Looking to binge-watch your old faves or discover some new anime?
There are a few streaming providers you should spend a lot of time getting to know.
Among them is Funimation.
The history of Funimation:
Before making the inevitable transition into streaming, the company had already been there for a while. It was partially to blame for the comeback of anime in the US in the mid-1990s.
But you may already be familiar with Funimation if you consider yourself a fan of the genre.
The streaming service provides amazing fan experiences across TV, movies, mangas, events, collectables, and the Funimation App by offering hundreds of titles and more than 15,000 hours of anime content.
Anime entertainment may be more well-liked than ever, with live-action versions of “Cowboy Beebop” and “Avatar: The Last Airbender” in the process.
This article will discuss everything you need to know about Funimation!
Gen Fukunaga
Gen Fukunaga and his wife Cindy Brennan established Funimation Productions in Silicon Valley in May 1994 with funding from Daniel Cocanougher and his family. The company later moved to North Richland Hills, Flower Mound, Texas, and Coppell, Texas.
Funimation was one of North America’s top distributors of anime and other foreign entertainment properties.
Among many others, it licensed well-known series like Dragon Ball, One Piece, Yu Yu Hakusho, My Hero Academia, Attack on Titan, Fairy Tail, Black Clover, Fruits Basket, and Tokyo Ghoul.
Early in December 2020, Sony said that its Funimation anime division would pay $1.175 billion to AT&T to acquire Crunchyroll, the company’s primary streaming competitor.
August 2021 saw the approval and completion of the agreement. Even while there are no explicit intentions to shut down Funimation completely, the content has been gradually shifting to Crunchyroll, which makes Funimation much less desirable.7
Crunchyroll will likely remain independent after the current licensing agreement expires, but it may take some time.
Funimation Audio Leaks 2019
Thanks @NickRekieta @Funimation Audio Leakshttps://t.co/MV96BnZofYhttps://t.co/TS6v2RrJsohttps://t.co/u90C6NXDuxhttps://t.co/r6e5kIYnm7https://t.co/jWFeiu5Kqphttps://t.co/k4ZeyHLmUQhttps://t.co/e9kCIwa0ikhttps://t.co/9bPTFMFJnq
— Retro History (@Retro_History_z) August 30, 2019
On August 30th 2019, some Funimation audio was LEAKED to the internet.
The audio in these leaks is of Funimation voice actors, including Christopher Sabat making incest, homophobic, and derogatory jokes on air while recording material.
This material was obviously hidden away and someone for whatever reason decided to leak it.
Heres’s EXACTLY what I said.
The voice actors of English version of DB had recorded a parody at @funimation which consists of offensive jokes out of same-sex intercorse. It’s a HUGE problem that could end the English DB franchise
. https://t.co/RVUlua7OiA— Yuki Matsuzaki 松崎悠希 (@Yuki_Mats) August 30, 2019
On that SAME day, a Japanese guy named Yuki Matsuzaki made a few Tweets about it.
He’s active in the industry and has CONNECTIONS with Toei Animation. He even said he’d get in touch with them and let them know about the audio leaks.
I’m 100% sure my tweet will reach Toei Animation, so lets see how they would compensate this disaster.
— Yuki Matsuzaki 松崎悠希 (@Yuki_Mats) August 30, 2019
This was obviously followed by 1000’s and 1000’s of tweets about the hypocrisy of Funimation (I’ll get into that in a minute).
7 months ago Funimation kicked Vic for allegations but when the other voice actors literally break the rules of the contract and make homophobic and incest jokes with the characters voices online it’s fine. Gg Funimation. #FUNimationExposed #Funimation pic.twitter.com/W6XMZY1EdY
— ☆MID(DORĪī)☆ (@rehydrated_) August 30, 2019
Vic gets fired over a jellybean incident. Fired because #Funimation does not allow inappropriate behavior, yet this same company allowed VAs to make homophobic, incest, and doujin jokes on company time.#FUNimationExposed #BringBackVic
— XBC:DE is coming 2020 (@SalvagerBoy) August 30, 2019
If you read the Tweets, it speaks volumes about why Funimation, and especially websites like Anime News Network were hypocritical.
This Tweet below sums it all up:
So @Anime are you planning to cover this massive bombshell response by Ty Beard to the defendants TCPAs?
Theres spicy allegations of Chris Sabat hosting casting couches at @FUNimation.
Or will you ignore it like you always do for damaging content to kickvic?#FunimationExposed pic.twitter.com/Eqto5f6Ok3
— Ryumoau (@Ryumoau_Juno) August 31, 2019
As you can tell from the FIRST tweet if you clicked it, the audio leaks of Funimation voice actors got deleted.
But there were some videos that talk about and highlight it on YouTube.
This video by Fornever World goes into the “hypocrisy” and why a lot of anime fans are bothered by the Funimation leaks.
He also throws in a few of the “clips” taken from the audio leaks as well.
So why the outrage for Funimation’s Audio Leaks? Was it THAT bad?
So apparently #Funimation had secret studio recordings where they read DBZ and make rape/pedo/incest jokes on official company time?
And this is the company that says it has a standard over “Inappropriate Workplace Behavior” and fired people over it? #FuniLeaks pic.twitter.com/a0szQOJIGo
— TRAFON (@RiseFallNick) August 30, 2019
Just as this Tweet says, it’s not that the leaked material is SO AWFUL that the company deserves to be shutdown. It’s essentially “dark humor” gone wrong because of the fact it got leaked to the public.
And the accusations made against Vic have been proven to be false.
This video by Lost Pause breaks it down.
Anime fans are outraged by the HYPOCRISY, NOT the audio leaks
Aside from the small group of anime fans who are offended by “political correctness”, most of us are bothered by the hypocrisy of the situation.
This video by Clown Fish TV goes into the hypocrisy and bias of Anime News Network, seeing as how they’ve been disturbingly quiet about the Funimation audio leaks of the DBZ voice actors.
These leaks are recordings from about 10-15 years ago, but that’s not the point here. The point is principles.
How can Anime News Network claim to be the most “trusted source for anime news” when it can’t report on FACTUAL information without having an agenda?
And that’s not the only issue here. Earlier in 2019, Anime News Network went out of their way to go on an ONSLAUGHT against Vic Mignogna.
They even went as far as digging up court details about his case, and they did everything to slander him in the name of “fake” justice.
But when it comes to Funimation fired Vic Mignonga for? ANN stays silent in order to sway public opinion to an Agenda.
That’s the message it gives off.
Voice actors’ responses to Funimation’s controversy (and Toei Animation)
As predicted, Toei Animation is starting to take some kind of ACTION on the audio leaks of their copyrighted material.
As a copyright owner, Toei’s only doing their job. I’d do the exact same thing under these circumstances.
But even in spite of all this madness that’s carefully being swept under the rug, Funimation was still silent as if they’re asleep.
They never even said a WORD about any of it, even though they were quick to get VOCAL about Vic Mignogna. A man whose influence bothered Funimation enough to fire him to cover up their dirty secrets.
Chris Sabat is one of the voice actors to respond to this controversy.
Here’s part of what he said:
“The recent allegations of sexual misconduct at Funimation and OkraTron 5000 are deeply disturbing and completely without merit. These libelous statements are based on groundless rumors and are meant to defame me and my company. Never in my career spanning two decades did I ever witness or participate in such conduct.”
Source: ComicBook.
Pre-Sony transition in 2022 and beyond
Funimation is engaged in the distribution of several anime shows. The company was also a leader in the anime dubbing industry. Much of its exclusive content is promptly dubbed into English.
Fans of anime will always remember Funimation as the organization that, in the 1990s, revived interest in anime by bringing the dubbed version of Dragon Ball Z to the Cartoon Network.
It’s hardly surprising that Funimation eventually switched to online video streaming, given today’s entertainment industry’s status.
You can also purchase a ton of merchandise from the website, including DVD and Blu-ray box sets, action figures, and T-shirts.
Merging with Crunchyroll
Funimation has merged with Crunchyroll.
The two anime streaming platforms are now referred to as “Crunchyroll.” New series will be added to the service as a result, and there will also be a discount for current Funimation subscribers. The cost does not alter, though.
How did it come to this?
Crunchyroll was acquired by Sony Pictures Entertainment from WarnerMedia for a total of US$1.175 billion in cash on December 9, 2020, and was then included under Funimation.
On March 24, 2021, it was revealed that the US Department of Justice continued examining the deal for antitrust violations.
On August 9, 2021, Sony fully acquired Crunchyroll, who promised via a press release that they would combine their anime businesses to offer a single anime subscription service as soon as possible.
Crunchyroll confirmed four days later that VRV was included in the deal.
On March 1, 2022, it was revealed that Crunchyroll would combine the Funimation, Wakanim, and VRV SVOD services.
Fourteen days later, it was revealed that Funimation’s home video releases would be distributed under the Crunchyroll banner and that the latter’s logo would replace that of the former on the spine and back of the covers for each new release starting with its June 2022 slate.
Additionally, it was announced that Funimation Global Group, LLC would undergo a rebrand as Crunchyroll, LLC.
On April 5, 2022, the business declared that Funimation’s YouTube channel will now go by the name Crunchyroll Dubs and function as Crunchyroll’s channel for English-dubbed content, with English-subtitled material continuing to be uploaded on their Crunchyroll Collection channel.
Additionally, the business said that beginning on April 9, 2022, they would air an English-dubbed premiere episode of an anime series on the channel every Saturday at 3:00pm ET.
A second announcement regarding the transfer of the Funimation Shop to the Crunchyroll Store was issued three days later.
As a result of the merger in March 2022, pre-existing shows such as My Hero Academia, Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! Until a complete migration of its licensed library is carried over to Crunchyroll, it will continue to be streamed on Funimation along with new seasons.
Although the dubbing production for new series like Spy Family, Chainsaw Man, and A Couple of Cuckoos was done in Coppell studios, these shows are only available on Crunchyroll. The Funimation OTT platform is anticipated to retire after the content migration.
So, Funimation will be gone soon.
What does Funimation/Crunchyroll still offer?
The site offers a vast library of anime that you can stream without being interrupted by ads. The cheapest option is the Premium Plan, which starts at just $5.99 a month (or $59.99 a year) after a free two-week trial.
The Premium Plan offers two simultaneous streams, simulcast directly from Japan, new episodes dubbed within two weeks of the Japan broadcast, and ad-free access to the Funimation archive.
If you want to upgrade, choose the Premium Plus plan, which costs $7.99 a month (or $79.99 a year) and includes everything in the lower tier in addition to five simultaneous streams.
Plus the option to download shows and watch them offline on iOS and Android devices, special events open only to members, early access to Funimation sales, free shipping on purchases over $20, and member-only deals.
A Premium Plus Ultra Plan that covers everything in the Premium and Premium Plus plan and an annual anniversary gift is also available for $99.99 a year.
A 14-day free trial is offered for each package.
Subscribers can stream various Anime like Attack On Titan, Dragon Ball Super, Detective Conan, Hunter x Hunter, Vivy, and many other titles.
Additionally, Funimation sells a variety of anime action toys, clothing, and Funko Pop! figures. Many cool artefacts, including figurines, coffee mugs, and glasses, would make wonderful gifts (even if you were buying them for yourself).
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