joost. Crunchyroll addedHitman Reborn in March.
One of the things that worries content providers about putting their video portals is whether the sites will actually generate revenue. It seems that Crunchyroll has gotten off to a good start by establishing an attractive platform for foreign content owners to get their properties global reach – a Yomiuri article about TAF 2009 relays the following figures for Crunchyroll: 4.5 million visitors who were often exposed to advertising, 1.5 millions of hours viewed monthly, and almost 15,000 paying memberships at $6.95 a month ($100,000+ of regular revenue).
On its about page, Crunchyroll says “[p]roceeds from the subscription service are shared among [their] content publishers”. It’s assumed that a portion of advertising revenue also goes toward that pool of creators. The question is whether the allocated distribution is based on a uniform rate or dependent of video views. That distinction could be be important for a studio in financial troubles like GONZO, which is undergoing restructuring. Read the rest of this entry »
When I read on February 20th that Viz Media asked Hulu and Joost to disable embedding of their episodes, I wasn’t that surprised because it was part of a larger (possibly temporary) pullback by entertainment studios in general regarding how their content is streamed online.
Earlier that same week, there was a back-and-forth between CBS and Hulu following the disabling of embeds Feb. 17 on TV.com, which was part of CBS’ acquisition of CNET Networks in June 2008. (CBS content doesn’t show up on Hulu because the network hosts videos on its proper site as well as TV.com.) That was followed by Hulu pulling content off Boxee (a media center program) and explaining that it was done at the request of their content providers. TV.com came out with an iPhone/iPod Touch application (iTunes link) on Friday, increasing the sense of competition between the two sites.
Joost wrote a short message about the anime matter, saying they “hope to be able to allow you to embed and watch these shows on other sites again soon”. Just before publishing this post, I checked Joost and embed codes have returned to Viz’s shows – I was able to get self-embeds of Death Note and Naruto Shippuden from Hulu to play more often than not, so maybe Viz’s posturing has ended for now. Read the rest of this entry »
FUNimation has made some licensing and dub casting announcements over the past week. During their Katsucon panel on Saturday, the studio made public their licenses of Bamboo Blade, Dragonaut, Blassreiter, and The Tower of Druaga (the press release implicitly indicates both the Aegis of Uruk and Sword of Uruk seasons). Three of those – the ones that aren’t Bamboo Blade – are Gonzo titles (continuing their existing relationship) and two have previously been digitally distributed online.
In fact, Blassreiter and Tower of Druaga can still be seen through Crunchyroll. They have already received English subtitles through that process but I figure that FUNimation will want to compose their own translations, which is probably a smart thing as their staff should have more familiarity with English flow and those results would help in the dubbing process. It’d be nice if two subtitle tracks (Gonzo’s and their own) were included in the sets but I can understand if doing the timing for both would be too time-consuming.
In D.Gray-Man news, CJ reports that the series’ website has been updated with an auto-playing (!) trailer and release dates for all four box sets. It was already known that the first will be released on March 31st so the new dates are set #2 on June 23rd, set #3 on October 6th, and the fourth and final one on January 5th, 2010. Initial English casting has been confirmed over the past few weeks with Todd Haberkorn voicing Allen Walker (and also directing ADR), Travis Willingham playing Yuu Kanda, Luci Christian as Lenalee Lee, Jason Liebrecht as Lavi AND the Millennium Earl, and J. Michael Tatum as Komui Lee. Other less core roles are Cherami Leigh (Mai in Ghost Hunt) as Road Camelot (come on! spell it with a K!), Wendy Powell as Hevlaska (the Innocence assessor), and Chris Sabat as Marion Cross (Allen’s mentor). [ALSO: Katsura Hoshino will be resuming the manga's serialization in Shonen Jump on March 9th.] Read the rest of this entry »
A posting on the AOD/Mania Region 1 DVD sub-forum mentions solicitations listed among AAA Anime’s pre-orders for some of the series FUNimation announced during their “New Show A Go Go” promotional event in December. According to the listing, Gad Guard, Ikki Tousen, and Last Exile will supposedly all come out in May at an MSRP of $49.98, each currently bearing a placeholder date of May 30th. These are not the first of the bunch to get release dates: April has Vandread on the 7th for $49.98 (as mentioned in their NYCC panel) and The Count of Monte Cristo (aka Gankutsuou) on the 28th for $69.98.
Also among the listings is a never-before-released title – Murder Princess, with a release date of May 12th (its website confirms this) and the same $49.98 MSRP as Gad Guard et al. Fifty bucks seems high for the six-episode OVA Murder Princess but that may shift lower when online retailers update their listings.
Other FUNimation releases that are listed as hitting shelves in May are (all bear May 30th placeholder date): Case Closed: Season 5 ($49.98), Claymore Volume 5 ($24.98), a double feature of Dragon Ball Z movies 12 & 13 – Fusion Reborn and Wrath of Dragon – on standard DVD and Blu-ray ($24.98; $39.99), Dragon Ball Z season 9 box set ($49.98), and Karin: Complete Collection ($69.98). More cover art assets lie after the jump.
UPDATE 2/21: TRSI updated their catalog earlier this week and
pretty much all the above releases were part of it, including a lower price for Murder Princess. So here is their lineup (w/ affliate links): Show ▼
I was offline most of Tuesday as I spent time out with some friends watching Transformers on Blu-Ray (still an average movie but in greater visual fidelity) and playing video games. In doing a cursory catch-up on Twitter messages (i.e. NOT trudging through numerous pages of updates), I came across one from Borderline Hikikomori’s CJ Blackwing that linked to RACS’ Full Metal Alchemistanime page. According to them, FUNimation will be releasing two season sets this upcoming spring: Season 1 (ep. 1-28) is set to come out January 27th and be a smushing together of the previous first and second DVD box sets, which collectively bundled singles 1 through 7, while Season 2 (ep. 29-51) has a date of March 10th and collates box sets 3 & 4, aka singles 8 through 13. Read the rest of this entry »
FUNimation confirmed today that it has sent out a batch of cease-and-desist notices to a number of fansub groups regarding D.Gray-man, Katekyo Hitman Reborn (which had been previously targeted), Soul Eater, Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, Mushi-Uta, Spice & Wolf, and Seto no Hanayome on behalf of Japanese studios. (Those groups got their C&D’s on Friday and include Rumbel, Tadashi, and Nyoron among others.) FUNimation originally licensed the first 51 episodes of D.Gray-man when it announced rights in May and I thought that was it but I guess we can assume they now hold claim to the second season and therefore the whole lot of 103 episodes. Or they may have expanded that license and I simply didn’t notice.
Like any other cease-and-desist notice, this latest action by FUNimation does not necessary mean that they will distribute any of the series that don’t involve Innocence as a source of supernatural powers. Kadokawa Pictures USA previously announced an in-house license for the first season of Spice & Wolfat Anime Expo but whether that also encompasses the yet-to-air second season is unclear as, well, it hasn’t been broadcast yet. I doubt it does. Also: in June, KP USA included Mushi-Utaamong 11 series they wanted AnimeSuki to stop listing.
I have previously written a number of times about English dubs out for genuine interest in how well or poorly titles are adapted for American consumption. That’s why I was very pleased to read G.B. Smith’s detailed review of Ouran High School Host Club Part 1 for Mania – the first of what I think should become a regular series of Eigo kudasai columns. (This seems like a more fleshed out spiritual successor to a previous AOD column – “Being a Brief Discussion of Anime Dubs” – that was written by Way Jeng, although it should be easier now to evaluate performances more fully now this age of 13-episode season sets.) The reviewer evaluated how well the respective voice actors’ performances conveyed their characters’ emotions, their ability to reflect the existing character dynamics, and the script issues that appear in varying degrees in any English adaptation, especially FUNimation.
It’s a good read if you want to get a sense of how some of the roles were not much of a challenge (Vic Mignogna’s Tamaki, Luci Christian’s Honey) or were “hardly unique” in the case of Monica Rial’s Renge. I concur with the “recommended” verdict of a “solid effort” after sampling some illicitly uploaded dubbed episodes on a certain video-sharing site. FUNi, I would advise you start clamping down on those out of pure business interest since they may detrimentally affect your box set sales to a certain degree!
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