Funimation is an American television and film production company based in Flower
Mound, Texas. The studio was the largest distributor of anime and other foreign
entertainment properties in North America until other companies caught up,
such as Sentai Filmworks. Perhaps 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. Funimation began 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 for $24 million.
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. In May
2013, Funimation consolidates its divisions under its new holding company
Group 1200 Media. Funimation is a portmanteau of the English words "fun"
and "animation". History
The company was founded on May 9, 1994 by Japanese-born businessman Gen
Fukunaga. Fukunaga's uncle was one of the producers for the popular anime
series Dragon Ball; he approached Gen about bringing the series over to
America. He proposed that if Fukunaga could start a production company and
raise enough money, Toei Animation would license the rights to the show. 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. They
initially collaborated with other companies on Dragon Ball, such as BLT
Productions, Saban Entertainment and Pioneer. By 1998, after two failed
attempts to bring the Dragon Ball franchise to a U.S. audience, 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. 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. Funimation moved into the Lakeside
Business District with a ten-year lease. = Acquisition of Geneon and ADV
licenses= 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. 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. 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. In 2009, Funimation signed a deal with
Toei Animation to stream several of its anime titles online through the
Funimation website, and Hulu. = 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. 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. It is speculated that
Funimation was sold at such a low cost 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.
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.
Universal will begin to distribute Funimation titles in October.
Legal actions = Anti-piracy=
In 2005, Funimation's legal department began to pursue a more aggressive
approach toward protecting the company's licensed properties, and started sending
"cease and desist" 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.
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. Funimation revealed more licenses on 6 October 2006 when it sent
letters to torrent sites demanding that distribution of xxxHolic's TV series,
Mushishi, Ragnarok the Animation, and other series cease.
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. In January 2011, Funimation filed a
lawsuit against BitTorrent users in the U.S. for allegedly downloading and
uploading One Piece. Funimation dropped the suit in March after a Northern Texas
judge, having already indicated that the court would appoint attorneys for the
defendants, 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.
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.
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."
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.
Two months after the failure to sue BitTorrent users en masse 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. = Disputes with partners=
In November 2011, Funimation filed a lawsuit against A.D. Vision, AEsir
Holdings, Section23 Films, Valkyrie Media Partners, Seraphim Studios, Sentai
Filmworks, Artisan Entertainment 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. The lawsuit was settled in mediation in 2014. The terms of the
settlement were not disclosed. Foreign distribution
Funimation does not directly release its properties in non-North American
markets, instead sublicensing to other companies such as Manga Entertainment in
the United Kingdom and Madman Entertainment in Australia and New
Zealand. 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. Funimation Channel
Funimation Entertainment with Olympusat launched the Funimation Channel, the
second 24-hour anime digital cable network in North America. Olympusat is
the exclusive distributor and the Funimation Channel is now available to
video service providers. Since its launch in September 2005,
Funimation Channel has expanded into more homes and continues to expand via
digital cable, fiber optics, and DBS systems.
When the channel first launched, it was available to a few cities via UHF
digital signals. 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. 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.
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. 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 and Hulu Plus. 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. Full episodes are also available on the YouTube channel as well
as on Netflix, the PlayStation Network Video Store and Xbox Live/Zune
Marketplace. The application launched for PlayStation 4 in March 2015.
Inspired by the success of Space Dandy, Funimation announced in October 2014 a
"broadcast dub" program, which would be exclusive to subscribers on their
website. 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. 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.
See also Niconico
List of Funimation voice actors Notes
References External links
FUNimation FUNimation Blog
FUNimation Twitter FUNimation Facebook
FUNimation Channel FUNimation YouTube
FUNimation Tumblr Giant Ape Media
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Funimation at Anime News Network's encyclopedia