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Answerman - Why Did Funimation Partner With China's bilibili?




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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4671
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 1:21 pm Reply with quote
Working together to not overpay for licenses does make sense since it seems like there is almost nothing else for either to gain from it. Even though the two companies don't serve the same markets and wouldn't be directly competing like CR and Funi were before and are now, I could conceivably see a license holder saying, "You know, another company just agreed to pay a lot more than your offer for their region."
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5525
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 3:20 pm Reply with quote
Oh how I miss the more simpler days of simulcasting from 5+ years ago. Back when it was mainly just Crunchyroll.
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Zendervai



Joined: 06 Apr 2012
Posts: 202
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 5:03 pm Reply with quote
I'm kind of wondering if this will go the way of the NicoNico deal Funimation made ages ago.

The one where they attempted to do their simulcasting through NicoNico, barely anyone was interested, and NicoNico's comment system turned out to be really distracting and annoying for many of the people who did try it out. (Didn't help that they started with Guilty Crown and Last Exile: Fam, two shows which failed to really light a fire in the fandom, despite the latter being pretty good).

But yeah, it's probably to make licensing costs go down again. It would be funny to watch Funimation desperately try to make something like Spiritpact an actual hit in North America, but I doubt bilibili really cares at all about what happens in the NA market.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 5246
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 5:13 pm Reply with quote
It'd be great if this meant we could get some English dubs of some Chinese co-pros that flew under the radar like Merc Storia and Phantom in the Twilight though the latter is probably still caught up in it's home video mess.
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configspace



Joined: 16 Aug 2008
Posts: 3717
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 5:58 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
China, of course, is a much different market for anime than the West. Government censorship is an always-present force in Chinese life, and so R-rated shows and shows with "transgressive" or "antisocial" themes will largely be unavailable. I can't find any information on whether actual editing of anime takes place, or if the whole shows are simply not made available.

China's Ministry of Culuture's anime blacklist as of 2015 is partially listed here:
animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-06-09/china-blacklists-attack-on-titan-death-note-36-more-anime-manga/.89055

the manga blacklist was even more at that time:
http://www.ejinsight.com/20150409-no-more-sailor-moon-as-china-cracks-down-on-manga/

It's not just "R-rated" content --or TV-M that US publishers use--btw.. A lot of those are TV-14. I think we can safely assume the list has grown since then.
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DerekL1963
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Joined: 14 Jan 2015
Posts: 1122
Location: Puget Sound
PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 6:13 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Why Did Funimation Partner With China's bilibili?


For the same reason they partnered with Crunchyroll - $$$, and as a poison pill against other rivals.

Duh.
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Felicia—-



Joined: 28 Mar 2019
Posts: 12
PostPosted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 1:11 am Reply with quote
Well if this is successful enough, hopefully we’ll get a legal streaming site to sub Mo Dao Zu Shi. Like that’s all that I want lol. That series was sooo good!
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Ermat_46



Joined: 14 Apr 2008
Posts: 743
Location: Philippines
PostPosted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 3:03 am Reply with quote
#894436 wrote:
Well if this is successful enough, hopefully we’ll get a legal streaming site to sub Mo Dao Zu Shi. Like that’s all that I want lol. That series was sooo good!


Does the deal even cover Chinese-produced animes like "The Leader"? Well, FUNi could license some Chinese-produced anime if they want to have more content through the deal. But from what I've read, the deal is concerned more about Japanese anime instead of Chinese produced ones.
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SheRrIs





PostPosted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 6:21 am Reply with quote
#894436 wrote:
Well if this is successful enough, hopefully we’ll get a legal streaming site to sub Mo Dao Zu Shi. Like that’s all that I want lol. That series was sooo good!


Mo Dao Zu Shi is not a bilibili property, sadly.
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