Funimation Entertainment has announced the acquisition of four anime series, D. Rights’ Bamboo Blade, and three from G.D.H. (Gonzo), Dragonaut, Tower of Druaga, and Blassreiter.  Funimation will release Bamboo Blade, The Tower of Druaga, and Blassreiter in the now common half-season set format (roughly 12 episodes per release) in late 2009.  The 25-episode Dragonaut anime will also be released in late 2009, though Funimation has not revealed the DVD configuration for the series.

The 26-episode, sports-themed Bamboo Blade anime series is based on the seinen manga series written by Masahiro Totsuka and illustrated by Aguri Igarashi.  This May Yen Press plans to publish the first book in the ongoing 9-volume series about a kendo master who has to recruit a team of five high school girls that can defeat his best friend’s high school team in a wager involving a year’s worth of food.  The action-packed, humor-filled anime series, which was produced by A.I.C. A.S.T.A and directed by Hisashi Saitou, appeared on Japanese TV from October of 2007 to April of 2008.  Funimation plans on releasing Bamboo Blade in two 13-episode DVD collections.

Dragonaut: The Resonance is a science fiction/fantasy series set in a future Earth that is imperiled when an asteroid destroys Pluto creating lots of planetary debris with erratic orbits.  The International Solarsystem Development Agency (ISDA) then initiates a plan to use dragons hatched from giant undersea eggs to fend off the danger.  The dragons can be controlled by certain humans who can establish “resonance” with a dragon egg.  Produced by Gonzo and directed by Manabu Ono, Dragonaut aired in Japan from October of 2007 to March of 2008.

The other two Gonzo series announced by Funimation, Tower of Druaga and Blassreiter have being available to U.S. fans for free streaming (or paid downloads) on the Crunchyroll and BOST sites where subtitled episodes were posted within 24 hours of airing in Japan (see “Gonzo Series Available for Download”).  It should be interesting to see how the series sell in packaged media form after they have been available (legitimately) on the Web, and if there is much difference from sales achieved on DVD by almost every other anime series, the vast majority of which have been available prior to their U.S. releases via illegal downloads in the recent past.

Funimation will release each 12-episode season of Tower of Druaga (the second season began airing on Crunchyroll in January) in a single multi-DVD package.  The Tower of Druaga anime series, both of which were directed by Koichi Chigura, are continuations of the popular Namco fantasy/adventure arcade video game, which originally debuted in 1984.

Blassreiter, which was directed by Ichiro Itano, is a 24-episode horror/science fiction series set in Germany where biomechanical creatures known as “demoniacs” are creating a wave of mindless violence.  Blassreiter will be released in two 12-episode, half-season sets.