FUNimation to Release ADV Titles in Box sets, as well as in SIngles.

Over the past few days, people have livid over FUNimation finishing Red Garden, Welcome to the NHK and Pumpkin Scissors on box sets only. Well, just a few moments ago, a FUNimation representative had this to say:

Official FUNi Rep:

Hello anime fans,
We do understand your concern regarding the future releases of these two series in which you have already invested so much time and emotion. I won't bore you with the long explanation as to how we came to the decision we did as to how to package these series nor rattle off the many factors that led to that decision.

That being said, we have taken your comments to heart and here's what we are going to do: in addition to the box sets we will ALSO release Red Garden Volumes 4 and 5, Pumpkin Scissors v.5, and NHK v.5. They will be available through The Right Stuf in December -- though street dates have not yet been finalized. Volume 6 for all three of these series will be available at a later date, still to be determined, and will also be available via The Right Stuf.

Best regards -- Official FUNi Rep


That being said, it's clear why FUNimation is leading the R1 anime industry. They clearly take fan consideration into account when making their business decisions, something other companies can learn a thing or 2 about. If they had better video quality on their DVDs, then they would be perfect. :)

Origin of Bleach's title.

For a while now, fans of Bleach have been wondering how did the popular manga and anime series get its name. Some thought that because Kubo was a big fan of the band Nirvana, that he named the series after one of their albums. Another theory was that it was used as a metaphor, because the Soul Reapers "cleanse" the Hollows. And the last one is that people thought that Ichigo bleached his hair orange.

Of course, none of these ideas were confirmed by Kubo. But in the November 2008 issue of Shonen Jump, Kubo finally explained why Bleach is called "Bleach".

Tite Kubo:

The title wasn't Bleach when I decided to draw a story about Soul Reapers. This was before I drew the one-shot manga that appeared in Akamaru Jump. The weapon wasn't a sword, but a scythe. Only Rukia had a scythe and the other characters used guns. At that point, the title was Snipe [as in "sniper"]. Right before I started drawing, I began to think that a sword would be better and realized I couldn't use Snipe as a title anymore. I began looking for a title that grasped the bigger picture. Soul Reapers are associated with the color black, but it would have been boring to use "black." "White", on the other hand, can suggest black as a complementary color. So I chose "bleach" to evoke the impression of the color white.

And there you have it. The issue is settled. Now if only those nasty fillers would stop....

New Rogue Force Member.

Hello, my name is braves, the newest member of the Rouge Force team. Yes, I am the same braves that's on the FUNimation Forums, ANN, AoD, and Gyt's Anime & More Forums. I'll mainly be adding to this blog with anime reviews. I look forward to contributing here.

Yeah, it's not a very long introduction, but it'll get the job done for now. -_^