Forum - View topicNEWS: Funimation's Anime Content Heads to Crunchyroll
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Sevokevo Royuki
 Posts: 294 Location: Texas |
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IDK who told you that but that's not what the FAQ Said... https://help.crunchyroll.com/hc/en-us/articles/4418412542868-Funimation-Update-FAQ |
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Cardcaptor Takato
 Posts: 4950 |
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Sevokevo Royuki
Posts: 294 Location: Texas |
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OHH Thats for the annual sub and stuff... I was assuming it was for the other stuff.. Well.. Regardless... Its probably still going to take some time for it all as they most likely being slammed with all other requests just like your own. I to have an annual sub with FUNI.. But I also have a Sub with Crunchy.. I most likely going to leave it as is for now as I think my renewal on my annual is in May.. I most likely cancel and let it time out |
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Gray Lensman
Posts: 145 |
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Shimoneta did an amazing job making the censorship part of the humor - it might actually be a case where the censored version is funnier than the uncensored one. On the other end you have My First Girlfriend is a Gal, where the censorship bars not only covered up much more than they had to, but even came with their own sound effects, rendering the show unwatchable. And now for something completely different.....than the post I responded to.... On the subject of why the merger is keeping the Crunchyroll name rather than Funimation - doesn't Crunchyroll have a larger international footprint out of the two? The reason could be that rather than anything else borne out of whatever feelings one may have about either of the two companies. |
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Cardcaptor Takato
Posts: 4950 |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6883 Location: Kazune City |
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I asked Lynx Raven Raide to provide other examples of Funimation engaging in "removal of certain series cause it goes against standards." Neither you nor they have provided any examples of that, and therefore my labeling of Interspecies Reviewers as a black swan event still stands. With Haganai Next, yeah, I did refrain from buying those discs for awhile because of that censorship, but I eventually relented. The extent of the actual alteration / broadcast-material-substitution on that release amounts to "one game image that shows up for two seconds in one episode is a bit more cropped than it is in the JP home-video version." Not a huge deal, not something you're likely to notice under normal viewing conditions, certainly not light-beams and magic steam all over the place; all the other ecchi scenes in Funi's releases of the Haganai franchise are uncensored. With Tsugumomo, I suppose it's not impossible that Funi requested broadcast masters for some episodes, but we've seen Japanese companies becoming increasingly hesitant when it comes to Western releases of loli content. Like how Sentai's home-video release of the first season of Ro-Kyu-Bu! got cancelled, and to this day HiDive only streams the TV version of season 1, and season 2 never got officially licensed, from what I can tell. With the changing times, evolving social mores, and the rise of prudish app stores and payment processors holding outsized influence over content distributors' fortunes, I can't blame either side for being cautious. We should also remember the times Funi has stood up against censorship and for the distribution of unaltered material to their customers. Like with Dance in the Vampire Bund, they considered censoring some of its questionable material, but did not. With Sankarea, they re-released the series and offered exchanges after it was discovered that they'd released the TV broadcast version. Or Ben-To, when they delayed the release because, according to the most-educated speculation, they had the TV masters instead of the home-video version. Not to mention the many titles they released completely uncensored without incident. I wouldn't say you're being anti-industry for pointing these incidences out, because unlike some out there, you're not trying to over-generalize these patterns to all of Funi's releases and sabotage their finances by convincing viewers not to support them. Speaking of which...
They are are not "well" known for doing that. They are maliciously and falsely accused of "being woke with their subs & dubs", because of mounds of misinformation and lies from anti-industry grifters and saboteurs. I don't deny that some examples of questionable dub scripting do exist, but as I stated before, a few isolated, scattered examples over a decade is not a pervasive pattern. Let's look at some of the examples that the anti-industry crowd loves to complain about: Dragon Maid The "pesky patriarchal society" line -- the original dialogue from Lucoa was something about "people were saying stuff to me, telling me to cover up." What kind of society is known for telling well-endowed women to keep their assets hidden? Could it be... a patriarchal one? This is more a case of embellishment or "punching up the dialogue" rather than a radical alteration of the material. Also, did you know that The Left has also criticized the Dragon Maid dub? (Mainly over the "straight-washing" change from "Sub: I’m a woman, though? --> Dub: I’m not into women, or dragons." ) Yet for some reason, progressive anime viewers haven't turned this into a massive culture-war grievance and tried to burn the industry to the ground over it. If Funi were promoting a "woke" agenda with the Dragon Maid dub, why isn't the so-called crowd fully supportive of it? Prison School I will agree that the "GamerGate creepshow" line was a bridge too far, because while a good liberal translation may embellish the material, it should still remain grounded in the original script. (Though it makes a certain degree of sense, since the series takes place not in reality but in an a person I disagree with politically dystopian fever dream where male sexuality is demonized and criminalized; in such a world, it wouldn't be surprising to hear cracks against GamerGate.) However, here's what the anti-industry crowd tends to forget: that line was redubbed with a straight translation for the Blu-Ray release. That doesn't exactly scream "company-wide dedication to woke agenda" to me. My First Girlfriend is a Gal SCANDAL! They took a line in Japanese that portrayed light-novel fans that come to maid cafés to hear highschool girls embarrass themselves by reading erotic literature as perverts, and turned it into a dub line that... portrayed light-novel fans that come to maid cafés to hear highschool girls embarrass themselves by reading erotic literature as perverts, except with a few added buzzwords like "Shonen Jump Weekly millennials." That's not even a radical departure: a true tempest-in-a-teapot "controversy" if there ever was one. Notably absent from any of the examples you see regurgitated on a regular basis: any evidence of "woke agenda" in Funimation's subtitles. But that's just the anti-industry crowd's Big Lie tactics at work: overexagerate a few Funi scattered dub script choices -> accuse Funi of making these changes in all their dubs -> accuse Funi of altering subtitles as well -> accuse all official companies of altering all subs and dubs -> accuse official companies of engaging in other censorship -> "These companies suck, drive them out of business by pirating instead, Like and Subscribe if you like me telling me what you want to hear, buy my personal branded merchandise too!" (Never mind that piracy for nearly all anime from the past 10-12 years involves unaltered translations from legal services that viewers somehow have no problem with as long as they're free. Then again, anti-industry grifters aren't big on understanding or explaining how the anime industry & piracy scene actually function.) |
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Cardcaptor Takato
Posts: 4950 |
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Kendall TV
Posts: 43 |
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Sorry, I tried searching for the discussion but I can't find it. It took place so many years ago that it's probably buried on Facebook or Twitter somewhere. The only things I saved from back then are the images of the Blu-ray/DVD covers I already linked to in my previous post.
Not necessarily. Funimation's statement doesn't preclude their request of edited masters for Tsugumomo. The statement only says it's their 'normal process to utilize uncensored materials when available', but who are we to say what is or isn't a normal process? Could it be possible that Funimation decided the content in Tsugumomo would be too much for its Western markets and thus the 'normal process' would not apply here? Sure, it's possible. And based on what I remember of the discussion, that is what happened, which led Funimation to request the edited masters. In that case, the 'uncensored materials are not available' because Funimation requested edited materials. Japan listened to Funimation's reasoning and agreed with them, and thus supplied the censored masters. This is certainly a possible series of events and does not contradict their statement, yes? Don't forget as well that Funimation's public relations people are the ones who submitted that statement so naturally it exists to paint them in a good light. Of course they're not going to admit they did something their customers don't want. But if we read between the lines as I've pointed out, their statement is not false, and it also does not contradict what ultimately happened. I regret not being able to find a link to the original discussion and can only contribute with my memories and the previously linked images.
My position is to oppose all forms of censorship, even if it is very brief, as is the case with Haganai NEXT, and regardless of whether or not it involves content that I personally find repulsive. Because once one thing gets censored, it becomes easier to censor other things, from both the perspective of requiring approvals from the brass, and from a decision-making/psychological perspective. And who knows what that could lead to in the future. You may find the censorship in this case to be 'not a huge deal, not something you're likely to notice under normal viewing conditions', but maybe tomorrow there will be censorship that you find damaging and completely unnecessary. As fans and customers, we owe it to one another to always speak out about censorship.
Dance in the Vampire Bund is not an example of Funimation providing 'unaltered material' to customers. There are no edits to the video, yes, but there are edits to the English dialogue. One need only look as far as the infamous oil rubbing scene. The English dub has Akira saying (twice) that it is 'creepy' that he has to oil Mina up. And the dub also has Mina emphasising (twice) that she's much older than he is so he doesn't have to worry about doing it. These lines are never spoken in Japanese, not even once. For the dub to insert them, and two times each no less, it provides ammo to detractors of Funimation and English dubs who allege this is part of a long-running pattern of socially/politically driven edits and censorship.
This is how it should be. It's not necessary to praise companies for releasing uncensored content, which is what is expected of them in the first place by their customers. It is when companies censor content or completely drop series due to, as you said, 'evolving social mores, and the rise of prudish app stores and payment processors holding outsized influence over content distributors' fortunes' that we need to speak up. Because it is then that they've shown their true colors, that they care only about their pocketbooks, not their customers. -- I feel like this censorship discussion has caused this thread to veer off course. To get back to the topic of this thread (Funimation's merger into Crunchyroll), the other point that I was trying to make when I brought up the examples of Haganai NEXT and Tsugumomo is that Funimation tried to decisive their customers. This ties into the concern others have expressed in this thread about who is managing what now that Funimation and Crunchyroll have merged. Obviously we don't want people who lie to their customers to be in charge. We were fortunate in the past to catch Funimation's deception with Haganai NEXT and Tsugumomo and call them out on it. But with how opaque the anime licensing and distribution industries are, we might not always be so fortunate. This can extend beyond the concerns of censorship in content. People in this thread are right to be worried. |
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Penrhos
Posts: 168 |
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I suppose the biggest issue could be physical media or the lack of it going forwards...
CR are well known for just buying the streaming rights for a show - Funi often buy the rights for home releases (presumably there's a big cost difference on the licenses). As series are always being lost on streaming services as licenses expire how will we weebs get physical media of subbed/dubbed Anime? Also CR needs to add Funi's functionality to their player where if a show is dubbed you can easily find and play multi-audio with subs from a single location the current CR method sucks... |
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Cardcaptor Takato
Posts: 4950 |
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Kendall TV
Posts: 43 |
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No, the statement says Tsugumomo 'utilizes a combination of uncensored and TV broadcast materials based on what was available from the licensor during home video production.' It does not say Funimation 'attempted to obtain the uncensored masters' in this case.
There is no sinister conspiracy and nobody is suggesting one exists. (Except maybe the people who believe Funimation has a woke agenda, but that's a different discussion.) Funimation's statement isn't meant to complement the ADR director's statement. I doubt Funimation knew that any of their staff would speak out about this case on their own so it wouldn't make sense that Funimation would anticipate that and respond in a different way. What Funimation and the ADR director said are both true. I already pointed out why.
Um, I specifically said that Funimation was not lying in their statement. And the job of public relations is literally to make their client look good. This is true for every industry on earth. I don't understand why you are upset that I pointed it out.
The evidence is that one of Funimation's staff, the ADR director for the series, posted about it saying that that's what happened. The evidence is not that 'you have to "read between the lines"'. I pointed out the usefulness of reading between the lines because I wanted to show you that both parties' statements can coexist just fine. But since I can't find the ADR director's original discussion, I guess I won't be able to satisfy you no matter what. I apologise again. I regret not being able to link back to that discussion and can only contribute with my memories and the previously linked images. If you want to talk about anime that Funimation did censor instead of the Japanese licensors, I gave the example of Dance in the Vampire Bund in my above reply to Zalis116. English dub dialogue changes can be considered a type of censorship to some viewers. |
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Cardcaptor Takato
Posts: 4950 |
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Kendall TV
Posts: 43 |
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You're right that it's an adaptation, not a literal translation. But the cries of censorship come when the dub includes dialogue that was not present in Japanese and/or deletes dialogue that was present in Japanese. The example I gave from Dance in the Vampire Bund is one of those situations, so that might be perceived as censorship by some people. Zalis116 provided 3 examples from other shows above that might be perceived as censorship too. Although my personal opinion on those examples is that the goal of the adapters was to [over]embellish the dialogue to make them sound cool/timely rather than to straight up alter the dialogue and/or insert new meanings. When it comes to dialogue changes, we should consider the intent of the change in addition to what got changed. |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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The were a streaming service. However they increasingly, in order to get the streaming license, had to get the home video license also as the rights weren’t split. They have also coproduced anime which of course affords them the master license. Which is why over the years they have partnered with companies like Bandai, Discotek and even Funimation to distribute shows for them.
The article actually says they are working on that. |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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Imagine going to a movie theater, paying your ticket and when you sit down, no only there is nowhere to put your popcorn, there is no handle to place your arm at all or separate your seat clearly from the next. You ask the employees they are waiting for new seats to be delivered .... soon. You watch the movie and on your way out you overhear a conversation that states they have been saying "soon" for years now. Wouldn't you feel scammed? |
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