Friday, July 2, 2010

A Certain Scientific Railgun, Hellsing and Black Lagoon are Fun. (Update 3!)

From the Geneon Universal Entertainment Japan industry panel (think they've made the company name long enough?) comes several surprisingly under-reported announcements. Additional information makes these seem like full licenses too!

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Apparently, A Certain Scientific Railgun/Toaru Kagaku no Railgun has been apparently licensed and marked for distribution via Funimation! Here's the quote from the remarkably vague report:

Black Lagoon, Hellsing, and Toaru Kagaku no Railgun will all be released by FUNimation in the United States, the latter of which is the only new announcement. High School of the Dead will be announced "sometime at this event," but when exactly is a "secret."


Follow ups came fairly soon though and now we have confirmation! A Certain Scientific Railgun is great all by itself, but the new Black Lagoon OVAs AND the rest of the Hellsing OVAs?!? Damn awesome news!

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So that's a whole pack of new anime that will be coming to the US, via Funi, which hopefully means an English dub will happen for it. (Seems much more likely now that these appear to be proper licenses!) At the same time, I'm sure we don't have to wonder "wait, do they mean the new Black Lagoon OVAs and the rest of the Hellsing OVAs or just the old stuff they're already doing?" They've got them, don't worry!

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I figured they wouldn't bother to act like it's news if it were the old stuff and I was right. Funimation's made some recent comments about big news and getting some shows fans were clamouring for, and they weren't kidding. I believe we can be certain now that these fan-favorite (and profit-making) anime are about to be in our hands. The only questions really are "will we get steelbook cases again?" and "will we get awesome English dubs with the same casts" again. This remains a crucial quesiton, though hopefully one that will answered during a certain upcoming panel.

Also, the Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works movie may be announced as licensed before the con is over! Not to mention High School of the Dead. Heck, that's going to be a first-run Hybrid release via Sentai! Plus a simulcast!

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Ooh, things are heating up and I'll keep on bringing you my silly commentary on it! I'll also hopefully be able to report many more English dubs! Already, things are getting better for we English dub preferring fans!

Bye-ni!

*Update 1: An ominous line from a live-blog of the events:
10:48:56 For the dubs, we will discuss those with funimation but we don't want to
I'd like to think that is a miscommunication but if it isn't, then it would appear that the Japanese don't think English dubs are a good idea. (Fortunately, they'll be talking to the one R1 company that most strongly disagrees!)

*Update 2: Funimation confirming via Twitter that Hellsing Ultimate 5-7, Black Lagoon and A Certain Scientific Railgun are theirs! Sentai grabs High School of the Dead, plans English dub. Added more pics.

Holy Hannah, talk about a good day! Major fan favorites are coming back and we've some awesome new titles! I'm very excited and pleased by this turn of events, though I hope this doesn't completely ruin Funimation's upcoming panel! (Will they have anything left to announce?!?)

*Update 3: Should have checked my PMs (why aren't I getting E-mail notification of them?) because I have word from Cliff/ExcelGenerations:
A couple of the QA was wrong as well. Geneon said they WANT do dub all those shows they have to discuss. And also the dvd/blu ray question was they have the blu ray quality but it's up to the distributor if they will release.


So, Update 1's info is fooey. English dubs are desired!

12 comments:

  1. AX is certainly heating up. We should wait for FUNimation's panel for some clarifications on the licenses FUNimation is apparently distributing.

    As for High School of the Dead, Sentai like just announced that they'll be dubbing and releasing that. So it's all good with that title. Sentai's being cool with dubs lately.

    Anyway, looking forward to FUNi's panel tonight~!

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  2. Oh look, FUNi confirmed Hellsing Ultimate 5-7 via Twitter.

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  3. Things are just awesome this con aren't they?

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  4. That's for sure, big improvement over how last year's AX went! :)

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  5. I'm quite surprised at how little coverage ANN is giving the Railgun, Hellsing and Black Lagoon getting picked up. Nozomi's getting more coverage!

    Sad that company can't get on the English dub bandwagon. I guess they just don't know what anime fans really want.

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  6. Just FYI, FUNimation's Panel is tonight, not tomorrow. Tomorrow's just their sneak peak thing.

    Their panel actually starts 20 minutes from the time I post this.

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  7. Ok all I will say is wow. So many big names going around and Right Stuff (even thought it is a sub) getting So-Ra-No-Wo-To, is ok with me. It makes me wonder know what Otakon will be like if this big names are being called out.

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  8. @ bal-anime: Fixed the panel mention. Could have sworn it was Saturday.

    @ wilhelminaanime: I'm extremely opposed to sub-only so Nozomi's license doesn't please me. Glad it's come over, glad people can get it but no sale here. (Utena I'll get though, the first thing I've bought from them since The Third!)

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  9. Yup no problem with the correction on the QA geneon panel. I was there, infact I was the one who asked the dvd/blu-ray question. I also asked after to make sure etc with the dubbing and release questions. They WANT to have their shows dubbed but need to discuss more. Wow apparently I missed the funi panel? My official AX book shows Funi's sneak peak was today at 6 while tomorrow at 10:30 they will have there industry panel which I was going to... :( I'll double check this first thing in the morning. If they did indeed change the date I guess I'll be able to make it to Viz Media's panel tomorrow which was at the same time as Funi's scheduled at 10am. I'll keep Richard posted. ttyl

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  10. This announcement was by far my favorite for AX. I loved Geneon and can't believe they are back! Geneon was always my favorite company.

    I honestly don't know how whoever that person was who blogged the Q&A got that English dub answer wrong... That was one of the biggest questions for them. After they answered they WANT to dub their shows I literally threw a fist pump and said "Big G's Back!" A guy across from me even started to nod his head with agreement. Amazing experience! Even that damn Blu-Ray question was blogged wrong. I ASKED that question!!! I'll take some pics of the awesome Black Lagoon bag I got for asking a question.

    Oh also Section 23 had their announcement of Highschool of the Dead written on their table in the Dealer's Hall. I told them they will get my sale immediately. S23 said it will start streaming on Anime Network July 9th. No release date set for the dvd/blu-ray. But Geneon said all their shows are in their 2010 line up. So hopefully soon! :D

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  11. @ ExcelGenerations: Not sure we can really consider this as Geneon being back since they don't even have an officer here anymore. It is fantastic news though that so many great shows are coming out now!

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  12. Fantastic blog post. I really amazed to read your post regarding Certain Scientific Railgun anime post. Actually I am a big fan of this anime post and just collect this awesome anime series at PIJ. Its really fantastic.
    http://bit.ly/scientificrailgun

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