Now it makes sense as to why I saw a UPH intro to an anime on Funimation’s xbox360 app.
That has to do with who they licensed the series from.
So it’s like the Viz/ WB deal?
Is that a good thing?
Then I suppose they have more than just distribution worked out. Either way it’s cool I guess and something new that wasn’t there before.
Working thru Universal will probably get Funimation into retailers that they weren’t able to access on their own. Also by having an ongoing relationship with Universal they may be able to tap into new series coming from them out of Japan.
The downside, I suppose, is that Funimation now doesn’t have complete control of their product’s delivery. It’s possible that Universal could fumble Funimation’s distribution, but I don’t think that is very likely.
Mark Gosdin
It’s been present in pretty much all of their titles for quite some time.
If it’s licensed from Kadokawa, it has a Kadokawa intro.
If it’s licensed from Kodansha, it has a Kodansha intro.
If it’s licensed from NBCUniversal (like Seraph & Arslan) it has a Universal intro.
Etc…
Gotcha, I know that I just misunderstood what I had read earlier and realized that when you responded.
Maybe, but that still won’t make the anime half-shelf turn back into 2 aisle worth.
[quote=“mgosdin, post:659, topic:191”]
It’s possible that Universal could fumble Funimation’s distribution, but I don’t think that is very likely.
[/quote]no, but if they see that they don’t fly off the shelf and see more returns than they want, they might treat them low priority.
True, but all the video sections seem to have shrunk over the past few years. So I don’t think anything will ever get a 2 aisle Anime section back into stores.
I’ve noticed that our local Best Buy’s Video section, which is much smaller than it was when that store opened some 5+ years ago, has a lot of slow moving merchandise. It’s not just the Anime section, if it isn’t a BlockBuster movie or Hit TV series then chances are it won’t be flying off the shelves all that fast.
Mark Gosdin
FUNimation could have done this deal because whatever they had in place wasn’t going to be able to handle the expected output that’s coming up.
They’ve gone from licensing 4-6 titles per quarter to 10+ per quarter. That’s almost double their output.
Not to mention, all of the Sunrise titles they picked up that still haven’t been solicited yet (for Sentai as well).
At least they retained control and picked a media-focused company to shack up with this time, unlike the Navarre blunder. I wonder how Funi sold Universal on this as anime has been a “niche market” for so long that I’m surprised it is making enough bank to attract the big companies.
There’s the old saw that anime fandom is like nascar fandom, but I was under the impression that one key way in that the two fandoms differed was that anime wasn’t lucrative lol.
Nascar is profitable only so long as it can attract advertizing money, if they couldn’t sell sponsorships then they would quickly fold. There are racing teams that have done just exactly that when they lost sponsors. But, yes they are both similar in that they elicit passion on the part of their fans greater than what you see in almost every other hobby.
Universal’s interest in being Funimation’s distributor makes sense seeing as they are both visual media companies and Universal’s distribution business, I’m sure, can use any additional volume that they can get to spread their fixed costs over. Of course there are also fixed distribution business costs that Funimation now no longer has.
Mark Gosdin
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So Overlord gets Funi a piece of the Log Horizon/SAO action?
I’m a bit surprised that Funi is streaming Prison School as it seems like a less-serious, less-“hardcore” version of a title that Funi streamed and then memory hole’d: RAINBOW. I guess they’re expecting comedy and femdom to win where intense melodrama and creepy old pervs failed…
Gangsta was the only show I was interested in and they’ve got that. Now I have to decide if I wait for the broadcast dub.
Well For me I’ll be watching:
• Snow White with the Red Hair
• Bikini Warriors
• Prison School
• Sky Wizards Academy (Kūsen Madōshi Kōhosei no Kyōkan)
• Overlord
• Chaos Dragon
• Castle Town Dandelion
-and I’ll watch at least one of them Simuldubbed as well
###FUNimation Channel Now Offers Comcast Customers Anime Titles in HD on Xfinity On Demand
Jun 30th 2015
[size=16]The Fandom Post: FUNIMATION ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES HUGE 2015 SUMMER SIMULCAST LINE-UP[/size]
July 1, 2015 at 02:15 PM
Biggest Simulcast Season Ever with Twice as Many Shows as Last Summer
so that just leaves DBS as the final show…
in theory… 