Funimation rescues When They Cry, Shakugan no Shana, Fate/Stay Night, plus others

In what can be filed under the “it’s about nut-#$%#@ing time” category, Funimation has announced that they are producing and distributing some of Geneon’s more popular series, including:

  • Black Lagoon (both seasons)
  • Elemental Gelade
  • Ergo Proxy
  • Fate/Stay Night
  • Hellsing Ultimate
  • Kamichu
  • Karin
  • Kyo kara Maoh! (2nd season only)
  • The Law of Ueki
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (being released as Lyrical Nanoha)
  • Paradise Kiss
  • Rozen Maiden (both seasons)
  • Shakugan no Shana (released as just Shana by Geneon)
  • Shonen Onmyouji
  • The Story of Saiunkoku
  • When They Cry – Higurashi
  • Zero no Tsukaima (being released as the Familiar of Zero)
  • plus the live-action Ninja Vixens

Luckily for myself, I bought up the entire Shana series when Geneon shut down, but many of these other series I just haven’t gotten to yet. Most of these titles were the obvious choices to be picked up as well.

Also, apparently Geneon still holds the actual licenses to these series, but Funimation is going to do all the dirty work for them, including producing and distributing them.

The first titles are scheduled to start their release in Late Summer.

However, this brings up an interesting question…does this mean Geneon may appear on the licensing market again, but will just use Funimation to distribute, kind of in the mold of Kadowaka USA? That had been a possibility floated all along. I think it’s too early to know whether that is the case, however.

Added thought:

If I may, two glaring omissions to this list to me (which doesn’t impact me because I already have both series) are Haibane Renmei and Fushigi Yugi.  Just though I’d say that.

Summer 2008: Blogging and Watching Series

So, in a shock to no one who read my Summer Review, I’m going to blog the series Someday’s Dreamers: Summer Skies. I liked the first Someday’s Dreamers, and it was really the only series which really caught my attention this season. And since I was only planning on picking up one new series to blog in the summer, it made the decision easy.

Someday's Dreamers: Summer Skies

Now, as to the series I’ll be watching, but not blogging, all of these series have the possibility to be good, but also have signs that they might be iffy, so hopefully they’ll be the former rather than the latter.

The first series I’ll watch is Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu which appears to be a harem comedy, though with a little twist: the main loser boy finds out that the hot super-popular girl in the school is actully an uber-Otaku in secret.  This just begs hilarity to me, and I hope I’m right.

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu

The second series series I’ll watch is Natsume Yuujinchou, which is about a boy who discovers a book which has a binding contract with some spirits, and his quest to release those spirits from the contract.  Now, I assume the story will be deeper than that, but I sounds interesting.  Part of the reason why I’m picking this up is that the director has worked on some series I’ve liked before too.

Natsume Yuujinchou

As for whether I’ll pick up a third series to watch, I’m not sure.  The first season of Hidamari Sketch was kind of borderline, and if the second season is going to be the same, I don’t know about watching a series which I know will be borderline.

As for Strike Witches, this probably would be on my list, if it wasn’t for having to pay to download copies to my computer from Crunchyroll.  BOST TV has promised some “new things” for this series, and if one of those is being able to download an actual high quality version (i.e., like what one could download from Crunchyroll) for the $1 it costs to watch the episode, then I might watch that one as well.

Other than that, the landscape is pretty barren after taking out sequels to series I haven’t seen.

Anime DVD and Manga Releases for July 1 – July 7

Anime DVDs

Gakuen Heaven DVD Box SetJuly 1, 2008
Blue Seed – Box Set
Cosplay Complex & My Dear Marie DVD Double-Pack
Desert Punk – Box Set
Gakuen Heaven – Box Set (sub)
Kanon – Volume 6
Lucky Star – Volume 2
Naruto – Volume 25 (dub)
Samurai 7 – Box Set

Manga

Time Stranger Kyoko Manga Volume 1July 1, 2008
Black Cat – Volume 15
Claymore – Volume 12
Cowa!
Fruits Basket – Volume 20
Gintama – Volume 7
Gun Blaze West – Volume 2
High School Debut – Volume 4
Hunter X Hunter – Volume 21
Kurohime – Volume 6
La Corda D’Oro – Volume 8
Lovely Complex – Volume 7
Moon Child – Volume 11
NANA – Volume 11
Naruto – Volume 30
Prince of Tennis – Volume 26
Reborn! – Volume 8
Rurouni Kenshin – BIG Edition – Volume 3
S.A – Volume 5
Shaman King – Volume 17
Skip Beat! – Volume 13
Strawberry 100% – Volume 5
Time Stranger Kyoko – Volume 1
Tower of the Future – Volume 11
Ultimate Muscle: The Kinnikuman Legacy – Volume 20
Young Magician – Volume 12
Yu Yu Hakusho – Volume 15

July 2, 2008
Dorothea – Volume 2
Shirley
Tears of a Lamb – Volume 3

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