Funimation to Edit Dance in the Vampire Bund

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.

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.

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.

There is a VERY LONG discussion thread regarding this over here at ANN.

Upcoming BD's From Funimation

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).

Funi's recent pack-in marketing material (the little books they put in with their DVD's) list series like Guyver, RIN Daughters of Mnemosyne , Black Cat, and Desert Punk that will be coming on BD early this summer. Other titles (including some new releases) like Afro Samurai (Murder Sessions), Black Blood Brothers, Casshern Sins , Eden of The East, Full Metal Panic and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood are also planned for BD release later this year. And from what I'm hearing, there will be lots more.

Hopefully some of the other studios will jump on this bandwagon soon as well.

I'd also like to dispel this stuff going around about 'all' of Funi's BD's being upscaled. That is completely untrue. The deal is that Funi has only upscaled in the absence of original HD source material. Their BD's will be produced from original High Def source material as long as it's available, just like the recent Eva 1.11 BD - which looks incredible by the way. Unfortunately there is a large amount of Anime in everyone's back catalog that was not produced in HD, and those releases will either have to be upscaled or not released at all on BD, and given the choice I'll take an upscale over 'not at all'. I think their upscales, for what they are, look pretty darned good. :-)