May 6th, 2010 
AstroNerdBoy On the FUNimation forums, there had been discussions of Chris Sabat at Anime Milwauke talking about how he’d been working on Tsubasa: Tokyo Revelations. A voice actor talking means little to me until there’s an official announcement from the parent company, which FUNimation has gone ahead and confirmed — they have the OAD titles Tsubasa: Tokyo Revelations as well as Tsubasa: Shunraiki. This is great news, not just for Tsubasa fans (though I think that fans of the anime series who haven’t read the manga are going to be in for one heck of a shock ’cause this ain’t no kiddy fare, y’all), but for also for those fans of Negima!
Until this official confirmation of the OAD license, it had been my belief that the Japanese may decide not to license any OAD’s outside of Japan. My reasoning for this is that OAD’s (Original Animation DVD’s) are an exclusive OVA (Original Video Animation) that were sold exclusively with a limited edition manga tankoubon in Japan. So when these were released in Japan, it was one episode with a certain manga volume, though you could still buy the regular edition of that manga and not pay the outrageous price the Japanese charge for anime.
Since the Japanese are notorious for not licensing limited edition stuff (ie: the Negima! pactio cards, which I’m told Del Rey has tried to license since they’d likely make a killing) and the Japanese are deathly afraid of doing anything that might bring down their house of cards of an anime market, I felt pretty sure that these exclusive OAD’s would fall into the same category.
Thankfully, I’ve been proven wrong and now two new OAD series are coming to the U.S. (but where are the xxxHOLiC OAD’s, to say nothing of the xxxHOLiC: Kei TV series?), I do have hopes that FUNimation might try to bring over the Negima! OAD’s as well. As with all things, it will depend on how well the other Negima! stuff has sold for FUNimation as well as how the Japanese treat it. Since there has been no further talk of Tsubasa OAD’s (there was a new xxxHOLiC OAD released last month), maybe there are going to be no further Tsubasa OAD’s released in Japan and thus why FUNimation was able to license them now. Only FUNimation and the Japanese parties concerned know for sure.
So, here’s to the wish to see the Negima! OAD’s brought to America’s shores! ^_^
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My eyes are pouring with excitement!
I really hope they do grab the Negima OADs i would be so happy!! Although im not sure how it works with how they get titles, im sure if funimation paid enough or what ever they do they would have no problem with it
@Leaf — I know a lot of folks are with ya. ^_^
@Nick — I’m not sure either but there’s now hope.
Yes, limited edition stuff WOULD be nice
ilike tsubasa…but i prefer negima!!! NEGIMA!!!
TT^TT
man… I wish they can distribute Negima OAD too in our country…
LoneWolfx03-]—
RAWS RAWS PLEASE WHERE ARE THE RAWS i am now suffering symptoms of two week withdrawl syndrome i might die soon. Quickvenom
The next chapter isn’t officially out until Wednesday. We may get spoilers tonight, assuming the Japanese even feel like doing any.
I’m interested in something you said, “deathly afraid of doing anything that might bring down their house of cards of an anime market”. Do you mean the entire market itself, the bubble pricing, or something else entirely? I really hope you don’t mean the market itself. ^_^; But if so, I’d be curious what aspects you’re thinking about which would make that true.
If you mean the bubble pricing, it might be healthier in the long run for the bubble to pop. Look at what happened in the US when Viz lost their stranglehold on the market and started getting genuine competition… there was a boom in demand once prices got halfway reasonable, which led to a boom in availability.
(PS, for non-old-schoolers who think I’m being unfair to Viz: Just for one example, their prices for Ranma 1/2 VHS used to be $25 for two episodes. Doesn’t sound too unreasonable, you say? $25 in 1990 is the equivalent of $40 today, adjusted for inflation.)
@arimareiji — I meant the bubble pricing, though their whole system seems whacked to me since my understanding is that they make little money off of airing it on TV and count on their revenue coming from video sales as well as related items.