Well, sometimes things go really smooth.
And sometimes, things seem more like this:
HEH.
Reflections of a Professional Anime Fan - "Damnant quodnon intelligunt."
In the days since we announced the acquisition of the anime "Dance in the Vampire Bund," we have been following the varied responses from within the anime community to our decision to edit specific scenes from its streaming and later home entertainment release.
First, out of concern for our distribution partners and advertisers, we will continue to make minor edits to the episodes which are available via free streaming and television broadcast due to the readily accessible nature of these platforms. We will be careful to keep such edits to a minimum.
However, FUNimation is — as always — committed to bringing the best anime content to the United States in its unedited form on home video. Therefore, we are evaluating the release of the series in unedited and uncensored form for home video. Since only 7 episodes have broadcast in Japan, final determination must be reserved until all episodes can be reviewed to ensure compliance with current U.S. law.
We would like to thank everyone in the anime community for the feedback provided to us on this matter — your opinions count.
Sorry folks, there was no regular Friday e-newsletter for March 5th. Jamie and I were out of town for several days and due to the circumstances of the trip (family funeral for Jamie's cousin) I just didn't have time to put it together.
Funi announced on Friday that they will be slightly editing both the streaming and home video releases of Dance in the Vampire Bund due to some "controversial elements which, when taken out of context, could be objectionable to some audiences". Here's the entire statement:FUNimation Entertainment is known for releasing the titles we license in their original, uncut form, as their creators intended. However, after viewing the unedited as well as the Japanese broadcast edit of the series Dance in the Vampire Bund, we have determined the series contains controversial elements which, when taken out of context, could be objectionable to some audiences.Now, anyone who has seen it knows what we're talking about here (i.e lots of half-naked Lolicon Vampires), though the question that begs an answer is why Funi decided to edit Vampire Bund, but will still be releasing Strike Witches uncut? Granted, Strike Witches is a 'pantsu' fetish show, and Vampire Bund is all 'lolicon', but from the point of view of an outsider I don't think there is much in Vampire Bund that could be taken 'out of context' that Strike Witches is not also guilty of. Perhaps we are finally seeing some indirect fallout from the Handley case, which is still fresh in everyone's mind (especially those of us in the industry), and the producers at Funi want to play it safe for now. I know that a lot of you are going to complain (I'm not happy about it either), but given the current environment Funi really probably has to do this, and frankly should have probably edited Strike Witches too as I wrote last year (not that I want them to, I'm just being pragmatic). For the past couple of years the industry in Japan, for better or worse, has pretty much kept itself afloat by making more and more lolicon and hard fetish type Anime series, and as those shows finally start to filter their way over here the studios will have to tread carefully in order to ensure the material doesn't get anyone sued (or worse yet, indicted). Don't forget, other countries (like Canada) have actually proposed or passed laws calling out 'lolicon' themes specifically as child pornography, and Canada in particular falls within the boundary of Funi's R1 license and release target.
With this in mind and with approval of the licensor, we will edit select scenes from the series in streaming and home entertainment release. These are scenes which are inappropriate for U.S. viewing and are not essential to the storyline.
Dance in the Vampire Bund is a complex and dark drama cited by press and fans as one of the best anime series out of Japan this season. Its strong story is what brought the series to our attention and why we are bringing it to the U.S.
FUNimation has picked up the rights to two anime series from Media Factory: Baka to Test to Shokanju (Baka and Test Summon the Beasts), and Dance in the Vampire Bund.
Following up on my article 'Where are all the BD Releases', Funimation does have plans for a quite a few BD's coming up this year that are not yet on the 'official' schedule (which is what we post pre-order's from and only covers releases scheduled over the next 90 days or so).
Section 23 has sent out their May 2010 release schedule and we've got it posted to the site! Here's what's coming:Gundam 0079 Movie DVD Boxed Set (All 3 Movies!)
Hayate the Combat Butler DVD Bundle #5 (2 Disks) (Eps #27-32)
Kurokami The Animation Part #2 DVD (Eps #7-12)
Kurokami The Animation Part #2 DVD (BLURAY) (Eps #5-8)