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Funimation Gets Trigun TV Anime Series on BD/DVD
posted on by Egan Loo
The North American anime distributor Funimation has announced at the Katsucon event on Sunday that it licensed the Trigun television anime series for Blu-ray and DVD from the Japanese company Flying Dog. At the Maryland event, Funimation has also announced the English dubbing cast of the Dragon Ball Z Kai television anime, for which there are only four replacements in the main cast from Funimation's original version of the Dragon Ball Z anime.
The Trigun anime adapts Yasuhiro Nightow's manga of the same name. The story follows the misadventures of Vash the Stampede, a gunman on the lam with a "60 billion double dollar" bounty on his head. Vash earned his "Stampede" nickname thanks to the destruction that zealous bounty hunters wreak on any town he visits. Funimation will ship its DVD release this fall.
Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc. (under its former name of Pioneer) had released this anime series in North America in 2000 and 2001. Then, Geneon Entertainment ceased in-house distribution of its own titles in September 2007. FUNimation announced at Anime Expo 2008 that it agreed to manufacture, sell, and distribute selected DVD titles from Geneon Entertainment in North America. However, FUNimation had not announced that it will distribute Trigun until now.
Dark Horse Comics has been publishing the original Trigun manga in North America. A new film, Trigun: Badlands Rumble, will open in Japan on April 24. The Madhouse anime studio, director Satoshi Nishimura, character designer Takahiro Yoshimatsu, mechanical designer Noriyuki Jinguji, and musical composer Tsuneo Imahori are all returning from the television series for the new project.
Update: More background information added.
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