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Funimation Comments Further on Vampire Bund Edits

The North American anime distributor Funimation has issued a new statement regarding the edits it is making to its release of the Dance in the Vampire Bund anime series. According to the statement, which can be read in its entirety below, the company will continue to make "minor edits" to the versions available for free Internet streaming and TV broadcast. However, it will consider releasing an unedited DVD version in the future.

Jackie Smith of Funimation told ANN that "based on the episodes we've seen," Funimation expects to be able to release the unedited version on DVD and Blu-ray, but Funimation has not yet seen the unaired episodes and will reserve final judgement until after it has considered those episodes. Explaining that Funimation has paid close attention to consumer feedback, Smith said that the company decided to take a closer look at the edited scenes and determined that the edited scenes, so far, will be acceptable for a DVD release in their unedited format.

Funimation's Statement

In the days since we announced the acquisition of the anime "Dance in the Vampire Bund," we have been following the varied responses from within the anime community to our decision to edit specific scenes from its streaming and later home entertainment release.

First, out of concern for our distribution partners and advertisers, we will continue to make minor edits to the episodes which are available via free streaming and television broadcast due to the readily accessible nature of these platforms. We will be careful to keep such edits to a minimum.

However, FUNimation is — as always — committed to bringing the best anime content to the United States in its unedited form on home video. Therefore, we are evaluating the release of the series in unedited and uncensored form for home video. Since only 7 episodes have broadcast in Japan, final determination must be reserved until all episodes can be reviewed to ensure compliance with current U.S. law.

We would like to thank everyone in the anime community for the feedback provided to us on this matter — your opinions count.

Image © Nozomu Tamaki, Media Factory/Vampire Bund Government