The Role Of Funimation In Anime Production: Good Or Bad?
OK, it is no secret that the US Anime producers have fallen on hard financial times. In the past dfew years we have seen NewType, Geneon USA, ADV Films, and a lot of other anime houses go bankrupt. My question is about Funimation buying up every single anime franchise that comes up.
Do you think Funimation trying to establish an anime monopoly is a good thing or a bad thing?
…and remember, Funimation has the same management team that used to run the incredibly awful “4Kids.”
I’d be interested in your replies.
I think it’s good. FUNimation releases almost all of its anime uncut in it’s original Japanese form. They also add more adult lines to more adult shows such as Blassreiter. FUNimation also gets the best voice actors out of all the companies, so the dubs aren’t awful like some dubs done by other companies.
They also release okay subs on the internet while the show is airing in Japan. I don’t watch them because I download for quality, but that’s something in the right direction. FUNimation also releases double audio with the DVDs. So even if you don’t like the dub, but you like the sub, you can still own the anime DVD and watch the version you prefer.
Funimation has gotten progressively better over the past few years. They’ve come a long way from the days when they were making Dragon Ball Z laughably bad. I mean I don’t think any of us watched the dub of Full Metal Alchemist and said, “This is crap!”.
As long as they keep up with good voice actors and putting out good subs along with their dubs then all the power to them. Plus it’s really awesome that they put so much out for free on their site.