Pretty much for the next 3 months the only note worthy releases by Funimation are season 3 of Shakugan no Shana, some more One Piece, and the DVD release of Railgun, normally I have at least 3 pre-orders from Funi but the only thing I have now is season 2 of Heaven's Lost Property that doesn't get released until June! (Sure I'd get Railgun if it wasn't DVD, but I refuse to buy a DVD set when I'd bet money on a future BD release). It just seems a bit odd, Funi is sitting on some great titles but seem to be releasing slower then Aniplex.
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It is odd since you would thing Sprig/Summer would be a good time to release things, but again release dates are subject to change content could be added or taken away before these months come & go, and Funimation could be going more for the Holiday model nowadays waiting till Late Summer- Fall & Christmas to release most of their new titles, who knows.
I wouldn't worry too much though if anything it just steems from the fact Funimation has picked up A LOT of anime over the past 4-5 years, and they gotta work out the best schedule for stuff like that, when to dub X show, when to release X show, etc, etc & so on, they are busy little bee's over at Funimation, and sometimes even the most efficient hive can have hang ups. I wouldn't worry too much were still getting a fair amount of new stuff in coming months, Tenchi Muyo: War On Geminar, Shana season III, Appleseed, etc, and re-releases aren't horrid things, gives people a chance to catch up on older titles.
But yeah, if anything we will probably get to a point where theres far to many new titles coming out some time later this year.
And again solicits are likely to change a bit over time.
But thats just my 2-cents.
Isn't It Great To Different, Isn't It Great To Be Who You Are!? Once You Learn To Accept Yourself, You'll Become A Shining Star.
Yeah they have alot of titles they seem to be sitting on. I know that dubs take time but there really isn't much coming out form them. The titles you mentioned are about it for them. Yeah a few others come up too but like you said. I really have nothing on preorder form them except Railgun. and the bd copy of HLP Forte. Hope they have someting in the works for some massive releases on some of these titles they are sitting on.
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My theory is that they took some time to put together a game plan with what to dub, release, in which order and when. I'm sure they're trying to get a blance of action, then a drama, then a scifi, then an ecchi, then an adventure etc. It's what i've noticed with Funimation's releases; they seem like they try to really balance it out for all the different fans.
Who know, maybe in a short while we'll get a big announcement, their releases span all the way up to May.
But i will admit I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little concerned as well.
On the other hand, there's not to much on there I really want, which is actually good because I have to pay my tuition for the classes I like to take during the summer, and I would like to put away most of my tax return in my savings.
There are a few things I want to pick up, but it depends on what the return is like, I'll find out on Friday.
You know after thinking about it I can understand Funimation's methods. I mean lets face it the anime industry is far from the best place to be right now, companies going under (Bandai) or downsizing (Media Blasters) left & right, the fact we still have a domestic anime industry at all is in and of itself is a small miracle. And when you look at what a lot of the other, smaller companies (D-tek, NISA, Nozomi) are doing, smaller releases with low expectations, and being successful with that, not surprising bigger beasts like Funimation &/or Sentai might want to copy that to some extent. Funimation is spreading out its releases all through out the year to make a smaller more modest return all through out instead of just having a month or two of big sales then nearly nothing till the holidays, makes sense, get a nice steady stream going, with a little increase around the holidays, instead of making a lot of money for a month or two then next to none for the rest of the year. I mean in the anime industry these days you can't afford to lose money, you just can't. And Funimation being the only company that dubs everything they put out, they are arguably at a higher risk of that then others. So yeah, I don't blame Funi at all for playing it safe, I also fully expect a lot less acquisitions of new anime titles this year and in coming years.
For a company like Funimation, its best to play it safe until things pick up.
Also probably wouldn't hurt to get buddy-buddy with a larger company, like how VIZ partnered with WB for their DVD releases. But yeah...thats just my 2-cents.
Isn't It Great To Different, Isn't It Great To Be Who You Are!? Once You Learn To Accept Yourself, You'll Become A Shining Star.
According to Shawne Kleckner (noted multiple times in several interviews with him), the Summer is by far the slowest. That's just going by sales at his store.
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