- Joined
- Feb 20, 2017
Playstation is the only reason why Sony is still around.
The End of Funimation - Cucked to Death by Crunchyroll
- Thread starter 5t3n0g0ph3r
- Start date
Mothra1988
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- May 27, 2021
Well, they sure fucked that up this gen. Just look at Japanese game sales charts. It's a sea of Nintendo. It's all been downhill since they moved SIE to California.
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2017
That's because they're doing something stupid and focusing on American releases. It's why they have so much censorship now.
- Joined
- May 12, 2017
Funimation hasn't been a good company since 2015ish. Even before the Prison School GamerGate line, their physical releases were going down the shitter for years before that. I bought their "Anime Classics" version of Gantz (which was originally released in 2011) with some of my COVID bux during the earlier stages of the pandemic and it was phenomenally overpriced for what you actually get. 35 USD for 26 episodes that are in 480p and on DVD no less, rather than Blu-ray. Also, there was little in the way of features beyond textless OPs/EDs, a couple of trailers, and an interview with the anime director.
Funimation acquired the rights to Code Geass back in 2014, but they didn't even bother doing anything with the license until late 2016. What's worse is that Code Geass costs 55 USD for the first fucking season on DVD of all mediums. Yeah, there's more special features and shit compared to Gantz, but it still blows my fucking mind that they have the nerve to charge so much for a fucking DVD release while splitting up both seasons instead of doing a "complete" release. Say what you will about Sentai Filmworks and their shitty spindle cases for DVD releases, but at least they were cheap to produce and more importantly purchase (especially if they were on sale).
Funimation Elite was a fucking fantastic streaming service that had almost everything I could've ever wanted to watch in either sub or dub form, with complete access to simulcasts and simuldubs too. All for 6.99 USD (8.30 USD factoring inflation) at the time. I don't know what the current plan looks like right now, but I seriously doubt that it's up to snuff with Funimation Elite considering how awful Funimation Now was. The app for Funimation Now compared to the old Elite app had serious interface issues, buffering issues, and all-around poor streaming quality: problems that Elite never had in the first place. Why even bother paying for legal streaming services if KissAnime had better quality with none of the buffering issues? I don't even think the transition to Crunchyroll will play out nicely for the paid streaming option either. It's been eight fucking years and Crunchyroll's web player is still fucking shit despite no longer relying on Adobe Flash (to my knowledge).
This isn't to say that I'm happy that Funimation is being dissolved because they were a huge cornerstone of my childhood and adolescence. Instead, I just feel hollow. Voice actors that I once adored like Chris Sabat and Monica Rial had their names dragged through the mud thanks to all the bullshit that they got exposed for during the whole #KickVic fiasco. New dubs of shows that I'm potentially interested in immediately turn me off when I listen to clips of the localisations. Hell, I can't even trust Funimation to honour the classics that brought them recognition in the first place like Fruits Basket because I'm so fucking terrified that the dub will suffer (at least as far as the reboot is concerned). Now the Funimation brand is being dissolved in favour of Crunchyroll of all things. Countless brands like Geneon, ADV, Bandai, Central Park Media, Manga Entertainment, and Media Blasters have come and gone but Funimation always stood tall. Now it's just going to end up as a relic of a long bygone era. I can't even say that it'll be fondly remembered like the aforementioned companies because Funimation has done so much self-inflected damage to its own reputation. It's just... gone now.
Funimation acquired the rights to Code Geass back in 2014, but they didn't even bother doing anything with the license until late 2016. What's worse is that Code Geass costs 55 USD for the first fucking season on DVD of all mediums. Yeah, there's more special features and shit compared to Gantz, but it still blows my fucking mind that they have the nerve to charge so much for a fucking DVD release while splitting up both seasons instead of doing a "complete" release. Say what you will about Sentai Filmworks and their shitty spindle cases for DVD releases, but at least they were cheap to produce and more importantly purchase (especially if they were on sale).
Funimation Elite was a fucking fantastic streaming service that had almost everything I could've ever wanted to watch in either sub or dub form, with complete access to simulcasts and simuldubs too. All for 6.99 USD (8.30 USD factoring inflation) at the time. I don't know what the current plan looks like right now, but I seriously doubt that it's up to snuff with Funimation Elite considering how awful Funimation Now was. The app for Funimation Now compared to the old Elite app had serious interface issues, buffering issues, and all-around poor streaming quality: problems that Elite never had in the first place. Why even bother paying for legal streaming services if KissAnime had better quality with none of the buffering issues? I don't even think the transition to Crunchyroll will play out nicely for the paid streaming option either. It's been eight fucking years and Crunchyroll's web player is still fucking shit despite no longer relying on Adobe Flash (to my knowledge).
This isn't to say that I'm happy that Funimation is being dissolved because they were a huge cornerstone of my childhood and adolescence. Instead, I just feel hollow. Voice actors that I once adored like Chris Sabat and Monica Rial had their names dragged through the mud thanks to all the bullshit that they got exposed for during the whole #KickVic fiasco. New dubs of shows that I'm potentially interested in immediately turn me off when I listen to clips of the localisations. Hell, I can't even trust Funimation to honour the classics that brought them recognition in the first place like Fruits Basket because I'm so fucking terrified that the dub will suffer (at least as far as the reboot is concerned). Now the Funimation brand is being dissolved in favour of Crunchyroll of all things. Countless brands like Geneon, ADV, Bandai, Central Park Media, Manga Entertainment, and Media Blasters have come and gone but Funimation always stood tall. Now it's just going to end up as a relic of a long bygone era. I can't even say that it'll be fondly remembered like the aforementioned companies because Funimation has done so much self-inflected damage to its own reputation. It's just... gone now.
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2017
I didn't mind the reboot's dub since there were still real good performances that came out of it (even in the second season when the pandemic lockdowns were in place), but Laura Bailey has gotten older and so she was real soft for Tohru, and Jerry Jewell unfortunately sounded flat as Kyo most times. The worst performance has to be Mike McFarland as Ritsu (I thought it was Josh Grelle because of that high-pitched voice), but Ritsu's not in the anime very much. Still am waiting for any word on if the Kyoko and Katsuya movie will be dubbed because that one will be the real test, but not holding my breath over it.
Legit, this has been a sobering journey in having to cut the cord with FUNimation, least in terms of directly supporting them (legit am considering not going to see the new One Piece movie in theaters even for the sub and just wait to pirate it). Any anime with their label on it is strictly secondhand now, especially since majority of their older releases are out-of-print or are about to be when Discotek Media doesn't rescue them.
- Joined
- May 17, 2021
Untrue. Sony Entertainment makes films. They also make small appliances and electronics.
Sony is more than video games, anime, and other weebshit.
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2022
They still make money off of Spider-Man films, so there's that cashcow at least.
- Joined
- May 12, 2017
For me, cutting the cord with Funimation wasn't necessarily painful to begin with. Their shit consumer practices were gradually edging me over to piracy and buying secondhand prior to 2015. The whole KickVic fiasco basically cemented my utter refusal to support them financially in any way. Plus, all the Funimation shows that I still adore that they have the licensing rights to are immensely popular (i.e. FMA 2003, Ouran HSHC, Fruits Basket, Black Butler, Serial Experiments Lain, Hellsing Ultimate) so getting secondhand DVD/BD copies isn't a monumental chore.
For me, the sour thing about Funimation's downfall is the fact that they were arguably the most consistent in terms of quality for the overwhelming majority of its existence. Funimation never overextended itself like Geneon did by licensing and dubbing shows that literally no one would watch. Funimation also once kept a consistent track record for quality with their dubs unlike ADV which preferred to take more creative liberties with the script for localisation purposes. Hell, Funimation wasn't even above acting like Discotek when ADV and Geneon went defunct because they absorbed a huge chunk of their library.
Sentai Filmworks is undoubtedly my "preferred" distributor nowadays, but that doesn't mean that they're perfect. Their physical releases for DVD are fucking abysmal considering how they maintained ADV's practice of using spindle cases which put unnecessary wear and tear on the disc (I learned that lesson the hard way when I bought a secondhand copy of Elfen Lied a few years ago). At least Funimation had the sense to not do that. On top of this, Sentai's acquisition by AMC Networks means that their value proposition that was their main saving grace against Funimation has slowly been eroding with time. Their major sales used to offer steep discounts ranging anywhere between 50-75% off, but nowadays you're lucky if you get $10 shaved off the fucking $50 MSRP for most of their shows if they're ever on sale.
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2017
As of right now most of their money comes from video game sales followed by electronic devices, then financial services Pictures which is what they call their movie side, is about fourth place with music. As a publically traded company you can see their Q1-Q4 reports every year for each division they have.
They made about $4b last year. Compared to the $26.6b their gaming division saw. They see their gaming division paying for any bad year their pictures division gets and Laster it was a good year for them.
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- Joined
- Jun 28, 2019
I'm just gonna say it now. I'm legitimately going to miss the company as it was in the early 2000s to the early 2010s. That was an era of actual quality english dubs that showcased what dubs could be under proper supervision and care like with Cowboy Bebop. It's maddening to have watch them go from what they were then to becoming a circlejerk clique that couldn't handle any criticism whatsoever to defaming/nearly destroying someone who worked with them for years and still cared about the quality of their dubbing.
I have fond memories of going into the local FYE store at my mall or going online to buy the recent DVD releases from Funimation of One Piece as they were redubbing all the previous material 4Kids did previously. It was an experience watching those episodes and looking forward to how the Funimation dub would sound like and how the opening and closing songs would sound like in english. They actually used to dub the songs into english back then.
It sucks watching them become what they did and seeing Crunchyroll/Sony having to unplug the life support on them but after everything that happened from 2015-2019, I really only have one honest response:
I have fond memories of going into the local FYE store at my mall or going online to buy the recent DVD releases from Funimation of One Piece as they were redubbing all the previous material 4Kids did previously. It was an experience watching those episodes and looking forward to how the Funimation dub would sound like and how the opening and closing songs would sound like in english. They actually used to dub the songs into english back then.
It sucks watching them become what they did and seeing Crunchyroll/Sony having to unplug the life support on them but after everything that happened from 2015-2019, I really only have one honest response:
NoonmanR
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2021
Your average weeaboo doesn't like dubs in the first place, and they look down on people who do.
Same. After i saw the gay porno Sabat recorded coupled with all the claims of casting couch shit(and Stephanie Nadolny supposedly getting fired because she refused) i instantly sold off almost everything Funimation in my collection and never gave them a red cent after that. It also helps that their One Piece DVD releases have such shit box quality that they'll crack the discs almost instantly.
Honestly though even before that i was just buying rereleases from them, the only "recent" dub of theirs i bought that wasn't DBZ or One Piece shit(which i'm guessing people weren't buying because they were giving it the Case Closed treatment before Toei stepped in.) was that god awful Ace Attorney set, where the voices sucked and the subs were often taken line for line from the fucking video game.
Mr.PiggyOinkOinkOinkOink
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2020
Is there any data backing this kinda logic up? Like I get the people here hate funimation cause they went woke and vic, but I’ve seen so many people acting like the company was dying when nothing seems to suggest that all all.
Like why do people think Sony needed to wait until they bought crunchyroll to pull funimation off of “life support”? And that’s ignoring them building a new studio for them back in 2020 or 2021. Is that what you do for something on life support?
I think people are putting way too much stock into the naming stuff, like I guess nostalgia attachment for the name and it leaving could be a bummer, but people acting like the same stuff funimation has been doing is going to drastically change or something seem flat out ignorant
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2019
It doesn't really matter. Funimation as a brand name is officially dead. It doesn't matter if all the people are still there even if none of them are laid off or continue to still work in anime dubbing for rest of their careers, at the end of the day they no longer work for Funimation, they work for Crunchyroll/Sony.
Again, it's like saying ADV Films is still alive because Sentai Filmworks continues to dub anime in Houston. ADV and Sentai are two different companies that just happen to employ the same directors and actors.
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2019
Last Funimation thing I watched was their dub of Keijo, which was a good dub for such a silly series, that was 2016 though I watched it in early 2017, crazy to think that just 5 years later they would be gone.
I really miss what they were in that era too.
It's just crazy to think that Funimation, the Dragon Ball people, which helped them survive the DVD bubble going burst that killed almost every other publisher, are now no more too.
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2019
Japan only bought 6-8% of the PS4 globally since 2013 and Japan is still buying 6-8% of the PS5s
The American/Western market well surpassed them and companies like Sega and Atlus rely on Americans for sales, it's also why Elden Ring and Tales of Arise became such a big deal.
Japan wants fucking mobile freemium games
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2019
Let's be honest of all the companies from the DVD era of the 2000s, Funimation was effectively the only one that was able to survive that which was what made them the biggest company in the western industry at that point to begin with. In hindsight that wasn't really a guarantee they were gonna be around for very long even though it felt that way. If anything it marked their downfall in all honesty.
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2019
Funimation only survived because they had the crossover hit with DBZ, Gen Fukunaga flat out said as much as the market was collapsing that they would be ok because of DBZ, I guess Viz survived for the same reason thanks to Bleach and Naruto.
But almost any company that peddled in anything the least bit niche, ie anything outside literally the big 3 shonen series, died, in fact Funimation was clever around that time in that they tried to license things that had more normie cross over appeal like FMA and DBZ, they dabbled in a few fanservice shows like Burst Angel or oddballs like Speed Grapher and sometimes a normie appealing show failed like Case Closed, but they knew which side the bread was buttered on whereas ADV was happy pursuing weirder and weirder things like The Fuccons (like I said I think they always had this dream of something becoming a South Park esque phenomena) and Geneon would release stuff like a series about a brother and sister having an incestual relationship.
I mean don't get me wrong, the weirdness of companies like ADV and Geneon was beautiful while it lasted and they managed to survive thanks to stores like Suncoast and Media Play, but when the bottom fell out of the dvd market and stores like that closed, you sure weren't going to see shit like that at Wal-Mart, Best Buy allowed them to hang on a little bit longer, but only so much so.
Meanwhile Funimation was savvy enough in knowing it's audience and savvy enough in general to be able to get a place in stores like Wal-Mart.
I think another thing that killed the dvd bubble was Haruhi, Haruhi was a bonafide cultural phenomena that everyone and their grandmother pirated fansubs of to be part of the cultural conversation, when it came out a full year later on dvd it was seen as a laughable joke, everyone had already seen it, discussed it to death and moved on, it was been there, done that and it was obvious that something was going to need to change, people weren't going to wait another year to watch this stuff when fansubs were out there.
It's just a shame companies like ADV couldn't have gotten ahead of it and been able to smoothly transition into streaming sooner, but the 2008 market crash certainly didn't help either.
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2021
I'm really glad to see other people who are nostalgic for ADV. They were my favorite for the longest time. I've got a real sorta nostalgia for their releases. And their dubs. People rightfully shit on a lotta dubs, but I really liked most of what ADV put out. Their Cromartie High dub is still a blast.
It's weird to see Funimation going away and Crunchyroll staying. I mean, it's hard to believe how quickly they went from a site that hosted pirated anime to a legitimate business. I know it's been over a decade, but it still feels like it was way more recent.
It's weird to see Funimation going away and Crunchyroll staying. I mean, it's hard to believe how quickly they went from a site that hosted pirated anime to a legitimate business. I know it's been over a decade, but it still feels like it was way more recent.
RurkerHivemind
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2020
Goddammit Vic.
You didn't even win and you fucking killed them!!!
You didn't even win and you fucking killed them!!!
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2019
With pants-so-gay that they just keep giving Fuckimation delicious full-blown AIDS.