FUNimation Entertainment Announces New Digital Partnership with Toei Animation

[WTK]

Alliance Begins With Digital Distribution of Catalog Series
Flower Mound, Texas – April 3, 2008 -- FUNimation® Entertainment and Japanese powerhouse producer Toei Animation Co., Ltd. have entered into a digital content partnership in which the U.S. anime leader will distribute seven series from Toei’s catalog starting Friday, April 3rd.

English-subtitled episodes from “Air Master”, “Captain Harlock”, ”Digimon Adventure 02”, “Fist of the North Star”, “Galaxy Express”, “Pretty Cure” and “Slam Dunk” will be offered in the U.S. by streaming via FUNimation’s online video portal, www.funimation.com/video.

Totaling more than 500 episodes, these seven series launch with “Fist of the North Star”. One complete series will be added each week for seven weeks...

[bayoab]

I can't figure out if these are because Toei is desperate and the shows are failing on other platforms or if this is just FUNi trying to further expand their offerings. The interesting question will be the region restrictions on these (which should be US and Canada).

[Quarkboy]

I can't figure out if these are because Toei is desperate and the shows are failing on other platforms or if this is just FUNi trying to further expand their offerings. The interesting question will be the region restrictions on these (which should be US and Canada).

I think the answer is likely both. Toei is clearly offering these shows to whoever wants them for some percentage of the advertising revenue, in some desperate attempt to make back the money they paid subtitling them.

I mean, it's likely they paid $400*500= $200,000 almost to subtitle them all, and god knows they didn't make nearly that kind of revenue from direct2drive or crunchyroll...

It's only a matter of time before they show up on ANN, and then Veoh, and then youtube even.

[bci110]

Does this mean that Slam Dunk won't be on Crunchyroll anymore? Or are they still going to stream the series on their site?

[Suwako Moriya]

I'm not even sure I want to know how much space Funimation has on their site. That being said, it would be interesting to see how far streaming of Pretty Cure is ultimately taken.

[Quarkboy]

I'm not even sure I want to know how much space Funimation has on their site. That being said, it would be interesting to see how far streaming of Pretty Cure is ultimately taken.

All 49 (I think) episodes of season 1 are available on direct2drive now (and have been for a while), and according to the press release they'll be making complete shows available, one per week.

"Totaling more than 500 episodes, these seven series launch with "Fist of the North Star". One complete series will be added each week for seven weeks. "

Pretty Cure is listed as the 6th series, so if they follow their own press release then entire show will be available on May 15th.

[Suwako Moriya]

Pretty Cure is listed as the 6th series, so if they follow their own press release then entire show will be available on May 15th.

Interesting, so it will be a long wait for anyone planning to watch it that way. On a side note, I should clarify my question about how far Pretty Cure will be taken by putting it another way. I wonder if we'll ever see Toei stream the other seasons. Like say Max Heart for example.

[Quarkboy]

Pretty Cure is listed as the 6th series, so if they follow their own press release then entire show will be available on May 15th.

Interesting, so it will be a long wait for anyone planning to watch it that way. On a side note, I should clarify my question about how far Pretty Cure will be taken by putting it another way. I wonder if we'll ever see Toei stream the other seasons. Like say Max Heart for example.

Toei has basically had these 7 series, and ONLY these 7 series, planned for this project since the very beginning when they launched it. All 7 of these shows were revealed in the source code of their webpage back in June or so of 2008, and all 7 of the shows were contracted for translation back that summer.

Not a single new show has been added or contracted since then, and by all accounts it has been a financial failure for them, so I really can't see them expanding their lineup unless this deal with Funimation actually turns a profit somehow.

[Richard J.]

Not a single new show has been added or contracted since then, and by all accounts it has been a financial failure for them, so I really can't see them expanding their lineup unless this deal with Funimation actually turns a profit somehow.I always thought the sub-fan mantra was "if you sub it, we will come." I guess that only applied to illegal subs?

At the very least, if this has so far been a failure for Toei, you really have to wonder what needs to be done to raise the revenue. Are the shows just bound to fail? Are the fansubs too far ahead of the legal subs or are there just too few people interested? Is streaming anime just a failure in general? (Doesn't seem so with other companies so far.)

I hope partnering with Funi will make this a success. I'm really only interested in seeing Pretty Cure but I'd hate to see this fail as online streaming is about the only way some of these series have a chance to legally come over here uncut. Even if they all came over, anything to help make the anime industry stronger and wealthier is good in my book.

[Quarkboy]

Not a single new show has been added or contracted since then, and by all accounts it has been a financial failure for them, so I really can't see them expanding their lineup unless this deal with Funimation actually turns a profit somehow.I always thought the sub-fan mantra was "if you sub it, we will come." I guess that only applied to illegal subs?

At the very least, if this has so far been a failure for Toei, you really have to wonder what needs to be done to raise the revenue. Are the shows just bound to fail? Are the fansubs too far ahead of the legal subs or are there just too few people interested? Is streaming anime just a failure in general? (Doesn't seem so with other companies so far.)

I hope partnering with Funi will make this a success. I'm really only interested in seeing Pretty Cure but I'd hate to see this fail as online streaming is about the only way some of these series have a chance to legally come over here uncut. Even if they all came over, anything to help make the anime industry stronger and wealthier is good in my book.

This is why what Toei was doing didn't work:
1. The video and audio quality are terrible. The videos are filtered with some horribly destructive DNR or something, poorly deinterlaced (jagged edges everywhere or even combing).
2. The subtitles are circa 1982 in terms of being mistimed and styled.
3. The translations range from acceptable (Galaxy Express 999) to poor (Pretty Cure), and generally are below what people expect in releases today...
4. Toei's website is horrid, updates once every 6 months, and has actual misinformation. Show profiles are there, but are in poor english that doesn't even match the subtitle conventions for name spellings.
5. Zero advertisement at all except for banner ads on ANN. When the initial show came out on direct2drive, there was absolutely no way to know when new episodes were added... No list to sign up for, no RSS feed, nothing at all.
6. The initial venue, direct2drive, was priced at $2 an ep for shows that are more than 100 episodes long, for DRM windows only US only wmv files that can't be played back on any portable devices at all.
7. The second venue, crunchyroll, was hardly advertised, and only had a small selection of shows available for free added each week.
8. Shows that were promised to appear like Airmaster never showed up for mysterious, unannounced reasons.
9. Other shows have been left incomplete on Crunchyroll, like Pretty Cure (only up to episode 40), and Galaxy Express 999 which stops at episode 62, except ep 59 is also missing for no apparent reason.

So why did it fail? Quality that manages to rival VHS fansubs (almost), no advertising, no useful website, no way of knowing when new shows were added, no schedule, overpriced (at first), over restricted (at first).
Toei had no plan other than "let's sub some of these web versions of shows we have leftover from Japanese online rental sites, put them up whereever we can find someone to take them, and see whether people pay for them or not."

Not to mention that these shows are old and very niche. People aren't begging to watch Galaxy Express 999 on streaming sites, they are begging to have a proper DVD release of it. If Toei wanted to attracted the streaming masses, they need to get on board with Dragonball Kai or Fresh Pretty Cure or One Piece.

[Richard J.]

Wow, I didn't realize Toei's initial service was that awful. Even by my own admittedly low standards when it comes to streams there are a few "no one should make that kind of mistake" points on that list.

Maybe now the streaming distribution will actually net Toei some money. Wholeheartedly agree with the point you made about showing new shows by the way. I honestly can't figure out why they don't just put it all out. At least they'd be getting something out of the only-free stream/download types rather than nothing.

Has anyone heard any numbers on how Funimation's side of the digital streaming is doing? It would seem like they're doing well since they're expanding it and Toei's gone to them to for their work but are there any hard numbers to found?

[Quarkboy]

Wow, I didn't realize Toei's initial service was that awful. Even by my own admittedly low standards when it comes to streams there are a few "no one should make that kind of mistake" points on that list.

Maybe now the streaming distribution will actually net Toei some money. Wholeheartedly agree with the point you made about showing new shows by the way. I honestly can't figure out why they don't just put it all out. At least they'd be getting something out of the only-free stream/download types rather than nothing.

Has anyone heard any numbers on how Funimation's side of the digital streaming is doing? It would seem like they're doing well since they're expanding it and Toei's gone to them to for their work but are there any hard numbers to found?

No numbers except for alexa type numbers for website traffice... Which if you look at this graph:
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/crunchyroll.com+animenewsnetwork.com+funimation.co m

shows that funi is almost 2 orders of magnitude below CR and ANN in terms of web traffic, and that they have had little to no change in that number over the last 6 months.

[Digital Boy]

Is there any way I can buy a download of this show that I can burn to a DVD or stream to my PS3 or Xbox360?

[Quarkboy]

Is there any way I can buy a download of this show that I can burn to a DVD or stream to my PS3 or Xbox360?

Crunchyroll's download to owns are DRM free. And $2 an episode.

[Richard J.]

No numbers except for alexa type numbers for website traffice... Which if you look at this graph:
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/crunchyroll.com+animenewsnetwork.com+funimation.co m

shows that funi is almost 2 orders of magnitude below CR and ANN in terms of web traffic, and that they have had little to no change in that number over the last 6 months.Well that's a less-than-comforting graph. Not that it really surprises me much. There are so many options for streaming and Funi's video portal is still pretty new. The real test will be when the new FMA comes out, assuming they stream it on the video portal.

Plus, all of the legal options have to overcome having so much illegal competition and competition in general. There are so many sites you can watch stuff on, it's difficult to really get the numbers up. Longterm, it does look like Funi's site is trending up, albeit at a slow pace.

[slerch666]

Not to mention that these shows are old and very niche. People aren't begging to watch Galaxy Express 999 on streaming sites, they are begging to have a proper DVD release of it. If Toei wanted to attracted the streaming masses, they need to get on board with Dragonball Kai or Fresh Pretty Cure or One Piece.

I already have the R2 DVDs of GE999.

At this point I'm happy to have ANY release of the series available with subs so that, hopefully, people will see how great the series is. If we get a DVD release of it, fucking AWESOME work, but I'm settling for these versions because otherwise there is nothing available for those that know no Japanese.

They are, in every format available, far from perfect. DRM from one site, eps missing from another, but if they make all 113 eps available, through FUNi, D2D or Crunchyroll, I'll buy just to support a show I absolutely love and want people to watch it.


But that's me and I'm probably in the minority.

[Consignia]

Hooray, it seems that Funimation's versions of these streams aren't region locked. Finally I'll be able to at least give these a look.

Is there any way I can buy a download of this show that I can burn to a DVD or stream to my PS3 or Xbox360?

Crunchyroll's streams are compatible with the PS3's web browser and work pretty well up to 480p.

[firecrouch]

I'm sorry, but what proof is there that this venture outright failed? I mean the expectations for these shows couldn't have been that high in the first place, and I have not seen nor heard any proof that Toei Animation lost money on digitally delivering these shows.

[Digital Boy]

Hooray, it seems that Funimation's versions of these streams aren't region locked. Finally I'll be able to at least give these a look.

Is there any way I can buy a download of this show that I can burn to a DVD or stream to my PS3 or Xbox360?

Crunchyroll's streams are compatible with the PS3's web browser and work pretty well up to 480p.

I have done that but I wanna OWN it, so if there is ever a fallout with companies, I can still watch the shows I want to pay for