Forum - View topicAnswerman - What Should We Expect from the Sony Pictures TV - Funimation Deal?
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Snakebit1995
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I mean look what happened to a ton of video game stuff because the Union STILL can't get their shit together with their game company demands. All the sudden your seeing a lot more Texas actors showing up in games, Catlin Glass, Monica Rial, Alexis Tipson, Ian Sinclair and more all showed up in Fire Emblem Echoes. Hyperdimension Neptunia games just had to recast Noire because Erin Fitzgerald was blocked for Union crap. The flexibility they have for casting has always been one of Funi strenghts and It's gonna piss me off if I start losing chances to hear my favorite actors in anime because Sony had to cast a union guy instead so they could keep Nolan North in something else or keep Tom Cruise in some random movies. |
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MarshalBanana
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Snakebit1995
Posts: 842 |
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I'm sorry I totally disagree, the cast pool in LA is ridiculously shallow, there are maybe 10 females (It's astounding that Bleach had such a diverse amount of female characters all played by about 5 women) on a good day none of which do teenager all that well compared to funimation, you don't get any where near as many shows as frequently as you do with Funi. There's so much more diversity in Funimations casting that I don't want to lose becuase of this deal. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13615 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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I am more of streaming fan. However, I would rather buy a pricey new AoA DVD than trust Neftlix to continue their binge-watching streams here or Sony buying out most of Funi.
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Random Name
Posts: 651 |
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How is CR the competition? CR lists Sony as a partner http://www.crunchyroll.com/en/about. Also funi moved to dub only so how does a sub only company effect them? Seems odd they would want to limit there show selection every season and access to CRs massive library for dubbing. I'm not saying it's not going to happen since like everyone else I have no idea but I honestly don't know how this article came to that conclusion. There was also an official statement from funi saying there is no change to the CR deal...for what ever that is worth...
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dragonrider_cody
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Hopefully, this shouldn't be an issue. After all, Sony has utilized Seraphim/Sentai to produce dubs, most notably for the CGI Starship Troopers films. If they can work it out with them, Funimation shouldn't be a problem. It's important to remember that other than moving to Sony for home video distribution, which has about a 99.99% chance of happening, the rest of the article is entirely speculation. I doubt even the higher ups at Funimation know entirely what's coming over the next few years. |
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Greed1914
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The Crunchyroll deal probably isn't meant to last in perpetuity. Eventually, the time will come to decide whether to continue, and at that point, Sony might view CR and the companies that own it as competition. The partnership was created out of a mutual necessity (high licensing costs) that might not even be there later since Sony potentially gives Funimation a seat on production committees, and deeper pockets that can better afford other licenses. If there is nothing to be gained from working with another company in the same market, then they become competition. Regarding what Justin mentioned about Sony getting some push back from SAG, my guess would be that Sony probably won't worry much about that. If the ongoing video game strike is any indication, then various companies have decided that they don't mind using non-union actors. Capcom, which isn't even part of the strike, already said it is recasting the characters for the Resident Evil 2 remake to use non-union actors. Square Enix went non-union for the Life is Strange prequel after Ashley Burch decided to not reprise her role in order to show solidarity with other actors. If that is happening in LA where the union's influence is strongest, then I doubt there is much they can do to make Sony not continue to use an already established studio in Texas. |
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MarshalBanana
Posts: 5500 |
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Hopefully with more publishers the amount of dubs coming from LA can be like it used to be in the 00s. |
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FlowerAiko
 Posts: 223 |
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I really hope Funiroll doesn't die. While competition may be good I doubt anyone can afford to pay a lot of different anime subscriptions, and I've quite liked this legal anime streaming boom we've had.
A bit off topic but, I've noticed we haven't had any major 2017 non-sequel anime hits besides Kobayashi, which hasn't hit the scale that 2016's big hits were. I mean, think about it, at this point last year, Erased, Boku no Hero Season 1, and Konosuba had finished airing, Re:Zero was in its hayday, and Yuri on Ice still hadn't aired yet. I can't help but think all of this streaming disparity is holding back would-be hits, and I don't want new Funi stuff to be thrown onto the corpse that is Crackle to let more series rot. Also to the dubbing conversation, Funimation makes faster and cheaper dubs than outsourcing them with a larger voice actor pool on top of that, so I doubt Sony would want to lose that. Dubs are expensive. I'm curious what weird rule bending Sony is gonna pull to keep it. |
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gravediggernalk
 Space Cowboy Posts: 246 Location: Alabama |
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Besides the worries shared by everyone, I am starting to become worried about what licenses Funimation will be able to pick up going forward. Will Sony allow Funimation to continue picking up shows they want to pick up (things like Sekirei, High School DxD, etc.), or will there be some sort of content control? On the flip-side of that, will an influx of funds from Sony allow Funimation to start releasing more niche or classic titles that wouldn't be financially feasible otherwise?
I also feel like this is going to push the proverbial "pie" to its limit. There are only so many ways to cut up the "North American anime distribution pie," and I think that Netflix and Amazon going into business for themselves is starting to push it to the limit. The Funimation/Crunchyroll deal helped ease the problem, but before that things were a little tight. Between Funimation, CR, Discotek, the chibi-ADV companies, VIZ, AoA, MB, NISA, & RS, things were getting cramped. Of those, I feel like AoA is the weakest link - its departure wouldn't affect much, and its licenses would be "no-brainers" for pick-up by other distributors. IF Funimation comes out of this in a great position, with more funds and deeper Japanese access, I don't doubt that Funimation will eventually push a couple of the current companies out of the market. |
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Greed1914
Posts: 4618 |
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I don't think that Sony would be too opposed since Sekirei is now an Aniplex show. |
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DangerMouse
Posts: 3993 |
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That's a great point dragonrider_cody. Hopefully this will be the case and it won't be an issue.
Yeah. I'm right there with you since I love their VAs and dubs. Like Justin mentioned, I just hope and have to imagine that there must be some kind of plan for this. Their dub production and VA roster is pretty much the backbone of Funimation, as further evidenced by them doubling-down on it with the Funi-CR deal last year, so any deal that doesn't account for that remaining intact seems pretty pointless and a big waste of money. And like you I hope we don't lose that in any way from all of this.
Nah, I think Funi is the best at it. It may be a bit unfair but that also contributes to how good Funi is at it. I'd also argue that most of the most well-known dubs are Funimation dubs just as much (DBZ, FMA, Soul Eater, MHA etc. to go with the big LA ones like Bebop, GITS, KLK, OPM, etc.) and that among the talent that voices dubs and games they have some of the most well respected and known too. But I'm a fan of both so I really hate where this argument is going since they've both produced great dubs and have great VAs (and even share a number of them lol)...it's also not really the thread for it. They have also substantially expanded their roster with more and more good talent year after year in addition to many of their long-time favorites and still use some of their ones that have moved to LA remotely or when they seem to be around for enough time to record a show or two occasionally. That said I really like the LA dubs too (Hell, they even share actors in various roles, sometimes even the leads, making this pretty pointless) so I'm not taking anything away from them and am glad we're finally getting more of them and those great actors again after losing them for a while especially after Bandai Ent and Geneon died (heck Funi and LA dubs even share actors sometimes) since I've got a lot of favorites there too (Crispin Freeman, Blum, Wahlgren, Mendez who's still pretty new, etc.). I think they both do a great job. In the end I think Funi delivers equal or better quality and much more often than the LA ones have to, since it dubs a shit ton more anime than they have for years and still regularly delivers some of the best dubs. And they've always dubbed a lot of anime even back in the days when LA did more than they do now. Long winded way of saying they are both good though in the end I probably favor Funi's (and especially their great amount of great dubs due to how invested they are in making them creating their own in-house studio for it and pushing into the great recent Simuldubs starting back with Space Dandy and breadth of VAs they now have) and LA's are great too lol. Last edited by DangerMouse on Thu Aug 03, 2017 2:13 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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GhostStalkerSA
 Posts: 425 Location: NYC |
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While Sony Pictures has been going through a rough streak these past couple of years (I don't remember the last Sony movie I saw besides Spider-Man: Homecoming, and that doesn't really count as that was mostly Marvel Studios at the helm despite Sony getting top billing), I still have good outlooks for Sony Pictures Television, if only because of Jeopardy still going strong. Season 33 just ended, and Trebek has renewed his hosting contract until 2020, IIRC, so hopefully they aren't going anywhere.
My major claim to fame is still having appeared on an episode of Jeopardy in 2014, and the crew there were amazing to work with. I only have good things to say about the contestant coordinator team, especially Maggie Speak, who made all us nervous future contestants feel at ease before the cameras started rolling, and immediately afterwards too. They really were super nice, though I guess not letting me eat at the Sony commissary during the lunch break was kinda dickish, but I had lost the game taped immediately before said lunch break, so I was no longer a potential contestant and no longer had access to the facility except as an audience member. At least they gave me a VIP sticker for when I came back after lunch (I blew $40 on sushi and teriyaki at a place a couple blocks away) that let me skip the audience lines and sit back in the contestant guest section. Also, they gave me a ride to the studio in the morning, but I needed to take a cab back to the hotel after taping was done, which I shared with the current champ of the afriday episode, and the producers were the ones to call it, since I wouldn't know what number to use out there. What I saw of the Sony Pictures lot was pretty nice, but it was pretty much a whirlwind until we were ushered into the Jeopardy studio so I don't remember much of it. I still want to go back and catch a taping someday in the future when I'm in LA again, but that's kinda expensive. Maybe when another tournament comes around and I can meet up with a bunch of Jeopardy alums that tend to go to those sorts of things, we have a pretty active community on Facebook and I'm friends with a bunch of them. |
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DangerMouse
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The TV branch has also generally always had their hands in some good big TV. Even cartoon wise they've had stuff that hit pretty big when those blocks really existed, like Jackie Chan Adventures. They seem much more consistent then the movie arm.
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princess passa passa
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Anime online streaming/distribution has gotten CUTTHROAT.
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