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Answerman - Universal Appeal


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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4410
PostPosted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 9:20 am Reply with quote
I'm a bit disappointed that Universal has opted to retire the Geneon brand at this point. It was fun seeing a few recent Funimation releases with the old Geneon logo and sound effects splashing on screen, but that came and went pretty fast. I think one of Funi's broadcast dubs actually started out with the Geneon logo for a couple episodes and then it was replaced by Universal. Even though it is the same company, seeing something I associate with big Hollywood at the start of my anime has made be a bit apprehensive, mostly for the reasons Justin mentioned. Maybe it won't matter and it'll be nothing more than a logo at the start of some shows, but I do have some concern that "We're big and can do what we want" might be a prevailing attitude going forward.
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ChibiGoku



Joined: 29 May 2004
Posts: 675
PostPosted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 9:22 am Reply with quote
Sigh... I figured the Universal logo discussion would make it here. I've seen so many people thinking that FUNimation was being bought out by Universal because of this. I've even gotten a couple questions on my ask.fm about this.

I don't know if they were trolling or they were serious, either way, tired of seeing this.
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itachi06103570



Joined: 21 Feb 2013
Posts: 200
PostPosted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 9:52 am Reply with quote
ChibiGoku wrote:
Sigh... I figured the Universal logo discussion would make it here. I've seen so many people thinking that FUNimation was being bought out by Universal because of this. I've even gotten a couple questions on my ask.fm about this.

I don't know if they were trolling or they were serious, either way, tired of seeing this.


To me it was hilarious seeing the universal logo for the first couple of times because it was unexpected. I often wondered why the logo was being used though until the article came out today explaining it. So I'm guessing for future titles that's being released by the old geneon imprint it'll just be replaced by the universal logo which I'm fine with.

And as a side note if this is the case the older geneon titles will probably get the upgraded universal logo now since the gene on imprint is being retired. A perfect example of this would be black lagoon I believe.
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4410
PostPosted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 10:25 am Reply with quote
ChibiGoku wrote:
Sigh... I figured the Universal logo discussion would make it here. I've seen so many people thinking that FUNimation was being bought out by Universal because of this. I've even gotten a couple questions on my ask.fm about this.

I don't know if they were trolling or they were serious, either way, tired of seeing this.


I am a bit curious where that particular idea comes from. The Universal logo shows up in the same spot as any other licensor logo, like Kodansha or Media Factory, but nobody seems to think those companies bought Funimation. I would guess that having a big Hollywood name show up is giving people the wrong impression. I would also guess that many aren't aware that Universal picked up Geneon Japan not long after Geneon USA went under.
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ChibiGoku



Joined: 29 May 2004
Posts: 675
PostPosted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 11:43 am Reply with quote
Greed1914 wrote:
ChibiGoku wrote:
Sigh... I figured the Universal logo discussion would make it here. I've seen so many people thinking that FUNimation was being bought out by Universal because of this. I've even gotten a couple questions on my ask.fm about this.

I don't know if they were trolling or they were serious, either way, tired of seeing this.


I am a bit curious where that particular idea comes from. The Universal logo shows up in the same spot as any other licensor logo, like Kodansha or Media Factory, but nobody seems to think those companies bought Funimation.


Yeah, that's why I was a bit confused on why people mistook it for FUNimation being bought out.

Quote:
I would guess that having a big Hollywood name show up is giving people the wrong impression. I would also guess that many aren't aware that Universal picked up Geneon Japan not long after Geneon USA went under.


This is pretty much it. I think a lot of people aren't aware that US companies do business in Japan and have done so for many years. This especially adds to confusion, due to the Geneon name being retired and now it's exclusive to NBC Universal.

I think I read somewhere that someone asked Universal for problems on a FUNimation release, when they have no control over it. I can only imagine this confusion will grow bigger as more and more NBC Universal Japan titles are brought over or repackaged from the Geneon days.

Either way, I hope information can get out there, as I can imagine the confusion will not be going away anytime soon.
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FLCLGainax





PostPosted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 12:00 pm Reply with quote
It would be preferable if NBCUniversal Japan had the name of the country in their title logo to distinguish itself on NA releases.
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GVman



Joined: 14 Jul 2010
Posts: 729
PostPosted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 12:12 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Full disclosure: I produced and mastered the English subtitled version of Karate Master you see on Hulu. I like the show, in all its quirky 70s weirdness, but I never expected it to find an audience. Luckily, it looks like people are watching it.


God bless you, Justin. I'm another fellow who absolutely adores Karate Master, and I hope more TMS classics like Kyojin no Hoshi will make their way to Hulu someday. Preferably with your involvement; these episodes look fantastic. The subs are wonderful, too, but I believe you handle the video side, correct. Whoever worked on the translation did a great job.

Speaking of poorly-mastered streaming video, I doubt we'll ever see anything quite like the episodes of Fist of the North Star available for streaming. Good Lord, everything is far too dark in those. Although, it does give one an incentive to buy the Discotek release.
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Tenchi



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 4463
Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer.
PostPosted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 12:32 pm Reply with quote
I can't say I'll miss the Geneon logo. The logo that makes me all teary-eyed with nostalgia is Pioneer, and not the late 1990s rounded red letters on white background version either but rather the the Laserdisc-era halo-tuning-fork-omega sequence.
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Hameyadea



Joined: 23 Jun 2014
Posts: 3679
PostPosted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 1:09 pm Reply with quote
About the possibility of large studios entering the anime & manga market:

Yes, they can bring in a large number of new wallets fans simply be handling the process like they do for live-action TV shows, big films, or even U.S. CGI movies (a la WALL-E, Finding Nemo). And they might even think "this (Cars & Cars 2) got decent sales figures, those (anime & manga) are pretty similar; let's do it the same way.", but by doing this, as Justin wrote and I'll paraphrase a bit, they'll bring new people at the expense of the more niche-favoring ones.

Using a Western marketing for Western merchandise works most of the time. Using a Western marketing for Eastern merchandise, less so.
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 1:20 pm Reply with quote
I would love for big Hollywood movie studios to come in, dump money so we get shows with $250-300k per-episode budgets and increased wages for workers, and not have any other involvement! Never gonna happen.
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mgosdin



Joined: 17 Jul 2011
Posts: 1302
Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA
PostPosted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 1:31 pm Reply with quote
FLCLGainax wrote:
It would be preferable if NBCUniversal Japan had the name of the country in their title logo to distinguish itself on NA releases.


Just rotate the globe so that it centers on the western pacific when the logo animation finishes. Would be distinct and classy looking.

Mark Gosdin
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Antonio Bravo



Joined: 16 Aug 2014
Posts: 39
PostPosted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 1:41 pm Reply with quote
So this is how Anime goes to TV? Bummer, I thought they have to ask the dubbing companies and then they License it. I guess I was wrong.
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Paiprince



Joined: 21 Dec 2013
Posts: 593
PostPosted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 1:42 pm Reply with quote
walw6pK4Alo wrote:
I would love for big Hollywood movie studios to come in, dump money so we get shows with $250-300k per-episode budgets and increased wages for workers, and not have any other involvement! Never gonna happen.


In a perfect world, all of the above would happen. But this is a subsidiary we're talking about anyways so I doubt they have as big of a budget as the parent company. I would assume things will remain the same, just with a different label backing them up.

I mean, let's be real here. The top execs are still disconnected old fogeys whose idea of "marketing anime" would fall in line to the ol' 4kids treatment. It's safe to say they'd just let their Japanese counterparts (geneon) do their thing since they've been at this industry way longer.
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FLCLGainax





PostPosted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 3:32 pm Reply with quote
mgosdin wrote:
FLCLGainax wrote:
It would be preferable if NBCUniversal Japan had the name of the country in their title logo to distinguish itself on NA releases.


Just rotate the globe so that it centers on the western pacific when the logo animation finishes. Would be distinct and classy looking.

Mark Gosdin
It would probably still confuse some Americans.
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Dark Mac



Joined: 17 May 2008
Posts: 309
PostPosted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 3:59 pm Reply with quote
Well, Sony's anime releases are already relatively high budget, so who knows, maybe the same thing could happen with Universal.
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