Industry News: Crunchyroll x Funimation Delays Home Video Release for Hybrid×Heart Magias Academy Ataraxia

I figured this news warrants a notice as it's very rare to hear this report from Funimation.

UPDATE: Thanks to the response from ANN, I have tweaked the article to help avoid confusion.

A couple months back Funimation announced that they had initially planned on releasing the rather raunchy series Hybrid×Heart Magias Academy Ataraxia (Masou Gakuen HxH), which was one of the titles under the Crunchyroll banner, for home video as a Blu-ray & DVD combo pack with an English dub. The title was handled under Kadokawa Pictures and at the time Crunchyroll had exclusive ownership over the streaming rights alongside other properties like Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 3rei!!! and New Game! during the Summer 2016 season.

Recently it was announced that the listings for the show had disappeared and that it was presumably delayed for a 2018 release. Today, Robert's Anime Corner Store has revealed from their latest newsletter that Funimation has stated to them that the title will no longer be released.

UPDATE: Funimation have notified Anime News Network that the statement RACS have made is not clear, and that the title will be distributed sometime in 2018.

Now this is quite a weird case. Funimation have in fact released quite a number of ecchi shows over the last couple of years, including High School DxD, Maken-Ki! and even Valkyrie Drive -Mermaid- on Blu-ray and uncut. Granted Hybrid×Heart Magias Academy Ataraxia is one of the most raunchy shows to be animated in recent years, even having been pulled from the television broadcast channel TVQ Broadcasting Kyushu over "various circumstances." The show is available to stream on Crunchyroll using the TV Broadcast master which is usually the only option during simulcast.

Personally I would like to see the show get released in the end, as it's not fair for the fans to not be able to own a series that they enjoy in English and because the uncensored version is not available in any legal form aside from the Japanese Blu-rays. I don't expect a UK release of this series whatsoever because the BBFC will no doubt reject or censor the product for its content, though I have been wrong in the past on a number of recent titles like Daimidaler and Prison School.

Plot synposis for the series (via AnimeNewsNetwork):

Kizuna Hida visits the strategic defense academy Ataraxia at his big sister's request. There, he encounters Aine Chidorigafuchi, a girl piloting the magical armor Zerosu. A communique about a serious mission arrives from Kizuna's sister. The mission is to rub Aina's chest. Kizuna has the power to level up a girl through indecent acts. With a battle against another world, the future depends on this power.

If you are curious about the show it's available to stream on Crunchyroll for regions Worldwide outside Asia in Japanese audio with English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish subtitles. Yen Press have licensed the manga adaptation of the light novel for digital and print release.