According to the Arctic Nightfall forum, Funimation has lost its license for the One Piece anime.
No official response yet to back it up, but I, or someone, will pass it on when we find the proof.
They never announced it, so where do the people get the idea they ever had the license to it in the first place??
It is all for the greater good.
Quote:They never announced it, so where do the people get the idea they ever had the license to it in the first place??
I don't know if they ever did announce it, but they did register the "One Piece" name with the US government:
Quote:Word Mark ONE PIECE
Goods and Services (ABANDONED) IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Pre-recorded videocassettes, laser disks, video compact discs, digital video discs, recordable compact disks, DVD-ROMS, DVD-RAMS, video disks containing animated cartoon programs
Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
Serial Number 76392708
Filing Date April 4, 2002
Current Filing Basis 1B
Original Filing Basis 1B
Published for Opposition October 29, 2002
Owner (APPLICANT) Funimation Productions, Ltd. Funimation Productions, LLC. PARTNERSHIP TEXAS 6851 N.E. Loop 820, Suite 247 Fort Worth TEXAS 76180
Type of Mark TRADEMARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator DEAD
Abandonment Date July 22, 2003
This, as you can see, came from July, but it wasn't discovered in the US trademarks database until recently, meaning that Funi did get the rights to the One Piece anime, but chose to lay low.
(Source:
http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm )
Well if they did hold the rights, Thank God they lost it. I hope someone like Pioneer or maybe even Bandai ends up with it. I'm not a big fan of Funimation and I was really upset to hear they had the rights to Conan and GXP.
What's wrong with Funimation? (And don't say dragonball/z/gt because they don't do that anymore)
YYH has LOTS of episodes already released, with a high episode count and a good dub. Fruits Basket had over 6 episodes per DVD, and uncut, etc. I'm thrilled they got Conan. Now there's a chance of getting it on TV, plus since they are making english dub songs for the dub track of another of their new titles (Kiddy Grade maybe?) I'm thrilled at the possibility of that with Conan.
as long as the hk companies rip the r1s and i get the japanese track with english subtitles, i'm good.