The end of era: Sony discontinues the Funimation brand on April 2

[SilverPlaqueVII]

As everyone will be shocked to hear.

On April 2, 2024, Sony announced the Funimation brand will be shut down as the app and its website will be closed and its users migrated into Crunchyroll, who Sony acquired in 2021 and took its name into Funimation corporate the next year.

Let's put into perspective. With CR/Funi turning 30 on May 9, that is the company who was the one bringing Dragon Ball to North American audiences and made the genre of anime becoming mainstream today. Without Gen Fukunaga, there would be no Funimation. From the first Gen era, to the Navarre years, then the Fairy Tail/MHA era and the Sony era, this is how Funimation had evolved into a global anime distributing powerhouse.

Cheers to 30 years of Funimation.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2 ... ll/.207344

I am not the slightest shocked. I thought this had happened already.

This was announced on March 1, 2022, when Sony began to slap the Crunchyroll name for the Funimation Global Group entity and migrating Funimation's catalogue into Crunchyroll's streaming app while adopting the logo for home video releases. Before that date, some shows remaining on both apps. After that date, new shows like Spy x Family and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury is solely on Crunchyroll, except they are dubbed by the cast from Coppell, formerly from Flower Mound.

[M16U3L2015]

This is how Funimation had evolved into a global anime distributing powerhouse.

Actually, only in English-speaking countries, not globally, Crunchyroll beat them in that sense.

[GhostEmperorX]

Actually, only in English-speaking countries, not globally, Crunchyroll beat them in that sense.

True, they only ever had the rights for the N.A. region.

[TheGreatness25]

So, is everything moving off of Funimation to Crunchyroll? Because dubbed Super is still not on Crunchyroll. And that's just what I know of. I'm sure there's a lot more.

[tinlunlau]

They shoulda kept the Funimation streaming service and do a simple renaming to Crunchyroll because as it stands now, Crunchyroll can't even provide proper Dolby 5.1 audio out of their movie offerings. And that is why I won't be subscribing to Crunchyroll. I can access most of their weekly anime on Netflix and Viu TV via VPN. I woulda suppose you could get some anime on Disney+ Hong Kong but their anime offering is pretty pathetic. They didn't get the second season of Spy X Family until last week. Quite some time after the first cour has finished airing. Netflix simulcasts with Japan.

[Steve]

As everyone will be shocked to hear.

On April 2, 2024, Sony announced the Funimation brand will be shut down as the app and its website will be closed and its users migrated into Crunchyroll, who Sony acquired in 2021 and took its name into Funimation corporate the next year.

Let's put into perspective. With CR/Funi turning 30 on May 9, that is the company who was the one bringing Dragon Ball to North American audiences and made the genre of anime becoming mainstream today. Without Gen Fukunaga, there would be no Funimation. From the first Gen era, to the Navarre years, then the Fairy Tail/MHA era and the Sony era, this is how Funimation had evolved into a global anime distributing powerhouse.

Cheers to 30 years of Funimation.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2 ... ll/.207344

I am not the slightest shocked. I thought this had happened already.

This was announced on March 1, 2022, when Sony began to slap the Crunchyroll name for the Funimation Global Group entity and migrating Funimation's catalogue into Crunchyroll's streaming app while adopting the logo for home video releases. Before that date, some shows remaining on both apps. After that date, new shows like Spy x Family and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury is solely on Crunchyroll, except they are dubbed by the cast from Coppell, formerly from Flower Mound.

Oh, absolutely! The merger between Crunchyroll and Funimation on March 1, 2022 brought about some interesting changes. Sony started rebranding Funimation under the Crunchyroll name, consolidating their content on one streaming app. Now, newer shows like Spy x Family and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury are exclusively on Crunchyroll, featuring the talented dub cast from Coppell, previously from Flower Mound. Exciting times for anime fans!

[Vorige Waffe]

After the success of Dragon Ball on Cartoon Network, Funimation went on, besides distributing non-anime on its early days, to acquire its non-Dragon Ball series: Fruits Basket (2001).

Did you mean Fruits Basket was their first non-Dragon Ball license? Because it wasn't. Their first non-DB anime licenses were Yu Yu Hakusho, Blue Gender, and a smattering of Lupin III specials (the first being Secret of Wwilight Gemini) circa 2001-02.

Aka they stole the license thanks to nepotism and proceeded to profit massively off of... an already massively profitable IP the world over (at home & abroad), rising while others sank as a result.

They didn't steal anything. If an organization "stole" (which is to say, infringe on copyright) a license they would've been in genuine legal trouble.

[MasenkoHA]

They didn't steal anything. If an organization "stole" (which is to say, infringe on copyright) a license they would've been in genuine legal trouble.

I don't think he meant they literally stole the license just that other companies were interested in the license and Funimation only got it because of neopotism and not because they were more qualified or were willing to pay the most to license the IP. And we do know U.S Renditions was at least in negotiations with Toei to acquire the license before Funimation got their hands on it instead, again, through neopotism and no other reason

[WittyUsername]

I would imagine that Dragon Ball would’ve most likely received a heavily edited and Americanized dub regardless of who got the license back in the 90s. That was the norm for anime geared towards a younger audience at the time.

[Hellspawn28]

I would imagine that Dragon Ball would’ve most likely received a heavily edited and Americanized dub regardless of who got the license back in the 90s. That was the norm for anime geared towards a younger audience at the time.

It depends who had the license back then. If Viz or Pioneer pick it up, they would still have the series uncut and have a sub option for fans to choose. It would probably still be aired on Toonami, but would have been more like the Tenchi Muyo! dub on CN. It was edited, but wasn't totally Americanized. With Funimation, you were stuck with the bad dubs and you would find fan subs to watch the Japanese version. DVDs did give us the way to watch it subbed, but owning a DVD player in 1998-2001 was still pricey unless you had a PS2 in 2000. It wasn't until 2002 when DVD outsold VHS and DVD players became way cheaper.

[Xeogran]

From my experience, Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh tend to be viewed more as cheap merchandising vehicles than something that most self-respecting anime fans enjoy on their own terms.

Yu-Gi-Oh isn't cheap by any means, and it's an awesome series with many valuable lessons. It didn't even start as a card promoting series, that happened later on due to that game's massive success over the rest. But the storytelling remained consistently awesome.

[MasenkoHA]

From my experience, Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh tend to be viewed more as cheap merchandising vehicles than something that most self-respecting anime fans enjoy on their own terms.

Yu-Gi-Oh isn't cheap by any means, and it's an awesome series with many valuable lessons. It didn't even start as a card promoting series, that happened later on due to that game's massive success over the rest. But the storytelling remained consistently awesome.

Most shows for kids have "valuable lessons" usually mandated. Although I don't remember Yugioh doing anything other than "friendship is awesome" so every post-Dragon Ball shonen series ever

And it's true it didn't start out as a promotion for a trading card game but that's what it became and that's what it's most known for.

I don't think Witty meant cheap as in low budget but cheap in that's just an excuse to advertise trading cards. Which is a correct assessment even if it didn't start out that way.

[JulieYBM]

I would argue that the Pokemon TV anime (plural) is not only technically better than the Dragon Ball TV anime (plural), but it is sub-culturally more important. The contribution to the franchise by its various staff since 1997 has made it a technical achievement, and a storytelling achievement through the production of each series.

[Cure Dragon 255]

I would argue that the Pokemon TV anime (plural) is not only technically better than the Dragon Ball TV anime (plural), but it is sub-culturally more important. The contribution to the franchise by its various staff since 1997 has made it a technical achievement, and a storytelling achievement through the production of each series.

I agree with this. Not only is Pokemon better animated, written and everything. But they've been putting out product weekly for over 20 years The quality of the animation is insane considering this.

[MasenkoHA]

I would imagine that Dragon Ball would’ve most likely received a heavily edited and Americanized dub regardless of who got the license back in the 90s. That was the norm for anime geared towards a younger audience at the time.

It probably would have aired on television and edited for American kids tv standards regardless of who got it, true. I believe Funimation even stated way back in the day that Toei required the show be broadcasted on television as an explanation for why they had to edit the show. (And even if they were lying out their ass I can't imagine too many companies would invest in 508 episodes strictly direct to home video and would want some sort of tv deal there's a reason most direct to video anime were OVAs or series that were 26 episodes or less)

But I don't think it would have been Americanized regardless of who got the license. Plenty of more legitimate dubbing companies like ViZ , Pioneer, and U.S Renditions were interested in the license. Companies that weren't xenophobic about importing Japanese cartoons and trying to hide their origins. We very easily could have had a Dragon Ball Z Kai situation from the very beginning where the network broadcast was ludicrously edited beyond sane measures but the script was still otherwise faithful with the music left intact and no major attempt to whitewash the dub, plus a bilingual uncut release a lot earlier than when Funimation got around to it.

[GhostEmperorX]

I believe Funimation even stated way back in the day that Toei required the show be broadcasted on television as an explanation for why they had to edit the show.

When I read about this on one of the many disparate old website archives of those who were on the internet DB fan circles in the late 90's-early 2000's period (can't quite remember which one atm sadly, perhaps DBZ uncensored or Planetnamek, would need to download some of them as HTML then use File Search Assistant to find it if that's possible), I wondered if if was even going to be possible for the show to have been a direct-to-video affair. Not sure what the source is, but should this be the case, then that route would probably only have happened after any TV broadcast.
Certainly wouldn't discount it though considering the Harmony Gold precedent.

[Vorige Waffe]

They didn't steal anything. If an organization "stole" (which is to say, infringe on copyright) a license they would've been in genuine legal trouble.

I don't think he meant they literally stole the license just that other companies were interested in the license and Funimation only got it because of neopotism and not because they were more qualified or were willing to pay the most to license the IP. And we do know U.S Renditions was at least in negotiations with Toei to acquire the license before Funimation got their hands on it instead, again, through neopotism and no other reason

Yeah, and that's not remotely theft. Or illegal. They had a family connection that allowed them to more easily promise they could make Dragon Ball a success as opposed to US Renditions, who were just as amateurish in regards to releasing anime as they only had experience in releasing anime on home video and not brokering any TV deals. Not to mention whatever talks US Renditions had with Toei would be scuttled once they were bought out by Manga Entertainment circa 1994, leaving a void for Fukunaga an co. to come in.

And yeah, you can bet that a TV deal had to be guaranteed because no retailer in the mid 90s is going to stock tapes of a 500+ episode TV series when historically sales numbers would drop off after every subsequent volume. Of course, history has shown DB was a franchise that bucked this trend somewhat, but that was only after years of merchandising and TV airings; in the mid 90s no way would any US publisher accepted to license a long show like Dragon Ball for home video only.

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

I would imagine that Dragon Ball would’ve most likely received a heavily edited and Americanized dub regardless of who got the license back in the 90s. That was the norm for anime geared towards a younger audience at the time.

It depends who had the license back then. If Viz or Pioneer pick it up, they would still have the series uncut and have a sub option for fans to choose. It would probably still be aired on Toonami, but would have been more like the Tenchi Muyo! dub on CN. It was edited, but wasn't totally Americanized. With Funimation, you were stuck with the bad dubs and you would find fan subs to watch the Japanese version. DVDs did give us the way to watch it subbed, but owning a DVD player in 1998-2001 was still pricey unless you had a PS2 in 2000. It wasn't until 2002 when DVD outsold VHS and DVD players became way cheaper.

Not entirely sure about Viz due to how they've handled the manga the past 2+ decades, but if Pioneer got the show in this hypothetical then it probably would've had a dub similar to the Pioneer DVD release of movies 1-3, but for the series as a whole. Not perfect, but absolutely better than what we got.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

if Pioneer got the show in this hypothetical then it probably would've had a dub similar to the Pioneer DVD release of movies 1-3, but for the series as a whole. Not perfect, but absolutely better than what we got.

The plan originally was for Funimation to produce the edited TV episodes with Pioneer doing the uncut equivalents for the home releases. Barry Watson said in a March 1998 interview "Pioneer is releasing uncut versions of the episodes as well as the TV versions, so for people who want to see the show uncut, that’ll also be readily available. For the uncut versions, they do a second recording–Pioneer basically oversees the anime script".

Now we can speculate Barry may have been referring to the movies, as they aired edited on TV, but since this was before the move inhouse I suspect he didn't accidentally say "episodes".

I think a Pioneer dub of the series would have been perfect as they were clearly willing to go their own direction as we seen with those three movies, not being influenced by Funimation in any way.

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

if Pioneer got the show in this hypothetical then it probably would've had a dub similar to the Pioneer DVD release of movies 1-3, but for the series as a whole. Not perfect, but absolutely better than what we got.

The plan originally was for Funimation to produce the edited TV episodes with Pioneer doing the uncut equivalents for the home releases. Barry Watson said in a March 1998 interview "Pioneer is releasing uncut versions of the episodes as well as the TV versions, so for people who want to see the show uncut, that’ll also be readily available. For the uncut versions, they do a second recording–Pioneer basically oversees the anime script".

Now we can speculate Barry may have been referring to the movies, as they aired edited on TV, but since this was before the move inhouse I suspect he didn't accidentally say "episodes".

I think a Pioneer dub of the series would have been perfect as they were clearly willing to go their own direction as we seen with those three movies, not being influenced by Funimation in any way.

Maybe if Pioneer was the sole producer then they could've fixed the pronunciation of "Saiyan" like they did for "Kaioken". Then we wouldn't have 2 decades worth of bad "just sayin" puns. Then again they still pronounced it wrong in uncut movie 3 so who knows?
Side note: I love that little snide jab Peter Kelamis made about pronouncing Kaioken correctly when Schemmel was feuding with him.