Funimation's Early Days - A History - A look into the past of Funimation up until DBZ's mainstream success on American television

[Mothra1988]

Funimation singlehandedly did more to ruin the reputation of English dubs with a fraction of the effort that Central Park, ADV, Manga, etc did in building the foundation in the first place. The objectively right answer is whichever has the least amount of chris sabat and monica rial in it.

Monica Rial was in a ton of ADV dubs though.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Monica Rial was in a ton of ADV dubs though.

I'll maintain that some of her best voice-over work come from ADV and Sentai, because someone at ADV/Sentai at least gives somewhat of a damn in making sure the voice-actors sound to the best of their abilities. Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun is a dub I can say was pretty solid, and Monica was honestly a highlight because she sounds different from other dubs she's been in.

FUNimation used to care about quality, but perhaps those high-quality dubs were just flukes after all.

 

[AnOminous]

FUNimation used to care about quality, but perhaps those high-quality dubs were just flukes after all.

Yes, character assassinations are very "fun" they sure took the fun out of funimation. To the point it doesn't even exist any more, unlike Vic, who still exists.

 

[General Gunther]

Funimation singlehandedly did more to ruin the reputation of English dubs with a fraction of the effort that Central Park, ADV, Manga, etc did in building the foundation in the first place. The objectively right answer is whichever has the least amount of chris sabat and monica rial in it.

It’s amazing how series like Cowboy Bebop paved the way for anime english dubs to respected in the west on some level then Funimation after riding that wave all throughout the 2000s began to consistently shoot themselves in the foot.

 

[Coach Kreeton Of All That]

Been meaning to share something about Funimation from someone kind enough to privately message these photos.

Before Funi started fucking up with Dragon Ball Orange Box Sets, it seems they've been fucking up DVD releases back then. This person who sent these noticed something off.





Both are the same DVDs, supposedly. The only difference being the contents inside the disk like old promos for Chuck E. Cheese and 2 additional episodes added into the latter. I'm not sure whether any other place fucks up with consistent releasing of televised programs or does re-issues (with exceptions to maybe anniversary DVDs, box, or blu-ray sets), but the release of these two are just a year apart. Not a decade.

Looking back at seeing these in video rental stores on shelves, no would really care and think it was some variant. With constant re-releases of Dragon Ball from the cropped format Orange Box Sets, the nostalgic Rock the Dragon Box, the canceled pre-order of the "genuine" remaster set and then the eventual Funi Dragon Box set, it's sort of funny seeing how a small thing that makes them money could be so much trouble maintaining consistency with releasing properly.

Anyone else want to add their thoughts?

 

[CumDumpster]

Been meaning to share something about Funimation from someone kind enough to privately message these photos.

Before Funi started fucking up with Dragon Ball Orange Box Sets, it seems they've been fucking up DVD releases back then. This person who sent these noticed something off.

View attachment 3435782
View attachment 3435785View attachment 3435787
View attachment 3435789

Both are the same DVDs, supposedly. The only difference being the contents inside the disk like old promos for Chuck E. Cheese and 2 additional episodes added into the latter. I'm not sure whether any other place fucks up with consistent releasing of televised programs or does re-issues (with exceptions to maybe anniversary DVDs, box, or blu-ray sets), but the release of these two are just a year apart. Not a decade.

Looking back at seeing these in video rental stores on shelves, no would really care and think it was some variant. With constant re-releases of Dragon Ball from the cropped format Orange Box Sets, the nostalgic Rock the Dragon Box, the canceled pre-order of the "genuine" remaster set and then the eventual Funi Dragon Box set, it's sort of funny seeing how a small thing that makes them money could be so much trouble maintaining consistency with releasing properly.

Anyone else want to add their thoughts?

>CC on latter release's back
I wonder if that means SDH or there's actual EIA-608 captions...

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

I'll maintain that some of her best voice-over work come from ADV and Sentai, because someone at ADV/Sentai at least gives somewhat of a damn in making sure the voice-actors sound to the best of their abilities. Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun is a dub I can say was pretty solid, and Monica was honestly a highlight because she sounds different from other dubs she's been in.

FUNimation used to care about quality, but perhaps those high-quality dubs were just flukes after all.

Honestly she was great in Noir, Ghost Stories, Azumanga Daioh, even fucking Princess Nine.

 

[NickDigger]

Been meaning to share something about Funimation from someone kind enough to privately message these photos.

Before Funi started fucking up with Dragon Ball Orange Box Sets, it seems they've been fucking up DVD releases back then. This person who sent these noticed something off.

View attachment 3435782
View attachment 3435785View attachment 3435787
View attachment 3435789

Both are the same DVDs, supposedly. The only difference being the contents inside the disk like old promos for Chuck E. Cheese and 2 additional episodes added into the latter. I'm not sure whether any other place fucks up with consistent releasing of televised programs or does re-issues (with exceptions to maybe anniversary DVDs, box, or blu-ray sets), but the release of these two are just a year apart. Not a decade.

Looking back at seeing these in video rental stores on shelves, no would really care and think it was some variant. With constant re-releases of Dragon Ball from the cropped format Orange Box Sets, the nostalgic Rock the Dragon Box, the canceled pre-order of the "genuine" remaster set and then the eventual Funi Dragon Box set, it's sort of funny seeing how a small thing that makes them money could be so much trouble maintaining consistency with releasing properly.

Anyone else want to add their thoughts?

Older fans knew about this for years. The problem was IIRC the original DVD had subtitles that were HUGE and took up too much of the screen. Funi, still being a small company who were just starting to see a major ROI thanks to DBZ's emerging popularity, probably saw the only way to do an affordable reprint was to print the "correct" discs in a limited quantity initially.

Funi are fuckups, but this is not some "gotcha" moment. ALL of their competors at the time were making fuckups even bigger than this. Just calling from memory: Bandai releasing the 8th MS Team: Miller's Report DVD w/ phase inverted, brick walled audio, Media Blasters releasing a slew of discs accidentally in mono, Manga Video putting a "surround sound" mix on Macross Plus where half of the channels were silent, Central Park Media releasing Project A-ko that was sourced from a rotting laserdisc, or Viz promptly leaving any series they licensed unfinished if it didn't meet some sales threshold. Hell, since this is about Dragon Ball, look up when Toei tried to release anime DVDs themselves in the mid 00s for the US market (hope you enjoy no chapter stops and ALL CAPS SCREAMING SUBTITLES that almost run off the screen).

By comparison, finding out about a stealth re-release of a fixed DVD when your company was barely competing in the anime market (the Trunks saga was first released in the US in 2000, still more than a year off from when they got Yu Yu Hakusho, their first non-Dragon Ball license) hardly counts as a dunk.

 

[General Gunther]

Older fans knew about this for years. The problem was IIRC the original DVD had subtitles that were HUGE and took up too much of the screen. Funi, still being a small company who were just starting to see a major ROI thanks to DBZ's emerging popularity, probably saw the only way to do an affordable reprint was to print the "correct" discs in a limited quantity initially.

Funi are fuckups, but this is not some "gotcha" moment. ALL of their competors at the time were making fuckups even bigger than this. Just calling from memory: Bandai releasing the 8th MS Team: Miller's Report DVD w/ phase inverted, brick walled audio, Media Blasters releasing a slew of discs accidentally in mono, Manga Video putting a "surround sound" mix on Macross Plus where half of the channels were silent, Central Park Media releasing Project A-ko that was sourced from a rotting laserdisc, or Viz promptly leaving any series they licensed unfinished if it didn't meet some sales threshold. Hell, since this is about Dragon Ball, look up when Toei tried to release anime DVDs themselves in the mid 00s for the US market (hope you enjoy no chapter stops and ALL CAPS SCREAMING SUBTITLES that almost run off the screen).

By comparison, finding out about a stealth re-release of a fixed DVD when your company was barely competing in the anime market (the Trunks saga was first released in the US in 2000, still more than a year off from when they got Yu Yu Hakusho, their first non-Dragon Ball license) hardly counts as a dunk.

If you really think about it Funimation became the big company that it was because it was the least incompetent.

Let that sink in.