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Funimation: No More Big Windup! Anime to Be Licensed

posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Low sales cited; other sports anime licenses also unlikely; FLCL's Synch-Point dub retained

On Friday's ANNCast, FUNimation Entertainment guests Adam Sheehan and Lance Heiskell reported that Funimation would not license the second season to the Big Windup! baseball anime. Heiskell cited low sales, saying, "there was not enough of an audience there who bought the series." Heiskell also said the low sales does not warrant Funimation acquiring other titles from the same genre of sports anime.

The second season of Big Windup! (Ookiku Furikabutte) was announced in December. It will premiere in Japan in Spring of 2010.

Funimation acquired the North American rights to the first season of the Ookiku Furikabutte anime under the name Big Windup! in June 2008 and has released the first season's two DVD sets this past August and September.

Episodes from the first season are currently streaming on Hulu.com, Funimation's own website, and ANN. The series adapts Asa Higuchi's manga about Ren Mihashi, a losing pitcher who quit his middle-school baseball team after his teammates harassed him — they think he only became a pitcher because his grandfather ran the school. At high school, Ren is forced to become a pitcher again, but he and his new team eventually recapture the spirit of the game.

Sheehan and Heiskell discuss more topics with ANN's Zac Bertschy and Justin Sevakis in the podcast, including Blu-ray Disc production issues, Funimation's convention plans for the new year, and the company's current co-production initiative.

Update: Funimation confirmed on Thursday that its FLCL anime release will include Synch-Point's English dub. Thanks, kyokun703.

© Asa HiguchiKODANSHA / Oofuri Project


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