Funimation Releases New Statement Regarding Vampire Bund Edits, Hints at Future TV Broadcast

Funimation has released a new statement regarding its newest acquisition in Dance in the Vampire Bund after its initial announcement caused a considerable uproar, stating that it would make edits to the show for content for both the the streaming and home video versions.

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.”

Funimation representative Jackie Smith further stated 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 judgment until after it has considered those episodes”.

Further explaining that Funimation has paid close attention to consumer feedback, Smith also stated that the distributor has decided to take a closer look at the edited scenes and has determined that the edited scenes cut so far will be acceptable for a DVD release in their unedited format.

Another level to the story concerns the possibility of a TV broadcast, which I brought up during the apex of the initial firestorm on Twitter, suggesting that it intends to air the series via its Funimation Anime Selects VOD/SVOD platform and linear channel on Verizon FiOS at some point in the near future, albeit in the currently available edited format.