FUNimation is having a really, really good week.

First, Vexille. The animated film about an isolated Japan in 2077 has been continuing its visits to various film festivals, and last weekend, at the Philadelphia Film Festival, it was named the best animated feature in the competition. This was the first award to be won by the film, which is set for DVD release in North America on May 20th.

That triumph was followed by the announcement on May 12th that FUNimation has acquired the rights to the 12-episode romantic comedy anime from Kodansha, Save Me! Lollipop. The series was originally created from Michiyo Kikuta's Manotte! Lollipop manga which ran in Kodansha's Nakayoshi shojo manga magazine.

The story involves Nina, a girl who mistakes a Crystal Pearl for a lollipop, and swallows it. She then has to deal with several sorcerers who are competing to retrieve the pearl to win a trial. The series, which ran in Japan in 2006, will be released in one DVD set, later this year.

But was FUNimation done yet? By no means.

On May 13th, the company announced another acquisition, this time the first 26 episodes of Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple, a martial arts comedy series about a boy who is bullied in school until he joins a dojo and becomes proficient at many forms of martial arts. (This series was also developed from a manga of the same name, by Shun Matsuena, whose 29th compiled volume is about to be published.) The full 50-episode series finished its television run in Japan in September of 2007, and FUNimation will release its own newly acquired 26 episodes on DVD starting in January of 2009.

So...done now? Maybe not. There are hints on FUNimation's website that we can expect yet another announcement on May 14th, probably that the company has acquired Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino, a sequel to the Gunslinger Girl series it released in 2005. The anime features several cyborg girls working as government assassins, and the second series only just finished airing in Japan at the end of March.

Hang onto your hats -- it's a wild ride this week, with FUNimation!