Man, I jump on a plane to California and what does FUNimation go and do? They put the ENTIRE anime of Black Blood Brothers on their website as download-to-own files for $1.99 an ep (it’s a 12-ep series).

And then Kadokawa teams up with Google/YouTube, announcing that they will set up an official YouTube site where they’ll share videos from Japanese artist. No word on exactly what sorts of videos we’ll see, but they’ll be selling their own ad space on the site and sharing revenues with the artists.

Should be interesting to see what they come up with, eh?

So Gonzo’s owner, GDH International, has made some comments and even produced an open letter via its president, Arthur Smith.

And now the company has finally stepped up and announced that it will be offering legal P2P anime downloads in Japan of two series. First up, Speed Grapher– which must just be a great show to experiment with online, since it’s one of the titles FUNimation has made available everywhere possible –and they will also be making their new series Tower of Druaga available online, and a short series called Project PAPO.

It’s an experiment they’re launching this very day, but I’m not sure they’ve got a fantastic price setup here. Everything is download-to-own but DRM protected, and Speed Grapher eps run ¥1000 each– that’s $8.75 USD an episode. For all 24 eps, that’s over $200. The DVD box set is currently up on Amazon.co.jp for ¥17955– $157 USD. (That’s Amazon’s price; regular price is ¥29925, $262 USD). You can also get HD episodes for ¥1500 each (about $13.13 an ep).

Through January ‘08, however, they are having a slightly more reasonable deal: ¥500 an ep (~$4.38 USD) for regular definition, and ¥750 (~$6.57 USD) an ep for high-def. They don’t say what the resolution is on these episodes and I’m not entirely sure what the 1MB/3MB/8MB notes in their little chart. The trailer for Druaga is free. Each episode of Project PAPO is ¥150 (~$1.30 USD)– but they’re only 7 episodes that are 2.5 minutes long.

Now, I kind of expected it to be more expensive in Japan– maybe ¥500 an episode standard. But ¥1000? And I’d also bet that when Druaga actually comes out it will be more expensive than Speed Grapher since it’s new. Will the Japanese pay it? I don’t know; since the copies are digital I don’t think there’s as much of a collector’s urge to play off of. And since the Japanese have access to it on the TV (and most otaku would be up watching other anime anyway), I don’t know.

Original source: GDH
Secondary source: anime!anime!

Blah blah blah, ADV, Anime Network On Demand, blah, blah, only 3 eps of Gurren Lagann instead of a full run, etc. Way to turn what was widely being praised as a giant step in the right direction into, well, still a little bit more than the one-dubbed-ep that was becoming standard.

With this news coming on Christmas Eve I came up with about a half-dozen possible titles for this post. Here are a few of the others:

• How ADV Stole Christmas
• ADV Giveth and ADV Taketh Away (this is the headline I used at theO, actually)
• Manly Tears, Simon’s Tears, No Gurren Lagann For Us (to “Silent Night”)
• ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, With No Gurren Lagann In the House
• ADV The Red-Faced Anime Licensor Had Only Three Eps Of Gurren Lagann
• Silver Drills, Silver Drills, It’s Grinch-mas Time at ADV (to “Silver Bells”)

…etc.

So I came across this article on a London-based investing site announcing that Ludorum PLC, the parent company of Gong (which airs dubbed anime online in a variety of locations including its own site), has sold its anime assets to Shinjuku Media Ltd., a new company formed by former Gong employees.

The article was a little bit confusing because it said that Ludorum sold the anime licenses to Shinjuku, but it read as though Gong was still a part of Ludorum. I sent off an e-mail to Ludorum asking what, if any, effect this will have on Gong and received a response from Benoit Runel, who is now a CEO of Shinjuku Media along with Andre de Semlyen.

In his e-mail he states that they founded Gong and have re-purchased all of Gong’s assets from Ludorum, and that Shinjuku Media will continue to operate Gong directly. The move is hopefully going to accelerate the company’s development. The full text of the e-mail is after the jump, if you’re interested. The short of it is that Gong will continue to exist more or less as it was, but better.

Read the rest of this entry »

So ADV has this brilliant plan. It involves launching a streaming site for anime online and airing episodes subtitled for free. They’re starting it out with Gurren Lagann. The first ep is up now, and each week a new episode will be added. Older episodes will be available for two weeks after they originally launch on the site. Good stuff, right?

Well, except for this one thing. Now, unless ADV has made some serious changes to Gurren Lagann, the series isn’t pornographic. I would probably rate it PG-13. And there doesn’t seem to be any hentai on the site. And yet, in the TOS you see before entering the site…

2. You represent that you are at least 18 years of age, or you have reached the legal age of majority under the law of the jurisdiction where you are domiciled.

3. You will not attempt to access the site if you are not at least 18 years of age (or the legal age of majority under the law of the jurisdiction where you are domiciled) nor will you assist anyone else in doing so in a manner inconsistent with these terms and conditions.

Wow. So the only way for under-18 anime fans to get legal, quick, subtitled anime is to…illegally say that they’re 18 to enter the site? That’s kinda lame.

Not that it’s difficult to get around or anything. I mean, it’s just pushing a button. But still, the principle seems a little odd to me.

Original source: The Anime Network Anime on Demand
Secondary source: a super ad-tastic ANN

Shorties:

• Blah blah blah Yaoi Con. If you’re interested in it, odds are good you’ve already seen YaoiSuki’s phenomenal coverage of it, so I won’t bother rehashing.
• Hey look– Japan Town San Francisco is revamping, including the building of a Jpop culture center. I’ll have to check that out when it’s done…
• European investors like Japanese love hotels. Who knew?
• Let’s see, I already talked about Lucky Star being licensed. For those of you silly enough to take me seriously, I was annoyed that it happened on a weekend when I wasn’t around to scoop, not because of the license itself. Duh.
• Apparently the gala event for Takashi Murakami’s exhibit at the LA Museum of Contemporary Art was a little star-studded.
• Tsundere GPS device. What the fuck.
• Are we done with Hare Hare Yukai now that even the virtual idols are doing it?
• HOLY SHIT LIVE ACTION AKIRA. Well, maybe. Possibly. We’re thinking about it.
• Remember Dale’s interview with Oreskaband at Anime Expo? No? That’s because animeOnline died before we could post it. (Wait, did we get it through? I don’t remember.) Anyway, the band is going to be in a movie.
• Vertical has Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack. It’s my fave Tezuka series, second to Unico, so HUZZAH!
• VIZ is all like, “look at all of our live-action manga adaptations! LOOK AT THEM! WE SO COOL!” Apparently they hoped we’d forget that everyone’s been expecting all of these for ages, except maybe Love*Com.
• Gong+Blinkx=more legal anime online. And stuff.
• A couple of new series: the sci-fi/greek mythology dark-lookin’ show Mnemosyne, plus an anime based on the character books Zenryoku Usagi. Also, BIOHAZARD CG anime.

At Length:

Ghost Hunt licensed: I love this show– solid characters, interesting stories, and any and all potential romance/personal drama is subtle and mostly not addressed. Also, AMAZING soundtrack by Masuda Toshio, who also did the soundtrack for Mushishi, FYI. Mmmm.

FUNimation vs Atari re: Dragon Ball Z games. I’m intrigued that no one has released the “why” for FUNimation’s move (which was to announce their intent to sever Atari’s rights to the games due to unknown infractions). Apparently DBZ is one of the floundering Atari’s few successful franchises– I wonder if FUNi is just hoping to jump ship before it sinks, or ir something significant really did go down?

B2B anime info portal: So Japanese companies are trying to get more information about their series to both North American and European countries. Given the recent hubbub with U.S. anime companies– e.g. FUNi, ADV, and Geneon’s layoffs and scalebacks –I think it’s a good idea for anime companies to get a better sense of what’s out there and what to license. While the “snag every single anime possible” tactic has its bonuses, I can’t think it’s the best method out there.

…Whew. That should keep you guys busy for a few minutes. Did I skip anything big?