AX10: FUNimation
Click to viewWas there any doubt that the biggest anime company in the industry also had the biggest announcements at Anime Expo? When FUNimation announced a couple license-rescue titles shortly before AX in their FuniCon panel, I speculated that they must have tons more stuff in waiting to save for the country's biggest anime convention. & boy did they ever. Their announcements can basically be split-up into four categories- industry-changing licenses, new simulcasts, license rescues, & other licenses.
In terms of the industry-changing licenses, I'm referring to the fact that for the first time ever, Funi licensed sequel titles to series that they had rescued from another company. FUNimation has rescued a ton of Geneon titles over the past few years, many of which have sequels that the company never got around to releasing. & fans have been asking Funi if they planned to do the sequels themselves. At this point I had given up on them ever doing sequel series to Geneon titles, but it looks like I spoke too soon. Because Funi announced that they now have the rest of Shakugan no Shana thus far (season 2, movie, OVAs), the new Black Lagoon OVA, Hellsing Ultimate volumes 5-7, & the Trigun: Badlands Rumble movie. So yes, Geneon titles live again! Sure there are others out there that could use more seasons getting released, such as Familiar of Zero & Lyrical Nanoha. But who knows, with the rest of these titles getting new life from Funi, others may in the future as well.
FUNimation also surprised the crowd by announcing a surprisingly large number of anime simulcasts for the season. It doesn't hurt though that a number of the new shows this Summer are sequels to FUNimation licenses. Black Butler 2, Sekirei 2, & Sengoku Basara 2 will all be simulcasted on Funi's website, as will the two latest noitaminA series Shiki & the live-action Moyashimon, as part of Funi's ongoing deal to simulcast that block. They also got a totally new & unrelated summer series, "Legend of the Legendary Heroes." But the oddest thing about these simulcasts is that with all the FUNimation sequels airing this summer, there's ONE missing from Funi's simulcast list- Strike Witches 2. Why is that the only sequel being left out? I thought it'd be a shoe-in! Hopefully it'll still be picked up somehow, though.
Continuing with their efforts to save the industry, FUNimation has license-rescued several more classic Geneon titles. They include Texhnolyze, Ai Yori Aoshi, Armitage III, Haibane Renmei, Hellsing (TV series), Serial Experiments Lain, & all of Tenchi Muyo (original OVAs & movies, Tenchi Universe, & Tenchi in Tokyo).
Finally there were licenses that don't fall into any of the other categories as they are brand new titles, but they're quite impressive. Funi announced that they licensed both "A Certain Magical Index" & "A Certain Scientific Railgun!" Sweetness! Finally, they also licensed the second season of Darker Than Black. Funi also specifically pointed out that they currently do NOT have the license to Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0. Which of course is a crying shame, so hopefully that changes soon.
Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-07-02/funi-adds-live-action-moyashimon