Big surprise! "Phantom" licensed by FUNimation... for online streaming

(h/t AlexShadow on the forum...)

I was a bit shocked to see this so soon, but FUNimation is posting subtitled streams of Phantom episodes. In the case of episode 4, hours before it's actually aired in Japan!

Over on ANN, in the comments section, a Funi rep clarifies that the license is for streaming-only; DVD releases are a discussion for another day.

Oh, and US-only? Yeah. That's the way it works, I guess.

I guess I'm going to follow along with what I'm doing with Shangri-La and will watch it exclusively through the official channels. As much as I find the FUNimation video player's constant *buffering* an incredible annoyance (leaving it paused for an hour or so to pre-download seems to be the solution), plus the Flash player is rather choppy and blurry when trying to play it fullscreen at 1080p. Oh well, all the more incentive to buy BluRay discs when they're released!

Onward, progress!