Sony To Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation

[Neo-Makaiōshin]

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.

The user is probably one of those persons that can't be
arsed in putting some effort in reading a text body beyond its title.

[Meshack]

I think there should be redub of the series starting with Dragonball and make it more faithful to the original.

[Dbzfan94]

I think there should be redub of the series starting with Dragonball and make it more faithful to the original.

You're crazy if you think Funi will have the money to redub DB Z (again) and GT.

[SHINOBI-03]

UPDATE:

The deal is official. Sony now acquires a majority stake in FUNimation. Here's a statement on FUNimation's website about the deal:

Sorry, but this content isn’t available in your country.

Mind copying the whole blog so we can read it?

[Lord Beerus]

UPDATE:

The deal is official. Sony now acquires a majority stake in FUNimation. Here's a statement on FUNimation's website about the deal:

Sorry, but this content isn’t available in your country.

Mind copying the whole blog so we can read it?

Sure:

An update from your friends at Funimation:

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!

[See our updated FAQ below]

——- Original post ——-
Founder Gen Fukunaga started Funimation with a vision and a mission to make anime as accessible as possible to fans across the world. In the 23 years since we began, we have been committed to creating anime experiences fans love: from bringing Dragon Ball to the U.S., to bringing the best anime to home video and theaters, to SimulDubs that bring episodes in English to fans within two weeks after they air in Japan, to the world’s largest dubbed streaming catalog on FunimationNow.

Today, we announced that Funimation has agreed to sell a substantial majority stake to Sony Pictures Television Networks (SPTN). SPTN is one of the preeminent names in entertainment, and shares our vision to deliver anime to fans globally across all screens and platforms.

You can read additional details on the press release here.

We know you have questions and we’ve answered some of them below. We encourage you to read these answers and thank you for your support and for watching!

[Meshack]

I think there should be redub of the series starting with Dragonball and make it more faithful to the original.

You're crazy if you think Funi will have the money to redub DB Z (again) and GT.

Sony just bought Funimation and they didn’t redub Z in the first place. You also forgot about redubbing Dragonball... You’re a fan of the series but aren’t a fan of the original Dragonball I see

[Dbzfan94]

I think there should be redub of the series starting with Dragonball and make it more faithful to the original.

You're crazy if you think Funi will have the money to redub DB Z (again) and GT.

Sony just bought Funimation and they didn’t redub Z in the first place. You also forgot about redubbing Dragonball... You’re a fan of the series but aren’t a fan of the original Dragonball I see

Excuse me? How the hell did you come to that conclusion?? Where did I imply in my post that I wasn't a fan of the original DB? Oh right, I didn't. Don't be an asshole.

They did redub Z, technically twice. The UUE and Kai. Kai is 130 episodes shorter than Z too. If Funi does redub Z, theyll most likely reuse their Kai dialogue anyway.

[KBABZ]

I interpreted the space between DB and Z to represent both series in a convenient manner. Lord knows it's hard to refer to the original DB anime specifically in a concise way!

[Helios518]

I interpreted the space between DB and Z to represent both series in a convenient manner. Lord knows it's hard to refer to the original DB anime specifically in a concise way!

Same, I interpreted like that as well.

[Dbzfan94]

I interpreted the space between DB and Z to represent both series in a convenient manner. Lord knows it's hard to refer to the original DB anime specifically in a concise way!

Yeah thats what I meant it as. I should have put a comma to make it more clear lol. Like to me, it's one whole series (as it is in the original manga), just wanted to make the distinction.

[SHINOBI-03]

From my understanding, Sony is leaving FUNimation's crew as it is, no changes to the simulcast nor simuldubs, nothing will affect the partnership between them and Crunchyroll, for now anyway.

It could've been worse... could've been EA who bought them instead.

[Meshack]

You're crazy if you think Funi will have the money to redub DB Z (again) and GT.

Sony just bought Funimation and they didn’t redub Z in the first place. You also forgot about redubbing Dragonball... You’re a fan of the series but aren’t a fan of the original Dragonball I see

Excuse me? How the hell did you come to that conclusion?? Where did I imply in my post that I wasn't a fan of the original DB? Oh right, I didn't. Don't be an asshole.

They did redub Z, technically twice. The UUE and Kai. Kai is 130 episodes shorter than Z too. If Funi does redub Z, theyll most likely reuse their Kai dialogue anyway.

Kai is not a redub of Z.

[Dbzfan94]

Sony just bought Funimation and they didn’t redub Z in the first place. You also forgot about redubbing Dragonball... You’re a fan of the series but aren’t a fan of the original Dragonball I see

Excuse me? How the hell did you come to that conclusion?? Where did I imply in my post that I wasn't a fan of the original DB? Oh right, I didn't. Don't be an asshole.

They did redub Z, technically twice. The UUE and Kai. Kai is 130 episodes shorter than Z too. If Funi does redub Z, theyll most likely reuse their Kai dialogue anyway.

Kai is not a redub of Z.

And? Kai and Z are the same show, Kai is just cut down.

[Meshack]

Excuse me? How the hell did you come to that conclusion?? Where did I imply in my post that I wasn't a fan of the original DB? Oh right, I didn't. Don't be an asshole.

They did redub Z, technically twice. The UUE and Kai. Kai is 130 episodes shorter than Z too. If Funi does redub Z, theyll most likely reuse their Kai dialogue anyway.

Kai is not a redub of Z.

And? Kai and Z are the same show, Kai is just cut down.

You can’t say Kai is a redub of Z if content was removed.

[Dbzfan94]

Kai is not a redub of Z.

And? Kai and Z are the same show, Kai is just cut down.

You can’t say Kai is a redub of Z if content was removed.

It's basically the same show though. My point is that they won't redub Z when they have Kai.

[Meshack]

And? Kai and Z are the same show, Kai is just cut down.

You can’t say Kai is a redub of Z if content was removed.

It's basically the same show though. My point is that they won't redub Z when they have Kai.

But Z has more material to dub than Kai. My point is, Funimation should get a new cast and redub all of the series and make it close to the original.

[Dbzfan94]

You can’t say Kai is a redub of Z if content was removed.

It's basically the same show though. My point is that they won't redub Z when they have Kai.

But Z has more material to dub than Kai. My point is, Funimation should get a new cast and redub all of the series and make it close to the original.

Funimation is not going to get a whole new cast. That's just not going to happen. Not to be rude but you'll just have to accept that. You seem like you don't like the dub no matter what FUNi does to make things close to the original, so why not just stick to the Japanese?

[Meshack]

It's basically the same show though. My point is that they won't redub Z when they have Kai.

But Z has more material to dub than Kai. My point is, Funimation should get a new cast and redub all of the series and make it close to the original.

Funimation is not going to get a whole new cast. That's just not going to happen. Not to be rude but you'll just have to accept that. You seem like you don't like the dub no matter what FUNi does to make things close to the original, so why not just stick to the Japanese?

No shit they’re not gonna get a new cast... Have you been reading what I’ve been saying? Sean Schemmel and Chris Sabat cannot voice Gokuh and Vegeta forever. By the time they get very old, they wouldn’t sound the same. The great thing about Nozawa and Gokuh is that the voice doesn’t really change from childhood to adulthood except she does a more grown-up voice for adulthood Gokuh. Funimation is actually doing a pretty good job with the dub except the unnecessary jokes and other bs. The script is good gotta give them credit for that. Funimation actually does amazing work for other series too like One Piece, My Hero Academia, and Black Clover’s dub sounds pretty good. But, I already do stick with the Japanese versions of everything, manga and anime. I don’t think English translations can convey what the original says rntirely. Some stuff can’t be translated over due to space or lip flaps or mistranslations or you can’t convey the meaning of the word or words in English because English is not that complex of a language.

[Dbzfan94]

No shit they’re not gonna get a new cast... Have you been reading what I’ve been saying?

My point is, Funimation should get a new cast and redub all of the series and make it close to the original.

You clearly said you wanted a cast change, and in the other thread you implied adult Goku should be voiced by a woman.

[KBABZ]

I interpreted the space between DB and Z to represent both series in a convenient manner. Lord knows it's hard to refer to the original DB anime specifically in a concise way!

Yeah thats what I meant it as. I should have put a comma to make it more clear lol. Like to me, it's one whole series (as it is in the original manga), just wanted to make the distinction.

I get that, I view it as one series too, although referring to the "DB" part of the show is a handy way for me to refer to what is by far my preferred third of the show.

---

More on-topic, a redub of Z doesn't make much financial sense atm. Anyone who has supported Funimation's releases of the show thus far has no problem with it, and Z is an enormous show to go back and redo something, even if it's one facet like the dubbing. Funimation has a large enough task as it is trying to sell all sixteen "seasons" of the total show (DB, Z and GT). Kai at least was a new product and release from Toei and it was half the length of the previous Z content, and the editing of the scenes means that dialogue won't make much sense, either from a pure script perspective or a "this character is performing like he didn't just say the last sentence" perspective.

I consider Kai to be a re-edit of Z because Z is the base format and is what the footage and the majority of the script originates from; you wouldn't consider the Final Cut of Blade Runner to be as different to the original as G1 Transformers and Prime are. This is why I much prefer FUNi's name scheme of adding the Z, just that one letter helps contextualize what Kai is to nearly everybody without having to spend two paragraphs explaining what it is in its absence. Plus, I honestly don't think any scriptwriter would want to have to put filler into what they're working on, so I view Kai almost as a "if Toei didn't have to do filler and then FUNi dubbed it with authenticity" version of Z.

(on a personal note, I heavily disagree with Toei's insistence on treating Kai like a new show in regards to the presentation like the music and re-animated shots. It's an old show and they should have embraced that)