For years and years and still to this day, people have complained at Funimation nonstop about many of their decision, particularly the replacement of the music. So how does one react when complained at? Well, usually they should acknowledge that the people angry have reasons to be angry (after getting over the fact that there are people out there who don't necessarily agree with them 100%) and then investigate their complaints and understand why the people complaining feel that way.

Unfortunately, for the executive elite who run Funimation, they have a different view of things. A person from Funimation once privately commented,


"But if my people came to me and said 'if we do X and target these youngsters we will make X much money, but if we do Y we will make less money' well if it's my money, I'm going to do x!"


This is the view that some (but not all, I'm happy to say) of them have. Remember the so-called "white man's burden?" (white European countries have the "duty" of colonizing those of non-white races) In a sense, it's similar. I like to think of it as, "Funimation's burden." They once told a reporter that it was "their duty to Americanize DBZ." These people literally believe that it causes ratings to skyrocket and with the success they've had (by no means unusual, DBZ's been popular all around the world) they've adopted the, "it ain't broke, so we ain't ever going to fix it" attitude.

But still, many fans strongly disagree with Funimation and oppose their strategies. So to combat fan complaints about their replacing of the music for once and for all, what did the executives decide to do? While exploring the PN web archives (around 5/10/2000) I came across this little bit...


PN update- "FYI: Bob is the licensing director DBZ games/toy figures/merchandise. According to Bob, a game is not IN development YET, but is being discussed. They will release it for one platform to see how well it sells, if it goes well they will risk other platforms. Also, FUNimation would have LOVED to use the original DBZ music - but the license holder in Japan was not willing to let them have it for what they were willing to offer. Bob said that said 'he [the license holder] was being very awkward and it wasn't working out so they had to do without it.".


If you're wondering who "Bob" is, he's actually Bob Brennan, Cindy Brennan Fukunaga's brother and Gen Fukunaga's brother in law. He may not be as famous as some of the more illustrious figures at Funimation but he has played a very important part in their puzzle. At one point...


Steve: "Now, onto your relationship with Cartoon Network. First of all, how did you guys get hooked up?"
Gen: "Well, Bob Brennen had started a relationship with them a few years ago, so, when it looked like the show was going to be available again for broadcast, we immediatly contacted them, indicating it's availability. One thing led to another, and we eventually settled on our current arrangement."


It could even be argued that, without him, Funimation might have lost DBZ for good and might not even exist today. He's also Funimation's director of licensing. Indeed, he's a pretty big figure of importance at Funimation behind the scenes. An earlier news update of mine pretty much covered what his "news leak" was all about.


"Ah. So FUNimation really wants to use the original music, right? (Laughs) Well, if you've explored this site even remotely or come within a mile of Steve Harmon's interview with Gen Fukunaga then you know that that's just a load of bullshit. (Or rather, funishit) So what's the deal? For starters, when someone gives "inside information" (ala Deepthroat in the Watergate scandal) they usually try to keep themselves secret and anonymous. Obviously this Bob person got permission from FUNimation since he allowed PN to use his real name. If Bob was saying something FUNimation didn't want to, then he would have used a fake identity so as avoid getting in trouble with his employer. On the other hand... a known source willl always appear more credible to an audience than an anonymous source...

But regardless, the man was lying either way. Why would FUNimation give one of it's employees permission to lie like that, and about something that important that they knew would be posted on PN? The reason why- to generate positive propaganda in their favor and to try and discourage all fans from ever complaining about their replacing of all of DBZ's true, original music. Look at it this way- if FUNimation stated some crap like this directly (say, in their website FAQ) then they could get in deep shit. After all, I don't think Toei would be amused to see that FUNimation was lying about them and falsely blaming them for FUNimation's own bad choices and decisions. As for fans, they (rightfully) mistrust FUNimation so much that many wouldn't believe something that came directly from their mouths. (like that whole, "they won't allow uncut DBZ on the airwaves!" while meanwhile on the International Channel nothing in DBZ or GT is being censored) But by having an "underground" and highly trusted news source like PN report it to the Z community on "tha lowdown"... then FUNimation could very well convince many people that it is impossible for FUNimation to ever have the original music! I have to admit, this was VERY clever of them to do and it sure succeded in fooling a lot of people- hell, even some dbzoa'ers.

Of course, all the above might just be a theory and I could be wrong, and Bob's comments could have accidentally made it to PN from his contact. (Although 2 days passed between the contact's two scoops, and Funimation's 50+ employees did pretty much follow PN on a daily basis back in the olds days for news in any case...) Even then though, it was what convinced a lot of people that Funimation weren't the bad guys and Toei were by "acting weird-like and wanting to charge them an ungodly and unfair amount," and this Bob character was purposefully lying on FUNimation's behalf in any case.

Neither scenario is particularly flattering. This just illustrates yet again just how little integrity or thankfullness FUNimation really has. Toei spends tens of millions of dollars in production, directing, voicing, animation, advertising costs over a period of 12 years, pouring in lots of time and effort, to create the world's most popular anime- with 20 or so movies and specials and 508 episodes to boot. FUNimation gets the anime from them- makes a small fortune butchering their work while insulting it and saying that it 'needs' FUNimation's 'improvements' for it to even be enjoyable- and then they have the nerve to lie about Toei and insult them behind their backs and make them appear to be bad guys! Sheesh, that sure is gratitude for ya. FUNimation would rather try to deceive all fans into believing that the music's not their fault and somebody else's, so as to avoid any criticism from people who are unhappy than to just listen to the fans and deal with their complaints at all whatsoever. It just goes to show you how unscrupulous a bunch of people they truly are, and that you should always take everything they say with a tablespoon of salt... but really, what more could one expect from FUNimation?"


You know, when I first entered the DBZ Community after starting up DBZU2, I had a lot of "Why" question. Foremost among them was about the music. I loved the music of the Majin Buu saga more than I'd cared for Faulconer's for all of for DBZ I'd heard so many times before- and I was disgusted by some of his stuff the original music was replaced with there. When I asked around at several places, and even the DBZOA, I kept hearing the same stories.


"Nah. I don't think Toei will let Funimation have the original music because they keep charging them too much. If that's the cause, you can't really blame them for not using it."
"Maybe they wanted to save money? I heard that Toei was acting weird and trying to charge them too much."


Bearing this in mind, I remembered one comment from somebody who talked about how one month Jon Allen once mentioned that one month Gen Fukunaga complained that Toei was charging too much money for them to use the original music (any of you guys out there have any idea where Gen's comment here originally originated from?) and then the next month he bragged that he had "more money than he knew what to do with," inevitably pissing a whole lot of people off.

So I kept suspicions. Then, later I read Steve Harmon's interviews over at pojo.com and, of course, the rest is history and Gen's interview with Steve spread like wildfire, pretty much killing off this rumor for good in the process.

Still... I find it disturbing that Funimation would do this. One usually doesn't bite the hand that feeds you, even if won't strike back at you or punish you, at least out of gratitude to it's owner. Sadly, Funimation's executives concocted a plan and misused the then most popular DBZ fansite and tricked many into believing their lies. I will concede this though- it was a very clever plan, and ingeniously executed as well. They almost got away with it.

Regardless, what this shows is just the incredibly insane amount of length Funimation will go to to eliminate criticism and to try to get fans to fall in line with what they preach and offer to them. Also, there was another instance of something similar to this too.


icv2.com- "Are you going to redo those shows?
Gen- "Yes, certainly for home video we will redo those. We are not sure that we are going to re-air those redone episodes, we may just sell them as videos. In fact there are like 15 missing episodes -- there is a significant number of episodes that were so heavily censored the first time around -- so when we do it this time we are going to pick up about 15 new episodes [of the original Dragon Ball series]. On top of the fact that all the redone Dragon Ball videos will be uncensored, there will be 15 new ones, they will all be uncut, and will have the Japanese soundtracks. "


I remember when I first responded to this in an update, I completely mistrusted what he had to say. Mainly because is was so incredibly ambiguous and sounded like the kind of rumor Funimation would be more than delighted to start. Just think of it- fans find out, stop whooping and hollering and dancing in the streets while praising Funimation and looking forward to the original... Funimation doesn't have to deal with a single complaint until they announce their intentions for the redub. THEN, it'd be too late to complain and Funimation would laugh at them for having been fooled in the first place- all in all, belief in this piece of positive propaganda would suit Funimation's aims very nicely, just like their last one did.

The fact that Funimation refused to elaborate at all on Gen's comment at all just further proved what it was... another hoax to get fans to fall in line. And Funimation people would at best respond to questions Gen's comments, "Not too sure. But you know, if it were up to me I think they should go with Bruce Faulconer so they can maintain the continuity of things." In a way it was them psychologically revealing the truth without really doing so while trying to soften up the fans for what was to come.

Man... Funimation will go to the end of the world to try and get fans to fall into their line of thinking. The fact that they're more interested in doing things like lying and spreading false propaganda and using ambiguous language to trick fans, rather then actually trying to deal with real problems and real complaints, just goes to show where their real priorities lie.

So when Funimation finally makes an official announcement about Bruce Faulconer, while commenting on why on earth they're letting him have his way with the redub when he did a poor job overall with all of the series that he's worked on- what kind of lies are they going to try to feed us this time around?

- GreatSaiyaman777