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Hey, Answerman! - Funico in the Island of Magic


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asimpson2006



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 3151
Location: USA
PostPosted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 8:39 am Reply with quote
A few things here:

Funico could go really any direction and be something really good, or really bad for everyone. I am going to hold judgement since I think there is the potential for it be good especially once NicoNico goes out of beta. The big thing that I am interested in is having more shows be likely to get a physical release down the road if they do well enough during their airing. I do want to see it work.

I think it is a good thing that more titles than ever are streaming. That is not saying that I would have not seen some of the shows if they were not streaming but since there are more legal choices than ever it makes it a lot easier to see them good and bad. I would not mind more older titles streaming but I agree with Brian about what he said.

I am not giving my thoughts on Tokyopop since I do not wish to give my opinions on it.

I might have to write in again to Answerman this week.
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Hardgear





PostPosted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 9:02 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Whoever would be awesome enough to stream older stuff like Heidi of the Alps and Fist of the North Star would be the best person alive and I would probably marry them.


Actually...

http://www.crunchyroll.com/fist-of-the-north-star

And yes, it was awesome.
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2530
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 9:07 am Reply with quote
Quote:
EVERY SINGLE SERIES that airs in Japan every season


Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Brian. Yeah, we're definitely getting better and better, but we still haven't reached that exact point yet. For example, we got a lot of shows from this past Spring, but even then we only got maybe more than half of those new shows in total, not exactly what I'd call "almost every series". What happened to shows like Hyouge Mono, Showa Monogatari, Ring ni Kakero 1: Sekai Taikai-hen, and others that had to get fansubbed for them to be watchable to non-Japanese anime fans, if they even got fansubs? Were they not worthy of being simulcasted? No, they were simply left behind, and possibly not due to licensing issues, though you can't quite count that out, but simply due to them being seemingly-ignored for the season. Hell, the three I mentioned would have really benefitted from simulcasting, as none of those three have been fully fansubbed, or at least caught up to or even started getting fansubs, in English yet.

Hopefully one day we'll get to the point where we can get everything, but we still aren't quite there. Sure, for summer and winter we can get almost all of them, since they tend to be smaller amounts of new shows, but when spring and fall come around, which tend to get tons of new shows, we're still not quite there yet. But, hey, maybe Funico can actually be a big part of getting us to "every single series" sooner rather than later.

Hardgear wrote:
Quote:
Whoever would be awesome enough to stream older stuff like Heidi of the Alps and Fist of the North Star would be the best person alive and I would probably marry them.


Actually...

http://www.crunchyroll.com/fist-of-the-north-star

And yes, it was awesome.


And, hell, I can do one better, as you can actually buy DVD boxsets for the entire original 109-episode Fist of the North Star TV series right now, as Discotek/Eastern Star have released them. Not only that, but next month all of Fist of the North Star 2 will be released in one DVD boxset. Brian, you better get those marriage vows ready for Discotek.

I'll have to get back to you for Heidi of the Alps, though.
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Divineking



Joined: 03 Jul 2010
Posts: 1293
PostPosted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 9:22 am Reply with quote
Here is what funico can do for me: Get the shows on the dang site. That's it. Any technical improvements can come after that, but I;m here for the shows.

Of course with them not having a viable future release date for these streams after that delay yesterday, I'm not sure how much I can trust them to do that much...
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050795



Joined: 27 Mar 2009
Posts: 230
PostPosted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 10:40 am Reply with quote
I don't know why people are upset with the idea of Funico and automatically assume it will fail.

Now I'll be the first to admit when it comes to streaming services Niconico is definitely at the bottom of the pile, but that only means that the only place for Niconico to go is up. I mean when it was first announced I went to check it out and I hated it! The website looked cluttered, unattractive, and it was difficult to find what I was looking for. But when the Funico announcement was made I went back to check it out again, and at least the anime page, was greatly improved.

Bottom line I think that there is hope for Funico and people should be more optimistic about it.
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prime_pm



Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Posts: 2333
Location: Your Mother's Bedroom
PostPosted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 10:46 am Reply with quote
Frankly, if I ran Tokyopop, I would move toward something similar that Ken Akamatsu did with J-Comi. True, Viz has got something of a headstart, roughly, but more the reason to play catchup.
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zensunni



Joined: 05 Mar 2010
Posts: 1291
PostPosted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 12:35 pm Reply with quote
Hardgear wrote:
Quote:
Whoever would be awesome enough to stream older stuff like Heidi of the Alps and Fist of the North Star would be the best person alive and I would probably marry them.


Actually...

http://www.crunchyroll.com/fist-of-the-north-star

And yes, it was awesome.

Beat me to it...

It is also available on here: http://www.crackle.com/c/Fist_of_the_North_Star

Crackle has several really old shows. It seems to be what they do best, as they have really old American TV shows too.
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agila61



Joined: 22 Feb 2009
Posts: 3213
Location: NE Ohio
PostPosted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 12:43 pm Reply with quote
050795 wrote:
I don't know why people are upset with the idea of Funico and automatically assume it will fail. ...
In the Crunchyroll forums, there is a tendency to see the opposite assumption ~ that it will not only succeed, but it will turn into a monster, grabbing all the streams and leaving Crunchyroll to wither on the vine.

IOW, standard "zOMG the SKY it is FALLING!!!" internet forum reaction.

I think both extremes are going overboard (the beauty of "going overboard" as an analogy, since you can go overboard off of either the starboard or the port side).

One of Crunchyroll's big challenges at the moment is to work out before Winter 2011 how to get shared streams for series Sentai licensed, but also get broader region rights than just North America. If they can do that, between that and the stable of longer running Shonen Jump / TV Tokyo series they are building, they'll have a solid position in a competitive market.
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Divineking



Joined: 03 Jul 2010
Posts: 1293
PostPosted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 12:55 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I don't know why people are upset with the idea of Funico and automatically assume it will fail.
\

Don;t get me wrong or anything, I would love to see it succeed but starting off with a delay for some of the shows, when episodes have already aired on top of that does not inspire people to flock to the service. They'll be lucky if most people don;t flock to fansubs by the time they actually get this stuff up(which I pray is sooner rather than later)

I guess their lucking out on that their streaming a few two cour shows so they have a chance of recovering, but even so this is not off to a good start.
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Nekusagi



Joined: 22 Jun 2009
Posts: 49
PostPosted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 1:06 pm Reply with quote
In absolute agreement about Tokyopop needing to release the Gosick novels in book format.

With Bandai getting the license for the anime, the timing is perfect for a few omnibus releases.
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050795



Joined: 27 Mar 2009
Posts: 230
PostPosted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 1:39 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Don;t get me wrong or anything, I would love to see it succeed but starting off with a delay for some of the shows, when episodes have already aired on top of that does not inspire people to flock to the service. They'll be lucky if most people don;t flock to fansubs by the time they actually get this stuff up(which I pray is sooner rather than later)


I understand your point, but a lot of people started hating before the delay was announced.

I don't know maybe it’s because I'm an older fan who's not used to being spoiled, but the delay isn't that big of a deal to me. Honestly for most shows I wait till the show is done, so I don't have to wait a week for the next episode.

This makes me feel really old to say (I’m only 24) But I feel like it’s the younger fans who are used to, and expected to having every available instantly that are causing the biggest fuss. (Imagine an old person voice) “Why back in my day we were lucky to get any anime and it wasn’t on some strange computer contraption it was on VHS!” *sigh* Kids today. Laughing
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TheTheory



Joined: 23 Mar 2008
Posts: 1029
Location: Central PA
PostPosted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 1:47 pm Reply with quote
Quote:

This makes me feel really old to say (I’m only 24) But I feel like it’s the younger fans who are used to, and expected to having every available instantly that are causing the biggest fuss. (Imagine an old person voice) “Why back in my day we were lucky to get any anime and it wasn’t on some strange computer contraption it was on VHS!” *sigh* Kids today. Laughing

Psh. A more accurate way to do it would be, "In my day, Crunchyroll was getting C&D from FUNimation several times a week!"

It kinda weirds me out how much the anime scene has changed in just a few short years.
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agila61



Joined: 22 Feb 2009
Posts: 3213
Location: NE Ohio
PostPosted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 2:09 pm Reply with quote
050795 wrote:
Quote:
Don;t get me wrong or anything, I would love to see it succeed but starting off with a delay for some of the shows, when episodes have already aired on top of that does not inspire people to flock to the service. They'll be lucky if most people don;t flock to fansubs by the time they actually get this stuff up(which I pray is sooner rather than later)

I understand your point, but a lot of people started hating before the delay was announced. ...
Quite. The delay in the launch only looms large because of people looking for "evidence" that its not going to work. But if it flies, the delay will be forgotten, and if it doesn't fly, it won't be because of the delay.
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tuxedocat



Joined: 14 Dec 2009
Posts: 2183
PostPosted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 2:13 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Lastly, and this is the one thing that bugs me about digital editions of anything, really. I would set up a deal where say, if you had a subscription and read the latest chapters of Series X online, then you could get a big discount on the printed volumes of that series through the company's online store, if you logged in and purchased them through your online subscription account. I'm not averse to reading things online etc, and would happily pay a reasonable amount each month to read the latest chapters of my favourite series however, I like having the printed copies as well, but I'm not happy paying twice for the same material, especially if there's DRM involved.


I feel like I need to compliment st_owly on a truly excellent idea!

Also, I love the idea of more older shows streaming, especially MIA well loved favorites like Sailor Moon, or unlicensed and often mentioned titles like Legend of the Galactic Heroes. I would think that with the success of the recent Sailor Moon manga releases, someone would notice there is a market for these titles.
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CG-LOVER



Joined: 22 Mar 2010
Posts: 355
Location: East Lansing, MI
PostPosted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 3:26 pm Reply with quote
Well I'm not sure how much I have to say about Funico cause right now I really don't know what to expect. We could speculate all we want but there are just so many directions this could go. Now my hope personally is that it will lead to more physical media releases. I'm not the biggest streaming fan, so I'd rather see more of the streaming shows end up on DVD/Blu-ray sooner or later.

Now about those questions I have a comment to make. First, about the question that addressed anger at Chris acknowledging competition, you gotta be realistic man. These companies are all out for themselves in the end, and FUNi is no different. If they can take more licenses for themselves because of this service then that's what they're gonna do, regardless of whatever negative impacts it has on the others. And about the fans who supposedly "cheer" for all of the companies...it's just not true. In fact, you should see the number of people out there who actually hope for some anime companies to do poorly simply because they dislike that company's services. I'm not saying those people are right mind you, I think they're morons. But that's just how it is.

I pretty much agree with the Answerman's responses in this case as well. He made some good points about how far the industry has come over the years, and how much more available anime is for all of us. Those who won't stop complaining that it's still not enough need a history lesson.
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