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Saturday, 4 July 2015

Industry News: Anime Expo 2015 Announcements Round-up (Part 2) - Daisuki, Funimation, Ponycan & Rightstuf

Continuing what we left off from yesterday, it's time for the second part of the Anime Expo 2015 announcements. In this post I'll be going through the latest from Daisuki, Funimation, Ponycan USA and Rightstuf/Nozomi Entertainment. Other panels that occurred yesterday/last night like Aksys and NIS America will be going along with JAST USA in one post while Vertical will be with Kodansha Comics and Yen Press in another.


Now the question we all want to know, was there any news that could out-stand Sentai's announcements?

Daisuki


I wasn't able to see what Daisuki was offering as no one was live-streaming their events but they did however provide news for their streaming service which I'll be mentioning right here.

Bandai Visual have partnered with Daisuki to stream GOD EATER and Concrete Revolutio exclusively for worldwide outside of Japan and certain areas with English subtitles. Concrete Revolutio will be part of the Autumn 2015 line-up.

The company will also be streaming Bikini Warriors and Everyday Life with Monster Girls (also known as Monster Musume) to Central/Latin America and Asia. Both titles will have English subtitles. Bikini Warriors has been acquired by Funimation for North America while Monster Musume has yet to receive a license from any distributor.

And Aniplex of America will be offering their summer titles to the service for North, Central and Latin America and Asia territories outside Japan, China and South Korea; Charlotte (USA only), Classroom Crisis, Durarara!! X2 and Wagnaria!!3.

Funimation


I'm going to be honest, a majority of what Funimation provided at their latest panel was not so good. Many of them were recaps of their latest titles and promoting their website. More than half of the announcements were even leaked!

The leaked announcements include a new streaming title Chaos Dragon, their acquisition of the Japanese live-action Attack on Titan films, a new Premium Edition of Free! Eternal Summer and a Blu-ray version of the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime adaptation.

If they didn't leak the Fullmetal Alchemist announcement the reception for the panel would have been much better. Like Darker Than Black Season 1, Fullmetal Alchemist will include a Limited Edition ($129.98) and Collector's Edition ($329.98) (Funimation Exclusive) in addition to a Standard Edition ($64.98) set. All versions include the 51 episodes but NOT the 4 OVAs released in the Premium Edition DVD. The Limited Edition includes an artbook and art cards while the Collector's Edition includes a massive suitcase style box with an Alchemy sized chipboard box with leather textured cover and gold foil accents, a 300 page full colour artbook, 10 collectable artcards and 3 deluxe 8x10 textured art prints. The series will be available on September 15th.

In addition to the 19 already known simulcasts they also picked up Venus Project: Climax. Strangely enough there was no mention of Dragon Ball Super despite any people taking photos of the new series at the Anime Expo.

The Free! Eternal Summer 'For the Future' Premium Edition includes the contents from the Limited Edition (including the chipboard box with the Water Gloss Effect) as well as a full colour artbook, seven art cards, full colour sports towel, and Iwatobi and Samezuka Decals. The price for the set is $119.98.

The last announcement they had was an interesting one. The distributor officially announced a new anime adaptation in the works from Japan with Funimation being part of the committee. The title itself is called Dimension W, and the anime itself is based on the manga of the same name. No further details were revealed aside from a teaser trailer and a simultaneous release in 2016.

Ponycan USA


Nothing much was revealed from the distributor but they did confirm that Etotama will be coming to Blu-ray and DVD combo pack box sets like their previous titles starting with volume 1 on October 10th.

During a Q&A the company admits they want to release all of their titles on Blu-ray and offer as much content as possible to their sets with English subtitles. As well as the staff confirming the chances of Sound! Euphonium receiving an English dub is fairly low.

Rightstuf and Nozomi Entertainment


Now here's some interesting news. Although the streams weren't working properly the company have announced a lot of new titles to come to their catalogue.

For new titles they have acquired Big Windup! Season 2 (Ookiku Furikabutte: Natsu no Taikai Hen), which Funimation only acquired the first season to due to poor sales. The distributor has also acquired A Town Where You Live (Kimi no Iru Machi), Pita-Ten, Tamayura: Hitotose and Umi Monogatari (Umi Monogatari: Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto).

In addition Nozomi Entertainment have announced their first ever Blu-ray release will be out in 2016 with Revolutionary Girl Utena. The series will be released in three parts.

New details on the Gundam franchise have also been revealed. Sunrise will be bringing over the original Mobile Suit Gundam on Blu-ray, in addition to Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, After War Gundam X and the Turn A Gundam movie collection. So far only the first series is getting a Blu-ray release, other shows are still planned for DVD. The issues that hit the Bandai releases like the missing episode from the original Mobile Suit Gundam series will also be omitted in the upcoming release, while the music licensing issues may also apply to the upcoming titles.

That's it for Part 2 of this post. Stay tuned for more.

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