Newswire #79 & #80

Today we bring you the latest edition of our Newswire. It’s lighter edition than normal when it comes to news, so it’s very much an update on a few things and than touching on a lot of questions we’ve received about Funimation titles. Read on below for latest.

ANIME LIMITED / ALL THE ANIME UPDATES

~ First of all available now is our release of Ping Pong The Animation! Yes it’s finally available to add to your collection as a Limited Edition Blu-ray/DVD set. In case you missed it you can check out a full unboxing of our release HERE.

~ And last week we released the film Expelled From Paradise as a Limited Collector’s Edition Blu-ray/DVD set and standard DVD – see our unboxing of Expelled From Paradise HERE – as well as the standard edition Blu-ray of the series Terror In Resonance.

~ Did you hear that we’ve licensed Love Live! Sunshine!! and we’ll be bringing it to Blu-ray and DVD in the future? We’ve also partnered with Crunchyroll to simulcast the series to the UK & Ireland during this broadcast. Read about this HERE.

~ Looking ahead, the rest of July is shaping up as follows:

• 18th July: Assassination Classroom Season 1 Part 1 DVD. [Limited Edition Blu-ray already out now.]
• 25th July: Tokyo Ghoul √A standard edition Blu-ray. [Standard DVD already out now.]

 

And as we mentioned last week we’ll be releasing The Empire of Corpses and Psycho-Pass The Movie on 8th August.

When it comes to releases further down the line, we’re going to have some news for you about those in the coming weeks, we know some of you very patiently waiting for details on a number of our titles, but we ask you to please wait just a bit longer while we get details finalised and whatnot.

~ Are you going to the Hyper Japan Festival at Olympia in London this week? We will be too! We’ll be there all weekend with a booth in conjunction with our friends at Gundam Mad where we’ll have a boat load of our titles available for you to buy and add to your collection. This will include being able to purchase the DVD of Assassination Classroom Season 1 Part 1 ahead of its release next week. We’ll also have Ping Pong The Animation, Expelled From Paradise and lots more available at our booth.

If you’re a fan of Japanese model kits, we can tell you our friends at Gundam Mad are bringing some of the awesome Metal Gear kits with them along with some Gundam 00 model kits – that they only just got back in stock.

For those wondering there are no panels/talks at this event by us, but Jeremy will be there all weekend on the stand so if you have any questions for him do feel free to stop by the booth and say hi.  More details on Hyper Japan can be found HERE.

~ Following Hyper Japan, we have two events on the calendar for this later this month, MCM Manchester Comic Con and Amecon. Expect details on both to start surfacing in the coming weeks. Specific details on these can be found in the Upcoming Events section further down.

~ How many of you caught the surprise Podcast of ours from a few weeks ago? If you didn’t you can find the details HERE. Expect details on a new episode in the coming weeks.

FUNIMATION TITLE UPDATES

Last time in the Newswire we told you about the first few titles that will be coming out and set out the plan of where things will be going. There are no title specific updates to bring you this week, so instead what I’ve done is correlated the most recurring questions we’ve received via social media and email below.

Q: Will you be bringing out Limited Edition sets of Funimation titles like you do with AllTheAnime titles?
As things stand, no. However as time progresses that may change depending on the title in question. Currently, excluding Fairy Tail which is DVD only, we will be releasing these as Blu-ray/DVD combi packs.

Q: Is there a chance you will release Fairy Tail on Blu-ray?
It’s something we’re looking into but as things stand it will be DVD only releases of the 12-episode ‘Part’ sets specifically starting with Part 10 in August.

Q: Will you be distributing series like Toriko, Dragon Ball or One Piece?
All three of the titles listed in this question are unique cases, as these are not part of the Funimation distribution arrangement and these are licenses of Toei Animation specifically. Dragon Ball titles and One Piece is being distributed by Manga Entertainment in the UK. As to whether Toriko might be a possibility, we honestly don’t know at the moment. But if an opportunity comes about with this it’s certainly something we’ll look into.

Will the content be the same on these discs as the Funimation versions in the USA?
All titles are subject to BBFC certification, which is required by U.K. law and is unavoidable, so unless something has to be omitted following that process the on-disc content will be the same, yes. But we want to stress we have absolutely no desire or plans to change/alter on-disc.

Will DVD discs be PAL or NTSC?
All DVD discs as part of our Funiamtion releases will be NTSC.

How soon are you looking to release [insert name of title] following its release in the U.S,A.?
Our hope is that we can cut down the time significantly between its release in the U.S.A. and it’s release over here in the UK. But as we get the ball rolling on releasing Funimation titles it may take few months before you start to see significant reductions in release times. To add context from our point of view, currently it’ll likely workout as being within a few weeks of release in the U.S.A., but our ultimate goal is to release them day in date with the U.S.A release.

Are you doing any special packaging for these release, like with your AllTheAnime Collector’s Editions?
Using an earlier answer as a point of reference, in short no. There may be exceptions the rule as time goes on but the plan is to release the titles, unless otherwise stated, as Blu-ray/DVD combi packs. They will be packed inside an amaray case and it will be as simple as that.

To add to this, our goal in the early going it to bring as many titles to the UK as quickly as we can, as we appreciate there was a fairly big gap when it came to Funimation titles being brought over here. But as I say, this isn’t set in stone for how all titles will be released going forward. We are following the model established by Funimation in the U.S.A. in the early going, but this can always be reevaluated at a later time.

Will the FunimationNow streaming service impact your releases in any way?
Am honestly not sure how it could impact these releases, so the simple answer to this is no.

Funimation released [insert title] in the U.S.A., but [insert name of distributor] released it in the UK. Does this mean you’ll be releasing it now?
More than likely no. This would ultimately depend on the terms of the licensing agreement with the distributor in question. What it will come down to is whether Funimation have the home video rights for the United Kingdom and Ireland. Sometimes they may only have home video rights for a title in the U.S.A., while having the streaming/simulcasting rights for U.S.A. and the United Kingdom.

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

You can also find events we’ll be at this month below.

Hyper Japan Festival @ Olympia, London, 15-17th July

MCM Manchester Comic Con @ Manchester Central, 30-31st July

Amecon @ Warwick Arts Centre, 29-31st July
— Panel (TBA)

 

 

To pre-empt this now, more likely expect there to not be a Newswire next week. There will still be updates surfacing on our Twitter and Facebook most likely during this time, but the next Newswire will be during the weekend commencing 25th July.

Signing out~!

Jeremy