Could FUNimation survive without Dragon Ball?

[SilverPlaqueVII]

Basically, if FUNimation loses the North American rights to Dragon Ball to either 4K-Konami or Viz Media, could the company survive without the longest popular series made in Japan? That could be a huge massive loss of them leaving the only remaining popular Shonen Jump property, One Piece. In that case, there could be possible job cuts or maybe having moving some VAs like Sabat, Cook to Viz or Konami.

[Ajay]

Yeah, very easily. They've got licenses to hundreds of hugely popular shows. Psycho Pass, Tokyo Ghoul, Attack on Titan, and way, way more.

Even their abysmal streaming service is hugely popular. They've branched out from sub simulcasts to dub simulcasts, too. They could oust Dragon Ball and still do absolutely fine.

[Lord Beerus]

Dragon Ball may be the #1 franchise Funimation have but if they end up losing it, nothing would change. They have tons of shows, very popular ones as well, to fall back on. They would be more than fine.

[TheBlackPaladin]

I think losing Dragon Ball would be a huge hit, to the point where they might have to downsize a bit. Survive, though? Absolutely, they could. They're the biggest anime licensing/dubbing company in the English-speaking world. Taking away only their #1 property wouldn't change that.

[Theophrastus]

One Piece has more episodes than the entire DB anime franchise combined (unless you meant "longest" in the sense of having been around the longest or something, and not sheer volume of content that they can keep dipping into for a consistent revenue stream).

But yeah, I think DB was probably pretty vital to Funimation's survival back in the mid-late 00s when the US anime market kinda crashed, but if they were to suddenly lose it now, in 2015, they'd be fine. Well, maybe not "fine" but they'd easily survive. They have a lot of other popular series now as mentioned, and more than that they're generally much quicker to adapt to market trends than their competitors (who were relatively reluctant to embrace things like online streaming and doing away with 3-4 episode single DVD releases).

[SilverPlaqueVII]

I think losing Dragon Ball would be a huge hit, to the point where they might have to downsize a bit. Survive, though? Absolutely, they could. They're the biggest anime licensing/dubbing company in the English-speaking world. Taking away only their #1 property wouldn't change that.

It sums a bit though as Dragon Ball is FUNimation's money-making machine since Gen Fukunaga founded the company in 1994. Think about CBC, they had Hockey Night in Canada as a money-making machine and generated revenue for its other programs. Since the budget cuts from Ottawa struggled their chances, they lost the rights to produce NHL games to Rogers but continues to air the games for four more years under a time-brokerage agreement.

Without Dragon Ball, the company still has Fullmetal Alchemist, Case Closed/Detective Conan, Soul Eater, Bleach, etc...

One Piece has more episodes than the entire DB anime franchise combined (unless you meant "longest" in the sense of having been around the longest or something, and not sheer volume of content that they can keep dipping into for a consistent revenue stream).

But yeah, I think DB was probably pretty vital to Funimation's survival back in the mid-late 00s when the US anime market kinda crashed, but if they were to suddenly lose it now, in 2015, they'd be fine. Well, maybe not "fine" but they'd easily survive. They have a lot of other popular series now as mentioned, and more than that they're generally much quicker to adapt to market trends than their competitors (who were relatively reluctant to embrace things like online streaming and doing away with 3-4 episode single DVD releases).

Seems Naruto is the only Shonen property not owned by FUNimation. They haven't got the rights to Cardcaptor Sakura and the other non-FUNimation anime releases.

One Piece and Toriko are still ongoing. They could outlast Dragon Ball at anytime.

[Hellspawn28]

I think Funimation would be fine. Funimation is a much bigger company that they where many years ago. If they do lose the series in the future then I hope it's not Media Blasters. Media Blasters would delay everything until the very last minute *cough*Godzilla vs. Megalon*cough*

[Theophrastus]

Without Dragon Ball, the company still has Fullmetal Alchemist, Case Closed/Detective Conan, Soul Eater, Bleach, etc...

One Piece has more episodes than the entire DB anime franchise combined (unless you meant "longest" in the sense of having been around the longest or something, and not sheer volume of content that they can keep dipping into for a consistent revenue stream).

But yeah, I think DB was probably pretty vital to Funimation's survival back in the mid-late 00s when the US anime market kinda crashed, but if they were to suddenly lose it now, in 2015, they'd be fine. Well, maybe not "fine" but they'd easily survive. They have a lot of other popular series now as mentioned, and more than that they're generally much quicker to adapt to market trends than their competitors (who were relatively reluctant to embrace things like online streaming and doing away with 3-4 episode single DVD releases).

Seems Naruto is the only Shonen property not owned by FUNimation. They haven't got the rights to Cardcaptor Sakura and the other non-FUNimation anime releases.

One Piece and Toriko are still ongoing. They could outlast Dragon Ball at anytime.

Funimation gave up on Detective Conan years ago due to people just not having much interest in the franchise here (it is now being simulcast by Crunchyroll, incidentally, though Funimation still has the first 130 episodes), and Funimation never had Bleach (that was always Viz). Also, the Toriko anime ended last year, and at this point it doesn't look like Funi is even going to bother dubbing anything past the first 52-ish episodes because apparently it did pretty badly for them.

They do have Fairy Tail, though, which is both quite popular and ongoing.

[sintzu]

Funimation losing DB would be like DC losing Batman.

They'll survive but it'll be hard and every move they make going foreword will have to be the right cause 1 mistake will cost them way more then it would with DB cause they won't have that big net to catch them.

Toriko flopped ? doesn't matter cause DB will make back 5× the $$$ they put in it without spending much.

However if they didn't have DB then that flop would've hurt very bad.

[DBZAOTA482]

They could survive but it would be very unlikely and even then they wouldn't thrive like the other dubbing companies. Dragon Ball is what led them from being nobodies to now being one of the biggest and most respected dubbing companies out there.

The other shows are popular but only on a cult level rather than a massive mainstream hit like Dragon Ball and wouldn't get them nearly as far from which they started.

[Kakacarrottop]

In the 90s they couldn't, but today they easily could. And it's not like Dragon Ball is bringing in as much money now as it was in 2003 anyway.

[Hellspawn28]

Funimation can survive without Dragon Ball just like Viz can survive without Naruto.

[Kid Buu]

Without Dragon Ball, the company still has Fullmetal Alchemist, Case Closed/Detective Conan, Soul Eater, Bleach, etc...

Uh, Bleach is a Viz property.

[sangofe]

They got big thanks to Dragon Ball, but I think they're big enough to survive. They'd surely have to downsize a bit, though, if they lost the DB Z GT rights.

[SilverPlaqueVII]

Without Dragon Ball, the company still has Fullmetal Alchemist, Case Closed/Detective Conan, Soul Eater, Bleach, etc...

Uh, Bleach is a Viz property.

Oh right. Viz or FUNimation have yet to get either Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura uncut anyway. No wonder they don't have Gundam or Inyuyasha

[SaiyanBaller22]

Anybody know when Funimation's license to DBZ ends?

[Super Sonic]

Without Dragon Ball, the company still has Fullmetal Alchemist, Case Closed/Detective Conan, Soul Eater, Bleach, etc...

Uh, Bleach is a Viz property.

Oh right. Viz or FUNimation have yet to get either Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura uncut anyway. No wonder they don't have Gundam or Inyuyasha

Viz has Sailor Moon and Inuyasha.

[SilverPlaqueVII]

Anybody know when Funimation's license to DBZ ends?

IIRC, it could be circulated back in 2009 when the license was set to expire this year, set in stone.

http://icv2.com/articles/comics/view/15 ... digm-shift

[DBZAOTA482]

It seems like everyone's talking about if FUNimation lost the license rather than if they never had the license like I was.

[MarcFBR]

It seems like everyone's talking about if FUNimation lost the license rather than if they never had the license like I was.

Because that's the question the original post asked.