Hello and welcome to another edition of Sunday News Bites! Now that we’ve all settled down after the belated airing of the final episode of School Days (complete with nice boat) and the continuation of Higurashi Kai, let’s get to the other news of the week, with the help of returning fat cat guests, Mikoto and Aria. For ease of reading, we have translated their comments into English.
Geneon pulls out of the DVD business
It’s official- with the ADV deal having fallen through, Geneon has decided to bow out of DVD distribution and marketing. As of last Friday, they have stopped accepting orders for DVDs, and only those with a release date on or before November 6th will be sent out. This leaves several series unfinished or unreleased, whilst existing Geneon stock will most likely be out of print for the foreseeable future once retailers sell out- in other words, if you don’t buy it now, you may never get the chance to.
Whilst Geneon will most likely stick around in the form of a Kadokawa USA-esque company that handles licensing but subcontracts the actual production and sales of DVDs to other companies, the ultimate fate of the many titles in their catalogue remains unclear at this time.
Aria says: Like Aria Company, Geneon was a well-known name but it wasn’t really doing all that well- look at their diminishing returns from all the niche series they’ve licensed over the last few years.
Mikoto says: True, but I’ll be sorry to see them go- I always regarded them as reliable. I’d better get Mashiro to stock up on the DVDs and OSTs we want from their catalogue.
FUNimation+Gonzo vs. fansubbers
Although they have yet to license it, FUNimation sent out one of their infamous cease and desist letters to stop Shinsen-Subs from fansubbing Romeo X Juliet, Gonzo’s highly liberal re-imagining of Shakespeare’s play. Just as Media Factory once had AnimeSuki stop posting torrents of their unlicensed series on their site, FUNimation will now be working with Gonzo to crack down on fansubs of the studio’s efforts, licensed or not.
Aria says: It seems that FUNimation likes targeting Shinsen, but it remains to be seen how this will affect the general approach to fansubbing Gonzo titles.
Mikoto says: If we’ve learned anything from the last year or so, it’s that in the end one can usually find what one needs, if one knows where to look.
New anime almost here- check out these trailers
Are you ready for the autumn season? Perhaps you need a bit more assistance in deciding what to watch? If that’s the case, have a flick through some commercials for some of the newest anime to hit
Aria says: I’m too lazy to load all these trailers.
Mikoto says: Me too- now let’s eat.
It’s a sad fact that we’re all aware of the existence of bootleg Hong Kong DVDs, but this week police in
Aria says: The feline mafia of Neo Venezia would never stoop so low.
Mikoto says: I would never touch pirated DVDs- Mashiro can afford the best for me.
For a while, we’ve known that a new KgNE OVA has been in the works, one which follows the ‘Haruka route’ of the game. Now, this OVA has finally been given a release date of December 21st, which also happens to be my 25th birthday. Yay?
Aria says: I prefer some tasty treats as a birthday gift.
Mikoto says: That Haruka gets a cushy job, sleeping for three years. People are always waking me up when I try that.
I never knew President Aria could say anything else that ‘Punyu’. And that he had so much knowledge on anime.
And thanks for the news on the KgNE OVA, I thought it had been cancelled after all this time.
Beneath that flabby body lies a wealth of knowledge ;p…and he was saying ‘punyu’, but our in-house translators thought it would be easier on everyone to offer the English equivalent. Similarly, Mikoto’s meows were translated.
So, quick question, w/r/t the Geneon crash-and-burn — if I order the DVDs from, say, the Right Stuf fairly soon, will I be able to get them?
Provided it’s nothing too obscure, it should be possible to get what DVDs you want in the near future- retailers are basically going to be selling off what they stock they have until it runs out, and then there’s no more coming from the distributor. Of course, since everyone with money is going to want to get the DVDs while they last, it’s best not to wait around too long.
(On another note, I don’t know how this will affect companies like MVM and Madman that distribute Geneon licensed titles in other countries- in principle they can still print DVDs from their own masters, but I don’t know if there’ll be legal reasons why they can’t do so.)
Do you think Gankutsuou would count as an obscure title? xD
Gankutsuou is probably the title everyone will want to buy before it disappears, so don’t hang around ;p. Full series boxset was supposed to be out this month (which is before the November cutoff date for new releases), so there’s still a chance some retailers will be stocking a few copies of that too.
I’ll put in my order at RightStuf, then, while I still can. Meh, I’m just going to buy the remaining four DVDs I need to complete the series; it’ll be cheaper.