From ANN –
Funimation Negotiating to Acquire Geneon Titles (Updated)
…anime distribution subsidiary was “in very early stages of negotiations to acquire some of the Geneon library of titles…downward pressure on pricing” in new anime licenses…Funimation will receive additional revenue in future quarters…
Ray’s take: thanks to video games, Funimation is doing well, or so they say. But finally somebody’s picking up the titles. Also the sound of “downward pressure on pricing” sounds good. Now, I haven’t bought their titles yet but I hope the quality of their DVDs have improved vastly over the years, because according my co-host, their DVD of Kodomo no Mocha was off in many ways (hear Jeremy’s complaint in anime diet radio ep 15).
This is great news. And personally I think Funimation’s current quality is amazing. Sure they have made a few mistakes, but so have a lot of companies. They really try to be creative and seem to care about their releases, for example check out their special AMP box for the series BECK.
They said “some”, not “all”, though… I wonder which titles Funimation is trying to get. They could just be planning to reissue some of Geneon’s classic properties (such as Lain, Tenchi Muyo, Trigun, or Akira), which wouldn’t be much for me to get excited about. Funimation finishing Geneon’s incomplete releases would be more worthy of celebration, but even then I doubt they’d be picking up everything that was left unfinished. Here’s hoping for Higurashi and Black Lagoon, at least.
The packaging for Funimation’s editions of Mushishi is drop-dead gorgeous. The stuff accompanying Tsukuyomi Moon Phase (hefty pamphlets with production notes, cards featuring the episode end-drawings (various artists do “fan art” of the characters), also was extremely nice (these things are just repackaging the material from the R2 releases, primarily).
I’ve been very pleased with their work. I can understand a title like Kodomo no Omocha getting a pretty minimalist release, however.