| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | multimedia entertainment |
| Genre | Anime, Japanese cinema, Asian cinema |
| Founded | Fort Worth, Texas, U.S. (1994) |
| Founder(s) | Gen Fukunaga |
| Headquarters | Flower Mound, Texas, United States |
| Key people | Gen Fukunaga Founder/CEO |
| Owner(s) | Independent (1994-2005) Navarre Corporation (2005-2011) Funimation Communications (2011-present) |
| Website | www.funimation.com |
Funimation (formerly known as Funimation Productions and Funimation Entertainment, and usually stylized as FUNimation) is an American entertainment company. Originally founded in 1994 by Gen Fukunaga, the company became a subsidiary of Navarre Corporation on May 11, 2005. In April 2011, Navarre sold Funimation to a group of investors including Gen Fukunaga for $24 million.[1] It is speculated that FUNimation was sold at such a low cost (in comparison to how much it was originally purchased for, almost 100 million in cash and 15 million in stock in 2005) because Navarre wanted to continue distributing goods in relation to the products, but not handle the publishing. Around the same time, the company's trademark ball, star & blue bar were dropped from it's logo as well as the word "entertainment" dropped from it's name to simply be called "Funimation".[2] Funimation produces, markets, and distributes anime and other entertainment properties in the United States and international markets. The company is headquartered in Flower Mound, Texas.[3] Funimation is a portmanteau of the English words fun and animation.
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The company was founded in 1994 by Japanese-born businessman Gen Fukunaga.[4] Fukunaga's uncle was one of the producers for the popular anime series Dragon Ball; he approached Gen about bringing the series over to America. He proposed that if Fukunaga could start a production company and raise enough money, Toei Animation would license the rights to the show. Fukunaga met with co-worker Daniel Cocanougher whose family owned a feed mill in Decatur, Texas and convinced Cocanougher's family to sell their business and serve as an investor for his company. The company was eventually formed in Fort Worth, Texas as Funimation Productions. By 1998, after two failed attempts to bring the Dragon Ball franchise to a U.S. audience, it finally found success on Cartoon Network's action-oriented programming block Toonami, and the Dragon Ball phenomenon quickly grew in the United States as it had elsewhere. This led Funimation to begin licensing other anime to the U.S.
On May 11, 2005, Funimation was acquired by Navarre Corporation for US$100.4 million in cash and 1.8 million shares of Navarre stock. As part of the acquisition, the president Fukunaga was retained as head of the company, transitioning to the position of CEO, and the company's name was changed from Funimation Productions to Funimation Entertainment.[5][6]
In 2007 Funimation moved from North Richland Hills, Texas to Flower Mound; the standalone Flower Mound facility has double the square footage of the space Funimation occupied previous North Richland Hills facility; in the North Richland Hills facility Funimation shared the building with other tenants.[3] Funimation moved into the Lakeside Business District with a ten year lease.[7]
According to an interview in February 2008 with Navarre Corporation CEO Cary Deacon, Funimation was in early stage negotiations to acquire some of the titles licensed through Geneon's USA division, which ceased operations in December 2007.[8] In July 2008, Funimation confirmed that they had acquired distribution rights to several Geneon titles, including some that Geneon had left unfinished when they ceased operations.[9]
At Anime Expo 2008, Funimation announced that it had acquired over 30 titles from the Sojitz catalog that had previously been licensed by ADV Films.[10]
On October 14, 2011, Funimation announced a partnership with Niconico, the English-language version of Nico Nico Douga, to form the 'Funico' brand for the licensing of anime for streaming and home video release.[11]
In 2005, Funimation's legal department began to pursue a more aggressive approach toward protecting their licensed properties, and started sending "cease and desist" (C&D) letters to sites offering links to fansubs of their titles. This move was similar to that taken by the now-defunct ADV Films several years before with several of the major torrent sites.
Funimation's legal department served C&D letters for series that had not yet been advertised or announced as licensed, including Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Black Cat, and SoltyRei, with a few known series also mentioned in the letter.[12] Funimation revealed more licenses on 6 October 2006 when it sent letters to torrent sites demanding that distribution of xxxHolic's TV series, Mushishi, Ragnarok the Animation, and other series cease.[13]
In the first quarter of 2010, Navarre Corporation reclassified Funimation as "discounted operations" and began preparations to sell the company. Navarre released a statement in April 2011 confirming that Funimation has been sold to a group of investors, including Fukunaga, for $24 million.[1] Navarre will remain as exclusive distributor of Funimation's titles.
Funimation does not directly release its properties in non-U.S. (English language-speaking) markets, instead sublicensing to other companies such as Manga Entertainment in the United Kingdom and Madman Entertainment in Australia and New Zealand.
Towards the end of 2005, Fullmetal Alchemist (along with Beez Entertainment's Wolf's Rain) became one of the flagship programs on the relaunch of satellite channel Rapture TV and had only one edit, that of changing the opening to "Ready Steady Go" (the second opening), instead of the few minor edits the show received for its Adult Swim airings. YuYu Hakusho has also been acquired for television broadcast in the UK. However, it has not been announced who has picked it up and who the intended audience is.
Funimation Entertainment with OlympuSAT launched the FUNimation Channel, the second 24 hour anime digital cable network in North America (the first being A.D. Vision's Anime Network). OlympuSAT is the exclusive distributor and the Funimation Channel is now available to video service providers.
Since its launch in September 2005, FUNimation Channel has expanded into more homes and continues to expand via digital cable, fiber optics, and DBS systems.
When the channel first launched, it was available to a few cities via UHF digital signals.[14] The service was temporary as the channel was trying to gain a foothold in the already crowded digital cable landscape. Another short-term service was the syndication of a FUNimation Channel block to one of OlympuSAT's affiliate networks – Colours TV.[15] Both services were discontinued in favor for a more successful expansion on digital cable, fiber optics and DBS systems.
In July 2008, Funimation and Red Planet Media announced the launch of a mobile video-on-demand service for AT&T and Sprint mobile phone subscribers.[16] Three titles were part of the launch, Gunslinger Girl, Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase, and The Galaxy Railways, with entire seasons of each made available.
On September 19, 2006, Funimation created an official channel on YouTube where they upload advertisements for box sets, as well as clips and preview episodes of their licensed series. In September 2008, they began distributing full episodes of series at Hulu.[17] In December of the same year, Funimation added a video section to their main website with preview episodes of various series. In April 2009, they began distributing full episodes of series at Veoh.[18][19] Full episodes are also available on the YouTube channel as well as on the PlayStation Network (PSN) Video Store and Xbox Live/Zune Marketplace.