- Joined
- Jun 28, 2019
This is my attempt to tell a retrospective history of Funimation’s early days up until Dragon Ball Z’s mainstream success.
Pre-History
https://archive.fo/j1mr
(Purdue University alumni profile on Gen Fukuanga dating back to the early 2000s, describes his early life and educational background.)
Prior to founding Funimation, Gen Fukunaga, a Japanese-born American, worked in management at Tandem Computers in Sunnyvale, California. At some point, Fukunaga became interested in bringing anime to the American marketplace so he got into contact with his uncle Nagafumi Hori.
Hori was a producer at Toei. He had directed a number of the Super Sentai series in the 1980s and was a producer for the Kamen Rider and Metal Hero series for much of the 1990s. He proposed that if Gen could start a company and raise enough money, he would help him negotiate with Toei to license the rights to the Dragon Ball series. Gen then went to one of his co-workers Daniel Cocanougher whose family owned a feed mill in Decatur, Texas. Gen convinced the Cocanougher family to sell their business and use the money to invest it into what eventually became Funimation. Daniel himself would serve as a producer alongside Barry Watson for all of Funimation productions and dubs up until the mid-2000s.
Founding
(Pictured: the original variation of the Funimation logo)
(Pictured: The Texas bank building Funimation operated in at 6851 NE Loop 820, North Richland Hills as seen on Google Maps as of December 2021, They would eventually move the company to an industrial building located in the town of Flower Mound in 2007)
Funimation was officially founded on May 9th 1994. Initially operating in Silicon Valley, the company eventually located to a bank building based in North Richland Hills, Texas.
The initial attempts working on Dragon Ball were not very effective or successful. The first 13 episodes of the original Dragon Ball anime was a co-production with a studio in Vancouver Canada known as Dick & Rogers Sound Studio. Produced as early as 1995, this version is referred to in the Dragon Ball fandom as the BLT dub, it featured future Gundam Wing voice actor Ted Cole as Yamcha. As was common with most anime of the day airing on television, the series was edited for content and new music was composed.
(The opening sequence used for the 1995 version.)
Dragon Ball Z
(The Rock the Dragon opening theme used for the Ocean dub.)
(A College student's report showcasing Funimation during it's infancy in the mid-1990s, the people featured are Barry Watson, the producer and Bryon Watson (Barry's brother) who did most of the animation edits for the series during it's run on television)
In 1996, Funimation, now working with Ocean Studios in Vancouver (for the voice recordings), Saban Entertainment (for music production & television syndication) & Pioneer Entertainment (for home video distribution) produced an english version of Dragon Ball Z, the sequel series to the original Dragon Ball anime. Running for two seasons and 53 episodes, it featured veteran Canadian voice actors such as Brian Drummond (Vegeta) & Scott McNeil (Piccolo). In 1998, this version began to air on Cartoon Network’s programming block, Toonami. The high ratings resulted in the demand to continue production on the English version.
The backstory and reasons for what happens next are not entirely known publicly but it more or less changed Funimation forever.
An Online Petition and First Contact
It’s a widely held belief that Funimation starting doing everything in-house because they couldn’t afford the services of the other companies. The general theory for this was that Saban was handling much of this and at some point stopped working with Funimation.
The truth while not entirely known is more interesting.
In the early days of the internet, there was a fan website known as Toriyama(dot)org which was more or less where many prominent people in the Dragon Ball fandom of the time were communicating. Some of the people there would go on to be a part of Kazenshuu which is now the main Dragon Ball fansite online.
The archived article below which is more about the history of the Dragon Ball manga and it’s censorship in the US also brings up how Brian Real (A member of Toriyama dot org) more or less convinced Gen Fukunaga to stop working with all the other companies and go in-house.
archive.md
A podcast interview with Steven Simmons in 2006 confirms the petition and that he got his job because of Brian Real. In fact, he brings up how he was initially offered the job. Gen Fukunaga called him up by phone at 6:00 in the morning and offered it to him. While the part about Brian convincing Gen to go completely independent isn’t brought up, there’s a strong possibility that it’s true.
https://www.kanzenshuu.com/2006/11/19/podcast-episode-0052/
http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu_EX_-_Episode_0052.mp3
If you really think about it, the main people at Funimation such as Chris Sabat more or less owe their careers and success to a high schooler. Let that sink in.
(An early advertisement featuring narration by Chris Sabat and some original productions that Funimation tried to produce)
Epilogue: The Galaxy 5000
While not much is actually known about the original productions Funimation tried to make, only one exists at all and that is Chuck E. Cheese in the Galaxy 5000. A co-production with Chuck E. Cheese, it was released in 1999 on VHS and was only sold at Target stores and Chuck E Cheese locations. How and why it got made will probably never be known but it's most likely how Duncan Brannan (the voice of Chuck E.) got involved with Funimation to begin with. He would go on to voice Babibi in Dragon Ball Z.
The whole film in it's entirety:
UPDATE (5/29/2022):
The Cyboars pilot episode (an original animated series planned and produced by Funimation in 1997) has been uncovered on Youtube.
UPDATE (6/8/2022):
Video archive of the Dragon Ball 95 opening and Cyboars pilot. Added the Rock the Dragon opening theme for the Ocean dub.
UPDATE (7/9/2022):
Fixed a typo and updated the thread subtitle.
Pre-History
https://archive.fo/j1mr
(Purdue University alumni profile on Gen Fukuanga dating back to the early 2000s, describes his early life and educational background.)
Prior to founding Funimation, Gen Fukunaga, a Japanese-born American, worked in management at Tandem Computers in Sunnyvale, California. At some point, Fukunaga became interested in bringing anime to the American marketplace so he got into contact with his uncle Nagafumi Hori.
Hori was a producer at Toei. He had directed a number of the Super Sentai series in the 1980s and was a producer for the Kamen Rider and Metal Hero series for much of the 1990s. He proposed that if Gen could start a company and raise enough money, he would help him negotiate with Toei to license the rights to the Dragon Ball series. Gen then went to one of his co-workers Daniel Cocanougher whose family owned a feed mill in Decatur, Texas. Gen convinced the Cocanougher family to sell their business and use the money to invest it into what eventually became Funimation. Daniel himself would serve as a producer alongside Barry Watson for all of Funimation productions and dubs up until the mid-2000s.
Founding
(Pictured: the original variation of the Funimation logo)
(Pictured: The Texas bank building Funimation operated in at 6851 NE Loop 820, North Richland Hills as seen on Google Maps as of December 2021, They would eventually move the company to an industrial building located in the town of Flower Mound in 2007)
Funimation was officially founded on May 9th 1994. Initially operating in Silicon Valley, the company eventually located to a bank building based in North Richland Hills, Texas.
The initial attempts working on Dragon Ball were not very effective or successful. The first 13 episodes of the original Dragon Ball anime was a co-production with a studio in Vancouver Canada known as Dick & Rogers Sound Studio. Produced as early as 1995, this version is referred to in the Dragon Ball fandom as the BLT dub, it featured future Gundam Wing voice actor Ted Cole as Yamcha. As was common with most anime of the day airing on television, the series was edited for content and new music was composed.
(The opening sequence used for the 1995 version.)
Dragon Ball Z
(The Rock the Dragon opening theme used for the Ocean dub.)
(A College student's report showcasing Funimation during it's infancy in the mid-1990s, the people featured are Barry Watson, the producer and Bryon Watson (Barry's brother) who did most of the animation edits for the series during it's run on television)
In 1996, Funimation, now working with Ocean Studios in Vancouver (for the voice recordings), Saban Entertainment (for music production & television syndication) & Pioneer Entertainment (for home video distribution) produced an english version of Dragon Ball Z, the sequel series to the original Dragon Ball anime. Running for two seasons and 53 episodes, it featured veteran Canadian voice actors such as Brian Drummond (Vegeta) & Scott McNeil (Piccolo). In 1998, this version began to air on Cartoon Network’s programming block, Toonami. The high ratings resulted in the demand to continue production on the English version.
The backstory and reasons for what happens next are not entirely known publicly but it more or less changed Funimation forever.
An Online Petition and First Contact
It’s a widely held belief that Funimation starting doing everything in-house because they couldn’t afford the services of the other companies. The general theory for this was that Saban was handling much of this and at some point stopped working with Funimation.
The truth while not entirely known is more interesting.
In the early days of the internet, there was a fan website known as Toriyama(dot)org which was more or less where many prominent people in the Dragon Ball fandom of the time were communicating. Some of the people there would go on to be a part of Kazenshuu which is now the main Dragon Ball fansite online.
The archived article below which is more about the history of the Dragon Ball manga and it’s censorship in the US also brings up how Brian Real (A member of Toriyama dot org) more or less convinced Gen Fukunaga to stop working with all the other companies and go in-house.
How We Failed the Dragon Ball Manga in the US | Endless SOS
archived 19 Feb 2017 03:52:06 UTC
A podcast interview with Steven Simmons in 2006 confirms the petition and that he got his job because of Brian Real. In fact, he brings up how he was initially offered the job. Gen Fukunaga called him up by phone at 6:00 in the morning and offered it to him. While the part about Brian convincing Gen to go completely independent isn’t brought up, there’s a strong possibility that it’s true.
https://www.kanzenshuu.com/2006/11/19/podcast-episode-0052/
http://daizex.db-destiny.net/Daizenshuu_EX_-_Episode_0052.mp3
If you really think about it, the main people at Funimation such as Chris Sabat more or less owe their careers and success to a high schooler. Let that sink in.
(An early advertisement featuring narration by Chris Sabat and some original productions that Funimation tried to produce)
Epilogue: The Galaxy 5000
While not much is actually known about the original productions Funimation tried to make, only one exists at all and that is Chuck E. Cheese in the Galaxy 5000. A co-production with Chuck E. Cheese, it was released in 1999 on VHS and was only sold at Target stores and Chuck E Cheese locations. How and why it got made will probably never be known but it's most likely how Duncan Brannan (the voice of Chuck E.) got involved with Funimation to begin with. He would go on to voice Babibi in Dragon Ball Z.
The whole film in it's entirety:
UPDATE (5/29/2022):
The Cyboars pilot episode (an original animated series planned and produced by Funimation in 1997) has been uncovered on Youtube.
UPDATE (6/8/2022):
Video archive of the Dragon Ball 95 opening and Cyboars pilot. Added the Rock the Dragon opening theme for the Ocean dub.
UPDATE (7/9/2022):
Fixed a typo and updated the thread subtitle.
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