Funimation knows how much it sucks to be stuck at home right now and has been making announcement after announcement lately on their official blog to help people pass the time at home. The announcement made on their blog on Tuesday, April 28th, however, might be their biggest one yet.
In the blog post, Funimation announced that they’ve teamed up with the virtual cinema company, BigScreen, to make their movies available in an entirely fresh way by bringing some of their most iconic titles to virtual reality!
(The above video might not be available in your region.)
The slated movies that will be released to virtual reality kicks off from May 1st to May 3rd, with the hit movie from Makoto Shinkai, Your Name., but will continue throughout the month of May with these follow-ups:
My Hero Academia: Two Heroes — May 8–10
Akira — May 15–17
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time — May 21–24
The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya — May 29–31
The cost of admission to watch these movies on your VR headsets will vary, but Funimation revealed the range as being $3.99 for classic catalog movies, recent releases being $5.99, and brand new releases going for $14.99. The streams will work on Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift S, Oculus Go, Valve Index, HTC VIVE, SteamVR, and Windows Mixed Reality Headsets (with PlayStation VR support planned for later in 2020).
This is obviously as close as anyone can get to seeing anime movies on a huge theater screen right now. With the added benefit of being able to chat with other viewers via the BigScreen app, you can also share the experience with friends in real-time almost as though you were all actually there together, which is a nice little bonus for those of us out there who really enjoy the shared viewing experience.
Kudos to Funimation for thinking outside the box and bringing anime to the masses in a whole new way!
