A Revised Opinion On FUNimation

It was about a year ago that I first started writing editorials. One of my first was an opinion of FUNimation, from the point of view of a fan who has been into DBZ for a few months. I’d seen and read about both English and Japanese versions, and I had some horrific things to say about the handling of the situation. Now it is time to give a revised opinion as I’ve experienced far more things about DBZ, so I can weigh up more factors.

Let me start off by saying that I take back practically everything I said before in an accusive way towards FUNi. Obviously this will annoy a lot of you, but I actually think that FUNimation aren’t doing too bad a job. Admittedly they haven’t even got it close to perfect yet, but it’s not as bad as most people say it is.

A lot of webmasters have noticed the improvements that dubbed DBZ has been going through, and even the biggest cynics have admitted that it’s been getting considerably better. They still aren’t happy with it though, but I am. Fortunately I am able to compare it to another dubbed version, and let me say that FUNi are excelling in comparison to the Ocean Group.

The voice acting is merely average, not great, but not too annoying either, and if you don’t look for mistakes then it can be quite satisfactory. The edited scenes may detract from certain fans’ enjoyment if they’ve seen the Japanese version of it, but ‘dubbies’, whom are ignorant of the cuts made to the show, would be thoroughly happy with the way it was made. Ah, ignorance is bliss.

Of course, if I just constantly credited FUNi, then I’d only be trying to fool myself. They’ve not given fully uncut DBZ to the fans, despite endless partitions and countless letters of hate, as well as occasional bits of constructive criticism about it. It wouldn’t be too complicated for them to simply put it on at a later timeslot, on a channel made specifically for teenagers and young adults. Sky One or perhaps to a lesser extent, a terrestrial channel such as BBC 1 would be excellent for this case.

Every Saturday at midnight the Sci-Fi channel airs an anime, which is often immensely violent. Violence Jack, Devil Man, and Akira are among the worst that I’ve seen in terms of gore, but they still get great ratings, and are enjoyed by many. If a small channel such as Sci-Fi can do this with the great anime films that they show, then why can’t FUNi put in the effort to get uncut DBZ onto similar channels? It’s not like they’ll lose any respect or have the show banned from half the World is it?

I said that I’d changed my mind about FUNi though, and I have. The aforementioned points are annoying, and even aggravating, but I believe that the bringers of DBZ to America are looked down upon unnecessarily. Why? I’m pretty sure I’ve got the answer.

Sites such as ‘DBZ Uncensored’ and the ‘Ultimate DBZ Info Site’ expose Japanese DBZ to the masses, showing them what they’ve been missing, and enticing them to want, or demand the uncut version of the show. Whilst they are two excellent websites, they’ve convinced many people to believe that the Japanese version is far better than the dub, when the difference is barely noticeable. The webmasters of these sites undoubtedly feel strongly towards the issue, otherwise they wouldn’t have bothered making the site on it, but I refuse to believe that everyone else has exactly the same feelings about it as they do.

Many webmasters followed in the footsteps of these two legendary sites, and I’m willing to bet that only about 40% of people out there actually have these feelings. Many site-runners seem to criticize FUNi for the sake of it. Whilst I try to be impartial, I’ve certainly noticed a lot of people who aren’t as of late. Mainly small sites take up these views, but if they prosper and grow larger, then chances are that they’ll fool the masses into just agreeing with their views. When we weigh up the pros and cons though, it’s pretty obvious that FUNi come out on top. It’s not easy bringing one of the most famous animes overseas and keeping it at a high level of quality whilst adapting it slightly to meet with the respective culture of the country it’s airing in, but FUNimation don’t do such a bad job – It could be far, far worse.

Yes, I’m saying that FUNi are doing, in my opinion, a satisfactory job. If you’re going to be rude and arrogant when criticizing them needlessly, then get your site off the web, it’s not wanted! If you’re ignorant of all the facts, and aren’t fluent in both Japanese and American DBZ affairs, then your opinions aren’t wanted on the web either. If you know all about both versions of DBZ, genuinely feel strongly about it, and believe that FUNi are worse than the Ocean Group, then by all means say what you like about them. That scenario is extremely unlikely though, so I recommend that people read up on everything to do with FUNimation, as they’re not as bad as most have been led to think.