You start wondering when
FUNimation is going to stop and take a breath - but then you think, "No! Don't stop! Just keep going! Suffocate if you have to!" Well, not really.
But let's look at the list together, shall we?
First, as I mentioned in a previous article, the company acquired
Save Me! Lollipop, as well as
Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple. And at the time, we suspected
Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino, and sure enough, there it was the next day.
Then came
Strain: Strategic Armored Infantry, which looks pretty action-packed when you watch
the trailer. It's about a girl surviving the massacre of her classmates in the middle of an intergalactic war. (And
looky! Some guy with long white hair. I'm a sucker for those long-white-haired types, so I'll be watching for this one.)
Then
Shiguri: Death Frenzy, about a battle to the death in
17th century feudal Japan. There isn't much action just now at the
official website, but peek at it anyway. It will make you shudder, though if you're super-squeamish...maybe don't.
All of those titles are expected to be released on DVD in 2009 (so start counting the months).
Then there's a real biggie.
FUNimation also announced yesterday that it's acquired the North American rights to
D. Gray-Man, the 51-episode series adapted from the "D. Gray-man"
manga of
Katsura Hoshino which was originally serialized in
Weekly Shonen Jump in 2004. This series is an epic story about the fight between good and evil, the divine and demonic, in late
19th century Japan. This series, too, will begin to be released in 2009. I know I can't wait!
And as though that wasn't enough (no! it's never enough!),
FUNimation also announced yesterday the acquisition of the 24-episode
Romeo x Juliet, what the company calls "an epic re-imagining of the Shakespearean classic tragedy." Set in the distant future city of
Neo-Verona, the star-crossed lovers meet and must overcome the tragedies of Juliet's family and the cruelties of Romeo's, to try to be together. This is another series that will become available in 2009.
So what's next, do you suppose? Or maybe we should ask, "Can there even
be anything left??" Oh yes, there's plenty, and
FUNimation will probably continue scooping it all up - if it doesn't collapse from exhaustion first.