The R1 is from Geneon with the DVD credits going to both speeDVD and Nightjar LLC so it's no surprise that it's a good disc. The R2J is brighter and I believe it should be that way as you'll see objects in a few caps that are only visible on the R2J, the R2J also has LPCM though the advantage is small.
Get the R1 and turn up the brightness.
Apparently Funimation are in negotiations for some titles:
Navarre Corporation (NAVR) CEO Cary Deacon reported during his company’s Q3 2008 earnings conference call on Thursday that its Funimation anime distribution subsidiary was “in very early stages of negotiations to acquire some of the Geneon library of titles.” He also noted that Geneon and A.D. Visions used funds from Japanese investors to raise their bids for recent anime licenses. Now that Geneon is no longer distributing in North America, there is a “downward pressure on pricing” in new anime licenses.