Forum - View topic

Answerman - What Should We Expect from the Sony Pictures TV - Funimation Deal?

If anything, I see this as nothing more than a capital investment from Sony where they saw a company on the rise and decided to get a good chunk of their profits along with it. Sure Sony will use its own resources to help accelerate that growth (worldwide distribution being the big one), but I don't see why you would think that Sony would cut off the CR deal. There's no reasoning why Gen Fukunaga would sell off a large stake of his company and agree to sever the CR partnership when he's the one who agreed to the partnership in the first place, and it has clearly been a success.

Culture/integration problems aside, when the acquisition was announced, it struck me as a natural fit. Sony has access to the production committee system, and Funimation has deep in-house dubbing expertise and capabilities. Funimation's catalog may be its single most valuable asset, strictly speaking, but those are the two ultimate ends the trans-Pacific anime pipe.

So whatever SAG/AFTRA has to say about it, surely Sony must have some kind of plan for retaining Funimation's in-house dubbing expertise and capabilities. Or I hope they do. That's my biggest concern, even more than the prospect of Sony ripping out a number of vital organs from VRV just so they can resurrect Frankenstein's Crackle. But if anybody can ruin the good thing Funimation has going in Texas, no doubt it's a bunch of LA union suits.

We've already seen Amazon decide to use a double paywall, and respond to negative reactions by just buying up more shows rather than listen to customers. We've also seen that these big companies either have little interest in anything other than streaming, or they aren't willing to give physical releases the attention and effort that anime fans expect.

So after just 7 short months of Amazon being more heavily involved in anime we can conclude that they do not plan to do any physical releases of their shows? I prefer to wait 12 more months before declaring Amazon the enemy of anime fans.

Thanks, Justin. It was good to read some informed speculation about this move. I worry about what this means ultimately, but we'll just have to wait and see what trasnpires. I too am bummed about the probable end of the Crunchyroll-Funi streaming partnership. Mind you, I had kept my Funi subsription regardless, so I suppose I won't really be affected much if they become fierce competitors.

Culture/integration problems aside, when the acquisition was announced, it struck me as a natural fit. Sony has access to the production committee system, and Funimation has deep in-house dubbing expertise and capabilities. Funimation's catalog may be its single most valuable asset, strictly speaking, but those are the two ultimate ends the trans-Pacific anime pipe.

So whatever SAG/AFTRA has to say about it, surely Sony must have some kind of plan for retaining Funimation's in-house dubbing expertise and capabilities. Or I hope they do. That's my biggest concern, even more than the prospect of Sony ripping out a number of vital organs from VRV just so they can resurrect Frankenstein's Crackle. But if anybody can ruin the good thing Funimation has going in Texas, no doubt it's a bunch of LA union suits.

If Sony divisions don't talk to each other, does that mean that Sony Pictures Animation won't have much to do with this?

They own a handful of smaller cable channels in the US, but internationally run Animax networks that are primarily anime focused (though in many areas they've been phased out). They also own an also-ran streaming service called Crackle.

As entertainment becomes more and more globalized, Funimation, Crunchyroll, Amazon and other players have been jockeying to be a part of the production committees that produce the anime itself. By coming in as a co-producer they not only get to enjoy in a show's success in EVERY territory, but they actually get some say in what would be popular in their own territory. They also get to shut out the competition for any show they co-produce.

It's worth noting that Sony have actually teamed up with Universal in Australia to release anime titles (Mostly Funimation shows).

Will this mean airings of Funimation anime on the Sony Movie Channel?

If Funi have to hand over the BD production side of things to them, God help us all.

Seeing Justin is worried about Funimation's DVD/Blu-ray quality getting worse with Sony definitely worries me, considering some of Funimation's releases with their in-house team haven't been the best lately. (Falsely labeling Speed Racer as having a Japanese track/forcing a five-minute ad to play before each disc, missing English subtitles for the OP/ED of Death Parade only on home video, missing the OVAs on Senran Kagura despite advertising them until the very last minute, etc.)

I expect some noteworthy anime titles in Sony Pictures' back catalog to get dusted off and get a new lease on life. The Cowboy Bebop movie, Memories, Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika, Blood-C, Nodame Cantabile and several others would really do well with Funimation's treatment, and may get re-released.

With Amazon getting into anime I think that Funimation needed to do this since while their Simuldubs service is unique it still requires them to buy anime licenses. I do hope that in the long term that Funimation keeps running their own service since they have a good understanding of the anime market.

The mega corporations are bidding over anime licenses so the market has fundamentally changed. Of course due to fanservice issues some titles will be safe from this but for more mainstream shows the bidding prices are going to be higher. I am just happy that Funimation will be in a better position to get anime licenses since Amazon seems to have zero interest in dubbing any of the shows they simulcast.

Amazon is an online distribution company. They don't really do physical production of their own stuff. (Well, they do, but not very often.) It's just like how Hulu and Netflix do not release very many of their own shows or movies on home video: They're not in the market for it.

Union meddling is one of the reasons LA Dubs haven't been able to compete with Funimation who can pretty much hire whoever they want for whatever they want. Hire who's best for the job that's my opinion shouldn't matter who they are or what they're a part of.

I can guarantee there will be backlash if Funi has to start dropping actors for Union crap in another state on projects unrelated to them.