Are we too hard on Funimation

[Hades]

Yes they fucked up the first dub , but there's a lot of context to remember. Firstly they had never done a sub before and had to rely on outside help from saban, which meant their hands were tied on a lot of issues. This feeds into the second problem: that anime was much less mainstream than it is now, meaning that a lot would be altered almost to a point beyond recognition, in order to secure markets. This is also tied in with Funi having to do all this on a shoestring budget, which makes getting a good dub done a lot more difficult. In a sink or swim environment, I doubt many would have done differently.

[VegettoEX]

I think this is a conversation worth having maybe back in 1999, and it certainly one that was had over and over and over. I've said a lot recently (mostly on the podcast), that I GET IT now - the company could barely afford to do anything, had no real experience in doing anything, and had people calling the shots who didn't give a flying fuck. I GET IT. Once Saban left, it was a case of "let's at least try to pump out a shitty version of the show" or "we don't make the show at all anymore". I GET IT NOW.

That being said, I still was/am a consumer, and whether or not I like something is still an opinion I'm going to have. I thought it was terrible, I voiced my opinion on it, and I didn't continue to buy it. I changed my buying habits when they presented me with a product (read: uncut, bilingual DVDs) that I wanted.

So that conversation is only worth having now, at least from my perspective, when someone challenges raw information using the old version of the dub as a basis. I'm simply not interested in debating character motivations, dialog, and musical cues versus that old production. It's just not relevant or useful.

People then take this too far, and misinterpret that as a personal attack on their very state of being, not just as a fan, but as a human being whose children have just been ruthlessly slaughtered by a subbie. That's... not the case in 2015. I'm glad you like what you like, but it's not relevant to what I'm doing these days, and I don't honestly believe you can move forward as a fan if that's what you're hung up on. We can't have a fruitful conversation if that's what you want to discuss.

AND AGAIN, don't misinterpret that as not being a "true fan". That's not what I'm saying. There's too much more to discover about the franchise and the people that make it, and I think getting hung up on that old production doesn't allow you learn more. There's so much more out there to the franchise, and I want to help you discover that.

AND EVEN THEN I'm talking more about fandom than... I dunno, what? Forgiving FUNimation for their sins? See everything I've written above. It's placed in proper historical context now. We all get it. We all understand it. That doesn't change what they produced, it doesn't change all the misinformation and production differences that contribute to "two sides" of the fandom not being able to communicate as one entity, and it might not ever change what some people "like" as "the show".

And that's fine. Never forget, look back upon history, and figure out where you want to go from there. FUNimation moved on. So did a bunch of the rest of us from that time. That should probably say a lot.