[quote name='Kirin Lemon']I was always puzzled as to why Funimation bothered to release a four-disc Last Exile collection when their Samurai Champloo collection is still the original seven discs from the Geneon release. Strange.[/QUOTE]
I have an answer
GENEON's license of Last Exile expired -> Free License -> FUNiMATiON bought it and used GENEON's dub/sub release and put it on 4 instead of 6 DVDs (ripping all extras and using double-layer-dvds).
But for Samurai Champloo, GENEON
still own the license and its producing the original dvds (for singles earlier) for FUNiMATiONS "rescue-adventure". Same with Lyrical Nanoha, Ergo Proxy, Black Lagoon, Rozen Maiden, Karin and a few others.
On the other side, its the same with other releases where GENEON
lost the license (Original Popotan DVD Release -> 3DVDs. GENEON lost license, ADV got it, ripped all extras/double-layer and released a 2DVD release).
But sometimes its impossible to get the original GENEON/ADV releases because of limited availability (like Kanon 2006 single releases) and you have to get the resized FUNiMATiON releases.