Nigorimasen! Blog

Amidst the flurry of distribution acquisitions by Funimation a weekend ago, there were a number of series that did not show up on those lengthy lists. The focus of the partnership with Geneon was to continue releases that were halted during initial single-by-single release (e.g. The Story of Saiunkoku, When They Cry); begin putting out series that were licensed but had yet to be released (The Familiar of Zero, Lyrical Nanoha); and furnish complete collection releases for series that had finished their singles run but lacked an all-in-one box set (Ergo Proxy, Fate stay night, Shana season 1). The same seemed to be the case with most of the Sojitz-managed titles with the exception of Comic Party Revolution and possibly Nerima Daikon Brothers.
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FACT: There are still six months left in 2008. FACT: Still no Keroro.

The last six months have seemed like doom-and-gloom for ADV Films with their glossy magazine folding (and the rebirthed version also shutting down) and a license financing dispute that forced them to presumably sell Gurren Lagann to Bandai. But they are still releasing shiny discs and their Kanon releases have been getting praise like volume 3 sweeping AOD’s ADR awards for March 2008 and each release regularly getting voted Pick of the Week by the AOD forumites. Pretty much the only undeveloped titles they have are Kiba and Sgt. Frog, and I think the latter has the capability to bolster the company if it is publicized the right way…and if ADV still has the rights.
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Funimation announced their license of Ookiku Furikabutte today but they changed the name to ‘Big Windup!’ WHAT!?! I can understand changing an anime’s name to make it more accessible to American audiences as ADV did with The Ugly and Beautiful World (Kono Minikuku mo Utsukushii Sekai) and even Rumbling Hearts (instead of The Eternity You Desire/Wish For) is something fans would be able to get used to over time. But renaming can also make things confusing, like what I thought happened with Shattered Angels (instead of Kyoshiro and the Eternal Sky), which actually isn’t as bad as I first thought. I credit part of my frustration to being a baseball fan and when I see ‘Big Windup!’, I think of an announcer saying the title of a baseball video game marketed toward kids that could have broader appeal (e.g. MLB Power Pros, very good game but not so good announcer) or a in-game powerup that also sounds cheesy when spoken. I am NOT looking for the trailer Funimation puts together whenever this gets released in late 2009 (self-speculation) but am sort of anticipating its actual release.

In the meantime, I will be watching fansubs of the show to see if it’s good. (I saw the first episode a few weeks back and, though it was slow, I saw some potential in it so, like a minor league scout, I’m going to give it a chance and hope it improves.)

*sigh* OK, I did find it clever that they parodied the MLB logo to make the series’ logo but I’m still not pleased about the name. I would have been fine with Pitch Like You Mean It! or a less cheesy name I can’t think of right now.

This week Funimation has been announcing licenses and so far all of them have involved 13-episode sets. On Monday, it was Save Me, Lollipop (aka Mamotte! Lollipop) that will come out as a 13-episode set in December and Tuesday they announced plans to release the first 26 episodes of Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple in two 13-episode box sets in 2009 without specification on the second set of twenty-six (meaning they may not have those yet). The latest was Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino-, the second anime season of the female cyborg assassin series, and those 13 episodes are going to be released as, you guessed it, a box set sometime in 2009. (Funi had put out the first season as singles in 2005 and repackaged it into a complete collection in 2006.)

It seems that they are certainly living up their plan toward more initial season sets but they are still releasing single volumes for new series like Shuffle! and xxxHOLiC, likely due to agreements with the Japanese owners. I wish I had access to sales numbers to see if this bulk packaging is actually working…

Just to give you an update on some of their previous announcements, Darker Than Black is listed as simply “2008″, Ghost Hunt’s site says Fall 2008, Ouran’s has no date but it was announced as 2008 at Otakon ‘07, and Negima!? and Planet of the Beast King (Jyu-Oh-Sei) don’t have their own sites yet but AnimeSuki lists both as 2008. So I guess we can expect some substantive details in the months ahead, maybe.

P.S. A user on the AoD forums predicts that Soukou no Strain will be announced tomorrow based on the silhouetted teaser on Funimation’s front page. And guess what, that has 13 episodes to its name as well.

With the industry panels beginning tomorrow at Anime Expo and Otakon taking place in just three weeks, many big-name licenses are sure to be announced by the major US distributors. There will be confirmations of previously discovered domain names, logical steps and sequels based on previous licenses, and a few out of the left left field” announcements. The slam dunks and the relative unknowns share the stage of their respective industry panels. It’s the perfect time for fans to play prognosticator and predict how the chips will fall regarding the R1 fates of their favorite titles. [AOD has a topic on this for their AX forum.] Below the jump are those that will probably be locks along with many other less substantiated possibilities.
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Most of the Bandai Entertainment panel was spent showing trailers about its existing titles including Eureka Seven, Zegapain, FLAG, and My Otome. There was one announcement that revealed through a guessing game, though. The crucial hint was that CLAMP was involved in it. The first two guesses - xxxHolic and Code Geass - fell short but the third - CLAMP Detectives - was a winner. They had previously released it on VHS and are now going to re-release it on DVD. Here is a review of the first subbed video on ANN.

And hey, Spiritsnare, you know that poster you got at the Bandai booth this afternoon when you bought the Haruhi limited edition box. Well, I got the same poster for answering the last trivia question during the Bandai Entertainment panel. Not to brag, just flaunting my luck I suppose. Thanks for your help on the panel, by the way!

ADV made it known during their panel at Anime Central and through a press release on Friday that they have licensed four GONZO titles: Red Garden, Welcome to the NHK!, Pumpkin Scissors, and Magikano. Most of those sound like they would be good fits with ADV’s marketing but I am a little concerned about NHK, probably because I’ve watched the most of that one out of the bunch.

Here’s the release breakdown from the press release:

• Red Garden: 24 episodes over 6 discs
  Volume 1 due 9/18/2007
• Welcome to the NHK!: 24 episodes over 6 discs
  Volume 1 due 10/2/2007
• Pumpkin Scissors: 24 episodes over 6 discs
  Volume 1 due out 10/23/2007
• Magikano: 13 episodes over 3 discs
  Volume 1 due out 12/4/2007

The surprise seemingly-out-of-nowhere news of the week is ADV’s license of AIR the anime and its subsequent 87-minute movie. The company has set the release date for the first of four volumes as August 14 and stated a new DVD will come out each month - this means that all of AIR will have been brought to the R1 market by the end of November. That’s like Viz releasing three volumes of the Naruto manga a month from September to December, except with video discs.

I think it’s worth noting out that it was last Friday that ADV announced at Anime Boston that the first volume of Innocent Venus will come out on August 21. In that particular press release, you can read rep David Williams describing the anime as “combin[ing] the sci-fi noir of Logan’s Run with the fast-paced action of Gantz”.

P.S. I am not lying about the title of this post. I actually did finish downloading AIR the TV series (but not the movie) last night and was - and still am - planning to watch it this weekend, although I’m going to be occupied with yard work part of Saturday and I have a paper due Thursday…

I don’t like to jump to conclusions and start rumors but this just seemed strange to me to not pass along. Everyone probably knows by now that the anime being hinted at in ANN’s current Geneon license contest is Higurashi and the first five clues so far have been pretty straightforward: 26 episodes, Summer of ‘83, based on a PC game, etc. But the sixth one is more “puzzling” than its predecessors.

The words “English Title” seem to indicate Higurashi might get the same treatment that Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien got with “Rumbling Hearts”. Forumites on AoD and ANN are wondering whether the contest runners screwed up the space distribution since the most likely alternate title would be “WHEN THEY CRY”. BUT…that doesn’t fit into a 3-5-3 phrase structure. So it’s probably “THE [blank] CRY” or “WHY [blank] CRY” with the middle word being plural and mysterious. Longshots I thought of include “see lolis die” and “big psych out”. That is, if the wording is in fact 3-5-3 and not 4-4-3.

I guess we’ll all find out the North American marketing name late Monday evening. Whatever the name ends up being, it’s a good thing I finished downloading the series this weekend. Now I have to actually resume watching it - I left off at episode 3…

Yesterday I clicked on a banner ad on ANN that sent me to the “Funimation 2007 Kickoff” website. Apparently, each weekday from Jan 22nd through 26th at noon CST (10am PST/1pm EST), a special announcement will be posted. Sure, I’ll be checking the page everyday next week but that’s not my point.

Recently there has been a trend of behavior that is starting to irritate me - that is, licensors hyping announcements. While this latest thing by Funi is not as grandiose as Bandai’s ASOS Brigade or as “clever” as Geneon’s hints at Rozen Maiden during a podcast that people otherwise wouldn’t listen to (at least I wouldn’t, I don’t know about you…), it still annoys me that they are making fans do more legwork. Call me lazy but I’d rather have companies just make a press release and surprise fans the old-fashioned way because I doubt we’ll remember years from now how Keroro took over ADV’s website for a day or two.
And yes, I do realize that I am inadvertently promoting Funi’s project by linking to it.