Sounds like business as usual to me.
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Sony Pictures TV Networks To Acquire Majority Stake (95%) in Funimation
- Thread starter Shard
- Start date
Sounds like business as usual to me.
Lord of Castamere
Member
Come on guys, Funimation only handles the exporting. They didn't buy Toei Animation.
MikeHattsu
Member
Don't you bring that evil here!
In terms of IPs? Jack and fucking shit. They're an anime licensee that happens to have deep pockets and a good relationship with most of the major anime producers.
What Sony wants is the US distribution rights to all those anime, which gives them a new market to explore. Funny enough, this does basically mean that Cowboy Bebop is now under one umbrella, as Sony has had the rights to the movie since it came out.
Aaronrules380
Member
Dark Ninja
Member
Dubs gonna take even longer now probably.
vinnygambini
Why are strippers at the U.N. bad when they're great at strip clubs???
Does that mean that we'll get Aniplex releases from Funimation and not cost hundreds of dollars? :O
SapphiCine
Member
This is odd since Sony already has Aniplex.
I guess not that odd if Sony Pictures Television is better equipped to manage Funimation than Sony Music/Aniplex. Also it might be less of a headache from a legal perspective, since Aniplex is a producer of anime.
Big corporations are silly.
I guess not that odd if Sony Pictures Television is better equipped to manage Funimation than Sony Music/Aniplex. Also it might be less of a headache from a legal perspective, since Aniplex is a producer of anime.
Big corporations are silly.
Nah as Shard says unless something changes, Sony Music is the one with Aniplex not the pictures tv division.
Not likely given that Aniplex and FUNimation are going to be run by different Sony divisions located in different areas with different priorities.
OrlanisWorks
Banned
Big question for me: will this have any impact on the planned blu-ray release of Your Name in the US?
CreeperBlocks
Banned
STOP
Nope
But under Sony you may have a bigger push on theatrical releases, which should be nice.
Can't imagine what would change at this point. This news isn't going to have much of an impact on deals that have already been signed, if any, and we already know that they're already hard at work on the US Blu-rays in order to get them out before Xmas. Maybe with Sony money, they might now be able to afford the 4K master to do a UHD disc, but that's about the extent of it, I feel.
Nothing in the short term given that the acquisition still has to be completed and the contract between Crunchyroll and Funimation remains valid even if other parties buy them. After the current contract ends then it becomes hard to say what will happen.
Host Samurai
Member
Hopefully something video game related can come of this
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
Out? Was he ever in?
I thought the only connection was through Gen, who is in a managerial role at Echolight, and is also CEO of Funimation?
Crimson_Echidna
Banned
Crunchyroll is owned by Ellation, a sub-group of AT&T.
JonnyDBrit
Member
Yeah, my big worry here is that Sony will start directing the business to again act in terms of being a competitor with the likes of Crunchyroll, rather than a mutual partner for the betterment of the anime community in one of its... oddly weaker markets, honestly. Crunchyroll and Funination agreeing to share shows with the former focusing on subs and the latter doing dubs is the sort of thing that fans have dreamed of for ages, so that being potentially threatened if a larger body like Sony feels that isn't maximising revenue is... troubling to think about.
On the other hand, Sony does have a great deal more connections and resources to play around with than any independent company - particularly one relying on a niche market like this - could hope for. With the right support, Funimation's service could drastically improve.
...at the very least, maybe a discount on the cost of BDs? Would be nice if we could get reprints of DBZ Kai for cheaper.
On the other hand, Sony does have a great deal more connections and resources to play around with than any independent company - particularly one relying on a niche market like this - could hope for. With the right support, Funimation's service could drastically improve.
...at the very least, maybe a discount on the cost of BDs? Would be nice if we could get reprints of DBZ Kai for cheaper.
Virtually every major show that Funi has licensed has its video game rights over at Bandai-Namco. There's not a whole hell of a lot that Funi does besides license series and movies for US distribution.
SatoAilDarko
Member
Funimation has always been my favorite anime distributer and one of my favorite companies I general. I have dozens of their releases. I was subscribed to Funimation Elite for over a year which was my only anime streaming subscription mainly to support them.
I'm a huge dub fan and always appreciated that aspect of their releases. Huge fan of their One Piece dub as well. I watch the first 3 sagas or 200 or so episodes that way. Is still collect the releases.
They also were responsible for a lot of affordable anime releases which was hugely appreciated by a collector by me. They also never overcharged which sometimes would prevent me from owning favorites of mine like Blood+ and Durarara!!.
Also they were responsible for bringing over plenty of niche series. Just this year they saved the US release of Nichijou years after Bandai dropped it.
Not to mention growing up with Toonami and Adult Swim in the 2000's.
I'm hoping this isn't bad but I can't help but feel this won't be an improvement.
I'm a huge dub fan and always appreciated that aspect of their releases. Huge fan of their One Piece dub as well. I watch the first 3 sagas or 200 or so episodes that way. Is still collect the releases.
They also were responsible for a lot of affordable anime releases which was hugely appreciated by a collector by me. They also never overcharged which sometimes would prevent me from owning favorites of mine like Blood+ and Durarara!!.
Also they were responsible for bringing over plenty of niche series. Just this year they saved the US release of Nichijou years after Bandai dropped it.
Not to mention growing up with Toonami and Adult Swim in the 2000's.
I'm hoping this isn't bad but I can't help but feel this won't be an improvement.
kunonabi
Member
I'd take that if the quality of the blurays improve.
Crimson_Echidna
Banned
Well, a potential plus is that after Funimation's deal with Universal expires, this likely means that Sony will take over the home video distributions for Funimation.
In that event, I think the only major anime company that Universal would distribute for would be GKids, which are about to get a huge boost since they now have the home video rights to the entire Ghibli catalog and will start releasing them in October.
How long is it in effect?
They announced a multi-year distribution deal back in 2015, though I don't think it was ever specified just how long. Universal was one of Funi's suitors back when it was announced that they were interested in selling, so I guess Sony gave them an even better offer.
KuwabaraTheMan
Banned
First of all, they can't do that. Funimation only has distribution rights in the west for these shows. Sony will not be getting any sort of DBZ rights aside from revenue from western DVD sales and like. Bandai will keep putting Dragon Ball and One Piece games on whatever platforms they choose to.
Secondly, they wouldn't do that even if they could. Plenty of anime that Sony does have the rights to (eg Aniplex stuff) still have video games on non Sony platforms.
That's not at all what this is about.
Yeah, Fate/Extella just came out on the Switch just last week. Sony isn't about to turn down free money if there's any to be made outside of their platforms. Hell, they probably wish they had more stuff to license out themselves besides Fate and Spider-Man.
WhiskerFrisker
Member
Of course you'd think that.
Crimson_Echidna
Banned
First step to bringing back the Funimation Channel? Maybe to the PS VUE? 
If this allows not US - Canada people to watch Funimation licensed animes legally, by all means, do it.
It is annoying to see Crunchyroll announce Funimation animes coming to the service, yet only available to US and Canada. And on top of that, they also blocked Latin American users from Funimation website.
It is annoying to see Crunchyroll announce Funimation animes coming to the service, yet only available to US and Canada. And on top of that, they also blocked Latin American users from Funimation website.
MikeHattsu
Member
Both companies shared offices for a while AFAIK. Dunno if they still do that though.
Actually, a potential benefit with them buying Funimation is that Funi might be able to get their hands on the anime that Sony already has, like Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door and two Satoshi Kon films (Tokyo Godfathers and Paprika) for brand-new Blu-ray sets.
I don't foresee this being good to consumers of any of the involved products. Unless... Fuck. Does Santorum directly profit off of Funimation? I stopped watching Seinfeld knowing Bannon profited off of re-runs, I'm fine with abandoning DBZ to stop Santorum from getting money earned of my time. Hopefully they boot him.
MikeHattsu
Member
Doubt it.
There's other companies in other parts of the world like Europe and Australia picking up the licenses and I dunno if they'd want to expand their business outside of NA. We'll see though.
Crimson_Echidna
Banned
Funimation also gets the TV broadcast licenses, but only Toonami/Adult Swim really chases after that.
But thinking about this more, I could see Sony try to bolster Funimation's streaming service to be able to sub-license Anime dubs from other companies as well. Like currently, Funimation managed to snag the streaming rights to the Lupin the Third Part IV dub, so I can imagine more of that. Like how Aniplex USA are having dubs done for Anohana and March comes in like a lion.So in this scenario, maybe instead of them ending up on Netflix or Hulu, Sony manages to secure the rights for Funimation NOW?
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