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FUNimation sets the casts for two series, acquires four more
- By Phyl Good
- Published 02/16/2009
- Anime and Manga
- Unrated
Phyl Good
View all articles by Phyl Good
Last week, on February 11 and 12, 2009, FUNimation presented the cast members for both Romeo x Juliet and Big Windup, and topped off the week with four acquisition announcements on Valentine's Day.
A romantic action anime, Romeo x Juliet is produced by Studio Gonzo, and is directed by Fumitoshi Oisaki. It re-imagines the original Shakespearean story in a world of the future. The two title characters will be voiced by Chris Burnett and Brina Palencia. For the complete cast, visit FUNimation's website to view the announcement.
The 24 episodes of Romeo x Juliet will be released this spring and summer of 2009, in two 12-episode sets.
Meanwhile, Big Windup, an anime with baseball as its theme, was acquired from Kodansha Ltd., and will be directed by Christopher Bevins, as the work on the anime parallels the early part of the baseball season.
Heading the cast will be Sean Michael Teague as Ren Mihashi, and Greg Ayres as Takaya Abe. (Although the recent health issues experienced by Greg Ayres might now be a twist that will need to be addressed.) The rest of the cast list is also available on FUNimation's site.
In addition to those cast announcements, the company made several acquisition announcements as well, celebrating Valentine's Day and rounding off the week with a splash.
Bamboo Blade is another sports-themed anime, this time featuring kendo. Based on a manga series by Masahiro Totsuka, this anime from D. Rights is directed by Hisashi Saito. It features a teacher, Toraji Ishida, who is challenged to assemble a winning girls' kendo team, with new player Tamaki.
FUNimation has acquired the home entertainment and broadcast rights to this 26-episode series.
Two of the other acquisitions, Blassreiter and Tower of Druaga, may already be familiar to those who have been following these Studio Gonzo-produced series on various online sites such as BOST-TV, YouTube, and Crunchyroll.
Blassreiter is a horror action series directed by Ichiro Itano, and follows Joseph Jobson, the only man who can save Germany from a mysterious plague that turns humans into demonic creatures. And Tower of Druaga, based on a 1984 Namco video game, follows a warrior named Jil, who seeks the powerful Blue Crystal Rod, said to be found on the highest floor of the tower. Mining the mythology of ancient Babylon, the series sets a king named Gilgamesh, from a kingdom called Uruk, as one of the obstacles Jil must overcome to fulfill this quest.
FUNimation has acquired the home entertainment, internet, merchandising, and mobile rights to the 24 episodes of Blassreiter, and home entertainment, broadcast, and limited digital rights to the 25 episodes of Tower of Druaga.
The final acquisition, Dragonaut, is another Studio Gonzo production, directed by Manabu Ono. It features Jin Kamishina, a pilot of one of the "dragons," secret weapons originally built to try to save the earth from an asteroid. But the situation becomes even more dire when actual dragon-like creatures appear on earth and become a threat to humanity.
FUNimation has acquired home entertainment, broadcast, digital, internet, merchandising, and mobile rights to this 25-episode series.
All four of these new acquisitions will be released, most in two-volume sets, starting in late 2009. For complete details about all of the acquisitions, the cast announcements, and other releases and updates, view FUNimation's "Latest News" page on their website.
Source: FUNimation press releases
A romantic action anime, Romeo x Juliet is produced by Studio Gonzo, and is directed by Fumitoshi Oisaki. It re-imagines the original Shakespearean story in a world of the future. The two title characters will be voiced by Chris Burnett and Brina Palencia. For the complete cast, visit FUNimation's website to view the announcement.
The 24 episodes of Romeo x Juliet will be released this spring and summer of 2009, in two 12-episode sets.
Meanwhile, Big Windup, an anime with baseball as its theme, was acquired from Kodansha Ltd., and will be directed by Christopher Bevins, as the work on the anime parallels the early part of the baseball season.
Heading the cast will be Sean Michael Teague as Ren Mihashi, and Greg Ayres as Takaya Abe. (Although the recent health issues experienced by Greg Ayres might now be a twist that will need to be addressed.) The rest of the cast list is also available on FUNimation's site.
In addition to those cast announcements, the company made several acquisition announcements as well, celebrating Valentine's Day and rounding off the week with a splash.
Bamboo Blade is another sports-themed anime, this time featuring kendo. Based on a manga series by Masahiro Totsuka, this anime from D. Rights is directed by Hisashi Saito. It features a teacher, Toraji Ishida, who is challenged to assemble a winning girls' kendo team, with new player Tamaki.
FUNimation has acquired the home entertainment and broadcast rights to this 26-episode series.
Two of the other acquisitions, Blassreiter and Tower of Druaga, may already be familiar to those who have been following these Studio Gonzo-produced series on various online sites such as BOST-TV, YouTube, and Crunchyroll.
Blassreiter is a horror action series directed by Ichiro Itano, and follows Joseph Jobson, the only man who can save Germany from a mysterious plague that turns humans into demonic creatures. And Tower of Druaga, based on a 1984 Namco video game, follows a warrior named Jil, who seeks the powerful Blue Crystal Rod, said to be found on the highest floor of the tower. Mining the mythology of ancient Babylon, the series sets a king named Gilgamesh, from a kingdom called Uruk, as one of the obstacles Jil must overcome to fulfill this quest.
FUNimation has acquired the home entertainment, internet, merchandising, and mobile rights to the 24 episodes of Blassreiter, and home entertainment, broadcast, and limited digital rights to the 25 episodes of Tower of Druaga.
The final acquisition, Dragonaut, is another Studio Gonzo production, directed by Manabu Ono. It features Jin Kamishina, a pilot of one of the "dragons," secret weapons originally built to try to save the earth from an asteroid. But the situation becomes even more dire when actual dragon-like creatures appear on earth and become a threat to humanity.
FUNimation has acquired home entertainment, broadcast, digital, internet, merchandising, and mobile rights to this 25-episode series.
All four of these new acquisitions will be released, most in two-volume sets, starting in late 2009. For complete details about all of the acquisitions, the cast announcements, and other releases and updates, view FUNimation's "Latest News" page on their website.
Source: FUNimation press releases