First the (mostly) good news:
- On one of ANN’s forum threads, Corey Fischer of Ocean Productions has said that the dubbing for Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage will be completed…using the same voice actors. He has no news about distribution, however.
- Avatar_exADV (subtitler) has said in an entry on his blog that subbing for the first two seasons of Nanoha and the first season of Zero no Tsukaima are proceeding. He also mentions that the shows will be dubbed. He, also, has no news about distribution.
Now this may or may not be good news, but Geneon Entertainment (USA)’s President and CEO, Eiji Orii, wrote the following letter:
The pdf file from ANN can be seen here.
It is good that Geneon has heard the fans and has replied to them. I would consider this a hopeful message, but the line, “We will release more information to the public once we have any concrete plans, if any.” has me a little concerned, particularly the tag, “if any”. I suppose it’s now wait and see.
ANN Story: Geneon USA President & CEO Sends Message to Fans
Well, at least they’re not completely closing shop…
I still haven’t had a chance to take a look at Black Lagoon, so I’ll make sure to pick it up. That, and Ergo Proxy vol. 6.
I picked up the last volume of Fate/Stay Night, call it my last show of support for “big G” for a while. The “if any” clause is very depressing.
@ Chris & shiki
Hopefully a more definitive statement will be released soon…with luck, it will detail their new plans.
I have pretty much gotten all I want from their new releases, so now I’m filling in some holes (as my budget permits) like the Ah! My Goddess movie and Lain and maybe some Trigun.
Will they complete karin dvd?
@ Karin
Unfortunately, there is very little information about this. Since Karin’s release schedule was similar to Black Lagoon’s, it is possible that the dub work has been completed and all that has to be done is to find another distributor…but, that is just speculation. Right now, Karin is available through Vol. 3 (through episode 12).
I want a box set of karin, so I hope the find a new distie… the fact that it looks like it’s release schedule is going to be interrupted despite almost certainly being completed… I just have a hard time believing that they’d abandon any of their already finished products. Such a waste for them.
I hope that the rest of Kyo Kara Maoh, Shonen Onmyoji, and Hellsing Ultimate will be released on DVD in the (near) furture!
I really hope that some where down the road that Kyo Kara Maoh, and Saiunkoku may be finished. I can’t see with how close Kyo Kara Maoh was to being finished that it isn’t possibly already dubbed completely. I guess I’ll just have to keep watch.
Oh, I hope they finish putting out KKM I would like to know the rest of the story.
I have downloaded and watched the Kyo Kara Maoh (78 + 1st of OVA), Shonen Onmyoji (20 out of 26), and Hellsing Ultimate (3 and on going) fansub episodes, but I love these series so much that I want to own them all on DVD! That’s why I hope that some day they will release the rest.
@ Angel_Lain, Sukisho816, & Mandy
For what it’s worth, the first season of Kyo Kara Maoh! was shown on ImaginAsian TV. The last episode aired at the end of October. The interesting thing is that they broadcast both the dubbed and the subbed versions. Depending on their contract with Geneon, it may be possible they can show the entire second season subbed.
Unfortunately, ImaginAsian TV has a rather small footprint in the US (Northern Virginia, Los Angeles, NYC, Princeton (NJ), Edison (NJ), San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, & Hawaii). If you live in LA, though, they offer free Video-on-Demand.
Incidentally, KKM! will have a third season. 39 episodes will begin airing in April 2008 in Japan.
Are you talking about Kyou Kara Maou R? I’ve seen the first episode. I thought that it was an OVA, but if its going to be 39 episodes it must be a third season. =)
@ Mandy
No, it is not Kyo Kara Maoh R. Your first impression was correct; KKMR is a 3-episode OVA.
The third season is currently in production. Studio DEEN and director Junji Nishimura are returning to work on the project. All the main seiyuu are reprising their roles as well.
The series is scheduled to be televised on NHK-BS2 starting in April of 2008.
i hope you release kyo kara maoh season two soon an on Amazon.com i have all the dvds up to season 2 vol.6 and also please do the ova and next series.
Sadly, there is no knowing when the rest (of KKM) will come out on domestic dvd. I also have all the dvds for KKM (and other series) they have released in the US so far and was suprised when I found out Geneon’s decision. Even though I have downloaded and watched all the eps so far (fansub of KKM R ep 2 recently came out), I love the series (and many others) and wanted to own them on domestic dvd. So I also hope that it wont be too long before the rest of these series are released on dvd in the US and can complete my collection.
P.S: Because of what’s happened with Geneon, Amazon.com wont have the next volume in these series until someone decides and/or is able to continue the release of them on domestic dvd. So, you wont see them on Amazon.com or anywhere else for now (unless you buy imports).
@ Mandy
Let’s hope that the parent company, Geneon (in Japan), decides to let Geneon USA take the approach which Kadokawa Pictures USA has taken. They license shows (like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) and sub-contract other companies to take care of dubs, distribution, and marketing (in the case of Haruhi – Bang Zoom! Entertainment was used for dubbing and Bandai Entertainment was used for distribution and marketing).
So Karin and When They Cry is on hold for now. How lame I hope the same thing doesn’t happen like with Tactics 5 no where to be found. I wonder if I should sell my sets since they are not going to be in production but how will they let us all know what is going to happen. I think I would have had blue balls if they did the same with Ergo Proxy. :\
Called Geneon and they said that my guess was as good as theres. They’re not sure if another company will buy the licence to complete the sets. I’m just glad I haven’t watched them yet to get into it. Keep posted on the Geneon site for details.
@ Amy
The direct approach…I like it.
Though, when you say, “Keep posted on the Geneon site for details”, do you mean Geneon USA’s website? If so, unless the people you spoke with said news would be posted there, the site hasn’t been updated since October.
Hmm she didn’t specify that. Maybe she just wanted me off the phone. I guess were all left in the dark. I went on here but didnt see anything http://www.geneonanimation.com.
@ Amy
It may be possible they will start updating the site again. Geneon USA still has some activity in the US anime scene. Apparently, they are helping to get the Hellsing Ultimate IV dub ready. The cable channel, Starz Edge, is planning to broadcast Hellsing Ultimate during February and they had part 4 listed on their schedule. Geneon said the English dub would not be ready for their listed air date (2/18). Since the Japanese release wasn’t scheduled until 2/22, this is not surprising. It will be interesting to see if Starz Edge will actually be able to air an English dub of part 4.
I hope they do release the rest of Karin. By the way, Where is there information about Geneon USA having some activity? Just wondering how that information was found out that is all. Well, hopefully someone will take over the unfinished DVD’s it’s not good to have incomplete sets. Maybe they’ll release them in boxed sets.It’s more of a waiting game I suppose.
Your right, for now I just pretend they don’t exist. I’m just glad I never watched the first episode to get on it. I’ll just wait till there all out and then ill get it cause if not it’s a let down.
Unfortunately for me I watched the first two episodes and I’m upset they didn’t finish it. I’m watching the subbed but still even when watching subbed I’m thinking this would have made a good dub(even though there are 12 dubbed but still it’s not complete)..=(. Karin is a good series so far..but the best advice would be to not watch it or else you’d feel a little upset about it. Just my opinion of course..=)
@ Smith
Geneon USA has had some recent, mostly housekeeping, activity. Late last year, they had to work with RightStuf! to deal with some defective Saber clocks which were part of the LE version of Fate/Stay Night, Vol. 6. More recently there is the Hellsing Ultimate issue mentioned above. Anime News Network wrote about it…below is the link:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-01-04/hellsing-ultimate-4-unavailable-for-starz-edge-next-month
Also, I have been trying to reach Odex about Karin. Odex was sub-contracted by Geneon to do the English dub. I wanted to ask them if they had completed the dub…if so, then that would make things easier for anyone (including Geneon) to complete the DVD releases. However, their website has been down for several days now.
Sorry for the delay with the reply, but the New Year has been quite busy for me.
Thank you for the information. Please update as soon as possible. Hope you had a good New Year. I hope Odex is up soon but, I can wait.
Is is that hard to find a distributer ? Amazon could be a great choice!
I’m new to all of this, and imagine my surprise when completing vol. 2 disk 6 of “Kyo Kara Maoh!” through Netflix and noticing that, “Hmmm…the story doesn’t seem to be quite done.” WHAT??? So I pop on again and find out that the distributor just STOPPED distributing them? How could you not at LEAST finish projects you had already started? Not only STARTED, but had gotten 15 disks into!? Sigh… What HAPPENED with the company to make them just halt production? That seems weird especially since Geneon seemed to be doing so well.
..so now anyway, did I see that disks 7 and 8 may be available?
Damn it! I got the first 3 volumes of hellsing ultimate and the first season of black lagoon, and now nobody knows when (if ever) the rest of either will come out! This sucks!I was really looking forward to the second season of black lagoon, and hellsing ultimate is one of the best anime i’ve had the pleasure of watching. SHIT!
The way i see it, the only way geneon’s titles could come out is if another company buys the licences from geneon and do the dubbing and subbing work all over again. I’m pretty sure that those licences aren’t cheap and for now, no one says that they are intrested in doing that. My guess is that you have beter chances at winning the lotery than seeing those releases one day!
I just sold all of my unfinished ones to specs
I got like 50 bucks for 6 dvds. I didn’t even want to watch them so I just sold them instead.
Your best bet to finish watching Kyou Kara Maou is go to a funsub site and download the last 11 episodes. (68-78) While I preferred the english dubbed episodes it was well worth worth it watching the final few with just english subtitles
as I was desperate to see how the second season ended. And unlike the end of season 1 they end of season 2 was done so that could have been it for the series. I am glad though a third season is coming out but then it will probably years if ever before it is english dubbed.
Thanks Blighter!
I probably WILL have to download the last episodes, just to finish the story, cause it looks like they’re probably never going to be dubbed…sigh. Well, hopefully someone will pick up season 3.
i really hope that they do finish kyo kara maoh but im mad that geneon didn’t plan these things ahead of time that way by the time they stopped distributing it would be okay because someone else would have picked it up but Nooo they just stopped and now we all have to wait, hope, and wonder when all of our stuff is coming out IF it will come out and that makes me upset and i just think that being in this situation really SUX
So, how many Geneon series have been licensed? Which ones? I hope some have been, though I think some may have. It would have been nice if they did complete the series before Geneon had problems. At least the Geneon in Japan is still going strong.
Well, good news! Geneon has found a distributor! Funimation! I’m so excited, the series I was looking forward to(Karin) will be released. Thought you’d all like to know, but I’m sure you knew that already.
hey i kno that evry1 here prob knows that funimation is the distributor for geneon and just in case ur wonderin wat r some of the releases here they r
Funimation has scheduled the first anime DVD releases from its distribution deal with Geneon Entertainment (USA):
August 19: Black Lagoon season 1, Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage volume 1, Elemental Gelade volume 1
September 2: Karin volumes 1-4, Kyo kara Maoh! season 2’s volume 1-7
September 9: Shakugan no Shana series box
September 16: Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage volume 2, Fate/stay night
series box, Hellsing Ultimate volumes 1-4, Rozen Maiden series box
September 23: Kamichu! series box, Paradise Kiss series box
September 30: When They Cry – Higurashi volumes 1-4
Funimation announced at Anime Expo 2008 on Thursday that it had agreed to manufacture, sell, and distribute selected DVD titles from Geneon Entertainment in North America. Geneon Entertainment had ceased in-house distribution of its own titles last September.
GREAT
I will be looking for Karin & when they cry when it comes out 
thank god kyo kara maoh is back i hope amazon puts it in stock so i can get it.
I hope Funimation or someone licenses the rest of the Geneon titles. Last Exile is one that I would like for someone to license, but I can wait.. for a little bit, and Disgaea(however it is spelled).
yea i’ve seen last exile its pretty gud not 2 bad but u don’t hav 2 wait if u go 2 http://www.rightstuff.com they still hav the series and the box set for that so if u want it u can buy it there
wait don’t click that link it doesn’t go 2 the right place just go 2 google and click rightstuff and it should b the 1st one you see so u shouldn’t miss it also i tried 2 look 4 karin and when they cry but u would hav 2 pre-order 2 get those
I know Rightstuf had a sale a little while back and I should have bought them at that time. I believe they were $5 for each DVD or something. Unfortunately, I waited to long to order them and well, they all sold out, also I wanted to get them all not just a few..I hope that deal happens again, but I don’t think so. As for buying the boxset it’s a little on the expensive side..I think somewhere around $100 or so.
well yea they do hav 1 for 188.98 but that’s for the limited edition they also hav a regular box set for 89.98 don’t pay attention 2 the retail price just look at the your price cuz that’s the 1 that you’ll hav 2 pay it’s a lttle camafloged but if you look you should c it
That’s still pretty high though.
A cheaper way to go to watch anime is netflix. They currently have Last exile in instant watch with unlimited viewing time. Not only, netflix has a complete near-complete selection of anime that has been dubbed on DVD including any new ones that come out. I know I sound like like an ad but I swear by netflix for anime, I have not found a better place for anime yet for the price.
Now if Kanon 6 would just come out grrrrrr nothing like a distributor change to mess things up.
I have to second what Blighter says about Netflix. You can check anime out through them, and if you like the series, you can buy it later when you have the cash. I personally buy used DVDs on Amazon. It’s hella cheaper than new and if look hard enough, you can get something new or like new for 1/4 of the price. Just because anime is listed as $89.90, doesn’t mean you can’t get it cheaper elsewhere.
Hey, does anyone know if the new releases of Karin episodes 13-24 that Funimation said they were releasing in September are dubbed? I hope because I can’t understand Japanese and I’m not into subtitles. Also, does anyone think that it might be possible for someone to post Karin episodes 13-24 dubbed online( when the DVD comes out), because I would have not clue where to get the DVD or I’d hate to have to buy it and have it be subbed.
Well, I’m not sure when they would be released but I was informed on the Funimation forums that there would be the rest of the series but I was not told when they would be out. I hope they are dubbed I doubt Funimation would disappoint us, however, it is not up to them whether they can dub it or not, the license is still in Geneon’s possession they just have distribution rights. Hope that helps. I prefer dubs anyway.
i pretty sure that the karin eps are gona b dubbed so don’t worry and if they weren’t going 2 then it would say subbed only or something like that