Thursday, July 03, 2008

Dentsu Wises Up - Funimation Signs Deal for Geneon Titles

Well they finally announced it! I was hoping we would get the word ahead of AX.

Funimation announced this morning that they have signed a deal with Geneon to distribute a cherry picked selection of Geneon's licenses, but the titles they are picking up are the ones we needed:

FUNimation Entertainment obtains the exclusive rights to the manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution of established Geneon titles, including international successes "Ergo Proxy", "Hellsing Ultimate" and "Black Lagoon". Among the first titles to be released includes the special edition of "Hellsing Ultimate". Follow up releases include "Black Lagoon Second Barrage", “Karin”, "Kyo kara Maoh! Season 2", and "Lyrical Nanoha".

Additional titles include: “Black Lagoon”, “Elemental Gelade”, “Fate/stay night”, “Kamichu”, “Ninja Vixens”, “Paradise Kiss”, “Rozen Maiden”, “Rozen Maiden - Träumend”, “Shana”, “Shonen Onmyouji”, “The Familiar of Zero”, “The Story of Saiunkoku”, “When They Cry”, and “The Law of Ueki”.

Dentsu had been in serious talks with Genius Entertainment a couple months ago about picking up the whole catalog, but Genius backed out because of a couple of key deal points. One of them was that many retailers, including us, refused to sign off on certain lousy contract arrangements related to prior invoices and credits, and stock rotation terms. The folks in Japan finally relented, and went back to Funimation with their tail between their legs. Any revenue stream from a small selection of titles is better than no revenue at all. You know if they got Law of Ueki, the deal was a giveaway, and all I can say is good for Funimation! I couldn't have worked out better for us, we have the best relationship possible with Fun.

You can read the entire press release here on ANN.

I've got a conference call scheduled with our gal at Fun this afternoon. We'll see what info they have, and any release info will be updated on the site as it comes in. We'll all be doing a little happy dance this afternoon...

We're still following up on the ADV situation, anything going on there will be added to this post.

UPDATE: Just got off the phone with our gal at Funimation. They are expecting to have some initial release information to us on Monday next week. She told me that they are expecting certain Geneon catalog titles to become available for order in August, and new titles should be in the pipeline to begin release in September.

UPDATE 2: As promised Funimation provided us with their plans today for the first batch of Geneon releases and re-releases for August and September, and the best part is that the first DVD's are less than six weeks away. The following titles are now available for pre-order:


Geneon / Funimation New Releases:


Black Lagoon Second Barrage, Vol #1 DVD

Black Lagoon Second Barrage, Vol #1 Limited Edition DVD

Black Lagoon Second Barrage, Vol #2 DVD

Fate/Stay Night Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set

Hellsing Ultimate, Vol #4 DVD

Hellsing Ultimate, Vol #4 DVD Limited Edition

Karin, Vol #4 DVD

Kyo Kara Maoh!, Season 2, Vol #7 DVD

Paradise Kiss Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set

Rozen Maiden Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set

Shana (Shakugan no Shana) Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set

When They Cry: Higurashi, Vol #4 DVD

Geneon / Funimation Re-Releases:


Black Lagoon, Vol #1 DVD

Black Lagoon, Vol #2 DVD

Black Lagoon, Vol #3 DVD

Black Lagoon, Vol #1 Limited Edition DVD

Black Lagoon, Vol #2 Limited Edition DVD

Black Lagoon, Vol #3 Limited Edition DVD

Hellsing Ultimate, Vol #1 DVD

Hellsing Ultimate, Vol #2 DVD

Hellsing Ultimate, Vol #3 DVD

Hellsing Ultimate, Vol #1 DVD Limited Edition

Hellsing Ultimate, Vol #2 DVD Limited Edition

Hellsing Ultimate, Vol #3 DVD Limited Edition


Kamichu Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set

Karin, Vol #1 DVD

Karin, Vol #1 DVD w/ Limited Art Box

Karin, Vol #2 DVD

Karin, Vol #3 DVD

Kyo Kara Maoh!, Season 2, Vol #1 DVD

Kyo Kara Maoh!, Season 2, Vol #1 DVD Limited Edition

Kyo Kara Maoh!, Season 2, Vol #2 DVD

Kyo Kara Maoh!, Season 2, Vol #3 DVD

Kyo Kara Maoh!, Season 2, Vol #4 DVD

Kyo Kara Maoh!, Season 2, Vol #5 DVD

Kyo Kara Maoh!, Season 2, Vol #6 DVD

When They Cry: Higurashi, Vol #1 DVD w/ Collectors Art Box

When They Cry: Higurashi, Vol #1 DVD

When They Cry: Higurashi, Vol #2 DVD

When They Cry: Higurashi, Vol #3 DVD

8 comments:

AstroNerdBoy said...

Thanks for the additional information. I had expected some big company like Sony or something to get the Geneon library based on what you and the head of Media Blasters said. I'm hoping the lack of "Tenchi" means that FUNimation would like those licenses outright, but that's such an extreme longshot.

Unknown said...

Darn no Hajime no Ippo? Why anyone would even *want* Elemental Gelade is beyond me.

Robert said...

Elemental Gelade was actually in our top 20% of DVD titles when it was in release.

Unknown said...

Fair enough. I watched the first few episodes and found it incredibly generic and boring, but if it sells well, I guess it makes business sense(there's no accountinf for taste^_^), but I'm surprised no one picked up Fighting Spirit. I assumed it had done quite well since Geneon went through the whole series...

Unknown said...

This is great news now I will be able to finish up Rozen Maiden and Karin.

I was getting tired of seeing those half filled art boxes. Thinking they would never be completed.

SD

FleetAdmiralJ said...

I'm assuming the Shana box set doesn't come with the OVA, since it says 600 minutes? Are we even sure Funimation got the Shana OVA? If so, do we have any idea if they plan to release it.

I think Geneon was planning on releasing the art box for Shana with the OVA, so none of us with the complete series already has a box, and now it's like "well shoot, we'd have to rebuy the series again to get a box"

Robert said...

The release info on all the Funimation / Geneon release is all preliminary. The only thing they have sent out to retailers so far is a spreadsheet of SKU's and dates. As of today we do not have any firm information as to content included in the boxes, and the play time figures we have posted are preliminary info. We should have full descriptions and box art for these in about a week.

Fated Fantasy said...

Hmm... thanks for the info! I'm seeking out limited edition for the extra things they include. Thanks for the list!