Inspired by this thread on Crunchyroll, I'm wondering what would happen if Universal were to purchase Funimation. So far, the people's opinions on the Crunchyroll board said "As long as they don't mess with the animes like One Peice and Dragon Ball Z, I'm cool with it", possibly meaning that it won't be BS compared to when Disney brought Marvel. Well, Universal does actually have an anime company (Geneon Universal Entertainment) but it's only available in Japan (and its the main Japanese subsidiary of Universal) and became part of the company after Universal acquired 90.1% of it from Dentsu. If Universal did purchase Funimation, they would (possibly) re-brand Funimation to "Geneon Entertainment" (the logo uses the "Geneon G" logo) & integrate the company into Geneon Universal Entertainment (in the same structure with Bandai Entertainment & Bandai Visual; despite their name & similar purpose, they are not directly related to each other although both are owned by the same company (as in, Bandai Entertainment wasn't created through Bandai Visual)). Hope they still let Funimation act like what they were before the acquisition.
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Highly unlikely ( Never say impossible ) for something like that to happen.
On the other hand, it would be awesome to have a "Funimation" world at the Universal theme parks. Who's up for a ride thru Capsule Corp's R&D Department?
Mark Gosdin
I don't think Funimation would allow Universal to build their own "world" & theme park ride at any of the theme parks if Universal did buy them. If you read my first post on this forum, it said "Hope they still let Funimation act like what they were before the acquisition.", meaning that Universal should let Funimation (or Geneon if they re-brand it because of their Japanese subsidiary (Geneon Universal Entertainment) being an anime company, just like Funimation) be they way they are before the acquisition.
Locomotion
animation, young adults, digital era
Why would Universal even want to buy Funimation? I mean yeah their Japanese branch bought Geneon, but I don't see how that equates to the U.S. branch being even slightly interested in Funimation.
But hey nothing wrong with highly unlikely hypotheticals, lol.
Well I guess one the positive side, they might be able to get more of their anime on TV, and might have more recources and money. But on the negative side being owned by a big company like that would cause alot of annoying office politics and possible steady decline of quality.
All Will Know The Wonder Of My Dark & Jewled Sky, When All The World Is Wrapped In An Eternal Lullabye.
If it happens then Universal can force (as in packing with other channels like USA, etc.) cable companies to include the 'FUNimation Channel' is their channel line-ups.
Soundmonkey44 wrote:
What did you mean by US branch? The now-defunct Geneon USA?
What about Aniplex of America? It's owned by a big company (Sony) yet their releases are something of better quality (but most of the times, they have insane prices but they've begin to go down thanks to Madoka Magica).
jlaking wrote:
That's up to Funimation, not Universal since Funimation owns the channel.
Locomotion
animation, young adults, digital era
You asked a 'what if' question and got a 'what if' answer. If Universal bought FUNi, they would also own FUNi's part of the FUNimation Channel (which is currently owned by FUNimation and OlympuSAT).
@DOM: That...thats not what I meant at all. What I meant was just because Universal in Japan bought out Geneon, doesn't mean Universal in the U.S. would have any interest in buying out or working with an anime company like Funimation.
Also Universal couldn't force Cable companies to do anything. (However they could bribe them, lol.)
All Will Know The Wonder Of My Dark & Jewled Sky, When All The World Is Wrapped In An Eternal Lullabye.
It would be round-about, but yes, Universal can coerce Cable companies into doing things. Basically, a major company like Universal can threaten to withhold certain rights from these companies, unless the companies buckle under Universal's demands. Say that Universal wanted the Funimation Channel to be standard on Company X's basic package, but Company X wanted it to be a premium channel. Universal could get their way by threatening to withhold certain movies from syndication. Company X doesn't want to lose these movies, so it decides to go ahead and pick what it decides to be the lesser evil.
It can go down in different ways, but a company like Universal definitely has enough influence to "force" something into play.