Category: News

Two sports series on home video from FUNimation this June

By Tom | Published | Leave a Comment on Two sports series on home video from FUNimation this June

The second quarter of 2015 in Region 1 home video releases just got two more sports anime additions as FUNimation announced today it plans to put out Ping Pong the Animation and Wanna Be The Strongest in the World! this June in Blu-ray/DVD combo packs featuring English & Japanese voice tracks.

Those two bring the total number of sports series with home video released currently scheduled in the next three months to five:

April 28th: Free! Season 1 DVD (sub-only; Discotek)
May 12nd: Slam Dunk DVD set 1 (dub & sub; Cinedigm)
June 2nd: Haikyu!! Blu-ray Collection 1, DVD Collection 1 (sub-only; Sentai Filmworks)
June 2nd: Wanna be the Strongest in the World! Blu-Ray/DVD Combo set (dub & sub; FUNimation)
June 23rd: Ping Pong the Animation Blu-ray/DVD Combo set (dub & sub; FUNimation)

Initial Slam Dunk & Haikyu!! Region 1 sets scheduled

By Tom | Published | Leave a Comment on Initial Slam Dunk & Haikyu!! Region 1 sets scheduled

There are a couple of sports anime series that have North American disc releases scheduled in coming months: Slam Dunk on May 12th and Haikyu!! on June 2nd.

Cinedigm’s first Slam Dunk DVD set was originally scheduled to come out last December but that month passed with no updates about a revised date until recently when the current May date appeared on Rightstuf and other retail sites. The set is listed with 14 episodes and English & Japanese language tracks; the English dub to be included is suspected to be the same as what was previously released in the mid-2000’s by Toei.

The first subtitled-only DVD and Blu-ray collections for Haikyu!! were included in Sentai Filmworks’ June 2015 releases announcement in late Februrary and will have the first 13 episodes of season 1. The other season 1 set would presumably have the remaining 12 episodes (14 through 25). A second season of the high school volleyball series has been green-lit.

Discotek to release subtitled “Free!” season 1 set in 2015, bilingual set possible later

By Tom | Published | Leave a Comment on Discotek to release subtitled “Free!” season 1 set in 2015, bilingual set possible later

Known primarily for older titles, Discotek Media has gotten into releasing more recent series over the past few years including a few sports series announcements in the last couple months – first with announcing in December that they plan to put out subtitled sets of the 1st and 2nd seasons of Yowamushi Pedal and then tonight saying they will produce a subtitled-only set of Free! season 1 in 2015 with a possible dubbed version down the road that may come from another publisher.

FUNimation had previously simulcast the 2nd season of Free!, Free! Eternal Summer, and plans to release it on home video with an English dub. The main characters’ English voice actors were announced in November.

The split licensing of this popular swimming franchise is a bit of an unusual case since most times when there’s multiple seasons of a particular series that are localized, they all get released on DVD and/or Blu-Ray by the same publisher. I personally have only seen the first couple episodes of the first season of Free! but I imagine it’s frustrating to fans who want to own both seasons to have different publishers working on them.