FUNimation at Otakon 2009

FUNimation announces several recent acquisitions over the course of Otakon weekend. One in particular has got me excited, so let's get down to it.

First up is four "Detective Conan" movies - The Last Wizard of the Century; Captured in Her Eyes; Countdown to Heaven; and The Phantom of Baker Street. FUNimation will release each movie individually beginning Winter 2009. On the live action realm comes "Daytime Drinking," a comedy produced by StONEwork Film Production. This is set to be released sometime in 2010.

FUNimation has acquired home entertainment, broadcast, digital and merchandise rights to the first season (24 episodes) of the post-apocalyptic sci-fi anime series "Casshern Sins" from Tatsunoko Productions! This sci-fi series is directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi (“Blood+”, “Digimon”, “Dragon Ball Z”) produced by Tatsunoko Productions (“Speed Racer”, “Robotech”, “Gatchaman”) and animated by Madhouse (“Claymore”, “Hellsing Ultimate”, “Death Note”, “Gungrave”). FUNimation Entertainment will release the first season of the series in two 12 episode sets fall 2010.

Casshern Sins is a revisioning of the early seventies series “Neo-Human Casshern” presented with a unique animation style. This sci-fi android series begins in a time when humans are subjugated by androids. Desperate for freedom, humans summon a mysterious girl named Luna in order to save mankind. Braiking Boss, leader of the androids, fears what this girl may do, and sends three assassins to remove her. The strongest of these assassins, Casshern, manages to track down and kill Luna. This triggers a cataclysmic event which sets in motion the end of the world.

Hundreds of years later, the world is in ruin and both humans and androids fear for their lives. Casshern, who has disappeared since Luna’s death, returns to the world with no memory. Thus starts his journey of self discovery and redemption that will determine the future of both humans and androids.

Changing gears a bit,...listen up all you diehard original Dragon Ball fans...the next acquisition is a big one. FUNimation Entertainment has got their hands on the original masters for the ENTIRE Dragon Ball Z anime series, episodes and films. They plan on releasing all as the Dragon Box for the very first time in the U.S. The Dragon Box will be produced from the original Dragon Box masters after a frame by frame restoration and will span the entire 291 episode television series and all 13 of its movies.

You can grab the first of seven Dragon Boxes nationwide on November 10, 2009 and is retailed at $79.98. Dragon Box One will include the first 42 episodes, uncut, on 6 discs. It will feature the original Japanese audio (with options for an English track or English subtitles), the original episode previews, complete opening and closing credits and a collector’s booklet.

Other FUNimation announcements include the cast lists for "Nabari No Ou" and "Spice and Wolf."