Forum - View topicNEWS: Sony Pictures TV to Acquire Majority Stake in Funimation
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Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
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CANimeFan88
Posts: 346 |
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After hearing this, I'm wondering what will be the next anime distributor to be purchased by a corporate empire. Whether it's Sentai, Discotek, Aniplex, or even Viz Media. And what's gonna happen to Crunchyroll?
Whatever happens, I just hope Funimation continues casting some of my favorite voice actors/actresses in Texas (for example: Todd Haberkorn, Monica Rial, Cherami Leigh, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Alexis Tipton, Brittney Karbowski, Tia Ballard, Jamie Marchi, Josh Grelle, Greg Ayres, Luci Christian, just to name a few). |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4426 |
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For the time being, it seems the answer is nothing. However, we'll probably just have to wait and see. We don't know when or if the CR/Funi partnership has any expiration date, although the migration of subbed content from Funi to CR makes me think that it was intended to last for quite some time, and Sony would have to honor existing contracts. |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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Aniplex and Viz are already part of corporate empires (Sony and Hitotsubashi respectively). As for Crunchyroll, The Chernin Group and AT&T have major stakes in the company. |
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BigOnAnime
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 1229 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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https://fandompost.vbulletin.net/forum/anime-manga-discussions/dvd-bd-cover-art-discussions/28747-heaven-s-lost-property-season-1-collection-blu-ray-dvd-combo-anime-classics?p=397911#post397911 https://fandompost.vbulletin.net/forum/anime-manga-discussions/dvd-bd-cover-art-discussions/28747-heaven-s-lost-property-season-1-collection-blu-ray-dvd-combo-anime-classics?p=398396#post398396 Or this? While FUNimation had mishaps before, these two for example were quite puzzling when the sensible thing to do would be to put this stuff on clearance, then solicit a new lower-priced release, not having a bunch of employees spend time taking shrinkwrap off hundreds or thousands of sets, taking slipcovers off and throwing them out, then reshrinkwrapping them. https://fandompost.vbulletin.net/forum/anime-manga-discussions/us-blu-ray-dvd-and-simulcast-industry-news/10649-funimation-licenses-shangri-la?p=393620#post393620 (The sticker was a big infosheet stuck to the artbox, not on shrinkwrap, they did this same thing on Shiki) As for what the COO does, he seems to have been running the company with Gen mostly sitting back. And yes, this is Glassdoor, things should be taken with a grain of salt, but keep in mind this, the negative reviews have the helpful votes, the positives rarely do, and usually would appear after negative reviews caught attention, like when people on Twitter posting screenshots would get tons of RTs. https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-FUNimation-RVW7535870.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-FUNimation-RVW7994637.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Group-1200-Media-RVW6530483.htm While you can't confirm for sure the new people are former Universal people, keep in mind though that in 2015 we saw many longtime employees publicly announce they were leaving FUNimation, and also Rojas on an ANNCast towards the end of the year confirmed that they did get a bunch of new employees.
You can't expect price increases anyway because Sony Pictures here doesn't charge Aniplex prices, and never will (nor have they ever, Blood+ wasn't $10 per episode). Are these expensive? I don't think so. release#22616 release#22615 Blood+ had prices that were similar to what everyone else was charging around the same time, and that's like the highest they ever had. release#10840 release#10839 |
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SWAnimefan
Posts: 634 |
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It's fine, you want to be optimistic and hoping this ends up a positive experience. I don't blame you. But from experience, I'm afraid I'm not as optimistic and actually concerned for Funimation and the future of Anime in the Americas. Here is some examples: Ever hear of the Everquest MMO? It was the most successful MMO prior to World of Warcraft. Sony purchased the Verant studios in the early 2000 and Verant's CEO, John Smedly, became President of Sony Online Entertainment. Then in 2007, the rebranded Verant was sold as Sigil studios and everyone was fired literally in a parking lot. Assets were sold off by Sony shortly after. Sound familiar? Or how about the changes to Bioware / Electrionic Arts purchasing Mythic Entertainment (creator of the Age of Camelot and Ultima Online MMOs), where EA no longer thought they were profitable and fired everyone in 2014 and the assets were sold off. And guess what happened to the management of Mythic? They were promoted to Bioware Managers, whom later retired as millionaires. So while I'm skeptical that Sony will indeed keep things status quo and maybe even make things better. But seeing various examples as above during my lifetime, I can't help but think that Corporate greed will win out and only Gen and Sony will profit from this venture. I fear the staff of Funimation getting the short end of the stick. Hopefully, if that time comes, they could start over as a new business. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13555 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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Now here is an interesting though: between Anime Strike and Sony Pictures USA, who has been a bigger disappointment to USA/Canada anime fans?
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Haterater
 Posts: 1727 |
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Weary of mergers, so hope things either stay the same or things work out better in areas.
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