It is very rare for FUNimation to publicly comment on their practices. However, they do so privately all the time, particularly via posting on message boards. Heh, at one point Barry Watson even went at it and attacked me and the dbzoa and it's views quite thoroughly under a different user name, though it was quite obvious it was him. And another time someone from 4Kids attacked me and many others in an anti-4Kids topic. (Though, on a good note, after hearing some arguments the person finally admitted that dual-language option on DVD's would probably be a good thing and that they should include them!) Believe me... I've studied FUNimation far more than any sane person should. Being as familiar as I am with their personal arguments (ones which almost no regular fans ever employ) "spotting them" (be they people working for FUNimation or other anime companies) isn't much of a trick and is actually somewhat of a "skill" I've picked up on the way.

Anyway, a long time ago someone from FUNimation once publicly (and anonymously) commented on why they do what they do in the form of editorial sent to the formerly active site "Kienzans' Edge," which used to be the most popular DBZ fan site for submitting editorials to and whose success and creation led Chris Psaros to eventually stop spending so much time on DBZU's opinions sections as KE was basically devoted to nothing but a place for opinions from all the fans.

Anyway, like with the interviews, first I'll post this thing in it's entirety and then I'll cover it's individual pieces. Oh, and you can still check out the original editorial here (http://web.archive.org/web/20010427032311/kienzan.planetnamek.com/Editorials/ED156.htm) if you feel inclined to do so.


The way of Business, and a Reply to RRinger's Editorial:

"First off, this is my first editorial, so bare with me and try to follow me.
I'm tired of hearing people bad mouth Funi for "turning Dragonball into a slaughtered piece of crap" or "Funi is a cheap, money grabbing, asshole". Part of this is the truth, Funi is money grabbing, RRinger is obviously not aware of how a business works, but these Vegetto-Ba and SSJ Agent Trunks guys certainly are. (I must say, your editorials are absolutely amazing) The sole aim of having a business is to make money. Period. RRinger said it himself they are rolling in cash. And what does a businessman do when he is rolling in cash, make more cash, and Funi is doing that by airing season 4, not by buying the original music. Buying music won't give them a miraculous jump in viewers. "Look mommy, Funi bought the original music, let's watch!!!" RRinger, the majority of the people who make Funi money (95 percent) are 4-12 year olds, they won't care if a couple dialogue changes are made, all they care about is whether their seeing dough come out of it. The messily five percent who are die-hard fans will be the only ones who care if a T-shirt says HELL instead of HFIL. Also if that shows, Funi will lose money from the 8-year-olds' parents who won't let their children watch the show anymore.
And I'm sorry to tell you this, but even Akira Toriyama is a businessman too* gasp *. I'm sure he cares a lot about his work, (wouldn't you?) but he also wants to roll in the dough, believe it or not. And I'm happy with the voice actors and the music that Funi has now, and if I'm happy, I make Funi money, which in turn, ladies and gentlemen, makes them very, very, happy.
Prince Vegeta
'I don't do… funny'"


Whoa... not much to say, eh? I'm kind of dissapointed by it's brevity and it's lack of coherent arguments. "We're all right, what we do makes the most money than anything else possibly could, you're just a bunch of whiney idiots who all need to shut up." Ugh... Well, here goes.


"The way of Business"

What's with this "way of Business" name? You're making it sound like you're trying to teach RRinger some sort of very confusing martial art like "way of the Dragon" or something. It's as if hearing you think reading this will somehow cause him or anyone else to renounce anti-FUNism and agree with everything FUNimation does.


"First off, this is my first editorial, so bare with me and try to follow me.
I'm tired of hearing people bad mouth Funi for "turning Dragonball into a slaughtered piece of crap" or "Funi is a cheap, money grabbing, asshole."

Well then, if you really are "tired" of the complaints and would like to see them stop, in that case here's a thought- stop slaughtering DBZ into a piece of crap. Stop being cheap, and so insatiably greedy, uncaring and money grabbing. And stop acting like assholes. Maybe THEN people will stop bad mouthing Funi with those complaints.


"Part of this is the truth, Funi is money grabbing,"

Say it like it is brother!


"RRinger is obviously not aware of how a business works, but these Vegetto-Ba and SSJ Agent Trunks guys certainly are. (I must say, your editorials are absolutely amazing)"

Translation= "Funi-bashing baaaaaad. But Funi-praising GOOOOOD!"


"The sole aim of having a business is to make money. Period. RRinger said it himself they are rolling in cash. And what does a businessman do when he is rolling in cash, make more cash,"

Hold on a second- why do you think you're making money? Simply because of your company's "genius" with handling and "Americanizing" the show? Because you're so phenomenally talented, and you've got amazing script writers like Neel Bligh who do such excellent jobs at beefing up the comedy of the series and adapting it for a wider-viewing American audience, particularly 6-11 year olds? Eh- no. There's a good reason that when Uncle Fukunaga arranged a meeting at Toei with his nephew where 30 animes were offered to him on a silver platter that he chose DB- because it was their single "juiciest" property, and had been the most successful and profitable. Therefore, it had the highest chance of succeeding (Chris Sabat, again, even once said that it was almost "magical" and that it pretty much does well wherever it goes and gets dubbed across the globe). And, also, it could withstand the most incompetence and shitty dubbing and mishandling, whereas any other anime would have had a harder time surviving with these horrible factors inserted unknowingly by the ignorance and arrogance of an inexperienced and uncaring company like FUNimation.

Oh, and DBZ was a MUCH bigger deal in Mexico then it has been in America. Mexico isn't as wealthy, but people actually stayed home from work nationwide to see the end of the Cell saga and other major events in DBZ history. It was like how in America most everybody stayed home to watch the final episode of Seinfeld. NOBODY in America, at least not on a national level like in Mexico, did the same thing for your Funi Ball Z. Perhaps if you smarted yourselves up and dubbed the show as accurately here as they did down in Mexico, you'd "make more cash" by making DBZ as big a deal in America as it was in Mexico?


"and Funi is doing that by airing season 4, not by buying the original music."

Erm.... NO! Remember what your lord and master (or, quite possibly, you yourself) Gen F. once said?

"The replacing of the music, was a FUNimation decision. With our own soundtrack, we could charge royalties for every second it's heard."

This basically mean, "the quality of the original soundtrack, or lack of quality of our new soundtrack, means absolutely NOTHING and has NOTHING to do with the fact that we're getting rid of it. We're just replacing the music so we can charge royalties for our new stuff and make money!" Oh, and Faulconer's music in Season 4 was poorly made, unoriginal, forgettable, lacking in emotion, and mindlessly repetitive. You're doing just the opposite by not buying the original music. Of course, given that Uncle Toeibucks handed you guys the world's most profitable anime on a silver platter, of course it's good enough to survive any of the kinds of lame abuses you hurl at it. But don't get me wrong, you've raped this series badly, and it'd be doing much better than it is now and if you think you've got "more money" than you know what to do with now, if DBZ in America had been like what it'd been in Mexico, you'd have much more than what you've already milked and more than you could begin to imagine.


"Buying music won't give them a miraculous jump in viewers. 'Look mommy, Funi bought the original music, let's watch!!!'"

Sigh... They wouldn't react quite like that, Funi. And interesting how you say "look mommy" as if 95% of everybody who watches the show is between the ages of 4-12. However... they would be able to tell how superior it is to Faulconer's crap and enjoy it. Not because it's Japanese and original- because it sounds BETTER and it really is much, much, MUCH better music than the crap your measly company keeps shooting out of it's sphincter hole. "Spirit vs. Spirit" was very good and emotional. Musically Faulconerized SSJ2 Gohan has absolutely NO EMOTION AT ALL. And I thought that even back when I was one of your "loyal fans" and enjoyed the dub, before I realized how much superior the original is and what trash the dub was, and how you'd betrayed me and countless other anime fans out there. You're just deluding yourselves here, as usual. Don't believe me? Then check out this editorial.

http://web.archive.org/web/20010228040934/kienzan.planetnamek.com/Editorials/ED56.htm

Quite fascinating how easy it is to convert people away from your supposedly "better for Americans" "adaptation" of the show, wouldn't you agree?


"RRinger, the majority of the people who make Funi money (95 percent) are 4-12 year olds, they won't care if a couple dialogue changes are made, all they care about is whether their seeing dough come out of it."
Hold on a second there. Allow me to repeat again what he said. "RRinger, the majority of the people who make Funi money (95 percent) are 4-12 year olds." Erm... NO. That statement is PURE and UTTER bull shit. In fact, that statement alone pretty much proves that you're from Funi, as that's pretty much the only age group FUNimation's ever cared or talked about making DBZ "appeal to." Are you telling me that nobody between the ages of 13-25 watches DBZ? HA! I see people in high school and college watching it and talking about it al the time. And even people older than that to. DBZ IS capable of appealing to audiences above the ages of 12, you stubborn morons, just look at how well it did in France and Mexico and Poland and Japan. Sigh... you're just making it appeal to LESS people total than "more kiddies and more people total" by treating DBZ like wretched feces. For the last time, DBZ isn't Barney and it isn't Teletubbies- so why act like it is?


"The messily five percent who are die-hard fans will be the only ones who care if a T-shirt says HELL instead of HFIL. Also if that shows, Funi will lose money from the 8-year-olds' parents who won't let their children watch the show anymore."

Yes, we are the minority. But saying that because we're a minority that automatically makes us wrong is complete ignorance. That's like saying, "only a small minority of the Southern States with Jim Crow laws wanted them to be appealed, therefore there's no point in doing so." If you're going to say why someone's wrong, saying that they "represent a minority of a total figure" is a very simplistic, bad, and inaccurate way of doing so. Besides, YGO original fans are a minority. Are you going to tell me that the 4Kids dub of YGO is somehow "spectacular" and that 4Kids putting in bad voice and accents and crappy techno music and hiring writers similar to Christopher Neel Bligh are what causes people to want to watch it?


"And I'm sorry to tell you this, but even Akira Toriyama is a businessman too* gasp *. I'm sure he cares a lot about his work, (wouldn't you?) but he also wants to roll in the dough, believe it or not."

Oh wow... Toriyama is a businessman? Gasp, heavens to Betsie's, I never would have grasped that in a billion years! Heh. After a decade of hard work, Toriyama's burnt out and he wants to do new stories and go beyond DBZ. And, he has only seen a few clips of the French dub and a handful of others on a Japanese news clip about animes abroad. So, he doesn't follow it in Japan, and certainly not abroad. He's not aware of the changes like Freeza AND Goku homosexually flirting with one another, or 61.5% of the series being mistranslated and thrust into the hands of Christopher Neel and others. Therefore, you should not speculate what he's thinking. All he knows is what Chris Sabat, Laura Bailey and Gen Fukunaga told him through translators (or Gen Fukunaga) and the checks he's paid. But if he knew the complete and total truth about what has happened to his story in America, one can only speculate how he'd react, although I certainly doubt he'd be as delighted as you seem to think..


"And I'm happy with the voice actors and the music that Funi has now, possible that and if I'm happy, I make Funi money, which in turn, ladies and gentlemen, makes them very, very, happy." Prince Vegeta
"I don't do… funny" But you do do stupid, and very poorly put-together arguments that immediately lump everything into "right" and "wrong" with nothing to back them up except the general bottom lines of FUNimaton. And seriously, who gives a flying f**ck if Funi is happy except for you guys? And of course you're "happy" with voices like "Superhero" Schemmel, "annoying, unfunny, and trapped in the 80's because he's Christopher Neel Bligh's primary source for a 'humor' outlet on the show, nasally midget" Kurilin and "Evil Englishman" Cell because-

A. You might be one of these people.
B. You work with them.
C. You're friends with them.
D. You might direct them.

Well, that's that. There ya go- an inside look into FUNimation's mind and thinking process. You know... there's reminds me of a scene from the DBZ "OVA" (see VegettoEX's site for more on this) when the main villain talks about how the Saiyajin race stole from them and abused them and their generosity then Vegeta responds that "We Saiyajins were treated like slaves!" The villain counters, "Like they say, even the robber has his reason."

I'm not calling you robbers but what I am saying is... you guys seem unwilling to accept any responsibility for your actions. Just as people who rob innocent random people have their own justifications for their actions- because they want money, but don't want to feel bad about doing whatever it is they do to get that money. When fans complain- to you we're just nitpicky "anime snobs" that find 50 different ways and synonyms for telling you that you're all someway or somehow homosexual because we're just all so evil and unaccepting of your "duty to Americanize" DBZ. But we're complaining for good reasons, and rather then trying to accept them or listen to them you just ignore them and come up with paper-thin excuses to justify your actions against them and your reasons for butchering the show.

You guys based EVERY SINGLE EPISODE from Season 4 off of shitty, horribly mistranslated scripts- even your head writer for that season, John Burgmeier, admited to that in an interview. And now you're telling us that you're right, intelligent, and we should trust you and accept and justify what it is that you did? How the HELL did mistranslating that whole damned season and giving it to Christopher Neel and others possibly make anything better? As Snoop Dogg might phrase it, what you did with the translations was just straight-up stupid.

For the love of the Guardian of the Earth, just listen to the fans FUNimation. DBZ has had more editorials devoted to explaining why it shouldn't be butchered than ANY other anime in the history of America. Why is that? Because DBZ is a magnet for "anime snob" personalities? Well, that's an easy excuse to come up with, but that's not why. (and don't forget, all those years I followed your work loyally I was in NO way or form what you call an "anime snob", nor had I ever been one- YOU simply turned me into one because your butchering of DBZ pissed me off so much) The reason why is because it should NOT be butchered in any way and it makes no sense for you to do so. Accept the fact that you're not perfect, (nobody is, just ask Carl Macek) and that your dub certainly isn't either, and that mistakes have been made. And try to correct them. You're going about it the wrong way, and this why fans have and will continue to hate you and vehemenently oppose you.


(GreatSaiyaman777 note- whew. Oh yeah, and if you're interested in reading any of the opinion pieces referenced, or checking out other ones, feel free to take a gander at good ol' Kienzan's Edge in- you guessed it, the web archives.

http://web.archive.org/web/20010228040934/kienzan.planetnamek.com/Editorials/ED56.htm

Be warned though- there are almost 200 whole editorials there, and loading time is pretty tough. But if you like reading this kind of stuff like me, you might enjoy it. And who knows- perhaps people from FUNimation may have written other editorials for that page too.)

- GreatSaiyaman777