It was first reported that Funimation had One Piece. Then later, all they'd say was "no comment." Now this- http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=4404


"Following reports that FUNimation had lost the One Piece license, ANN contacted them today to find out whether they had in fact lost the license or not. The surprise, was an explanation that they had in fact never licensed One Piece and that the whole thing was a misunderstanding.

At Anime Expo New York in 2002 Gen Fukunaga discussed "Great Anime coming to America" and mentioned One Piece as one such title that was coming to America. Many of the journalists present, including but not limited to Anime News Network's own reporters, misconstrued this as an announcement that it was FUNimation that was bringing One Piece to America, in other words, that they had licensed the title.

We were informed today that the license for One Piece has not been awarded and that FUNimation "Remains one of the top companies in negotiations for the property."

In 2003 ANN implemented a policy of showing all our convention reports to the companies before posting them, but at the time of AX 2002 this policy was not in place."


Is this the truth? Heh, not exactly. The real truth is what I'm about to tell you. Before I begin, I'd just like to say that I'm writing this to clear up any confusion or misconceptions which will undoubtedly develop. I've always felt that keep the fans knowledgeable about what really goes on is the best way to keep them empowered against the anime dubbing companies which are always out for their wallets first and integrity towards the series they dub last. There is no strength greater than truth, and the truth is what I'm about to give you. As for why I know this much stuff.... like Psaros before me, I spend more time studying FUNimation than anybody else out there on the internet. If you don't believe me, fine, but if you know how solid my rep is, then glad you trust me.

Now then, to summarize the series of events... it was reported by several sources (not just ANN) that FUNimation had One Piece at an anime convention. One magazine (Animerica I believe) even talked about this before when talking about the status of One Piece coming to America. But some time afterwards, FUNimation then would only reply "no comment" when asked about One Piece. And recently, after reports circulated that FUNimation LOST One Piece, Gen immediately spoke out and claimed that they never had it in the first place. Fellow staffer Crippler Daimaoh, while impersonating Funimation's actions, put it best when he said-

"We've got One Piece! STEP INTO THA GRAND LINE, GRAND LINE, GRAND LINE!"
"NO COMMENT BITCHEZ!"
"HEY- WE NEVER HAD ONE PIECE TO BEGIN WITH! Those damned anime websites just misquoted us!"

So what really happened?

At one point and time, FUNimation DID have the rights to One Piece. Around early January of 2003, it was reported by someone from FUNimation that a demo episode was being cast and recorded for submission to Cartoon Network. (possibly episode 2 but probably 3, as Captain Morgan was known to be in it. Besides, in terms of plot, action, story, humor and drama episode 3 would probably be the best early episode of One Piece to show off.)

In fact, Funimation already expected they'd get the series. Planning for this, many at Funimation decided to familiarize themselves with the series beforehand. (Remember when Laura Bailey watched all of Fruits Basket on fansub to get ready for her dub role?) Chris Sabat viewed a large amount of the series on numerous fansubs and fan-translated mangas and totally fell in love with the show, and had even planned/hoped that he'd get to be cast as Roronoa Zorro. In my opinion, after what happened to poor Kuwabara's voice in the Yu Yu Hakusho dub, I think this would have been a HORRIBLE mistake. As Blue Gender showed, Chris Sabat has the potential to be a GREAT director. Voice-wise he's just been lucky so far, landing DBZ and then getting to assign himself to so many roles. To the effect of what Sean Schemmel once said in that Planet Namek chat long ago when asked why Sabat did 20 or so voices,

"Well, the reason why is because he's a director and works there all the time and is easy to reach. Plus, he does them way cheaper then one of the regular VA's would. Believe me, they'd have to pay a LOT more money if they had had me do all those voices. :)"

And for the record, said chat could be found here,
http://web.archive.org/web/20001010191424/http://www.planetnamek.com/insane/troy/html/irclogs/sean.txt,
but apparently it's not there anymore. I'm still kicking myself for not having saved that chat. So, to any readers out there, if any of you ever saved this chat or any other Schemmel chats at Planet Namek (like the time he said Brian Drummond makes Vegeta sounds like Chris Sabat with his balls cut off.) please let me know. So, to make a long story short, Sabat should really, really stick to what he's good at and continue to try to direct more shows in the future ("Blue Gender-style" that is- not ever, ever, EVER AGAIN "DBZ-style" which he did incredibly poorly at) instead of all this VA-stuff.... man did I get off topic there. So, back to the original topic at hand, ahem.


Anyway, Funimation was most DEFINITELY banking on One Piece becoming the next "DBZ". Had Cartoon Network picked it up, they'd have been on the fast track to hold open auditions (current cast and first timers). And at this time they were only a couple months short of finishing "Dragonball", which would have freed up at least one studio. But then came the "no comment" arc of this saga. What happened?

Having earlier granted them the rights, Toei took the rights to One Piece AWAY from FUNimation. Sounds unbelievable, right? Well, the person who told this story is the same one who spoke about Bruce Faulconer (a claim he made which I was able to independently verify) so anyway...

According to the person, FUNimation had it, then it got taken away. Why? Because FUNimation already has enough great series and Toei doesn't want to just keep giving away ALL of their best series to just one dubbing company out of the dozen-plus in America. Think about it- why not give it to a company that'd value it more and have MUCH more to gain off of it instead? Why should just one company keep getting all the good stuff? Funimation already has DB in all it's forms and recently Detective Conan (which is very popular and about 350 episodes and STILL counting) and, as Gen commented, it's been their strategy to only bother going after all the "top-rated in Japan" series while ignoring other ones. And when you think about it- one dubbing company can only spend so much time on each series, dubbing and promoting them. Besides, in the new era of anime in America, Japanese licensors have wizened up charging more and demanding more royalties. (DB then DBZ were essentially given to Funimation for what would amount to peanuts and chump change in today's terms) What's been said by this person all sounds very believable, especially given the next bit of information I'm about to present. The following quote is from a recent interview with Gen Fukunaga:


"Of course, the big profit is in unearthing the next megahit. For that, he's competing with an 800-pound gorilla, he > says, and his uncle can't help him. "


What is interesting, is that "800-pound gorilla" is a part of Gen's vernacular, his style of speaking. Years earlier he used that same phrase to explain why distributors "force" them to go with the number and types of DVD's and VHS'es they distribute to stores around the country. (which is an utter lie on Gen's point, but that's beside the point and is a a story for a whole 'nother editorial) Basically, it was his way of saying that he was powerless to do anything in that particular situation. And, unconsciously, that was what he was probably stating in this recent interview. As for "the big profits in unearthing the next megahit"- what else could that refer to but One Piece? Literally the number one fastest-selling manga of all time, with a hugely successful anime in Japan. Something that stores in Japan are lined up to the wall with. And that's exactly what he was referring to. So basically, what the gist of what quote was saying was that:


"Of course, the big profit is in unearthing the next megahit, which Gen is hoping will be One Piece. For that, he's in a situation where he's pretty much powerless to do anything, he says, and his uncle can't help him."


Even if that person with the "anonymous FUNi contact" is 100% false and was lying (which he very well could have been), I know 100% for a fact that FUNimation temporarily had the rights to One Piece for a while but have now lost them. But I'm inclined to agree that the person with the "anonymous FUNi contact" is absolutely right. Why else would Toei pull One Piece away? Gen may have an uncle at Toei, but he certainly doesn't run Toei. Toei doesn't care about enriching Funimation eternally (although his uncle there certainly does), they're interested in making themselves the most money. And with a different dubbing company with a plate far less full that would have far more to benefit from a megahit like One Piece, it makes sense that Toei might quickly change their mind after being sweet-talked by Gen Fukunaga and his uncle into giving up their next biggest hit after DBZ. Toei just wants to make themselves the most profits that they can, not Funimation, and after DBZ's success many of them undoubtedly would also look at it as unfair and greedy on Funimation's part to grab up One Piece after the success they've had with DBZ. And I'm sure many national and international friends and people inside and outside of the Toei company are angry and jealous of Gen's "uncle connection" who's main priority would seem to be helping his nephew's American company out first instead of helping Toei out first.

Now then, as for Gen's comments to Anime News Network- of course he'd say that. He's FUNimaton's number one public relations man, and there's no way he'd admit to his company LOSING an anime, particularly something as huge as One Piece. He never says or admits anything negative about his company anyway. Doing that would be a serious loss of face for him, and would be very embarassing to admit- so by spreading this story instead, he can do the opposite and just deny that FUNimation never lost One Piece to begin with by. It's kind of the anime-equivalent of Bush parachuting unto an aircraft carrier bragging about "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq when afterwards, troops keep getting killed, no NO WMD's have been found, or any so-called "9/11 links" have been discovered, his sole reason for cajoling the country into waging an almost unilateral war there. Rather than risk embarassment over the "bannergate" incident, the White House is just denying it and saying that it was the idea of the ship personal. (As 4-General Star General and Nato Commander Wesley Clark once commented, "Next he'll be saying that it was the sailors' idea for him to dress up in a flight suit and prance across that ship.")

As for Gen stating that FUNimation "remains one of the top companies in negotiations for the property," it's his way of reaffirming FUNimation's status in the anime dubbing world after this major blow and it shows his optimism that he can get Toei to reverse their earlier decision. And it's good news, as Funimation is unlikely to get the series now and their allies at 4Kids aren't either. (Funi gets money for selling and distributing 4Kids's DVD's. To make a long story short, the two companies are pretty much in bed with one another and try to stay out of one another's way when one of them goes after an anime since they're already so close and connected.)

But, hey who knows? Perhaps enough people from Toei heard about how FUNimation has treated DBZ in America and complained and were upset about it and, because of that, got their company to have a change of heart instead.

http://www.dbzoa.net/features/toei_int.php

Ya never know. But who knows? Perhaps in the grand scheme of things this is just all of FUNimation's horrible karma they've accumulated over the years with DBZ and now GT that's finally taking a big huge bite out of their ass. And if that really is the case, amen. After what they did to DBZ, there's no way Funimation deserves to pick up One Piece and turn it into the "next DBZ."


(2/14 update- It's recently come to my attention that there was one mistake I made in this editorial... 4Kids might very well INDEED pick up One Piece. Why is that?

Well for one, Gen Fukunaga can pretty much not be trusted on ANYTHING he says. When he says that Funimation is "one of the top companies in negotiations", that doesn't necessarily mean it's true. He's been caught in lies plenty of times before right? Given that Toei dumped them, it's unlikely they (Toei) would change their mind. And if they don't... what's the 2nd best thing after picking up the series that could happen to Funimation?

4Kids picking it up. Because Funi makes a bit of money every time 4Kids VHS'es/DVD's are sold. So, just telling/warning you that it's still a possibility. I don't know if it'll necessarily happen, but it very well still could. Let's just hope Viz picks it up though, or anybody else. Anybody but 4Kids.)

- GreatSaiyaman777