FUNimation provides closure for the Ultimate Uncut Special Edition cancellation

[Choujin Daizenshuu]

I've recently been in contact with FUNimation through their FUNimation Help page on Facebook. One of the questions I asked was whether they were willing to officially acknowledge inconveniences as a result of past release cancellations. The FUNi rep asked to be messaged about the issue specifically so I did.

The following was messaged:

Chat Conversation Start

1.6K people like this
Website
4:46PM
As per your request, I want to set the record straight with a matter that I was dealing with your company for the past 10 years.

From 2005-2006, FUNimation entertainment released Dragon Ball Z: Season 1 in singles volumes entitled "The Ultimate Uncut Special Edition." I had purchased the volumes along with the collector boxes and limited edition figures over the course of their release dates. However, over the summer of '06, the releases were discontinued after Volume 9 as part of the Vegeta Saga II set, thus leaving myself and countless other patrons in limbo regarding whether the remaining 3 volumes would be released.

There was never any official word from the company regarding the matter of those releases whether they were completed or not.

I only then learned through fan forums and news sites in August of '06 that the releases were quietly discontinued in favor of the new widescreen season boxsets.

Learning this news and then being subsequently told to just buy the boxsets because they were "better" is, in my and everyone else's view, a betrayal of consumer trust. None of us bought the releases at the time knowing that there WILL be a cancellation in favor of a new season boxset. We bought the releases believing that this was the only means to release the show at the time as well as offering support for FUNimation, Toei, and the anime industry in general.

Even if the majority of consumers at the time were in unanimous favor of boxset releases, it still didn't excuse your company from abrupt cancellation of the existing Ultimate Uncut releases without even so much as an apology for the inconvenience. In your company's view, the matter was considered closed and the patrons who supported the release were of no further relevance. I am here to say that that is clearly not the case. All patrons to your company are relevant.

I, as one of these patrons, no longer felt that your company was capable of further trust due to your blatant disregard for the inconvenience bestowed upon us and as a result, had not bought a single item from your company since.

I tried to get the matter resolved through forum posts, e-mails and letters, all which were blatantly ignored. No company should ever ignore their customers over inconveniences through no fault of the customer. Let me also reiterate that this is a matter that I've been trying to resolve with your company for 10 YEARS!

So at this point, the ball is now in your court. You can either choose to put this skeleton in the closet to rest and take the burden off both our backs or you can choose to take the high road and pretend that this message never existed.

I'm not interested in litigation or a financial settlement. All I'm asking for as a supporter of the anime industry, is an apology for a travesty that has lingered for 10 years.
I only hope that you, as a company, can understand this. This isn't a matter of "getting over things", it's about rightful closure.
6:17PM

The response (bolded for emphasis):

6:17PM

Hello,

Thank you for providing additional information. We appreciate your devotion to the Dragon Ball Z franchise.

We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused. Sadly, the Ultimate Uncut Special Edition releases of Dragon Ball Z have been cancelled and at this time, we can confirm that there are no plans to bring them back. We will pass your feedback along to the appropriate departments.

Thank you,
Funimation Help

And my response in gratitude:

Thank you for listening. This actually means a lot

So there you have it. FUNimation has finally come out of the woodwork to acknowledge the inconvenience that permeated from the abrupt change of physical releases back in '06. As of this moment, I think it's safe to say that we can close the book on this matter for good.

[mute_proxy]

That's kind of ridiculous. It died 11 years ago but til now you still needed a "my bad" from them to feel closure?

[TheGreatness25]

You know, that's their stock answer. I called their store many, many years ago to ask if they would be releasing the entire Cell Games box-set (they sold the box with the first two DVDs, but you had to buy the rest separately) and the lady gave me basically a word for word response that you got minus the cancelled part.

They provided closure for you because you specifically contacted them about it, but not overall. I still find it strange that someone has to go out of their way to contact them to get this "closure."

[ABED]

That's what's called a form letter.

Real closure on this matter would be "We cancelled this release due to..." probably lackluster sales. Years ago, I saw online a picture of a letter from the back of a comic where the publisher apologized to the reader for the increased cost of comics. The publisher said the book prices would increase from 10 cents to 12 because the cost of ink had risen. They gave a specific concrete reason for the increase in price! I wish companies would still do that.

[Choujin Daizenshuu]

You guys can be cynical and snarky about this all you want. The point is that it is an apology. In my view, even if the apology seems like a "form letter" and a "stock answer", it's still better than radio silence.

[mute_proxy]

You guys can be cynical and snarky about this all you want. The point is that it is an apology. In my view, even if the apology seems like a "form letter" and a "stock answer", it's still better than radio silence.

Apology from a guy who's not in anyway responsible for anything except answering emails and maybe taking phone calls

[Choujin Daizenshuu]

Apology from a guy who's not important or in anyway responsible for anything except answering emails and maybe taking phone calls

Nice to see that the zero fucks attitude of Kanzenshuu forums is alive and well. Wouldn't expect it any other way.

[TheGreatness25]

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad if you got closure from it. But it's your closure. They're not really sorry, they're just basically telling you "Sorry for the inconvenience." It's not like they came out and publically apologized for it, they were just responding to your chat/email/whatever. So if that's good enough for you that you received closure, then great. But personally, that doesn't do jack all of shit for me and most people.

[Ringworm128]

Dear Funimation your limited print of the Dragonboxes ruined my life and the cancellation of the level sets sent me into crippling depression. But seriously, you're saying you need closure of a decade old release for a Japanese kids show from 1989 to someone who was probably in high school when it all went down. I'm not giving you crap, since I know exactly where you're coming from; but to whoever read this might have thought it was a bit silly.

[Bansho64]

Geez, it's just DVDs being cancelled. It really ain't that big a deal. I wouldn't even call this a "deal" tbh. Not to mention that there are literally tons of other releases you could get. And, like others have said, that's a pretty standard response. More power to you if it meant that much, but I don't think it's necessary.

[TheGreatness25]

Well, let's not be too harsh. This obviously affected Choujin Daizenshuu in a very profound way. It's not up to us to judge how he feels. However, saying that Funimation gave closure on the matter is not really accurate. They responded to your email. Who did they give closure to? Just you. Nobody else here got any closure for anything.

[ABED]

You guys can be cynical and snarky about this all you want. The point is that it is an apology. In my view, even if the apology seems like a "form letter" and a "stock answer", it's still better than radio silence.

I wasn't being cynical or snarky. That is exactly what it was - a form letter. Great, you got closure. I'm not that upset by it and a letter like that wouldn't be any better to me than no response.

[Choujin Daizenshuu]

I wasn't being cynical or snarky. That is exactly what it was - a form letter. Great, you got closure. I'm not that upset by it and a letter like that wouldn't be any better to me than a stock response.

Speaking as someone who took a business communications course in college, I can attest to the fact that the guy was duty bound to write the letter the way he did, so I can't blame him. It's honestly not that big of a deal to me. For all I know, FUNimation could've simply just ignored the message and pretend they never read it, and they would've been perfectly within their rights to do so. I'm just glad that they even responded.

Geez, it's just DVDs being cancelled. It really ain't that big a deal. I wouldn't even call this a "deal" tbh. You needed "closure" from some DVDs being cancelled over 11 years ago? DVDs. We're talking about DVDs, not someone's house getting robbed. D.V.D.S. Not to mention that there are literally tons of other releases you could get. And, like others have said, that's a pretty standard response.

They didn't give those DVDs away for free. They expected people to pay for them. People paid, release got cancelled. The company made no further mention of the DVDs henceforth and left people with an incomplete release. At the very least, the company had a professional responsibility to apologize for the inconvenience. They didn't. They expected the fans to just buy the boxsets and pretend the old releases never existed. Sorry, but that's just not cool. If you want to cancel your releases, do so but be aware of the inconvenience you've caused and issue an apology for it. That's just proper business sense.

Well, let's not be too harsh. This obviously affected Choujin Daizenshuu in a very profound way. It's not up to us to judge how he feels. However, saying that Funimation gave closure on the matter is not really accurate. They responded to your email. Who did they give closure to? Just you. Nobody else here got any closure for anything.

At least they are willing to apologize for the matter now instead of giving the fans radio silence these past 11 years.

[VegettoEX]

Real-talk time. You seem like you need validation and acknowledgement, so as someone who lived through this both as a consumer and a "reporter" on every single issue, here it is:

Up until "ball in your court, skeletons in closet, etc." that's... well, I wouldn't say a GREAT, but a sorta OK letter? I guess? Brutally honest here though? Something I'd have written when I was 18. Maybe younger. The self-importance and need for validation is oozing out of every orifice.

To parrot what else is being said, you're just getting a stock form letter to shut you up and stop pestering them. The people you're talking to likely have no connection what-so-ever to the issues you're talking about, and are just placating you. Nothing against them for doing so; it's all standard customer service going on here. You seem to acknowledge this part, so all good there.

Seems to me like you're looking for Barry Watson to show up on your door step and personally apologize for inconveniencing you. That's ridiculous. They're a business, made a solid business decision that benefitting them as a company (particularly one that was recently acquired by a larger publicly-traded company), and disrupted the entire domestic anime home release business.

Did it suck for those of us who wanted a normal 4:3 release? To finish up a box? Sure.

Your need for "APOLOGIZE TO MEEEEE!" is a bit (a lot?) overblown, and I'm a bit (a lot?) embarrassed reading this thread, particularly for those who may happen upon it and think "Wow, this is Kanzenshuu...?"

FUNimation doesn't owe you anything, just like you don't owe them anything in return for whatever business decisions they make and products they release. This isn't "closure"; you got a stock response on a pretty obnoxious letter.

(I say this all as someone who thinks it's disgusting how the de facto product on the American market is a cropped version.)

[successoroffate]

"I'm not interested in litigation or a financial settlement."

Legal talk here, although you said you're not interested in any of that but I'm not sure if you even have standing for a cause of action. I mean, it's not like you bought an Ultimate Uncut Special edition DVD and it caught fire while you were watching it and burned your house down.

[ABED]

This is a legit case of Caveat Emptor. Sometimes product lines get discontinued because the return wasn't what the powers that be wished it was. You take that risk that it will be incomplete.

[Kojiro Sasaki]

You guys can be cynical and snarky about this all you want. The point is that it is an apology. In my view, even if the apology seems like a "form letter" and a "stock answer", it's still better than radio silence.

Apology from FUNimation? For what? Good business decisions? I am the one who should send and apology to FUNimation for all the bad things I said about them back in the days, when I had no idea about the market and the fanbase.
If you want to blame somebody, blame the fans and yourself. Blame “reality”, as it is.

I have enough of lazy complainers who can only sit and babble how unhappy they are. Fucking do something and then complain.

[Choujin Daizenshuu]

FUNimation doesn't owe you anything, just like you don't owe them anything in return for whatever business decisions they make and products they release. This isn't "closure"; you got a stock response on a pretty obnoxious letter.

And with that, we come to the end of our discussion. Thanks for watching, everyone. See you next time.

[Bansho64]

And with that, we come to the end of our discussion. Thanks for watching, everyone. See you next time.

I just wanna ask you, what did you honestly like about the UUEs? I rarely meet people that like em you must've liked em a lot if it rattled ya like this.

[TheGreatness25]

I think a lot of people did like the Ultimate Uncut. For one thing, that's the last Funimation release that had the alternate angles option for the Japanese intro, outro, and title cards. Plus, it was 4:3. For lots of people who do not have the Dragon Boxes, this was their only opportunity to own the entire series in 4:3. So, I'm guessing that's why. Plus, for the sake of consistency, it's irritating that the plug was pulled on the release.