Forum

BigOnAnime wrote:

What were some of FUNimation's worst-sellers during your tenture? Also did Heat Guy J actually do well for FUNimation unlike Geneon where it was a huge flop? What were some license-rescues that didn't perform? What were some license-rescues that did much better under FUNimation than at Bandai/Geneon/ADV, etc.?

I don't like to bash on poor performers. Too negative.

Primus wrote:

Based on the interview, it sounds like you weren't responsible for these, but any insight on what really happened with those uncut DVDs of 4Kids shows? Were they just not selling enough to justify creating new dubs for them? I remember a weird conspiracy theory from some fans, speculating that they sold too well. That 4Kids were mad they were upstaging their edited version. Laughing

TV Tokyo and Nihon Ad Systems (NAS) sued 4Kids Entertainment, alleging that the company entered into illegal agreements with other companies, including Funimation Entertainment and Majesco Entertainment, regarding the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime franchise. TV Tokyo claimed that those agreements allowed 4Kids to collect royalties without paying a portion of those royalties to TV Tokyo, which violates their original agreement. As part of the suit, the companies terminated the Yu-Gi-Oh! license from 4Kids. Neither Funimation nor Majesco are listed as defendants in the case.

^Actually the Yu-Gi-Oh lawsuit didn't happen until 6 years after the uncut DVDs were cancelled and the same happened with Shaman King.

I can certainly buy that the uncut Yugioh and Shaman King DVDs were a poor seller given the dubtitles, low episode count per volume when boxsets were just coming onto the scene, and the uncut dub was kind of mediocre.

NJ_ wrote:

^Actually the Yu-Gi-Oh lawsuit didn't happen until 6 years after the uncut DVDs were cancelled and the same happened with Shaman King.

So it was 6 years later, they still got sued for making distribution deals with other companies without informing the original licence holders of the royalties they where collecting.

Just listened to the podcast. ANNcast always seems it's most interesting to me when it talks shop about the business of anime,

It surprised me to hear someone actually collected our little anime magazine, Animeco! Were they easy to get?

AniMatsuri wrote:

Just listened to the podcast. ANNcast always seems it's most interesting to me when it talks shop about the business of anime,

It surprised me to hear someone actually collected our little anime magazine, Animeco! Were they easy to get?

My sister had some issues that I saved. I also found some on MileHighComics.com and MyComicShop.com

Based on what I've heard about the need to release anime in cheap, affordable boxsets in order to get the industry out of the collapse of the mid 2000's, I'm going to ruffle a lot of feathers for what I'm about to say here:

The anime distribution industry in America honestly should've died in 2006.

It was quite clear that anime was not a sustainable market with the need to release shows in premium priced VHS tapes and DVDs and honestly, what did the market really expect? Most people really had no real desire to support the industry contrary to what the virtue signallers had been stating for years. It's a Japanese market intended for a Japanese demographic. Period. Any success of shows or movies outside of Japan is purely collateral unless the studios themselves had a desire to bring their works to a global market. When you really break it down to the lowest common denominator, the fans were either pirates or viewers of a cable network that catered to a niche. Somehow, in this side of the hemisphere, that translates to us being put on an equal scale to that of the Japanese demographic?

Japan doesn't owe us anything just like we don't owe them anything. They never required our money to help their industry survive and I've seen no hard evidence to prove that they ever will. If we somehow feel that we need to be on the same consumer stage as Japan just through past acts of piracy alone, then I'm afraid that American anime fans are just blinded by entitlement rather than being considerate towards privilege.

Has it really been 10 years since he was a regular on an cast? Ouch... that hurts...on another note I get he's not at Funi anymore but it still feels odd that he didn't correct Zach and say "stratrgery" lol