Forum - View topicNEWS: Funimation Licenses 1987 Anime Zillion
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Spawn29
Posts: 551 |
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Why did Funimation licensed Zillion and not someone like Discotek? Funimation’s audience probably have no idea what Zillion is?
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InimitableUman
Posts: 96 |
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I don't think I would say that there's a "Funimation audience". There's an anime audience. Maybe some people only watch newer Funimation shows, but that would be a small minority.
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Spawn29
Posts: 551 |
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From what I've seen from Funimation's followers on their websites and social media, they mostly watch the current anime and stuff that they grew up with on Cartoon Network (Like DBZ, Outlaw Star, etc). |
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Saito?
Posts: 26 |
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Okay Funimation, this is awesome sauce.... but since you're willing to release SUB only titles, please please please release Tatami Galaxy!
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2560 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Okay, but to act like FUNimation should only focus on those people is silly. A company like Discotek has shown that there is a growing market for older anime & less likely license rescues, so FUNi wants to occasionally enter that market & hopefully gain some anime fans that focus more on those products. Nothing wrong with wanting a piece of that pie, as shown with the release of titles like Speed Racer or Momotaro: Sacred Sailors. At the same time, since FUNi is one of the largest companies working with anime in North America, it also helps (theoretically) give a title like Zillion more of a potential presence that the likes of Discotek. Really, releases like this help show that FUNimation is interested is trying to broaden the scope & breadth of anime fandom by way of their market presence. Sure, their primary focus will be on current anime & classic icons, but that doesn't meant that they have absolutely no interest in putting out an older work, both to attract a different market than usual & try to see if they can maybe get some of their usual market to try something different themselves. Now, admittedly, it seems like Zillion's release will be sub-only, which is sad, because it becomes yet another Streamline dub that will remain exclusive to heavily outdated video formats, in this case VHS. The people at FUNi likely feel that it's not worth the extra effort & costs to potentially have to track down multiple copies of those Streamline VHS tapes, so that they can get from them the best possible quality audio for a measely five episodes (& one OVA) worth of dubbing, similar to how Sentai didn't include the Streamline dub for Nadia back when that show got re-released. But, hey, that's part of the reason for Discotek's existence, because that company is willing to go through that insanity for the sake of something that, admittedly, will likely only appeal to a hyper-niche audience. |
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PurpleWarrior13
 Posts: 2027 |
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They may have gotten this in a package with a title they were really after. Wonder what it would be. Hope they include the short-lived dub as a bonus. With Discotek teasing the idea of dubbing some older shows, it’s a bit of a shame FUNi didn’t try with this.
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Compelled to Reply
 Posts: 358 |
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Too bad Sega was late to the game in competition with Nintendo, because I imagine a dubbed Zillion airing on TV would've done quite well and elevated Sega Master System sales in the United States. It was the 80s after all, when merchandise-driven media was king.
Maybe Funimation wants to enter the market of heritage anime releases? Discotek and Animeigo lack the capital, and with Funi recently being bought by Sony, who else? Hell, we could even see more high-profile series (re)licenses like Kimagure Orange Road and Maison Ikkoku. Last edited by Compelled to Reply on Sun Jul 08, 2018 1:10 am; edited 6 times in total |
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gravediggernalk
 Space Cowboy Posts: 246 Location: Alabama |
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It'd be a damn shame if Funimation went through the process of releasing this and didn't include the existing dub. I hope the dub for those 5 episodes end up on the set.
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FLCLGainax
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Perhaps a collector who has a complete set of the Streamline VHS tapes could get in touch with Funimation?
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Spawn29
Posts: 551 |
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The way how I look at it is that Funimation is like your mainstream Hollywood studio in the anime market where they mostly market to newer anime and some of their older franchises to the general audience seeing that's what the general audience is into. While Discotek is someone like Arrow, Blue Underground, Synapses Films where they mostly release cult titles because that's what they aim for and what their audience buys. It feels random that Funimation pick up a 30+ year old anime that their main buyers probably never seen. It's not like with Outlaw Star or Speed Racer where those did air on CN (Not to mention Speed Racer was nostalgia appeal to baby boomers and gen xers). It would be like if a movie company like Blue Underground release Rugrats in Paris. |
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Kicksville
 Posts: 1183 |
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This thought crossed my mind as well, but when's the last time there's been a package deal involving a show THIS old? I suppose if they're trying to get at some other old show, but if so, what would be worth it? Zillion for Zillion's sake seems plausible if only because it seems like the sort of thing Discotek would do - a previously mostly unreleased full series with a very small previous presence in the market here. Seems just as likely they saw it working and want to try it too. |
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NJ_
 Posts: 3024 Location: Wallington, NJ |
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There was the Kadokawa package deal from 2016-2017 which included Gosick, Nichijou, Hyouka and other titles including both versions of Record of Lodoss War.
If it was a package deal then I can imagine this was bundled with Speed Racer and due to how obscure Zillion is compared to Speed, they probably felt they didn't need to announce it much earlier to try hyping it up until now with the rest of the October releases (similar to how they handled their Kadokawa pickups along with Discotek's current handling of their Enoki Films titles). |
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Kicksville
Posts: 1183 |
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Now that might make sense. Indeed, that's one of the few older titles out there that would be worth acquiring a bit of baggage for.
Although in a way, that's kind of a bummer if true, since honestly I'd like it if they were getting into old titles like this just to do it. On a side note, Record of the Lodoss War is one of those things that I'd qualify as "normal license rescue" that I wouldn't be surprised about, given that it's already well known and was fully released, dubbed, etc in the past. |
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KabaKabaFruit
 Posts: 1873 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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That's bull. If the tapes sold reasonably well and there was significant demand from the patrons for more of the show that they enjoyed watching, it would make good business sense to continue to license more episodes. Streamline didn't handle their anime in a functional manner just as much as any other licensee during the heyday of commercial anime distribution in the 90s, which was in itself, a grand example of the left hand not knowing what the right was doing. |
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DangerMouse
Posts: 3984 |
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Hell yeah! Day one.
Yeah, I'd love this, if they could get them onto this set. |
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