Funimation gets first dibs on Anime

[Roy Mustang]

Funimation gets first dibs on Anime


[quote="ICv2"]In a conference call discussing his company's latest quarterly financial results Cary L. Deacon the CEO of Funimation parent Navarre told industry analysts that Funimation has “a first look at all opportunities in terms of licenses. We’re seeing them all, we have an opportunity to bid on them all.â€

[ChristianKitsune]

Hmm I've noticed that Funimation does indeed get a lot of the anime. At least lately.

Since I haven't seen much lately, did Funi absorb ADV? Because I haven't seen any titles by them lately.

Viz seems to be getting kind of only really really popular things, while Funimation...not so much popular, but they have good quality.

Also I like the fact that Funi is releasing the majority of their series in box set form...and I also think the online streaming of some of their series was a brilliant move... why didn't anyone think of that sooner?

I mean they have commericals that run.... it makes a lot of sense!

[Bobtheduck]

I like funi well enough... I just wish they'd reduce prices. I could get 26 ep box sets from ADV (LEGIT) for 40 bucks, but the same length from Funi would be 80 or 120. Not that it matters for me here, since I can't really buy it easily here anyhow.

[blkmage]

Since I haven't seen much lately, did Funi absorb ADV? Because I haven't seen any titles by them lately.

Also I like the fact that Funi is releasing the majority of their series in box set form...and I also think the online streaming of some of their series was a brilliant move... why didn't anyone think of that sooner?

ADV exists as a bunch of splinter companies, so I don't think you'll be seeing anything from "ADV" any time soon.

Crunchyroll has licenses only for streaming and mostly for currently airing shows.

[Roy Mustang]

Crunchyroll has licenses only for streaming and mostly for currently airing shows.

She was just talking about how Funimation has put their titles up for streaming on their web site, Joost and Hulu and not as just license titles only for streaming.

[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]
Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

[Yamamaya]

I like funi for the most part(their dub did butcher Higurashi though which is almost unforgivable. XD).

However their prices are a bit high. I mostly buy old ADV stuff.

[blkmage]

She was just talking about how Funimation has put their titles up for streaming on their web site, Joost and Hulu and not as just license titles only for streaming.

[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]
Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

Right, but Joost and Hulu also have general TV shows for streaming. On the other hand, Crunchyroll, like Funimation deals exclusively with anime (well, and Asian dramas too, I guess, but those don't really air on general American TV either). My suspicion is that a large part of Funimation's offerings are there because of Crunchyroll entering the streaming space.

[MasterDias]

I think Funimation's prices are as about as cheap as they can actually get and still make a profit. Also, a majority of the really cheap series from ADV are older and lower-tier titles. Their high-selling stuff can still be fairy pricey(ex. Full Metal Panic, NGE, etc.)

(their dub did butcher Higurashi though which is almost unforgivable. XD).

Funimation had nothing to do with that dub. It was Geneon's license originally.

[Yamamaya]

I think Funimation's prices are as about as cheap as they can actually get and still make a profit. Also, a majority of the really cheap series from ADV are older and lower-tier titles. Their high-selling stuff can still be fairy pricey(ex. Full Metal Panic, NGE, etc.)


Funimation had nothing to do with that dub. It was Geneon's license originally.

Oh right, I forgot about that. After Geneon went under, Funi started to produce the DVDs.

[creed4]

Funimation seems to be getting the most licenses right now. Adv dissolved and became section23 and another company. It seems that the only players we have now is funamation and Viz

[KhakiBlueSocks]

[font="Trebuchet MS"][SIZE="4"][color="RoyalBlue"]Pretty soon, Funimation's tagline will go from "You Should be Watching" to "Guess What? That's ALL You're Watching."

Seriously, this doesn't really surprise me much. Funimation has been in the game for quite a while, so its no wonder they get first dibs on the anime. Is it fair to other companies? Who's to say?[/color][/SIZE][/font]

[blkmage]

Considering that a pretty big contributor to Funimation's income is still Dragonball, I think that they're in a position to be taking more risks and buying more titles. If those titles fail, they've always got Dragonball DVDs to count on. Or FMA or whatever old series still sells a disproportionately large amount of stuff.

[KhakiBlueSocks]

Considering that a pretty big contributor to Funimation's income is still Dragonball, I think that they're in a position to be taking more risks and buying more titles. If those titles fail, they've always got Dragonball DVDs to count on. Or FMA or whatever old series still sells a disproportionately large amount of stuff.

I kinda think that ADV operated under that same methodology, except their fallback was a little anime called "Neon Genesis Evangelion".

[blkmage]

I kinda think that ADV operated under that same methodology, except their fallback was a little anime called "Neon Genesis Evangelion".

Maybe, but I have doubts it worked as well, unless there's a quote out there that says otherwise. I mean, NGE was certainly big, but I don't think it was big enough or ubiquitous enough to keep their entire company afloat. For one thing, there's simply more of Dragonball to sell: the series was longer, there are a ton of movies, etc.

[EricTheFred]

Great for Funi, but I really wish they would try a little hard at exploiting the cable business. They have a cable anime channel, the only anime I can get on my FIOS, but they continuously run the same handful of series over and over for months and months. I think I've watched every episode of Peach Girl, Black Cat, Suzuka and School Rumble five times.

Their VOD is worse, completely failing to recognize that customers are going to want to see the available eps change more than once every few eps (when one or two go away and one or two new ones post.) These shows were designed to watch at one episode per week!

The crazy thing is, they've done a much better job of choosing varied content and shuffling it regularly on their streaming channels.

[Yamamaya]

Well the issue with NGE is that it was only one season while DBZ is 10+ seasons. Thus sales are obviously going to be much less since most people will just buy the box set. Plus the movies weren't produced by them, they were made by Manga Entertainment. Obviously Funi is going to make a lot more dough off of DBZ than ADV would make off of NGE. That's not considering the fact that DBZ attracts a wider audience.

[Roy Mustang]

Also, you have to add that Funi has the rights to new NGE movies and most people are really liking the movies a lot better then the series.


[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

[Yamamaya]

Rebuild of Evangelion Now with 75% less angst and whining!

If Funi's expansion causes more sales and a slight decrease in price then I'll be happy.

[Roy Mustang]

I wouldn't count out Section23 Films as they may do fine as they just pick up The Skull Man.

FYI, Geneon is still around in Japan, now under Geneon Universal Entertainment Japan, LLC as they merged with Universal Pictures Japan on February 1, 2009.

Geneon USA really didn't go went under. Dentsu, the company that owns Geneon Japan and Geneon USA just pulled the plug on Geneon USA.

They wanted to have Geneon USA just license anime in the US and let someone else be the distributor. That fell apart and then they just pulled the plug on Geneon USA.

A.D. Vision should have never had the Sojitz partnership. That is what screw them up. Sojitz put a lot of money into ADV to use buy anime license for the US. Sojitz just gave them a year to make money off their deal and when they didn't see a big money coming their way. They plug the pull on them and since it was their money that was buying the anime licenses, they got to keep the titles and sell them off to other US distributors.

ADV did mess up by going on shopping spree with the money that Sojitz gave in the partnership, but Sojitz didn't really give them time bring the money back in.

Even after ADV and the Sentai Filmworks partnership happen after the mess with Sojitz. They were hurting and it was not really a shock that they had to sell off a lot of stuff and turn it over to Sentai Filmworks, which started the Section23 Films as a distributor and marketing company for Sentai Filmworks, Switchblade Pictures, and AEsir Holdings.

I just hope that Funimation learns to not trust Sojitz Corporation as they some what have a partnership with them with the titles that bought from Sojitz.

[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

[airichan623]

wat about viz? for the most part, i'm not a fan of viz, though their not too bad-(im a yuri lowenthal fangirl- wat can i say)

i hope funimation redubs Tokyo Mew Mew- id buy that

and i luv the dubs of school rumble and tsubasa by them-they get kudos 4 dat

[yukoxholic]

I love both VIZ and Funimation! I think the reason why Funimation has grossed so much is because they not only distribute anime titles but also non-anime shows like Degrassi, Instant Star, etc. Plus, the majority of the titles they get rights too either have a huge fan-following or gained a lot of popularity while airing in Japan. Two big factors as to why they’re being kept afloat.

I don't think anyone should count out VIZ for anime dibs. They also have hit titles like Naruto, Bleach, NANA, Inuyasha, Honey and Clover, Death Note, etc. VIZ also acquires most rights to the Live-action releases of specific titles.

I kind of miss the littler companies that have now since gone under that used to produce the lesser known gems of anime. >_>