Adam Sheehan presides once again over FUNimation’s panels, and he reminds us once again that in terms of the state of the anime industry: DON’T PANIC!

So far it’s mostly the usual Sheehan notes about the industry combined with some quotes from Gen’s keynote.

Aquarion and Witchblade dubs are going up on iTunes in late July. I think that’s new…

FUNimation Mobile is going to be available on AT&T and Sprint, just text “go funimation” to the number 22646. Each episode is presented in five-minute chapters, and Gunslinger Girls and Moon Phase are both available– and either comes with Galaxy Railways for free. Each series is $4.99/mo.

And then there’s the FUNimation Update and the FUNimation Quickie, their new podcasts.

More items on blu-ray, can’t remember what’s new and what’s not, so here’s the full list: Afro Samurai, DBZ Tree of Might and Return of Cooler, Robotech Shadow Chronicles, Shinobu: Heart Under Blade, and Vexille. I think most of that is not new, actually, but there it is anyway.

Case Closed season 1 is coming out for $49.98 for the first season (26 episodes), due out July 22nd. YuYu Hakusho will also be out, first season (26 eps) for $34.98, out July 8th, and it’s already here at the con. One Piece eps 14-26 are coming out September 23rd for $49.98 with exclusive cover art as previously announced.

And then, of course, there’s Dragon Ball Z season six, hitting stores September 16th. 29 episodes, marathon play, etc. No price on the slide. The first season of Dragonball GT is also coming out in late 2008, more information coming soon.

Many screams for Ouran High School Host Club of course, part one October 28th for $59.98. Part two is due out January 6th with 14-26, also $59.98. There’ll be actors commentary, manga pages, and outtakes as well. (No swag? After all this time? Aw…)

Another title that’s taken forever: Darker than Black, volume one coming out November 25th. Nothing more on that.

Now, a special announcement…oh, no, wait, it’s the same stuff they’ve already announced so far. Let’s see…all the recent announcements, like Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino and Heroic Age and D.Gray-Man and Romeo x Juliet and stuff. Then there’s the new YouTube deal; full-length eps of Blue Gender, Slayers, Peach Girl, Mushishi, and Kiddy Grade. Those are apparently available right now, with new episodes every week.

And then there’s the new Geneon acquisitions, which you can get the list of here and no doubt next he’ll be listing the ADV titles…yup. He also gave us a full list, which ended in “the cake is a lie,” and then “it’s over 9000!!!” Ah, memes.

But the question is, will there be any NEW new announcements here at FUNimation today? Looks like no, we’re moving into the Q&A– which will actually include Gen Fukunaga as well as Sheehan.

They have Claymore and Host Club pencil boards at the FUNimation booth, but they’re already running low.

Here’s a question– why does Navarre’s stock keep going down? Fukunaga says that FUNi’s earnings keep going up, so maybe it’s just too under the radar in the rest of the world. They are trying to get analysts to notice the stock more.

Why did FUNi get ADV titles, and why did Ouran take so long? With Ouran they couldn’t start working on the show until some time after the original announcement was made. Also the licensor didn’t want to give up the digital rights for a long time, apparently, which as Gen noted in my interview, they insist on them. And apparently Sojitz offered FUNi the ADV titles.

For Geneon, will there be complete season packs? It’s a partnership with Geneon, so they’ll release the remaining volumes and then offer a box set. So probably no going back and getting individual volumes that had previously been released, and I doubt I’ll get to ask a question in this panel…there are a LOT of people here. I’ll try and ask afterwards since I know someone wanted to know about that.

One Piece will have marathon play. Any chance to pick up older Geneon titles like Trigun and Tenchi? Those are mostly reverted to their original JP licensors, so they might be able to cherry pick the ones that are strong but there are no guarantees. Any chance at Battle Athletes? Keep an eye out for updates on the website and podcast and if anything happens we’ll probably hear about it there.

Any chance of picking up the Rozen Maiden OVA since they have the first and second season? They don’t know yet, it’ll depend on how the show goes. Will there still be special editions for Hellsing and Saiunkoku? Gen says that Geneon finished the packaging on a lot of it already, but the stuff that isn’t done, there’s no way to say for sure…they’ll sell the leftover special editions that they have already, but probably nothing new will be manufactured on that front.

They’re trying to get ADV to finish out their series but no guarantees just yet, so we’ll see…Any chance at the FUNimation channel going to DirectTV or dish? And…Geneon was a bit more pricey, is it going to stay that way or will the prices go FUNimation style? Gen says that FUNimation and Geneon both do about $30 for a 4-episode disc on the shelf at best buy, so probably no difference in pricing there. The FUNi channel is aggressively pursuing VOD, so that’s the real focus right now, but Dish could happen on a VOD basis. Probably not DirectTV, no negotiations at this time, though they’d like to be.

Second season of Kodocha? Not available yet, but either August or September. And there’ll also be a slimpack of season one at the same time. Are they going to be on Anime News Network’s new anime video service? ANN is interested but Gen says that the focus is working on the more mass audience sites (i.e. YouTube). (Haven’t had time to post about this yet, but here’s the info.)

What happened to One Piece on Cartoon Network? Apparently we didn’t write enough letters to CN…but One Piece takes a while to catch on, so the ratings didn’t get high enough. They’re also changing their strategy to do less anime (cue boos).

A question about Big Windup (Ookiku Furikabutte)– it’s so different from what usually sells here, so why did you pick it up, and when will you release it? Early next year on the timeline front. As for why? Well, it may take a while to figure out how to do the marketing and the voice cast.

Are they going to keep doing stuff on MySpace and other word-of-mouth/viral campaigns? Yes. They’re thinking outside the banner, as it were.

Any repackaging of DVDs from Geneon that fans might have missed out on? Yay, now I don’t have to ask that question later! It’ll depend on how the volumes sell, so vote with your dollars, kids.

Only two more questions…someone just called them the “Chuck Norrises of the anime industry.” Wow. Will there be two months or four months between One Piece releases? Probably around two…no! Three! Three months, says some FUNi staffer in the audience. And the DVDs are doing well, it and Shin-chan. Gintama? They’ll keep it in mind.

Last question? First two kudos (for Mushishi and D.Gray-Man). The question: is there a timeline for the second semester of School Rumble– again, August or September. The end!

Tags: ax08, FUNimation, livebogging

10 Responses to “AX08: FUNimation Entertainment”

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail