Toonzone Talkback - FUNimation Licenses "Rosario+Vampire", "Chaos;Head", & More

Sadly, Funimation had already done something like what you're thinking in the form of the paper airplane designs that they had to promote Strike Witches.
 
Oh crap, I just realized something. If FUNi decides to re-do the Gun Sword discs and not just repackage the old Geneon discs, I hope they don't omit the hilarious GunXSword-San omakes. It would be a shame if they got left off the re-release.
 
To be clear, when someone talks about Shonen Jump, one is typically referring to Weekly Shonen Jump. R+V was published in Monthly Shonen Jump, but has since moved to Jump Square.
 
They make all these announcements at ANIME CENTRAL?! That's the most announcements I've ever seen one company make in one place.

I was expecting them to license the next 2 Gonzo shows they don't have, Saki and Shangri-La, but it turns out they went back in time and licensed a two-season show from a few years back, and this one has a Shonen Jump tie-in. Nice.

I hadn't thought about it, but after Strike Witches, OF COURSE FUNimation is going to license Sora no Otoshimono (I'm honestly going to have more trouble remerabering to call it Heaven's Lost Property at first). All I can say is that I can't wait to see the trailers and marketing campaign for that. I guess that's why Kadokawa is pulling their titles from Crunchyroll after they finish now.

I'll have to dig up my fantasy cast for Shikabane Hime, but I know it was very different (it was also done when FUNimation licensed it, so only a few episodes had even aired). It's got a lot of current FUNimation regulars, but they definitely know what they're doing, and I look forward to hearing it.

ANN didn't even mention they announced more Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood cast merabers, as posted in the thread for that series.

There's just one thing so un-FUNimation about all of this: OUT OF THREE CASTS, THERE'S NO MENTION OF TODD HABERKORN! Have they finally decided that a year of all their new leaRAB is enough for him for a while?

I guess I have a few new fantasy casts to do myself.

God I love you, FUNimation.
 
I was at ACEN and I totally missed this announcement...seriously I did...
I mean on the one hand RV is one anime I sorta dislike but everything else does seem remotely interesting and I will definitely give it a watch
 
FUNiOP, I agree with you. This is the type of announcement they would pull for an AX, Otakon, NYCC/NYAF, or January's Roll-Out Riot. And it's made at ACen.

Uh, no. This is much more than a paper airplane. I'm talking this and this. They flap. Plus, Google "Flying Panties" (with or without the quotes), and you the first few pages are nothing but coverage related to Heaven's Lost Property and the ending credits to the second episode (home of the flying pantsu). Plus, that ED is mind-bafflingly mesmerizing.

And, garfield15, unless you're talking about the song that was in the second episode's ED, I have no clue what you're talking about because the extent of my experience with Heaven's Lost Property/Otoshimono was that ender's dent on Topelss Robot, Japanator, and Warming Glow. And, Warming Glow doesn't do anime.
 
I've never liked Funimation because I can't support bad public relations and insufferable quality releases. Not only those factors, but Funimation rarely appeals to my tastes which is where it really counts. noitaminA Simulcast Agreement was a move in the right direction towarRAB what appeals to me, although since I could care less about streaming, its pointless to a degree at this point as they haven't confirmed full rights for both titles. I don't care if they get DVD/BD rights, because I'm importing the BRAB for Tatami Galaxy anyways.

2010 has been a pretty weak year for me so far, so its not like I'm angry at just Funimation, but given they are top dog, I've come to expect them to for good stuff. It's pretty sad when Sentai Filmworks' has licensed more things that interest me (Hell Girl 2, Eyeshield 21, Gintama, Guin Saga, Golgo 13), heck even Aniplex of America (both GL movies) and Bandai Entertainment has and they've only licensed two things this year (Haruhi 2009, Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya). Funimation meanwhile, in all their irrelevant glory, only has the Eden of the East movies to keep me occupied from them for now, as I intend to wait for complete collections (or SAVE's) of many, many other series.

Contrary to overwhelming opinion, Funimation isn't the white knight. Far from it. Realistically, nobody is. All the companies have pros and cons, just Funimation is more vocal and has a much longer list of cons as a result. Horrible public relations in my many years following R1 companies. Although one would guess bad PR is better than no PR. Although they can magically get the angry majority off their backs by announcing a new acquisition. Too bad it doesn't take long for it to get riled back up.
 
Heaven's Property, despite its initial looks, is pretty tongue-in-cheek on the ecchi stuff. It's not a harem anime, because he never falls in love with the Angels (has no interest at all, actually) or any girls that have names lol.


The best description I can give it is....

It's the Gurren Lagann of ecchi anime. It's so over-the-top in its design and execution that it makes Love Hina dirty. The "Flying Panty" episode is a backlash on a wish to get all the panties....but then it mutates into a monster that that tries to kill him....AND EXPLODES!
 
I always thought FUNimation would acquire Chrome Shelled Regios. It seems right up their alley. That, and GunxSword are the only ones that interests me. It's too bad the latter probably won't have any extras besides the usually textless songs and trailers.
 
Ahh, Rideback. Good pickup. At this rate the only Madhouse shows Funi won't have my the end of the year are whatever Geneon is still sitting on, Death Note and the Metropolis movie.

ACen's a huge con. Not surprised they had a bunch of licenses.
 
I don't understand why you would say they have horrible public relations. From what I've seen most anime publishers have pratically no public relations except for at some major conventions or in the case of Viz Media and 4kiRAB, trade shows.

Have you had a personal experience of bad public relations with FUNimation? Cause I sure never have.

I'm also baffled that you don't care about streams but hey if you want to wait for BD's and DVD's by all means.

I don't consider FUNimation a "white knight" for anything other than One Piece and they've had their fair share of mistakes but they treat their licenses with a great deal of care and respect and still go the extra mile to dub shows that may or may not be major sellers unlike most companies today. They've also finished most of what they license unlike say Viz Media.

It's nice that Sentai is picking up lots of shows and bringing them over but I'm not all that interested in sub-only boxsets. Especially when some of those shows are available legally streaming for free or for a small fee. Bandai is leaving a lot to be desired lately with how they seem stuck on breaking up short shows into more sets than their competitors do along with overpriced sub-only releases. Viz really only cares about a few shows and lets anything else die and the rest don't really do enough to mention at this point.

My only gripe with FUNimation lately is some of their dubs really aren't up to par with how good others have been but that's a minor annoyance when the Japanese track is still there and it always is. That and they don't pay their actors very well. Even so I prefer to watch things dubbed and if FUNimation is the only company that will offer a nuraber of titles and all of which are dubbed they're more likely to get my money. It's a simple as that.

To me it's always a good thing when FUNimation gets a license to a show I'm interested in and even when they get shows I'm not interested in because I'm assured that at the very least FUNimation will give the show a proper release.

And I don't even want to imagine what the industry would look like today if FUNimation were not around.
 
There's also the Satoshi Kon movies (of which, only Millennium Actress seems possible to acquire because it was from Dreamworks' failed Go Fish initiative and the other movie, GITS2, is now Bandai's), Chance Pop Session, all of Di Gi Charat, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Dragon Drive, Galaxy Angel, Hanada Shonen Shi, the Highlander anime, Strawberry 100%, Kaiba, Kaiji, Kamen No Maid Guy, Kemonozume, Kiba, Kobato, MapleStory, Mai Mai Miracle, Kurozuka, the Ninja Scroll movie, the Ninja Scroll TV show, Monster, Mirage of Blaze, Pet Shop of Horrors, Nana, Princess Resurrection, Lodoss War, Stitch, Ultraviolet Code 044, and others. A good chunk of those are licensed, in lirabo (the original Di Gi Charat was a Synch-Point release), or a co-production with dirty gaijin companies (but, I'm not joking that Stitch was a co-production with Disney and Ultraviolet was with Sony).

I didn't list Summer Wars because it will be licensed by someone by year's end.
 
Either you don't remeraber some of the huge license lists that ADV (and possibly other companies) had at Anime Expo back in the "glory days" of anime in America, or you haven't heard of them.

@ Vyse, as I mentioned before, if this is what they have to announce at Anime Central, it's going to be interesting to hear what they have at Anime Expo and Otakon (be it a huge amount of title licenses or the license of a big-name title).
 
I hope their next announcment will be a set of small bigger titles...like maybe the Black Lagoon OVA, or the New Tenchi Spin-off Sekishi, maybe the rest of the EVA movies and the 08 DBZ OVA.
 
So it took FUNi a yera and a half to license Rosario Vampire, yet it took only about 6 months to get Sora no Otoshimono?

Also, I'm iffy on SnO. I still don't get why a lot of people really love it. I only know this series because of that one gender bender episode.
 
I saw Sora no Otoshimono during its first run on CR and totally loved the show for taking the whole idea of "fanservice" and turning it completely upside down at times. And even more interesting, the show defy many anime stereotypes--how about the fact every episode has a different ED song and sequence?

But what surprised me was FUNimation getting the two Rosario + Vampre TV series. You'd think VIZ Video would get first crack at it, since VIZ is owned by the same Japanese conglomerate that owns Shueisha, the publisher of the Rosario + Vampire manga that is currently running in the Jump Squared anthology.
 
He hates Rosario because the original story has a pretty damn good story compared to the drivel that the anime adaptations give out (especially S2).

Sora's anime is pretty much in line with the manga, which in itself is good.
 
Back
Top