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NEWS: Crunchyroll, Funimation Announce Partnership to Share Content Via Streaming, Home Video, EST

mangamuscle wrote:

As I said before, they are NOT streaming uncensored Masou Gakuen HxH now (do not know about the future) which is broadcast without beams of light/darkness in AT-X. I rest my case.

Funimation is dubbing and releasing for streaming Testament to New Sister Devil of all shows in a couple weeks, DxD is one of their most popular and advertized shows and they have a whole slew of fanservice/nudity heavy shows. I'm pretty sure they are A-ok with extreme fan-service shows and the comtent they contain Haha

Videogamep wrote:

What are you talking about? It started out as a piracy site, but they removed all the shows they didn't have the license to and started negotiating for official streaming rights years ago. Crunchyroll is as legit as they come now.

You clearly fail to understand what that means. They got the venture capital to negotiate for those licenses based on their site metrics. X number of unique visitors per month, Y number of hits, etc. All of which was built upon 100s of volunteers uploading content, maintaining summary pages, moderating the forums there, etc. The site was the aggregate effort of all those people—which they then wiped it all out, cut everyone loose, and went "legit".

Do you think they would have gotten the millions in VC with no site and just a business plan? No. The entire thing was built upon abusing the efforts of all those people. And each of them are now personally worth over $100M USD for doing close to jack shit. The ends don't justify the means. Unless you think the mafia are legitimate business people as long as they donate to an orphanage every now and then?

I also have that similar concern. But more on Kadokawa. Kadokawa seems to hate Funi. If Crunchy respects Kadokawa, then there's no HxH Magias, New Game!, Ange Vierge, and Re:Zero. If Crunchy disregards Kadokawa, Kadokawa may partner to Amazon in the future. A disaster!
If Kadokawa still hates Funimation, and Crunchyroll does not want to lose Kadokawa anime, then there will be no dubs from Kadokawa anime like KonoSuba, Re:Zero, and Bungo Stray Dogs.

.... and Testament of New Sister Devil is also one of the most extremely censored (some call it "creative") anime broadcasts of all time, my post is about streaming uncensored (at the same time it is first broadcast in japan, not one year later), I already acknowledge that Funi does have ecchi in their catalog when I mentioned this season Gakuen HxH.

I wonder if Funimation will help Crunchyroll get some of their shows on Toonami.

crx07 wrote:

I also have that similar concern. But more on Kadokawa. Kadokawa seems to hate Funi. If Crunchy respects Kadokawa, then there's no HxH Magias, New Game!, Ange Vierge, and Re:Zero. If Crunchy disregards Kadokawa, Kadokawa may partner to Amazon in the future. A disaster! If Kadokawa still hates Funimation, and Crunchyroll does not want to lose Kadokawa anime, then there will be no dubs from Kadokawa anime like KonoSuba, Re:Zero, and Bungo Stray Dogs.

I'm not so sure this is the case. Some of the Crunchyroll titles already specifically announced like The Testament of Sister New Devil and Big Order are Kadokawa titles. Plus even aside from the deal, FUNi themselves have a number of home video releases of Kadokawa titles coming up (including some newly-licensed back catalog titles like Omamori Himari and Good Luck! Ninomiya-kun).

Do you think there are many people who go "I would pay to watch anime on CR, but man... without the translated song lyrics, it's just not worth it."? Be realistic.

Not much is going to change for companies like Sentai, as (and correct me if I'm wrong) they don't licence home video rights from Crunchyroll, they license them from Japan. They're still going to go for the shows they would have gone for, and if CR gets the streaming rights, they'll show up on Crunchyroll as well, as has always happened.

NitroNeon wrote:

This has me worried mainly because I'm not a huge fan of Texas dubs and wanted to hear actors from Canada, LA and New York instead.

I doubt Funimation would contract Bang Zoom or the like outright but with them stating they are increasing their dub budget I can see them hiring many LA actors to work with their usual talent for dubs as they have been much better recently in reprising the cast for animes based off games with LA dubs. Outside of Media Blasters it seems not much NY talent is used but Ocean might be getting some work if the Gintama rumors are true.

Sorry, I still don't get it and I have to repeat what I wrote before, if Crunchyroll didn't have openings and endings licensed, they should not even stream them.

The only issue I see with this is a long view one where this could lead to a straight anime monopoly/trust and then the once affordable crunchyroll or Funimation drives out the other streaming services and we get the higher priced option of FunCrunch.

OK, let me try to explain this in a way you may understand. Paying to play the song during the anime OP/ED/Instert is one thing. But if they want to translate the song, they need a separate license from the music studio. Not only that, but any translation to the song need to be aprooved by said music studio before CR would be allowed to show the translated lyrics on the streams. That is more time, effort and money then it is worth to CR. They could, theoretically, get this done, but it wouldn't give then any benefit. How many people do you really think that would bring in? Do you think there are many people who go "I would pay to watch anime on CR, but man... without the translated song lyrics, it's just not worth it."? Be realistic. Now, some studios are easier to work with then others, which is why you sometimes get trasnlated lyrics. But that's the exception.

Bottom line, bending over backwards to get the OP/ED translated is not worth the aditional cost and time.

But, as I mentioned before, almost every insert song in Crunchyroll subs I saw, was translated (though not every time they appeared, but at least once during their run, they were, usually in their first appearances). Sometimes, even opening and/or ending songs were translated if they were insert songs, but not in credits. So, why is this? Are insert songs easier to be approved for translation or does Crunchyroll put more effort (and probably money) to translate insert songs and not openings and endings? If so, what's the point? It's not like the insert songs are more important for the story than openings and endings are (at least in most cases, anime aren't musicals usually, after all).

The last, and possibly the biggest factor, is the Japanese producers. Back in the 90s, when communication between Japan and the American publishers was pretty limited, the dub teams could get away with a lot of things, and simply went ahead with their work without any input or permission from the show's licensors. Nowadays, the licensors closely scrutinize pretty much every aspect of the show's release. Very very little slips through the cracks.

While there are exceptions, generally the show's original music team does not want a team of people they've never met from a foreign country mucking about with their songs. If the music is part of a strategy to promote real-life musicians (and it often is, especially with idol shows like Love Live!), then the dubbed version of the show is useless for that purpose. If the management company or agency of those musicians happens to be on the production committee, then forget it! That music is sacrosanct, and nobody is ever allowed to touch it, ever.

NitroNeon wrote:

This has me worried mainly because I'm not a huge fan of Texas dubs and wanted to hear actors from Canada, LA and New York instead.

I doubt Funimation would contract Bang Zoom or the like outright but with them stating they are increasing their dub budget I can see them hiring many LA actors to work with their usual talent for dubs as they have been much better recently in reprising the cast for animes based off games with LA dubs. Outside of Media Blasters it seems not much NY talent is used but Ocean might be getting some work if the Gintama rumors are true.

Quote:

I really love the opening and closing theme songs of anime. Back when most of the anime online seemed to be through Fansubs alot of them (or at least the ones I liked) would have their songs subtitled. Usually a Japanese karaoke on top and an English translation on bottom. Now adays going through what I'm watching on Crunchyroll very, very few of them have the alternating English and Japanese subs. Is it a labor of love vs a labor of labor thing?

It's not so much a matter of the labor involved as the logistics. Simulcast rights are signed right up 'till the last possible moment -- sometimes after -- a show begins airing. The songs that are included in an anime don't need to be negotiated separately, because each streaming service pays a blanket royalty to ASCAP or a similar performing arts organization that authorizes them to play virtually any professionally published song from around the world. At the end of each month that company reports what got played, the organization tracks down the song publishers, and everyone gets paid their tiny royalty.

But once the streaming company (say, Crunchyroll or Funimation) starts transcribing and translating the song lyrics, THAT'S something that is not covered by ASCAP. The right to do that has to come separately from the original music publisher. Often the anime licensor can help facilitate that, but it can be a long process. By the time the anime itself is signed, the show is often already airing (or is about to), and there's simply no time left to negotiate another set of licenses or permissions. Home video comes much later, so it doesn't have that problem.

DmonHiro wrote:

Do you think there are many people who go "I would pay to watch anime on CR, but man... without the translated song lyrics, it's just not worth it."? Be realistic.

There exists a segment of the fandom that'll find any excuse possible to justify downloading fansubs or ripped subs.