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NEWS: Funimation Acquires School Rumble

Why is everyone instantaneously jumping to Negima when there's mention of a FUNimation dub? Is everyone really that negative as to cling solely to one bad example and ignore the really good dubs FUNimation's done?

Well excuss me for being human

My point - Some people watch fansubs then buy the show equals money and some watch the fansubs and don't buy the show life goes on.

It's just all the recent series i have collected have been gradually getting less and less impressive. I love voice actors and I'd like to be one my self but when it comes to listening to english dubs of stuff i have seen in english I and many other may no be impressed with it. I'd like to see the companies such as ADV, Funimation actually take information from the public befor they release it to the market. Just a little.

But thats just my idea's way what you like about it

Why is everyone instantaneously jumping to Negima when there's mention of a FUNimation dub? Is everyone really that negative as to cling solely to one bad example and ignore the really good dubs FUNimation's done? No, FUNimation doesn't have a spotless record dub-wise, but they've done some really good ones, like Fullmetal Alchemist, Case Closed, Samurai 7, Spiral (minus Kanone, anyway...), Fruits Basket, & Kiddy Grade.

FUNimation, a company I have long respected and admired as a pioneer and "friend of the common fan" in regard to their perception of entertainment salience and quality, picked the most *taboo* of shows, School Rumble.

I seriously cannot believe you are actually serious about this. You, my friend, are the only person in the world who could possibly think that the licensing of a show is bad. I'm glad that people are making fun of you on 4chan as we speak.

Oh yes, because little fanbrats who think that jumping up and down and screaming "you should license this!!!!111!!!one!!" aren't a dime a dozen and posting that kinda stuff every day on Funi's own forums.

Regardless, they did not authorize the copies, and they have every right to stop them if they want, because it belongs to them.

Fansubbing was a very integral part of the Anime scene, and back in the VHS days it did, for the most part, fuel the industry, because the industry was for a good part run by those very people who were fansubbing. Nowerdays, the proliferation of pirated material has grown, the Japanese are activley participating in the US market, and there are other avenues to which Anime can get exposure (websites that aren't fansub-centric like AOD or even ANN, Adult Swim/other networks, Newtype, Conventions etc), and those tend to be the more deciding factors these days. Fansubs have their uses but they do not carry the majority weight.

You're missing something here- some do. There are other groups, such as speed subbers and what not, who's only goal is to get things out for free, and before everyone else. The Internet is, believe it or not, filled with people who activley have adisdain for US licensors/ANYONE who tries to sell anime. I'm not saying it's more or less, but atleast I can admit that, whereas you're of the line of thought where they possibly cannot be.

Yeah, I never said it was stopped completely. If one group drops something, another group will invariably go back and continue or restart it. However, I think we've come to a stage where fansubbing, paticularly digisubbing, cannot be used as the basis for a series license, because the ammount of people torrent it cannot be assumed to be the potential buying market (because inevitably, they will not all be).

Same problem- fansubbing isn't always as integral as you make it out to be. Fansub audience /= DVD buying/TV watching audience. ***

Except they essentially have for some time, but this isn't due to them 'embracing fansubs'. No business in their right mind would endorse piracy of their products, but you should know that. However, if you do not take a stance against piracy, you're sending a message to your investors, sponsors, financial backers and what not that you're a weak company, that cannot protect it's own properties. Once you're perceived as that, then you begin to loose ground with others, and overall it's bad for business.

This is why companies do these things. It's not due to 'ignorance' or 'tyranny', it's called survival. You're right, you cannot stop piracy, but you do not have to give into it, nor are you short-sighted for trying to stop it. Personally, neither you or I can say why they did it, but from a business point-of-view I'd assume they would know what's best for their industry and company, regardless of whether you disagree or not (and still have no actual basis to stand on).

In that paticular scenario, VA's cannot represent Viz, a licensing company. Subsequently, Viz could have assessed that even if people are downloading and pirating their product, you'd find a lot of people are buying the English manga and watching the English anime, without even having gone to Narutofan. Viz may have even taken action against them, it's just that neither have published what's going on (and Narutofan may have servers located within non-Berne Convention countries, therefore making legal actions useless).

Just because one company does things their way, doesn't mean others have to aswell.

Because Pierrot/Shueisha, and Media Factory, are completely different corporate entities with completely different mindsets. Viz and Co. Might have taken action against places, but they may not have publicised the details. Naruto's popularity is also not directly because of the fansubs, but because of it's actual child-appeal, it's CN run, it's manga run, etc.

Notice how a lot of anti-dub Naruto posts come from the people who've been following 150+ episodes of Japanese Naruto? You hardly think they'd 'understand the big corporate process' and 'support the show', now do you?

You have evidence to prove Balogne. Don't assert that something happened when you can't back it up.

FUNimation have gone on record to say that one of the deciding factors in regards to their licensing desicions has been how well a show is doing in Japan, because they beleive popularity there, will mean popularity here. I honestly don't agree with it (see One Piece, Case Closed, etc), but that's how they work. If the series managed to get a sequal and two OVAs or so, it's a pretty big indication that it is popular.

Yeah, so it's popular. That's cool. But you're forgetting that just because School Rumble was announced instead of it, doesn't mean FUNimation cannot afford Ouran. Often companies can have licenses for properties, but haven't received clearance from Japanese licensors to announce them yet (which, this is shop talk, is the case with ADV and the new FotNS movies, but thats another issue).

You could even think of it this way- School Rumble came out before Ouran, so why not announce School Rumble first? Probably isn't the case, but it's a bit more sound than 'FUNimation cannot afford it'.

I may be under the guise that you're not actually stating these things as fact, but as opinion, but it's certianly coming off as you thinking they're 'fact'.

Wolf's Rain also was Bones, but went to Bandai. Bones produced the Animation for FMA, but it belongs to Aniplex/Square. But carrying on-

That essentially proved my point. You made the assertion that FUNimation didn't have it, and weren't able to. Now you're saying that it's a 'struggle' between Viz and FUNimation, two of the largest, financially wise, US Anime companies? Make up your mind, PLEASE. Heres the original quote piece, with emphasis-

...

But then you say?

...

So it's 'obvious' they cannot get it, but then at the same time they're in contest with Viz to get it? If they weren't financially capable of getting it, don't you think, under you logic, that they wouldn't be able to get it even if they tried and shouldn;t even be considered in the running?

Ignored would imply 'no one would touch it', if FUNimation were the only ones who went for it. Also, in regards to popularity, once again, FUNimation, japanese popularity (which is what a lot of companies seem to base their licensing desicions on, well, the more influencial ones these days).

There's not much in the way of research you can do about it. ANN made a report that was inaccurate, because FUNimation said variosu things, such as One Piece, would be making it's way across. ANN reported it as something like, 'FUNimation has aqquired One Piece'. It never showed up on their site. It never got mentioned anywhere else, on any other cons or whatever. news sites reported the same thing, based on ANNs reports. Then what happened? 4Kids got it. There was an 18 month or so blank (if I recall correctly) between the announcement, and when 4Kids got the series. Contract negotiations of this kind of thing are clandestine and secret. No one is supposed to know what's going on, therefore basically everything you hear would be heresay and rumours, which cannot be relied on for accuracy or truth.

HAHAHHAAH

No, you don't. You assert things without any kind of backup, nor do you use any sense in any argument what so ever. You've got no idea on how media industries or businesses work, nor how people go about protecting their own things.

Malintex Terek wrote:

Naruto and Genshinken are fine examples of how fansubbing can swell demand for a show. Ironically, the latter show is a product of MediaFactory, the same people who did School Rumble; why did they try to put a stop to a good thing?

Well, if my memory serves me correctly, there was that little debacle called the Akane Maniax DVD ep. 1 release. In poor judgement, some English language fansubbers released DVD ep. 1 prior to the Japanese DVD release and totally pissed off Media Factory leading to our problems today.

I also believe that Genshiken had finished its fansub release prior to the Akane Maniax issue and the Media Factory response.

So if you want to get mad at someone, then get mad at those fansubbers who caused this mess in the first place.