Funimation

**FUNimation Productions, LLC**[3] (commonly known as **Funimation**) is an American entertainment, anime, and

   foreign content distribution company that is majority owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. Based in Flower Mound, Texas, the studio is one of the leading distributors of anime and other foreign entertainment properties in North America alongside Viz Media, Sentai Filmworks and Aniplex of America. Their most popular property is Toei Animation's action-adventure series *Dragon Ball Z*, which had a successful run on Cartoon Network's Toonami block from 1998 to 2003, and has been re-released on DVD and Blu-ray several times since.

The company was founded on May 9, 1994 by Gen Fukunaga and his wife Cindy as FUNimation Productions, with funding by Daniel Cocanougher and his family, who became investors in the company. Funimation was sold to Navarre Corporation on May 11, 2005 and the company was renamed FUNimation Entertainment.

In April 2011, Navarre sold Funimation to a group of investors including Fukunaga (and John A. Kuelbs) for $24 million.[4] Around the same time, the company's trademark ball, star and blue bar were dropped from its logo and the company was renamed to simply Funimation.[5] In May 2013, Funimation consolidated its divisions under its new holding company Group 1200 Media. Kuelbs became Chairman of Funimation/Group 1200 after the acquisition from Navarre. Kuelbs and Fukunaga continued to make additional investments into Funimation. A new senior management was brought on and a multi-year distribution deal was announced with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. In January 2016 FunimationNow a new ad free HD anime streaming service with Sony subscription was announced at the CES show in Las Vegas. On July 31, 2017, Sony Pictures Television announced plans to acquire a 95% stake in Funimation for $143 million while Gen Fukunaga will retain his position with a 5% share.[6][7] The deal was closed on October 27, 2017.

Funimation is a portmanteau of the English words "fun" and "animation". Funimation also has a long-term partnership agreement with Crunchyroll.[8]

## History

The company was founded on May 9, 1994 by Japanese-born businessman Gen Fukunaga.[9] Fukunaga's uncle, Nagafumi Hori, was working as a producer for Toei Company; Hori approached Gen about licensing *Dragon Ball* to the United States. He proposed that if Fukunaga could start a production company and raise enough money, Toei Animation would license the rights to the franchise (which also currently included the English subtitled version of *Digimon Adventure*, *Digimon Adventure 02*, and *Digimon Tamers*). Fukunaga met with co-worker Daniel Cocanougher whose family owned a feed mill in Decatur, Texas and convinced Cocanougher's family to sell their business and serve as an investor for his company. The company was originally formed in Silicon Valley, California as Funimation Productions in 1994, but eventually relocated to Flower Mound, Texas, located near Fort Worth.[10] They initially collaborated with other companies on *Dragon Ball*, such as BLT Productions, Ocean Studios, Pioneer and Saban Entertainment. By 1998, after two aborted attempts to bring the *Dragon Ball* franchise to a U.S. audience via first-run syndication, it finally found success on Cartoon Network's action-oriented programming block Toonami, and the *Dragon Ball* phenomenon quickly grew in the United States as it had elsewhere. This led Funimation to begin licensing other anime to the U.S.

### Purchase by Navarre Corporation

On May 11, 2005, Funimation was acquired by the now-defunct Navarre Corporation for US$100.4 million in cash and 1.8 million shares of Navarre stock. As part of the acquisition, the president Fukunaga was retained as head of the company, transitioning to the position of CEO, and the company's name was changed from Funimation Productions to Funimation Entertainment.[11][12]

In 2007, Funimation moved from North Richland Hills, Texas to Flower Mound; the standalone Flower Mound facility has double the square footage of the space Funimation occupied previous North Richland Hills facility; in the North Richland Hills facility Funimation shared the building with other tenants.[13] Funimation moved into the Lakeside Business District with a ten-year lease.[14]

### Acquisition of Geneon and ADV Licenses and Online Streaming

According to an interview in February 2008 with Navarre Corporation CEO Cary Deacon, Funimation was in early stage negotiations to acquire some of the titles licensed through Geneon's USA division, which ceased operations in December 2007.[15] In July 2008, Funimation confirmed that they had acquired distribution rights to several Geneon titles, including some that Geneon had left unfinished when they ceased operations.[16]

At Anime Expo 2008, Funimation announced that it had acquired over 30 titles from the Sojitz catalog that had previously been licensed by ADV Films.[17]

In 2009, Funimation signed a deal with Toei Animation to stream several of its anime titles online through the Funimation website and Hulu.[18]

### Sale from Navarre, Nico Nico Partnership, and Distribution Deal

In the first quarter of 2010, Navarre Corporation reclassified Funimation as "discounted operations" and began preparations to sell the company.[19] Navarre released a statement in April 2011 confirming that Funimation has been sold to a group of investors, including original owner Gen Fukunaga, for $24 million.[4] It is speculated that Funimation was sold at such a low cost (in comparison to how much it was originally purchased for, almost $100 million in cash and $15 million in stock in 2005) because Navarre wanted to continue distributing goods in relation to the products, but not handle the publishing. Navarre remained as exclusive distributor of Funimation's titles until 2013 when the company shutdown.

On October 14, 2011, Funimation announced a permanent partnership with Niconico, the English-language version of *Nico Nico Douga*, to form the 'Funico' brand for the licensing of anime for streaming and home video release. From this point on, virtually all titles simulcasted by Niconico were acquired by Funimation.[20] The deal has since been severed.

On June 22, 2015, Funimation and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment announced a multi-year home video distribution deal. The deal will allow UPHE to manage distribution and sales of Funimation's catalog of titles.[21] Universal began distributing Funimation's titles in October of that year.[22]

### Funimation Now and Partnership With Crunchyroll

In January 2016, Funimation announced a new streaming service, FunimationNow, along with a new logo. The service also is available in the UK and Ireland, the first time the company has expanded beyond North America.[*citation needed*]

On September 8, 2016, Funimation announced a partnership with Crunchyroll.[8] Select Funimation titles will be streamed subtitled on Crunchyroll and select Crunchyroll titles will be streamed on FunimationNow, including upcoming dubbed content. In addition, Funimation and Universal will act as distributors for Crunchyroll's home video catalog.

On May 18, 2017, Shout! Factory acquired the North American distribution rights to *In This Corner of the World*, with a U.S. theatrical release to take place in August 11, 2017, co-released by Funimation Films.[23]

### Acquisition by Sony Pictures

In May 2017, it was reported that Universal Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment were interested in purchasing Funimation; however, Universal decided not to proceed with the bidding.[24] On July 31, 2017, Sony Pictures Television announced that it would buy a controlling 95% stake in Funimation for $143 million, a deal that was approved by the United States Department of Justice on August 22, 2017.[25] This deal allows Funimation to have synergies with Sony's Animax and Kids Station divisions and "direct access to the creative pipeline".[26] The deal was closed on October 27, 2017.

On February 16, 2018, it was reported that Shout! Factory's Stout! Studios division acquired the U.S/Canadian distribution rights to *Big Fish & Begonia* and partnered with Funimation Films again for distribution.[27]

## Legal Actions

### Anti-Piracy

In 2005, Funimation's legal department began to pursue a more aggressive approach toward protecting the company's licensed properties. Then started sending "cease and desist" (C&D) letters to sites offering links to fansubs of their titles. This move was similar to that taken by the now-defunct ADV Films several years before with several of the major torrent sites.[*citation needed*]

Funimation's legal department served C&D letters for series that had not yet been advertised or announced as licensed, including *Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle*, *Black Cat*, and *SoltyRei*, with a few known series also mentioned in the letter.[28] Funimation revealed more licenses on October 6, 2006 when it sent letters to torrent sites demanding that distribution of *xxxHolic'*s TV series, *Mushishi*, *Ragnarok the Animation*, and other series cease.[29]

Since October 2009, Funimation has routinely filed DMCA takedown notices to get unauthorized distributions of its and its partners' properties removed from Google search results.[notes 1]

In January 2011, Funimation filed a lawsuit against BitTorrent users in the U.S. for allegedly downloading and uploading *One Piece*.[30] Funimation dropped the suit in March after a Northern Texas judge, having already indicated that the court would appoint attorneys for the defendants,[31] ruled that the defendants were not "acting in concert" and thus couldn't be sued as a group; each would have to be sued separately.[32]

The *One Piece* film at issue was a fansub, an unauthorized copy distributed with fan-produced, translated subtitles. Soon after the lawsuit was abandoned, Funimation was reported to have long been deriving dubs from fansubs.[33] Funimation nevertheless maintains that fansubbing is harmful to the anime industry, stating "The practices of illegal downloads and 'fansubbing' are very harmful to our Japanese partners and [...] we have been asked to monitor and take action against unauthorized distribution of these titles. Because we believe that this will benefit the industry, we have agreed to do so."[34] Sites which distribute fansubs or separate fan-created subtitles remain a frequent target of civil actions by Funimation and other anime companies, as well as criminal prosecution in at least one case.[35]

Two months after the failure to sue BitTorrent users in the North Texas district, Funimation engaged in forum shopping and proceeded to sue 1,427 defendants in the neighboring East Texas district for acting "in concert" to infringe copyright on *The Legend Is Born: Ip Man*. This case was allowed to proceed.[36]

### Disputes With Partners

In November 2011, Funimation sued A.D. Vision, AEsir Holdings, Section23 Films, Valkyrie Media Partners, Seraphim Studios, Sentai Filmworks and its CEO, John Ledford and Switchblade Pictures for a sum of $8 million, citing "breach of contracts" and other issues. Funimation said that ADV's transfer of assets were made with "the intent to defer, hinder or defraud the creditors of ADV [Films]." Funimation sought ADV's sale of assets as void.[37] The lawsuit was settled in mediation in 2014. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.[38]

## Foreign Distribution

Funimation does not directly release its properties in non-North American (English language-speaking) markets, instead sublicensing to other companies such as Manga Entertainment until it was transferred in 2015 to Anime Limited in the United Kingdom and Madman Entertainment in Australia and New Zealand, Melanesia Region (PNG, Solomon Islands, Fiji). Funimation's former UK outlets include Revelation Films and MVM Films. Funimation has also attempted to distribute *Dragon Ball Z* to Spanish speaking audiences, and has released a number of Spanish-language DVDs of the series.[*citation needed*]

## Funimation Channel

Funimation Entertainment, along with Olympusat, launched the Funimation Channel in September 2005, the second 24-hour anime digital cable network in North America (the first being A.D. Vision's Anime Network). Olympusat was the exclusive distributor of the channel.

When the channel first launched, it was available to a few cities via UHF digital signals.[39] The service was temporary as the channel was trying to gain a foothold in the already crowded digital cable landscape. Another short-term service was the syndication of a Funimation Channel block to one of OlympuSAT's affiliate networks – Colours TV.[40] Both services were discontinued in favor for a more successful expansion on digital cable, fiber optics and DBS systems. The channel launched its HD feed on September 27, 2010. On December 31, 2015, Funimation & Olympusat ended their deal and no longer broadcasts Funimation titles on the channel.[41] The channel relaunched as Toku, while Funimation announced plans to relaunch Funimation Channel in 2016.

Back in 2007, Funimation Entertainment licensed *Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie*, the *Record of Lodoss War* series, *Roujin Z*, the *Project A-ko* series, *Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer* and *Grave of the Fireflies* from Central Park Media and played them on the Funimation Channel on television in the United States.[42][43][44] In 2009, they licensed *Buso Renkin*, *Honey and Clover*, *Hunter × Hunter*, *Nana* and *Monster* from Viz Media (their fellow rival) for the channel.[45][46][47] They also licensed *Ninja Nonsense* and *Boogiepop Phantom* from Right Stuf Inc.'s Nozomi Entertainment division for it as well. The only title licensed for Funimation Channel which was not licensed by Funimation, neither Viz Media, nor Nozomi Entertainment or Central Park Media was *Haré+Guu*, which was licensed for North American distribution by AN Entertainment and Bang Zoom! Entertainment and had its North American DVD release published by Funimation, while its licensors were the producers. The only Enoki USA titles Funimation licensed for Funimation Channel were *Revolutionary Girl Utena* and *His and Her Circumstances*.[48]

## Alternative Distribution

In July 2008, Funimation and Red Planet Media announced the launch of a mobile video-on-demand service for AT&T Mobility and Sprint mobile phone subscribers.[49] Three titles were part of the launch, *Gunslinger Girl*, *Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase*, and *The Galaxy Railways*, with entire seasons of each made available.

On September 19, 2006, Funimation created an official channel on YouTube where they upload advertisements for box sets, as well as clips and preview episodes of their licensed series. In September 2008, they began distributing full episodes of series on Hulu.[50] In December of the same year, Funimation added a video section to their main website with preview episodes of various series. In April 2009, they began distributing full episodes of series at Veoh.[51][52] Full episodes are also available on the YouTube channel as well as on Netflix, the PlayStation Network (PSN) Video Store and Xbox Live/Zune Marketplace.[53] The application launched for PlayStation 4 in March 2015.[54]

For the anime *Space Dandy*, Funimation dubbed episodes and broadcast them on Adult Swim's Toonami block a day earlier than the "original" Japanese broadcast. After the method gained success, Funimation announced in October 2014 a "broadcast dubs" program, which would be exclusive to subscribers on their website. For the anime series, getting "broadcast dubs" confirms that the anime series will get USA home video releases from Funimation.[55] These dubs are based on the broadcast versions of select licensed shows currently airing, which may include censorship depending on how it was originally aired, and differs from the final dubbed version included on home video releases on a case-by-case basis. The program first began with broadcast dub versions of *Psycho-Pass 2* and *Laughing Under the Clouds*, episodes of which were streamed roughly a month following their original Japanese broadcast.[56]

## Why They Rock

1. Very faithful to the source material, only making minor changes that still get the point across.
2. Their dub of *Dragon Ball Z* is a **massive** improvement over the Ocean Group dub, which was heavily censored and edited by Saban Entertainment.
3. Their dub of *Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt* was made even more vulgar and raunchy than its Japanese counterpart due to Gainax requesting it so.
4. Three words: **Christopher R. Sabat**.
5. Very skilled and talented voice actors that add emotion and realism to the dubs.
6. Redeemed *One Piece* in the eyes of western audiences after 4Kids Entertainment completely castrated the show in order to make it "family-friendly".
7. Many of the anime they've dubbed is from Shonen Jump.
8. Sean Schemmel is considered by many western *Dragon Ball* fans (as well as some Japanese fans) to be **the** voice of Adult Goku.
9. Owned the rights to *Initial D* shows until *Fourth Stage* and redeemed the show after it was utterly bowdlerized by Tokyopop, who removed the Eurobeat (a genre that defines the show) soundtrack and replaced it with generic hip-hop/rock songs (that made it come off as a *Fast and Furious* rip-off), changed the characters' names to the ones from the English releases of *Initial D: Arcade Stage*, and added unnecessary special effects that ruined the aspect of the races.

## Bad Qualities

1. The first few episodes of their *Dragon Ball Z* dub weren't very good (though in all fairness, they'd just taken over from the Ocean Group).
2. Some of their other dubs aren't too great either.
3. On most of their Blu-ray releases, they lock subtitles into place when the audio setting is changed to Japanese. This is intended to prevent Japanese fans from importing their releases (Japan and North America have Region A-coded Blu-rays, and American sets are cheaper than Japanese sets), but is a huge and complete disservice to people who understand Japanese without the need of subtitles. Even Viz Media and Sentai Filmworks are guilty of the same practice.
4. They used to have online videos on YouTube of their various anime dubs, but now they don't really have much anymore, and some have even been privated.