FUNimation Takedown

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Card Slinger J

Aspiring Trainer
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Incase you probably didn't know FUNimation did a takedown on websites that stream various Anime series and removed 90 of their English dubs and subs from every single one of the websites with the enforcement of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act).

3 of which are One Piece, Dragonball Z and Fullmetal Alchemist due to the remakes being re-dubbed by FUNimation, "Dragonball Kai" and "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood" which is also airing on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block this Saturday.

Forcing DBZ fans to watch Dragonball Kai dubs only, you've gone too far FUNimation, way too far. There's also been word of another English dub of Dragonball Kai by Ocean Group who you may remember did the Saiyan Saga of DBZ up to the Ginyu Force Saga as well.

Yeah I know Dragonball Z is an old series but I think it's stupid to force people who've seen the series already have to go back to the Saiyan Saga again when they can't even watch what other Saga they want, let alone Frieza, Cell, or Buu. Heck any of the movies as well.

In the end FUNimation is forcing people to buy DVD's, heck I'm tempted to buy a Remastered Uncut DVD set of DBZ. It's not like a got a choice in the matter, I just think it's unforgivable what FUNimation is doing but when you think about it they're a business trying to make money.

I hate FUNimation now cause the Japanese Fansub for One Piece was still better than both the FUNimation dub and 4Kids dub and they got rid of it.
 
Personally, I'd rather own DVD copies of seasons over just watching it on the internet. Because in many years down the line, say 20 maybe even 30. Those shows will be lost in time more than likely, like alot of old tv shows. And what will there be left? Well those DVD copies that you'd own. Its like Dinosaurs, anyone remember that show? I thought it was just lost forever, in my memories only until I say the DVD sets for it. How about some old shows like Nick Arcade, the original Double Dare, the original All That? There are no DVD sets for these shows, they just seem to be lost and only left in our memories.
 
DEAR GOD, AN ANIMATION COMPANY IS ENFORCING THE LAW

WE'LL HAVE TO STOP BREAKING THE LAWS THEY WANT TO ENFORCE AND ACTUALLY BUY THEIR PRODUCTS

WHATEVER SHALL WE DO
 
Not post in all caps is a good start :D
 
do you want to know why ,they destroyed one piece for the English dub's and there's absolutely no way for them to fix it, (how would they explain Brook joining there crew or how they got through the Enies lobby, there is noway they have to go back and fix it all but mess up the story they had for the English dub) hahahahaha, actually for my towns comic convention were getting one of the scriptwriter's for one piece/voice actor for luffy and the voice actor for chopper so it might be interesting to know what there planing. cya
 
No, the original dub of One Piece (the bad one) was done by 4kids. It sounded like you were describing that one.
 
Zenith is 100% correct. FUNimation actually saved the English dub from total annihilation (in a sense) sad they'll never air it on TV but you can check it out at OnePieceOfficial.com

To be honest I miss watching Anime on TV as I'm stuck having to watch content online, I remember when I used to always try to catch an episode of Dragonball Z back in the late '90's every time I got home from school watching Toonami, that and KidsWB was like the best thing to happen to Anime in the U.S. since sliced bread.

Adult Swim has been disappointing to say the least nowadays, nothing but reruns.
 
I think its sunday night or saturday night, adult swim has some anime on. I was sitting downstairs and next thing I noticed, Bleach was on.
 
again they have right's to the manga which means it was easyer to view but it was all done by FUNanimation (which at the time was partnered with aniplex). meaning 4kid's/VIZ media (same thing) bought one piece when it came from japan so to save on time they sold the dubbing scripting/content to FUNanimation so they can souly do nothing but marketing for naruto, one piece, shaman king and other series that came out at the same time for 4kids/FOX as well, however recently with FOX being nuked (after the Eneru arc, I actually talked with one of the FUNanimation scriptwriter's so this isn't just random info) they shifted management which is why shonen jump north America is more updated to the current manga as opposed to being all over the place like they have been the past 4 years meaning FUNanimation, 4 kids and viz went under some massive leadership change's most recently and plan on taking care of that (this is 2 years old info, but it's pretty accurate considering what there doing right now). so you can even just say that FUNanimation viz and 4kids is now all owned by the same corporation but run separately, like roger's and McLean's (if you work for them for a year that becomes common knowledge) however 4kids went under with FOX and is no longer apart of viz. so technically FUNanimation screwed up onepiece, and even if you were to say that FUNanimation picked up one piece they would have done it before the major story mess up's, considering that luge town was when they changed voice actor's. cya

if after my rant you still don't believe me watch this and see what i'm talking about.

P.S. me = uber massive uber ONE PIECE fan.
 
4Kids Entertainment has always been entirely independent from News Corporation. So has FUNimation.

The rights to the One Piece anime was first bought by 4Kids Entertainment, and the manga is done by Viz, the American branch of Shueisha. Shueisha is the company that publishes Shonen Jump in Japan, which means that the rights to the English-language manga has never been sold off.

When One Piece failed to catch on when it aired on 4KidsTV, 4Kids sold it off to FUNimation. 4Kids had absolutely no need for the anime anymore--its ratings were very low, and it couldn't sell merchandise. (Almost as if to spite FUNimation, it had to begin from when the Straw Hats met with Masira and Shoujou, arguably the weakest part of the series.) 4Kids is still alive and running and is now in the place of Kids' WB!

I don't know where the idea comes from that 4Kids, FOX, and FUNimation are the same. Rupert Murdoch may have a media empire with News Corporation, but he doesn't have an interest in either of the two other companies--if anything, he doesn't want 4Kids Entertainment because it's been a money sink for him.

FUNimation now sells One Piece as DVDs; its plan is to put it back on Cartoon Network when it catches up to where it was before. It's almost done now. The reason why FUNimation and other companies don't show much anime on TV is because, with occasional exceptions, anime gets pretty low viewership compared to domestic animated programming. Seeing it from within the anime fanbase, it would seem anime is quite popular. This is actually not true; localization studios and TV channels alike have a hard time turning a profit showing anime. (Subbed anime is even worse--they're ratings disasters.)

Regarding English-language localization: Most of the decisions are actually made by the Japanese company. When an American company buys the rights to an anime, the studio puts in its contracts things that the American company must do, or else the studio stops sending episodes. More often than not, these rules are oddly specific. The American companies, with the exception of 4Kids, are bending over backwards to make sure all these conditions are met. In the case of One Piece, FUNimation actually had Eiichiro Oda pick the voice actors themselves.
 
For reference, 4Kids dubbed all episodes up to the end of the Arabasta arc in the original run. Censoring all firearm, swearing and blood, and changing most names and titles. Funimation started dubbing at Jaya, limiting swearing, but returning the firearm references, most of which was Luffy's attack list (by the time they got to any part with blood it was already fully uncut). Names mostly returned after their reunion in the Upper Yard altar (ep 170) which only aired in Australia, and by 175 everything was fully uncut. The rest of the arc aired effectively literally translated.
 
Ophie said:
FUNimation now sells One Piece as DVDs; its plan is to put it back on Cartoon Network when it catches up to where it was before. It's almost done now. The reason why FUNimation and other companies don't show much anime on TV is because, with occasional exceptions, anime gets pretty low viewership compared to domestic animated programming. Seeing it from within the anime fanbase, it would seem anime is quite popular. This is actually not true; localization studios and TV channels alike have a hard time turning a profit showing anime. (Subbed anime is even worse--they're ratings disasters.)
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Wouldn't just saying that most people who watch anime turn to the internet since these companies stopped airing the anime on TV in the first place? Heck Cartoon Network has gotten really bad with Anime these days not to mention Sci-Fi with their Ani-Monday block, it's not like the good old days with Toonami (at least before they jacked up the schedule to air on Saturday mornings instead of weekday evenings.)

When I was in Middle School years ago in the late 90's I used to come home from school to catch up on watching Toonami or what Anime was on that block, nowadays you don't get that anymore. What happened with that? blame the kind of technology we have to be able to watch what shows we want on the internet without having to wait week by week just to watch the next episode If it's on reruns.
 
Oh, right, forgot to add my opinion. While it's perfectly reasonable and logical to have taking down fansubs, it's quite unfair if they refuse to distribute to areas such as Australia, considering the series popular there. Admittedly I'm only talking One Piece, but if they don't air it themselves where are we to go?
 
Ophie said:
Regarding English-language localization: Most of the decisions are actually made by the Japanese company. When an American company buys the rights to an anime, the studio puts in its contracts things that the American company must do, or else the studio stops sending episodes. More often than not, these rules are oddly specific. The American companies, with the exception of 4Kids, are bending over backwards to make sure all these conditions are met. In the case of One Piece, FUNimation actually had Eiichiro Oda pick the voice actors themselves.
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I don't think Oda had any involvement with deciding the english voice cast. I do know everything was reviewed by the higher-ups at Toei Animation, though. It was even requested by Toei's president that Luffy was voiced by a woman, like in Japan.
 
Ah, so it was Toei and not Oda then? Nevertheless, it does show the fact that FUNimation is willing to adapt One Piece in a way that satisfies the Japanese side of things, in direct contrast to those who see the company as an evil force created to butcher every anime they love.

Card Slinger J said:
Wouldn't just saying that most people who watch anime turn to the internet since these companies stopped airing the anime on TV in the first place? Heck Cartoon Network has gotten really bad with Anime these days not to mention Sci-Fi with their Ani-Monday block, it's not like the good old days with Toonami (at least before they jacked up the schedule to air on Saturday mornings instead of weekday evenings.)

When I was in Middle School years ago in the late 90's I used to come home from school to catch up on watching Toonami or what Anime was on that block, nowadays you don't get that anymore. What happened with that? blame the kind of technology we have to be able to watch what shows we want on the internet without having to wait week by week just to watch the next episode If it's on reruns.
Click to expand...

Internet video streaming is disrupting all of television, business-speaking. However, anime has consistently had lower ratings numbers than non-anime programming, even if the turnaround time is very quick.

A large portion of this is what is known as the "Animation Age Ghetto," which is a general rule of thumb that animated programming is not taken as seriously as live-action programming. You can see this in the way Battle for Terra bombed at the box office, how Batman: The Animated Series struggled until placed in Saturday morning, and how the frat boy comedy on Adult Swim Comedy regularly trounces the anime on Adult Swim Action in viewer quantity.

You might want to think that anime is mainstream, but aside from the kid stuff like the Pokémon anime and Yu-Gi-Oh!, it IS niche programming. It's like this in Japan and it's like this in the United States. Take a look at any list of most-viewed programming in Japan, of all places, and it's dominated by Sazae-san, Crayon Shin-chan, and Doraemon. The anime you saw on Toonami, and the anime currently on Adult Swim and SyFy Ani-Monday are niche programming with low viewership in both sides of the Pacific.

There is absolutely nothing to be ashamed about by watching niche shows. However, after Dragon Ball Z ended, Toonami didn't have much to go on. People had their fill of anime from DBZ. This is why Dragon Ball, the original series, crashed and burned in the ratings. Most Toonami programs LOST money for Cartoon Network, even when it was at its biggest. This is why Toonami has been taken off the air: The previous executive liked to have anime on the channel, keeping Toonami for legacy reasons; the current executive does not and sees no reason why Toonami should exist.

Lieutenant Houndoom said:
Oh, right, forgot to add my opinion. While it's perfectly reasonable and logical to have taking down fansubs, it's quite unfair if they refuse to distribute to areas such as Australia, considering the series popular there. Admittedly I'm only talking One Piece, but if they don't air it themselves where are we to go?
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I would say it's definitely a problem that availability is limited to the United States (and Canada, I believe). There are legal hurdles to jump, and most likely, a company like FUNimation considers the money to pay to get a show like One Piece simulcast in Australia or the UK as not worth the trouble. The United States is the biggest market for anime outside of Japan, and what I think is going on right now is a test to see if FUNimation's simulcast model will be effective enough to allow it to go international.
 
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