Forgiveness for Funimation- have they earned it?
By: GreatSaiyaman777

As you probably know by now Funimation has been besieged by attacks, insults, flame e-mails, letters, websites and even in person at anime conventions. (being insulted to their faces repeatedly, encountering people wearing Anti-Funimation badges, etc.) This has been going on for some time now, almost a full 6 years. How does Funimation feel about it?

They don't like it. Even when Season 3 came, Sabat voiced 1/3rd of the cast, all the Ocean cast vanished overnight, Neel Bligh and Terry Klassen worked their "magic" into mistranslated Toei Engrish scripts and director Barry Watson and Chris Sabat and others "briefed life" into what were mainly a group of unprofessional amateurs who had never been hired for any projects this big before, and Faulconer and Mr. Fluffles offered their bargain basement services- Funimation brushed off complaints as unfair and pointless.

You probably all know about the infamous Dallas Funimation article by now. It's been debated to death, and one person from Funi even wrote an editorial about it that's already been replied to. (http://www.templeotrunks.com/misc/enlight/ed47.html) But basically, they said "f**ck it" to everybody who had complained and proudly and boldly declared that, "the majority of our audience are all dub fans. We are helping to make anime more popular in America, and are introducing more people a series they may have never heard about otherwise." I am one of those "dubbies" introduced during this era, once a part of their vaunted majority and now it's harshest critic and active converter to those poor souls still under the spell of the dub. (heh heh. Some of you said "dubbies" are probably reading these words right now. I remember reading Psaros's editorials years ago and even that not being enough to convert me... trust me, the dub sucks, just convert already and you'll happier for the better. You'll be happier and better off if you do it now rather than later.) Clearly the show has some fundamental problems, but that's not the topic for today.

What is the topic, is that Funimation has done an exceptional job dubbing other animes very well. And as such, they feel that they deserve respect and to be treated like a fun bunch of talented and hardworking people. Heh. This is probably best symbolized by this editorial. (http://www.dbzgtlegacy.com/editorials/ed28.shtml- ironically, a friend of mine e-mailed him about it some time ago and he said that he now disagrees with what he wrote then, mainly because of how Funimation is treating DBGT)

In fact, like I said earlier, when fans heard that Funimation had grabbed the rights to Yu Yu Hakusho and then Blue Gender, they went BALLISTIC. Across the internet anime fans had felt that they could rest and sleep easily with Funimation's stupidity and poor dubbing solely concentrated into the Dragon Ball anime. It was like, to them Dragon Ball was "taking one for the team" and preoccupying Funi from possibly ruining other shows. But when Funi did make expansionist plans, oh, how the community trembled.

DBZ
Pros- Um... the J. version is slowly being released on countless pricey DVD's. I guess that counts for something.

Cons-
1. Bad voices.
2. Mistranslated scripts.
3. "Americanized, hipped up" scripts.
4. Bad acting.
5. Poorly designed DVD's w/ material that doesn't need to be cut out intentionally cut out.
6. Overpriced DVD's that cram as few episodes per volume as humanly possible.
7. Redundantly and blatantly slow DVD releases and focus on VHS'es, even though the MARKET IS PHASING OUT VHS'ES AND HAS BEEN FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS, leading some to the theory that Funi is just doing this to do everything they can to keep dub fans ignorant of the original version and to give hardcore fans the middle finger.
8. A totally uncaring company that'll show said shows absolutely no respect.
9. Excessive censorship.
10. "Kiddifying" of animes.
11. Absolute and completely unprofessional and arrogant refusal to go back and correct older flawed DVD releases that contain disc errors, censorship, and unnecessarily cut-out material.


Heh. One voice actor and several others even ran around on different boards trying their best to calm fans down and reassure them that this wasn't the case. And surprisingly- they were right.


Blue Gender-
Pros- Excellent dub, excellent DVD's.
Cons- Excessive Adult Swim censorship, some voices, not too much else.

Yu Yu Hakusho-
Pros- Fairly good dub, extra-excellent DVD's.
Cons- CN excessive censorship, Americanizations of dub, (to the extent of what Gen Fukunaga announced in an e-mail long ago that Planet Namek reported, "Blue Gender's dubbed script will be extremely accurate to the original as it is more of a 'hadcore fan' anime. As Yu Yu Hakusho is more 'mainstream', Americanizations and dialogue changes will be necessary in order to generate wider market appeal") added curse words, plot alterations in dub, added dialogue to dub, redundantly slow release of future boxed sets.


Surprisingly, not too shabby! And other series too have been treated fairly well.


Fruits Basket
Pros- Excellent dub, fairly good DVD's, DVD's jampacked with episodes
Cons- Absolutely retarded and stingy refusal to translate any of the kanji writing for any of the episodes, even though FB is loaded with them and YYH gets kanji translations for it. No logic in this decision at at all whatsoever.


Dragon Ball
Pros- Fairly good dub, excellent DVD's, DVD's jampacked with episodes. Dub voices generally quite good
Cons- Some plot/name changes, dialogue changes, added dialogue, a few Japanese lyrical songs cut. Cursing most likely given "DBZ treatment." (though DB has far fewer curse words compared to DBZ) Excessive CN censorship, main complaints from people about the 2nd half of the Piccolo Daimaoh saga.


Funimation is also scoring strong points for Tenchi GXP and Kiddy Grade. Like a Roman Emperor deciding whether or not a fighter in the Colliseum deserves to live or die, (man, he sure did feed DBGT to the lions) Gen gave these animes the thumbs up and said, "Since Kiddy Grade is aimed more at the core anime fans, rather than the mainstream market like Dragonball Z, fans should expect a Fruits-Basket-like treatment."

Indeed, Funimation has made some big strides ever since Season 3. They are no longer the pack of incompetents whom Chris Psaros once annointed, "the worst dubbing studio in the West". They have become very rich and successful. And moreso, they have done a fine and exceptional job handling other animes and have proven themselves to be a very big force in the anime world today that will continue to make and more and more anime fans very happy.

However, Funimation has not done anything to deserve forgiveness from DBZ fans.

I mean, so what if Tenchi GXP and Kiddy Grade and Fruits Basket and Blue Gender are getting exceptional releases? "Never heard of them," and this is just how most DBZ fans feel. Sure, maybe I'll watch some of them and enjoy them at some point in the future- but where does that leave me as a DBZ fan?

"Thank Funi, for doing a great job with these series. I forgive you for raping and ruining DBZ," is not exactly how I feel. DBZ is my FAVORITE anime, and it is a favorite and strongly nostalgic anime for many other countless fans too. Why should we turn our backs and ignore everything horrible Funimation has done before all of a sudden? And why should they expect us to?

Funimation continues to treat DBZ in a completely unsatisfactory manner. Even if the DBZ redub turns out good, we already know the music is going to be horrible because they've already inked the completely idiotic decision of rehiring Bruce Faulconer and Mr. Fluffles and a bunch of college kids. While DBZ movie 8 was a vast improvement- it still wasn't enough. Gen Fukunaga and his executive cronies are still a pack of lying cowards playing "mainstream games" and lying about the censorship. Despite their claims of "Uncut" tapes, truly uncensored DBZ does not exist ANYWHERE in the universe of English-dubbed DBZ. Oh wait, the first three movies have them, so let's thank Funi for- oh wait, Funimation NEVER DUBBED THOSE MOVIES, Pioneer did. Hmm... no wonder they were handled more maturely than anything Funimation's put out since.

I mean, how are dub fans supposed to feel knowing that they've been lied to all this time about "uncut" and continue to keep getting fed lies about Funimation? (not to mention the other far more serious problems the dub has) And how fans like me and others who truly care about the show and know what's really like supposed to feel when Funimation still can't, after almost a full decade, put out a truly good dub of the show worthy of respect?

Yes, Funimation did a good job dubbing Dragon Ball. (first series) However, GT was so mindnumbingly stupid, shitty and vomit-inducing of a dub that it's done more than enough to cancel any good Funimation generated from dubbing the first series right. If Funimation expects forgiveness, they're going to have to pull their heads out of their egotistical "we're geniuses, we practically made DB what is is today, it had nothing to do with the series' universal and already proven foreign popularity" clouds they've been living in (yes, as sad as is many of them actually do refer to themselves as "geniuses" when talking about how they handled DBZ), get their act together and put forth a true dub. One that-

1. Retains the original music.
2. Has an accurate script. (like Movie 8) 3. Has uncut cursing like the first 3 Pioneer movies did.
*. Ah hell, they don't have to do this much, I'm not that picky. But if they want to top it off with a cherry,
Is also truly visually 100% uncut. This includes "Toei intro footage" and remaining seconds to the credits until everything finishes and goes blank (wheeze, wheez, Movie 8) and the pre-show theatre advertisements included as extras at the beginning of the movie.


And that's all- that's that. All they need is at least one movie, ONE MOVIE for f**ck's sake, that isn't a disgrace and that can actually live up to the name Dragon Ball and treat the series with respect. Just, at least, ONE MOVIE. That is all. Until or, most likely, unless Funimation can ever do this, then they'll have done absolutely nothing to deserve, expect or demand respect and "forgiveness" from us.

If you expect forgiveness for a crime, you make up for the crime itself. It'd be like if you killed someone in a drunk driving accident and never apologized to the family but instead devoted years of your life to charity and public service.

"Look at what a nice accomplished guy I am! Look at how many wonderful things I've done! I mean, I refuse to apologize and I absolutely refuse to make any amends to you guys, but can't you just forgive me for killing that guy already? Don't you think I deserve to be forgiven and to not have to listen to your complaints anymore?"


In Funimation's case it's,

"Look at what a nice accomplished Anime Dubbing Company we are! Look at how many wonderful series we've treated wonderfully and dubbed acceptably! I mean, I absolutely refuse to make any amends to you guys, but can't you just forgive me for raping and ruining DBZ already? Don't you think I deserve to be forgiven and to not have to listen to your complaints anymore?" "


To say either of those under those particular circumstances would be absurd and inappropriate- and that's exactly what Funimation is saying. Of course one wouldn't just forgive the person immediately under these circumstanecs. A person has to not just ASK for forgiveness and admit that they were wrong (which Funimation has done neither of) but also make amends for what they have done. (which Funimation hasn't done either) They can't just do other good deeds then arrogantly march up to you and demand and expect forgiveness.

If Funimation wants any fan to ever truly forgive them for ruining DBZ, then have to make it up with actions, not words. Specifically, by just dubbing it with the respect it's desperately been so deserving and needy of for the past decade. After all, to err is human. However, to continue to knowingly err long after you realize how wrong it is while refusisng to ever apologize or make amends for what one has done, is inhuman.

- GreatSaiyaman777