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NEWS: Sony's Funimation Global Group to Acquire Crunchyroll for US$1.175 Billion in Cash

Never been a fan of Funimation either, but aren't all their controversies about censorship and political stuff only in the dub? Feel free to enlighten me if they've changed a bunch of subtitle translations as well, but all the big ones I ever heard about were dub writers going wild rather than the actual translators.

People WANT to hate Funimation, because it makes them feel important for fighting "the man" and having an excuse to pirate. It's pathetic.

Hmm, I wonder if there's any significance that it was Funi GG that bought Crunchy and not Sony Pictures?

penguintruth wrote:

People WANT to hate Funimation, because it makes them feel important for fighting "the man" and having an excuse to pirate. It's pathetic.

Basically this. It's telling how the people who had a meltdown over Funi using the word "patriarchy" in a dub didn't care when Sentai blacklisted VA over an accusation then doubled down and unperson'd her when said accusation was proven false.

Teraman wrote:

penguintruth wrote: People WANT to hate Funimation, because it makes them feel important for fighting "the man" and having an excuse to pirate. It's pathetic. Basically this. It's telling how the people who had a meltdown over Funi using the word "patriarchy" in a dub didn't care when Sentai blacklisted VA over an accusation then doubled down and unperson'd her when said accusation was proven false.

Are you talking about Krystal Laporte? What was she accused of anyway?

If this gets approved, the biggest library of blockbusters will once again be under one roof, without the need to pay for another streaming service, and it opens up the door for new competition to take try and take either Crunchyroll or Funimation's place. My money is on Funimation's streaming service being shuttered since they've already retired in Australia in-favor of Animelab. Crunchyroll already had a larger global reach than Funimation's streamer and it makes more sense for Funimation to focus on their core licensing and acquisition business and let Crunchyroll do what it does best.

The only bad thing about this scenario is that Crunchyroll won't affiliated with Adult Swim or Rooster Teeth anymore. I'm also worried about the future of VRV. The novelty of that service was having anime simulcasts, web animation, and classic cartoons under one roof. With Crunchyroll gone, WarnerMedia revolving around HBO Max, and half of VRV's content being third-party partnerships, they aren't going to last. But I think it's still better to deal with a conglomerate that has actual experience in the production and distribution of Japanese animation, like Sony (Aniplex, Animax, etc.), then something as disorganized as AT&T.

Fanboys neither know or care about the business and assume this deal will create a monopoly because all they ever watch are action shows. The reality is that it's smaller companies, like Sentai and Discotek, that provide more variety and options for the anime streaming market and, in doing so, help prevent the bigger problem of piracy by offering their catalogs on AVOD. What fanboys should be worried about is who's going to take the "third spot" alongside Crunchymation and HIDIVE because neither party is going to be able to acquire every show during every season and, if they don't, something like Netflix will try. I honestly think that "everything for everyone" brands like Netflix are better off co-producing anime than offering U.S simulcasts.

2017 was a game changer because of the Crunchymation partnership and I look forward to seeing what else can be done after everything is cleaned up.

Not that a monopoly is ever really a good thing, but I suspect that will be who is most affected by this: English dub watchers, especially if Sony throws out all the Crunchyroll's dub producers and LA voice actors and uses strictly Funimation/Texas talent.

Will this be the end of it, or will there be other companies being brought out? Like Viz or GKIDS.

lostrune wrote:

Not that a monopoly is ever really a good thing, but I suspect that will be who is most affected by this: English dub watchers, especially if Sony throws out all the Crunchyroll's dub producers and LA voice actors and uses strictly Funimation/Texas talent.

That's one thing I would hate to see, dubs done for CR shows all done by Funimation. Not that LA is inherently better, but Funimation feels more like a dub factory in recent years than a studio, LA and NY dubs don't feel so rushed.

I feel like it would be better to roll Funi into Crunchy. Crunchy seems like it has been super hot the last few years, and Funimation seemed like it was limping. Although my only real concern is that they don't put everything into Funi's app because that thing is garbage.