"AIC, Toei Agency Sign Deal to Co-Own Megazone 23, Tenchi Muyo, etc"

[WarOmnimon]

I am worried about that this will allow Sony to censor and control the content of the vast majority of anime series though. They are already doing that to video games since they moved their main office to California, and are selling far worse in Japan because of it.

There actually isn't a reason to panic about that. Sony Computer Entertainment's main office is in California, yes, but the offices for Sony's other divisions (Such as those involved with anime) are still in Japan. This is something that I have seen mentioned many times when other people have voiced the same concern. Unless those divisions also move to California for whatever reason (Which shouldn't happen), this won't affect anime.

Granted, it certainly doesn't change the fact that what SCE is doing to a lot of Japanese developed video games on PlayStation platforms (Which is why so many Japanese third parties have at least partially jumped ship to Nintendo lately; heck, even Aquaplus, who were super loyal to Sony since day one until this whole debacle, has actually put out a game on the Switch by this point, specifically Dokapon UP!) is completely unfair... but that would be going off-topic.

[antvasima]

Okay. Thank you very much for the information.

[RyannVonDoom]

The ovas and movies are completely gone from the funimation roku app when searching for them. All thats left is universe, ai, ryo-ohki and war on gemnar now.

[Harls]

Discotek, you're up.

[Dreamr]

The ovas and movies are completely gone from the funimation roku app when searching for them. All thats left is universe, ai, ryo-ohki and war on gemnar now.

https://www.sonypictures.com/corp/press_releases/2021/0809/sonysfunimationglobalgroupcompletesacquisitionofcrunchyrollfromatt

Sony would be stupid to keep two independent streaming services for the same products. Not at all surprised to see stuff getting shuffled from one service to another.

[Harls]

OVAs 4 and 5 are on Crunchyroll.
The rest are not.

Sony isn't doing anything here.

[RyannVonDoom]

Bingo.. so what happens now? I thought Toei had a good relationship with Funimation?

[Harls]

Also, Toei doesn't have anything to do with this, either.

It's all NBCUniversal.

[Nonsuch Ned]

I guess the various licenses could make things complicated. I wouldn't be surprised if Funimation has decided that they've made what they can and are letting licenses expire. But they're at separate lengths, so they still have control of some, but not all. And anyone who would want to take up new licenses would want to pick up as much as they could all at once, but would wait until they're all available.

And Funi did just recently put out a new "Classics" BD release of Geminar... and, oddly, a separate new non-Classics BD+digital release. SO they must have that long enough to keep trying to make money off it.
...or maybe they just want to renew it all at the same time to have coordinated licenses? I really don't know, don't completely get the logic.

[WarOmnimon]

I guess the various licenses could make things complicated. I wouldn't be surprised if Funimation has decided that they've made what they can and are letting licenses expire. But they're at separate lengths, so they still have control of some, but not all. And anyone who would want to take up new licenses would want to pick up as much as they could all at once, but would wait until they're all available.

And Funi did just recently put out a new "Classics" BD release of Geminar... and, oddly, a separate new non-Classics BD+digital release. SO they must have that long enough to keep trying to make money off it.
...or maybe they just want to renew it all at the same time to have coordinated licenses? I really don't know, don't completely get the logic.

Yeah... this does seem a bit screwy. I mean, if Funi still had the licenses for everything else that is part of Tenchi, that would be one thing. But that's clearly not the case here, and yet they're still releasing Geminar? I don't get the logic, either.

Also, Toei doesn't have anything to do with this, either.

It's all NBCUniversal.

^ All of this.

My guess as to what will happen next? It's likely that first, all of the licenses will expire, and then someone (Though who that someone would be is anyone's guess right now given that the licenses are all over the place) will scoop them all in one fell swoop. With this coming year being Tenchi's big 3-0, hopefully that's sooner than later.

[RyannVonDoom]

I hope something does come of the 30th anniversary.

[WaitoKon]

Well it is about 9 months away. 

[AstroNerdBoy]

I guess the various licenses could make things complicated. I wouldn't be surprised if Funimation has decided that they've made what they can and are letting licenses expire. But they're at separate lengths, so they still have control of some, but not all. And anyone who would want to take up new licenses would want to pick up as much as they could all at once, but would wait until they're all available.

That would be the most likely answer.

I hope something does come of the 30th anniversary.

In Japan, I'm sure they'll sell some kind of package deal, possibly with extra stuff from Kajishima-sensei. His latest doujin work dropped today, so it may have news in it. But if there were a new anime in the works, I would have expected to already hear about it, unless it is being kept under the wraps.

As to Toei, initially I was happy about their investment into AIC. But after what the stunt they pulled on that one YouTube guy in taking down hundreds of his review/discussion videos of Toei (and supposedly, even some non-Toei stuff), I have a very negative view of them.

[GP cadet 87]

I can't believe it's gonna be 30 years. Damn, I know I was "only" 5 when it came out, so relatively speaking I shouldn't be feeling too old.. but DAMN I'M OLD! Gonna definitely re-watch the whole OVA series next year to celebrate!

Maybe the stars will all align and we'll be getting a reboot of GXP. It'll be turning 20 next April. I still consider it the worst anime I keep re-watching lol.

Yeah, really shitty what happened to Mark, the reviewer Toei went after, I've been a big fan of his for awhile.

He's a REVIEWER NOT AN ANIMATOR, for God's sake! They got no business (literally, legally and ethically) going after critics; everyone has the right to critique some one else's work and get something for it.

He's got over 500K subs on his channel. If anything, they should be THANKING him for the extra exposure for their work!

[Nonsuch Ned]

 That nothing else is being announced (like novel releases- Kajishima seems to do one thing at a time), I keep hope alive that they are still secretly working on something animated.

I did just watch something (I forget what) that included a credit like "Brought to you by the 10th Anniversary committee" in it that made me think "What about Tenchi!?"

My personal hope would be a movie, an actual movie focused on the OVA casts. I really think that's what's called for to wrap up the "Ryo-Ohki" storyline. It's also just "one thing" that could be conceivably made to commemorate the show within THIS YEAR.

The only other thing that could be made on the quick would be a P.O.S. like Ai Tenchi.