When I entered the room, they were showing short trailers of upcoming releases, including Casshern Sins (8/17/2010,) Hetalia seasons one (9/14/2010,) Hetalia seasons two (10/12/2010,) and a personal favorite, Eden of the East (9/28/2010.)
Funimation announced that they are creating a new media site that will give members a chance to view improved video (I’m can only assume better quality of their streaming content,) also encouraging comments and reviews on content, places for cosplay pics, fanart art and other fanbase related activities. Membership is free though there is a planned release of an Elite Membership next year that will grant access to high quality dub episodes prior to their tv or dvd releases. Sign up for beta testing is already in place now which will begin in September and the launch date for the site is in October.
The cast list was finally given out for Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~, Oh! Edo Rocket and a personal favorite, Black Butler. J. Michael Tatum (Doumeki, Xxxholic) is Sebastian, Brina Palencia (Juliet, RomeoxJuliet) is Ciel with new and upcoming, Daniel Fredrick as Grell.
New licenses were announced including season two of Strike Witches with Crunchyroll simulcast a week after Japanese airdate, Shukufuku no Campanella, Okamisan, Hetalia seasons three and four, as well as the recently announced Hetalia Movie: Paint it White. The biggest announcements were the licensing of Summer Wars and Evangelion 2:22 (which is seeing a 2011 release date for both dvd and blu-ray.) Later in the panel, it was confirmed that there will be theatrical releases for both movies.
And for some reason, the question about keeping the cast for the Eva movie…cannot be discussed. They had the same people for the first movie who are the same people from the tv series…so I wonder why is this one so uncertain. Hopefully, it isn’t the case of money.
Q&A time! They listed a bunch of things that CANNOT be asked…including (but not entirely,) Laura Bailey’s phone number. lol
Funimation did not acquire the Blu-ray rights to Birdy the Mighty, One Piece and Kanon. Unfortunately, they only acquired the opening song, ‘Oasis’ for the first episode of Eden of the East. Which means all the other other episodes will not have this song. (I wonder what song they will have instead? Will they sing it again? The song is already in English.) Sgt. Frog and The Dragon Box (special Dragon Ball boxsets) releases have been doing well. Upon inquiry, the new Funimation site would include Hulu players as well as their own player.