FUNimation has acquired the rights to Full Metal Panic:  The Second Raid, the third season of the Full Metal anime.  The first DVD and 'starter sets' will street on October 6th. 

The release is the first from Kadokawa Pictures USA, the new Los Angeles-based arm of Kadokawa Holdings, which owns Kadokawa Shoten Publishing, Kadokawa Herald Pictures, and Kadokawa Daiei Film Studios.

Quotes from both sides of the deal indicate the expectation that this is the beginning of a larger relationship.  'These are the first steps in a mutually beneficial relationship,' said FUNimation CEO Gen Fukunaga. 

And '...[W]e look forward to working with them again in the future,' said Kadokawa GM Takashi Sakuda.   

ADV has released the previous two seasons of the Full Metal Panic anime, and has just completed two series of Full Metal Panic manga (14 volumes in all).  Asked for comment on the property, ADV spokesperson Chris Oarr was positive on the company's experience with it.  'We're very proud of our performance as a steward of the Full Metal Panic franchise,' he said, 'and we're going to continue to sell Full Metal Panic for the foreseeable future.

'As to Full Metal Panic:  The Second Raid, we wish FUNimation all the best,' Oarr said.

ADV has a broad, continuing relationship with Kadokawa (which is the Japanese publisher of Newtype), Oarr told ICv2.