Anime Expo – FUNimation Panel
We just finished our industry panel over at AX. I personally spent most of the time on pictochat. I’ll be brief on what went down ’cause I need to go do some more convention stuffs – so here are some snippets.
Dragon Ball
We have remastered and digitally restored the entire Dragon Ball anime series, including the first thirteen episodes original to the series. The Dragon Ball Season Sets will be available at major retailers nationwide on September 15.
Slayers Revolution Cast
English dub cast for the fantasy adventure series Slayers Revolution from Enoki Films. The all-star cast features the voice actors from the previous hit releases The Slayers, Slayers Next and Slayers Try.
Lisa Ortiz will reprise her role as Lina
Veronica Taylor will return as the voice of Amelia
The role of Gourry will once again be voiced by Eric Stuart
and Crispin Freeman will be back to voice Zelgadis.
Lastly, Michael Sinterniklaas will be voicing the character Xellos.
Sands of Destruction
We’ve picked up the home entertainment, broadcast, digital, and merchandise rights to the first season (13 episodes) of the fantasy adventure series “Sands of Destruction” from SEGA of America Inc.
ShoDojo
Anime Expo Convention goers can get a first look at the anime-focused social media and video hub, ShoDojo www.shodojo.com, at the FUNimation booth (#301) during the course of the convention.
Though still in the early stages of development, FUNimation has many plans for the budding community. ShoDojo is being built with the anime fan in mind and future features will include tools for the user to interact with friends and forge relationships with other fans who share their passion!
If you have anymore questions, feel free to leave a comment. I’ll try to address them as soon as possible, but the internet keeps cutting out. Damn you technology!!!!
Oh yeah… we also announced Sengoku Basara.
70 Responses to “Anime Expo – FUNimation Panel”
Rojas on July 7th, 2009 at 3:30 pm says:
Well said.
dragon0 on July 7th, 2009 at 4:02 pm says:
Why do you think I said it wasn’t a garented thing that any one of the series would be licened. There is alot of time, money and effort into these thing. Besides lets not for get other companies are scouting out anime title to licence as well, Funi is not alone on that front. I can’t speek for you all but I love, appresiate and respect the effort and work funimation and all its staff do to get THE BEST tiles out there and bring them to us.
Tyrenol on July 7th, 2009 at 5:37 pm says:
Don’t just say “Well Said,” Rojas.
Is the deal with Sailor Moon in the works or isn’t it? The suspense alone if making me sick.
Kyoko on July 7th, 2009 at 7:32 pm says:
My guess is they’re trying, and we might get a shot since Toei’s starting to release their hold on things…
but it really all depends on Takeuchi… I know she has a tight hold on the entire franchise, and I think the final say would actually be with her, and she’s had some unfortunate experiences in the past with the treatment of her works from various sides, and I imagine she’d be pretty hesitant to let it go…
…however, considering her husband IS the one and only Yoshihiro Togashi and FUNi did a REALLY good job with Yu Yu Hakusho… we might be able to work out something…
It’s all a matter of how hard FUNi tries to get it and if the owners can be convinced to release the international restraints…
Sarah on July 7th, 2009 at 7:56 pm says:
Yes, fans really just want to know if it’s in the works or not.
dragon0 on July 7th, 2009 at 11:10 pm says:
Please just tell us any info on Sailor Moon you have Rojas so we can get over it and know if we need to start saving money, (for thoes who planne to buy). Any info would sufice.
Mario1-7 on July 8th, 2009 at 3:58 am says:
I’ll be the Tyrenol for now.
Clannad > Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei > K-ON > Toradora!>>>Hayate > Hatsukoi Limited>>>>> Hetalia >>>>>>>Seto No Hanayome >>>>>>>> All the rest >>>>>>>>>> Sailor Moon > School Days.
School Days is the worst Anime of all time.
Sailor Moon = Old and seen 4 million times it doesn’t need to be seen again. I can’t believe both of you guys are taking things pretty far with this moon thing. Let ADV get Sailor Moon so they can release it in a Epic failure sort of way. If Anything should be saved its Rurouni Kenshin from Media Blahsters we need a Blu-Ray release for it and also Fullmetal Panic and Fullmetal Panic Fumuffu (or however you spell it) also needs a Blu-Ray release.
Anyway It seems like FUNimation has gotten 2 Anime based off of Video Games, I will be there for World Destruction and I have not Idea what Sengoku Basara is i know its Capcom and I HATE Crapcom, If you happen to be a Nintendo Fanboy/girl I am sure you know why.. Also my mind was Cluttered with ”Moe Moe Kyu” and Country’s fighting with each other.
Wahahahaha!!! So how did i do? Tyrenol the Mario1-7 Version! 
Tyrenol on July 8th, 2009 at 4:21 am says:
@ Mario:
1a. I’d channel my inner-”Samuel Jackson,” but my comment would be censored and “off topic.”
1b. I’d impersonate you, but my comment would still be censored and “off topic.”
1c. I’m still very much alive. And that’s WAY more than I can out hardliner otaku like you.
2. They’re “Moonies.” You give fans of Sailor Moon an inch; you might lose a state whilst it calls for independence.
3. Finally; you and I have agreed on School Days.
What did the Riddler say? “You kill a person; he doesn’t learn anything.” The otaku industry and its fanbase HATE young men; any form of success and he needs to be killed because of it.
People who are unable to succeed, telling stories of the bad things that can be done to successful people. Wow. And I though my state’s economic policies were backwards. 
NJ_ on July 8th, 2009 at 10:48 am says:
@Mario1-7
It’s funny how you say you hate Capcom and yet you want people to buy Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom on the Wii just so you can “kick all of their asses” if there is online play. 
Tyrenol on July 8th, 2009 at 1:30 pm says:
@ NJ_
I don’t have a negative opinion on Capcom except for the fact that they too had gotten on the crappy 3D game bandwagon. Plus they had a hard time competing with SNK’s King of Fighter series and the MUGEN game system.
Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Capcom Vs. SNK 2 were SUPREME AWESOMAGE orz. And then they went downhill starting with Capcom Fighting Jam.
I’m kinda warming up to Sengoku Basara; only because it’s kickarselly ridiculous. As oppose to the emphasizing of gore within other “hack-n-slash” samurai animu, and the “we turn everyone into hot upskirt-showing women to tell the story better” animu like Three Galaxy Angels Romance Koihime Musou.
Mario1-7 on July 8th, 2009 at 2:00 pm says:
@NJ_@
KUA!!! How do you know about that! I never said that here?? Anyway Yes Capcom leave ever Nintendo Fanboy in Despair Tatsunoko VS Capcom look like win but later on down the line Capcom will do what they always do and that is kick ever Nintendo fan in the Ballz this time I am ready for it but it hurts me still. Until Capcom respects the Nintendo fan the ****in fans that made them popular then I will always hate them, but I am sad to say I have a major weakness for some of there games. Resident Evil why because the remade every Resident Evil game on the Cube then gave us Resident Evil 4 then made Resident Evil 4 Wii edition then lied to the Nintendo Fanbase and said if we buy Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles Resident Evil 5 will be Available on the Wii Umbrella Chronicles sold over 2 Million within the first 2 months and Resident Evil 4 sold over 3 Million and what do we get? Resident Evil Dark Side Chronicles another spin off rail shooter (Which looks epic but I have said I have a weakness for Resident Evil) And even they ripped us off with Resident Evil 4, a month before the Cube release the announced a PS2 release the Graphics on PS2 took a big hit but they added like 3 game modes and and more weapons WTF was that? That **** wasn’t cool at all. Then on Wii the Nintendo Fan get the PS2 Version with Wii controls and Graphic on Par with Gamecube, eto.. Wii have 3 times more power than the Cube so why did they make a big deal about the game have Gamecube graphic when this is the New (Now old) Generation of consoles? Capcom does this to Nintendo fan all the time but it never goes opposite. Street Fighter IV not on Wii but we get The Anime Characters VS Capcom and later 2010 the Anime Characters will be on another console with like 10 extra characters. Capcom Fails harder than ADV and Bandai put together wait…. No one can fail harder than ADV.
@Tyrenol@
What?
Koihime Musou is epic. Season 2 = October
I had a dream that ADV License Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and the said they were gonna release it Sub only 1 episode at a time for $10 an Episode. I actually Cried 
Ha ha. then i ended up in Walmart somehow 
dragon0 on July 8th, 2009 at 8:15 pm says:
@ Mario1-7
Koihime season 2, are you refering to the ova that wsa released some time back? ………………. Never mind I remember hearing about it now. I was hoping they would continue the story. The ova made me mad b/c I thought it was an extention not a alteration.
Tyrenol on July 8th, 2009 at 11:51 pm says:
@ dragon0:
Koihime is an h-anime series that was in two parts and continued in another two parts. It featured a guy who went to visit 4 female childhood friends at some country village. The story continued with said guy being lured in by the girl of an exiled clan.
The h-anime was based on some h-filled dating simulator.
Koihime Musou is a TOTALLY DIFFERENT h-filled dating simulator. It was, as I said before, a feminized and lesbianized version of the Chinese “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” story. And it featured a guy who, thanks to some mirror, ended up travelling back in time into a “hot chick w/ upskirt benifits” version of China’s feudal era.
The anime based on this had been un-h-ed, the man was excluded, and it emphasized the Japanese anime industry’s hatred of young men despite tons of fanservice.
Maybe if it stayed with its roots, Koihime Musou would’ve been EPIC. Maybe even owned some AWESOMAGE orz here and there. But, unfortunately, it’s now worthless except for the obvious fanservice.
Rojas on July 9th, 2009 at 1:44 am says:
Ok – So for the record, we are constantly researching ALL titles to be licensed, including Sailor Moon. How likely any of these shows might actually be licensed is totally up in the air. Acquiring a show is an extremely complicated process involving tons of negotiation with the original Japanese licensor or licensors (yes, some shows are owned by multiple parties making it even harder).
The survey was not a joke – it was a way to collect valuable data from the fans. Every show on there has at least some possibility of being licensed. Unfortunately, we cannot disclose the results to the public since that would defeat the purpose of us conducting research for internal use – just like any good consumer survey.
I hope this clears things up.
Tyrenol on July 9th, 2009 at 2:54 am says:
@ Rojas:
Getting this out of the way, I commend you for your efforts. My thanks, as well as everyone else’s, goes out to you and the good people over there at “dat so-called Texas Hierarchy.” 
Secondly; I’ve just gotten and watched the second part of the D.Gray-Man DVD boxset and Spoiler ▼
I’m still liking this series.
Now to get this off of my effigially stab-marked back: The good news is that we’ll get Valkyria, Regios, that black butler, seven ghosts, and Pandora Hearts in the upcoming future.
The bad news is that we’ll get a suicidal teacher, Rie Kugumiya’s character beating down someone twice her size, Rie Kugumiya’s character beating down a feminine butler twice her size, and KyotoAnimu’s pandering to the useless in the upcoming future.
Nope. No worries from here. 
(Actually, I AM worried.)
NJ_ on July 9th, 2009 at 5:01 am says:
@Tyrenol
While i do like Capcom more than the other video game publishers i agree on Fighting Jam being awful and that they’ve made a lot of mistakes (two of them being the 3D flop that was Mega Man X7 and not adding certain characters in Street Fighter IV although that didn’t stop the game from being good in my opinion).
@Rojas
That’s fine with me if the results have to be kept quiet but i’m still not keeping my hopes up on Sailor Moon especially with the circumstances behind it. I’ll save my mark out moment for when/if there is a rescue announcement in the future.
dragon0 on July 9th, 2009 at 10:00 am says:
@ Tyrenol
Sorry for the confusion, I typed Koihime to be quick I meant Koihime Muso, I’m well aware of what the h-series Koihime is. Didn’t mean to mislead. please forgive. 
@ Rojas
Thanks for finally making it clear for thoes who may have not understood what your survay meant, even if it was self explanitory.
Look forwark to future releases fro Funimation.
Sarah on July 9th, 2009 at 7:43 pm says:
Thank you Rojas!
bandsxbands on February 7th, 2010 at 11:34 pm says:
Electronic memory is something that I seem to be unable to ever have enough of. It feels like megabytes and gigabytes have become an inseparable part of my day to day existence. Ever since I bought a Micro SD Card for my Nintendo DS flash card, I’ve been on permanent watch like a prison guard for large memory at low prices. I feel like I’m going insane.(Submitted from BPost for R4i Nintendo DS.)
Stringed on March 6th, 2010 at 6:45 pm says:
Forgive me for commenting on this so late after it happened, but may I ask what the heck your intentions are for Sengoku BASARA? This announcement was made ages ago, and even when it was new, you don’t seem to be taking it seriously, considering the announcement was just given as a quick afterthought in this post. Anime Expo 2009 was eight months ago now, and you still don’t even have a website for Sengoku BASARA, let alone a cast list or release date.
Even if no one on FUNimation staff really likes this title, you still shouldn’t be giving it and its fans such lousy treatment. I for one adore Sengoku BASARA, and I know I’m far from the only one. If you’re going to license an anime title, then you need to give it and its fans the treatment they deserve. This certainly is not what Sengoku BASARA deserves, and it’s making me question my stance as a loyal supporter of the industry. Why should I give my money to a company that treats one of my favorite series as an insignificant title? Especially when the other “important” announcements were a rerelease, a dub cast, and a social media site (I have no gripe with Sands of Destruction getting treated well, since it has just as much merit as a series as Sengoku BASARA does).
In short, this, along with some other decisions FUNimation has made, are making me question whether you really care what the fans want, and whether I should be supporting you with my money.
:idea: 