Moving on to more animated licensing news, a North American distributor has finally picked up Clannad. About time! The brave one in question is ADV Films, but as for which of the various Clannad anime projects they placed their eyes and finances upon... that part is still uncertain. The annoucement was confirmed on the official website of Sogen Con (the event that started this whole mess), bluntly stating that "ADV Films has licensed CLANNAD for US distribution!". I guess we can safely assume it's not the Clannad After Story sequel; so it's either the Clannad anime, or the Clannad Movie. We'll see how this one turns out.

Meanwhile, FUNimation acquired "varied rights" for the Mushishi live-action movie, furhter squeezing their grip on the albino-emo franchise (they already had the anime version). The film will be released stateside on DVD at some point in 2009, and don't be too surprised if you see the less-poetic title "Bugmaster" slapped on its cover.


Speaking of FUNi, they are adding the Ouran Host Club anime series to their TV lineup on FUNimation Channel, while getting ready to ship the first DVD set this October 28. And on the online front, they're partnering with Joost to stream a whole lotta free anime samples starting from November; for North American users only. The initial titles are listed below, with more to be added each month. Deja-vu...

Basilisk
Black Blood Brothers (also available in the original Japanese with English subtitles)
Blue Gender
Galaxy Railways
Kiddy Grade
MoonPhase (also available in the original Japanese with English subtitles)
Mr. Stain
Mushi-Shi
Peach Girl
Rumbling Hearts (also available in the original Japanese with English subtitles)
School Rumble
Slayers
Suzuka
XXXHOLiC