Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Discussion regarding the entirety of the franchise in a general (meta) sense, including such aspects as: production, trends, merchandise, fan culture, and more.

Moderators: General Help, Kanzenshuu Staff

User avatar
TheGreatness25
I Live Here
Posts: 4924
Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2007 9:36 am

Re: Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Post by TheGreatness25 » Thu Aug 03, 2017 9:53 am

So from the "frequently asked questions," I've determined that Funimation is not affected at all; its content will be the same; FunimationNow will be the same; their shows will be the same; they are not affected by any of this. Basically Sony just gave someone a bunch of money. Well... for now. Good going...?

User avatar
sintzu
Banned
Posts: 13583
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2011 1:41 pm

Re: Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Post by sintzu » Thu Aug 03, 2017 10:02 am

TheGreatness25 wrote:Basically Sony just gave someone a bunch of money. Well... for now. Good going...?
Pretty much. If anything will change is the amount of shows we get. with a company like sony they can get newer shows faster and make quicker deals than before. I know this is unlikely but we might even get a redub of old DB material or part of it like the movies.
July 9th 2018 will be remembered as the day Broly became canon.

User avatar
Hellspawn28
Patreon Supporter
Posts: 15191
Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2009 9:50 pm
Location: Maryland, USA

Re: Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Post by Hellspawn28 » Thu Aug 03, 2017 12:02 pm

Sony has been doing badly lately expect for the gaming industry. They are pretty much bleeding money and even their movies have not been doing that well expect for the Spider-Man, Resident Evil and James Bond movies. I can see why Sony would want to buy one of the most popular anime companies in the US since they can make a lot of money from Funimation.
She/Her
PS5 username: Guyver_Spawn_27
LB Profile: https://letterboxd.com/Hellspawn28/

User avatar
funrush
I'm, pretty, cozy, here...
Posts: 1958
Joined: Sat Oct 02, 2010 2:54 pm
Location: United States

Re: Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Post by funrush » Thu Aug 03, 2017 1:09 pm

Hellspawn28 wrote:Sony has been doing badly lately expect for the gaming industry. They are pretty much bleeding money and even their movies have not been doing that well expect for the Spider-Man, Resident Evil and James Bond movies.
Those film franchises are nothing, the Emoji Movie Cinematic Universe will carry them all.

Yeah, Sony's realizing they gotta diversify their shit. Funimation's pretty successful.

SpiritBombTriumphant
Banned
Posts: 439
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2015 10:07 pm

Re: Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Post by SpiritBombTriumphant » Thu Aug 03, 2017 3:59 pm

SaiyanGod117 wrote:https://www.google.com/amp/www.hollywoo ... or-1025699


"We have IP across Funimation, Aniplex, Animax and the PlayStation platform, the challenge is to connect them all organically," said chief financial officer (CFO) Kenichiro Yoshida during Sony's earnings announcement at its Tokyo headquarters. "CEO [Kaz] Hirai is taking stock of all the IP in the group and the PS4 will be at the center."
If this is all true, my guess is that we will simply see much more FUNimation titles across the PS4 and Sony-related services that have anime. Possibly FUNI titles coming to a streaming service by Sony? Or maybe they'll simply get money from FUNimationNow (which I pay for, great service :D ).

As long as they don't start changing things to pander to shit groups as other people have mentioned on here being a possibility, as long as they don't start recasting anything Dragon Ball related, and as long as they don't make another live action movie, I think we're all right. But serious question. Instead of a live action film, why not make an animated one? Everyone on here fears another disaster such as DB Evolution. But why don't we make our own thing? It could be cool.

User avatar
Bardo117
OMG CRAZY REGEN
Posts: 977
Joined: Mon Oct 04, 2010 7:03 pm

Re: Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Post by Bardo117 » Thu Aug 03, 2017 6:34 pm

They shall now release the Dragon Boxes!
El Conejo Malo

User avatar
KBABZ
Born 'n Bred Here
Posts: 5180
Joined: Sun Feb 26, 2017 9:38 pm
Location: The tallest tower in West City

Re: Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Post by KBABZ » Thu Aug 03, 2017 6:37 pm

Bardo117 wrote:They shall now release the Dragon Boxes!
But they will self-destruct if you insert them into an Xbox One!

Choujin Daizenshuu
Beyond-the-Beyond Newbie
Posts: 324
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 1:13 pm
Location: Here
Contact:

Re: Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Post by Choujin Daizenshuu » Thu Aug 03, 2017 6:41 pm

sintzu wrote:He's making Funimation money which is the reason Sony bought them so why would they get rid of him ?
Maybe because Sony may think in the future they can make even MORE money without him? And they would be perfectly within their rights to do so? Even if we think it would be the stupidest decision ever? Don't ask me how, ask Sony.

User avatar
sintzu
Banned
Posts: 13583
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2011 1:41 pm

Re: Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Post by sintzu » Fri Aug 04, 2017 12:37 am

Choujin Daizenshuu wrote:
sintzu wrote:He's making Funimation money which is the reason Sony bought them so why would they get rid of him ?
Maybe because Sony may think in the future they can make even MORE money without him? And they would be perfectly within their rights to do so? Even if we think it would be the stupidest decision ever? Don't ask me how, ask Sony.
I know they could do that for the reason you brought up, I just don't think they will or at least not now as long as what Funi's doing is working.
July 9th 2018 will be remembered as the day Broly became canon.

Choujin Daizenshuu
Beyond-the-Beyond Newbie
Posts: 324
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 1:13 pm
Location: Here
Contact:

Re: Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Post by Choujin Daizenshuu » Fri Aug 04, 2017 1:14 am

sintzu wrote:I know they could do that for the reason you brought up, I just don't think they will or at least not now as long as what Funi's doing is working.
We'll see how things will turn out in 2 or 3 years. If Fukunaga will still be on board by then, then he'll be on board for life.

User avatar
Robo4900
I Live Here
Posts: 4383
Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2016 2:24 pm
Location: In another time and place...

Re: Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Post by Robo4900 » Fri Aug 04, 2017 11:57 am

If Sony inject some money in, maybe they'll force some official releases through that'll make some extra cash(Re-released Dragon Boxes perhaps, maybe a Toonami box set to go with the Rock The Dragon Box set; the original Funimation dub of cut episodes 54-276 as seen on Toonami originally), or just up the budget of their current dubs and such.

Ultimately, I don't think Sony will make any changes. Funimation already make a lot of money, so there's no real need for Sony to change anything, even if they are desperate for the cash.
The point of Dragon Ball is to enjoy it. Never lose sight of that.

User avatar
TheGreatness25
I Live Here
Posts: 4924
Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2007 9:36 am

Re: Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Post by TheGreatness25 » Fri Aug 04, 2017 12:30 pm

It really wouldn't matter. With giant corporations like Sony, they usually have different people in charge of different things. So I expect Funimation to basically remain the same (as Sony would probably take the position of, "They know what they're doing, let them do their thing"), so I expect no changes. This is just Sony's way of dipping their hand in the cookie jar, having thought that they'd make some serious money in dividends and returns from this transaction.

User avatar
Bruma rabu
Regular
Posts: 517
Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2016 10:12 pm

Re: Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Post by Bruma rabu » Sat Aug 05, 2017 5:18 am

I wouldn't mind a price hike if their blu ray releases have better quality.
Bulma is awesome... but chi-chi is best waifu :wink:

User avatar
Super Sayian Prime
I Live Here
Posts: 2296
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 2:26 pm
Location: Hail

Re: Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Post by Super Sayian Prime » Sat Aug 05, 2017 5:46 am

Choujin Daizenshuu wrote:Makes me wonder how much more of an influence will Gen Fukunaga have in his company in the foreseeable future? Will Sony continue to keep Fukunaga on board or will they decide to give him his walking papers? Wouldn't bat an eye if it was the latter.
Fukunaga is retaining a 5% ownership in Funimation. That obviously won't give him controlling interest in the company, but he'll still be somewhat involved. Didn't he stay onboard with Funimation during the years they were owned by Navarre?
sintzu wrote:I'm more comfortable with a Japanese studio working with them cause everything they do is Japanese related. If a Hollywood Western company like universal picked them up there'd be a risk of them trying to censor things or outright dropping shows to not offend SJWs.
Sony Corporation is Japanese, but Sony Pictures isn't. They're based in the US and their employees are predominantly not Japanese. In terms of pushing identity politics, well, they're arguably one of the worst. This is the company that thought it was a good idea to promote a $150 million reboot of Ghostbusters solely off the back of "Women can do it, too!" and let both their star actress and director call existing Ghostbusters super fans worried about the film 40-year-old losers living in their mom's basement ... multiple times. While Sony Pictures was actively selling merchandise with the original cast. That's a sign that they were willing to let their politics impede any business sense and given how poorly that movie did at the box office, that was far from a smart move. The people they were pandering to either didn't show up or are so few in number that they couldn't support a movie of that level to make up for the people Sony turned off. Now, Sony Pictures TV (the unit buying Funimation) isn't nearly as openly antagonistic but I find it doubtful there isn't some political commonality between the two.

Of course, the good news for those paranoid about Hollywood politics slipping into their anime is that there's not a whole lot they can do. When Funimation's had rogue writers rewrite lines in scripts to say things that were never in the Japanese version, they tended to get a scornful reaction. The Gamergate line in Prison School's dub caught a lot of negative attention, as did the writer's Twitter meltdown where he, almost like clockwork, called all of the show's fans gigantic losers watching disgusting things. Despite, you know, his okayness with working on those disgusting things and those losers keeping a roof over his head. I don't know if that guy still works for them, but Funimation went back and did a more faithful take on that line. While I can't guarantee they'd always go back and re-do things, the heat would still be on a Sony Pictures-owned Funimation. There's no way the company would get away with solely releasing edited versions of shows, either. Their business is primarily aimed at teenagers and adults, not little kids and families. We crossed this path back when Gen Fukunaga founded a faith-based film company with Rick Santorum, a conservative religious politician. Despite a lot of fears, nothing really changed for Funimation. They still put out stuff that most people would consider softcore porn. I could maybe see Sony Pictures starting a family friendly streaming service or TV channel where edited versions of Dragon Ball and One Piece run, but I would highly doubt those would be the only versions of those shows in existence.

To be honest, depending on how things shake out, I could definitely see Sony Pictures asking them to drop the fanservice shows. If they're fully absorbed into the Sony Pictures brand, I cannot see them being allowed to release stuff like Bikini Warriors or Prison School. Not entirely because of their politics, but rather that I doubt any Hollywood studio wants to have their name slapped onto that stuff. That said, I think that would fully depend on if they're fully absorbed into the Sony Pictures brand. If it's just released under the Funimation name I don't think they'll care. Sony Corporation doesn't really seem to mind. Aniplex has funded some "interesting" shows and Sony loves to brag about how Fate/Grand Order is doing, even though that's a spinoff of a pornographic visual novel.
Mazingerdestro wrote:Will for example Funimation's app for ps4, ever be available on other places?
Funimation's apps are available on plenty of different platforms. Sony Pictures' Crackle platform is available on loads of non-Sony devices, so I wouldn't expect a change there. The worst I'd see would be timed-exclusive debuts (which is something Crackle has done) or app updates rolling out first on Sony hardware.
"I like the money it brings in, but Dragon Ball Heroes is the worst. That's actually the real reason I decided to start working on new material. I was afraid Bandai would make something irredeemably stupid like Super Saiyan 4 Broly." - Akira Toriyama, made up interview, 2013.

Choujin Daizenshuu
Beyond-the-Beyond Newbie
Posts: 324
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 1:13 pm
Location: Here
Contact:

Re: Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Post by Choujin Daizenshuu » Sat Aug 05, 2017 12:30 pm

Super Saiyan Prime wrote:Fukunaga is retaining a 5% ownership in Funimation. That obviously won't give him controlling interest in the company, but he'll still be somewhat involved. Didn't he stay onboard with Funimation during the years they were owned by Navarre?
He did but Navarre was more lenient with Fukunaga and FUNimation if only because Navarre's board of directors wouldn't know the first thing about handling Japanese cartoons whereas Fukunaga knows his craft like the back of his hand. Plus, with anime starting to gain mainstream appeal at the time, it was only natural that Navarre let Fukunaga have free reign to handle the licensing and distribution aspect in order to help ensure maximum return on investment. When you have a goose that lays the golden eggs, you don't kill the whole bird.
Baggie_Saiyan wrote:Why do people have problem a Fukunaga? I've been reading quite a few not so nice comments regarding him.
Those people who don't like Fukunaga are those people who are either jealous of his success or they've been burned one too many times regarding his company's constant re-releases of Dragon Ball Z with every new release being the "definitive" release at the absolute expense of the previous. These people are in a very tiny minority though. Everyone and their pet dog knows by now that Dragon Ball Z is a tool to help FUNimation make money. It's not looked upon like other anime series and these people are smart enough to know this.

User avatar
Bullza
Banned
Posts: 8621
Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2013 12:48 am
Location: UK

Re: Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Post by Bullza » Wed Aug 09, 2017 1:50 am

So what will happen if there's more Dragon Ball Z movies in the future?

In Japan, 20th Century Fox distributed the Battle of Gods and Resurrection F movies. I have Resurrection F on Blu Ray and the 20th Century Fox logo is on the box and the movie opens with that logo.

But now Sony own Funimation how will that work? In Japan it'd be distributed by 20th Century Fox, it'd have the logo at the start of the movie. Then it would get dubbed by Funimation and released theatrically...by Sony? Do they take the 20th Century opening out of the movie even though it would be their movie?

User avatar
Lord Beerus
Namekian Warrior
Posts: 21389
Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2014 5:20 pm
Location: A temple on a giant tree
Contact:

Re: Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Post by Lord Beerus » Sat Oct 28, 2017 10:19 pm

UPDATE:

The deal is official. Sony now acquires a majority stake in FUNimation. Here's a statement on FUNimation's website about the deal:
It’s official. The deal has closed for Sony Pictures Television Networks to acquire Funimation — and we’re incredibly excited!

We’re still the Funimation you’ve known and grown up with, and now with the power of Sony, and with Gen at the helm, we have the opportunity to bring the best anime to even more fans across the world.

Thank you for watching!

precita
Banned
Posts: 6037
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2015 3:10 pm

Re: Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Post by precita » Sat Oct 28, 2017 10:34 pm

Looks like the dub of Dragonball may have some major changes. I wouldn't be surprised if they do a clean slate and fire all the dub voices again and bring in new in-house voices to replace them with. It'll be the same thing as when Saban/ocean lost the rights of the dub to Funimation back in 1999.

So long Sean Schemmel, Chris Sabat and the rest, its been a good run.

User avatar
NitroEX
I'm, pretty, cozy, here...
Posts: 1690
Joined: Sun Dec 04, 2011 10:21 am
Location: Not America

Re: Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Post by NitroEX » Sat Oct 28, 2017 11:14 pm

precita wrote:Looks like the dub of Dragonball may have some major changes. I wouldn't be surprised if they do a clean slate and fire all the dub voices again and bring in new in-house voices to replace them with. It'll be the same thing as when Saban/ocean lost the rights of the dub to Funimation back in 1999.

So long Sean Schemmel, Chris Sabat and the rest, its been a good run.
Actually, Saban and Ocean never lost the rights of the dub to Funimation back in 1999, Funimation always had those rights, even then. They just chose to go the cheap route. Also, according to them...
Funimation FAQ Answers: wrote:Will Sony be deciding how things are dubbed?
Sony values our years of expertise dubbing anime and understands that for over two decades, Funimation has been making anime accessible to a wide audience by delivering high quality dubs working with our talented voice actors and directors.
With Gen still in charge as CEO that means everything stays the same, warts and all.

Theophrastus
Regular
Posts: 522
Joined: Fri Dec 12, 2014 4:00 pm
Location: United States

Re: Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

Post by Theophrastus » Sat Oct 28, 2017 11:24 pm

precita wrote:Looks like the dub of Dragonball may have some major changes. I wouldn't be surprised if they do a clean slate and fire all the dub voices again and bring in new in-house voices to replace them with. It'll be the same thing as when Saban/ocean lost the rights of the dub to Funimation back in 1999.

So long Sean Schemmel, Chris Sabat and the rest, its been a good run.
I'm not sure how you're coming to that conclusion when the updated FAQ reiterates multiple times that:
What will Sony’s level of involvement be as it pertains to administration, dubbing, distribution and pricing of Funimation anime?

Funimation will maintain control of the operational pieces of dubbing, distribution and pricing of our anime. We know our fans best and will continue to deliver what you love, however you like to watch. Where Sony can help us be more efficient and get anime to more people around the world across devices and countries, we will work together to make that happen and are excited about the opportunity that presents to both serve our fans, and introduce anime to a new audience.
Will Sony be deciding how things are dubbed?

Sony values our years of expertise dubbing anime and understands that for over two decades, Funimation has been making anime accessible to a wide audience by delivering high quality dubs working with our talented voice actors and directors.
Will this affect the production or quality of dubs coming from Funimation?

Funimation will always strive to honor the intent of the Japanese creators in our productions. There will be no changes to our translation, script writing, voice actors or production staff. We will be keeping our production facilities in Texas so we can continue to bring SimulDubs to you within two weeks of the Japanese broadcast date.
I mean, yeah, the possibility still exists that it could all be bullshit, but it's not any more likely now than it was 3 months ago.

Post Reply