Robert's Anime Cornerstore on "Black Lagoon" DVDs

Geneon Title Pre-Orders Rolling In Steady. Your pre-orders for the Geneon / Funimation re-releases continue to roll in (there are so many!) and we appreciate them! We placed OUR order for them this week, and I'm hoping Funimation will begin shipping them around the first or second week of August. Black Lagoon and Black Lagoon Second Barrage will be the first titles to arrive, and will be followed up a couple of weeks later with Karin and Kyo Kara Maoh! Season II.

Third Black Lagoon Project Confirmed

Here's how you get information in the Anime industry - the wraparound jacket band on Gen Urobuchi's novel adaptation of Rei Hiroe's Black Lagoon adventure manga has confirmed that a third Black Lagoon anime project has been green-lit for production. No release info is currently available but it will probably get on the schedule in Japan in late 2009.

Funimation's First Releases from Geneon Deal Scheduled

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.

FUNimation to Distribute Select Geneon Titles

Roughly nine months after Geneon announced that it was exiting the American anime market FUNimation Entertainment has struck a deal that will allow it to distribute select Geneon titles in North America. Under terms of the agreement FUNimation has obtained the exclusive rights to the manufacturing, marketing, sales, and distribution of established Geneon titles including Hellsing Ultimate, Ergo Proxy, Black Lagoon, Elemental Gelade, Fate Stay Night, Kamichu, Ninja Vixens, Paradise Kiss, Rozen Maiden, Rozen Maiden Traumend, Shana, Shonen Onmyouji, The Familiar of Zero, The Story of Saiunkoku, When They Cry, and The Law of Ueki.

Among the first titles to be released will be the special edition of Hellsing Ultimate, Black Lagoon: Second Barrage, Karin, Kyo Kara Maoh Season 2, and Lyrical Nanoha.

Today's announcement is a bit of good news for the North American anime market and anime fans. FUNimation’s acquisition of Geneon titles had been rumored since last November (see “Geneon’s Fall a Positive for FUNimation?”) and in February the CEO of FUNimation’s parent company Navarre told industry analysts that FUNimation was in the “very early stages of negotiations” to acquire select Geneon titles (see “FUNimation Interested in Some Geneon Titles”). Those negotiations have obviously borne fruit, and though industry observers expected FUNimation to cherry pick the Geneon catalog, today’s announcement is notable for its rather broad sweep that extends from the obvious (Hellsing Ultimate, Black Lagoon, Ergo Proxy) to the somewhat surprising (The Law of Ueki, The Story of Saiunkoku).