Ask John – Is FUNimation Trying to Alienate Fans?

Question:
What do you think of Funimation’s recent decision to only release Red Garden, Welcome to the NHK, and Pumpkin Scissors as two half-season sets only, even though the former license holder ADV never got a chance to release the final volumes. Is it wise to leave out those who already bought the first five singles?

Answer:
By now I’m certain that every American anime fan that’s heard about this situation has an opinion on it, and most of those opinions seem to be negative or unhappy. I’m not going to defend FUNimation’s distribution plans for these series, as I do think that the decision to force consumers to re-purchase content just to get previously unreleased DVDs will anger and alienate consumers. I would, though, like to inject some even-handedness to the discussion.

Unlike many of America’s primary anime distributors that are either independently owned or owned by Japanese parent companies, FUNimation is a subsidiary of a major American publicly owned corporation. When FUNimation was independently owned, the company had the flexibility to determine its own release policies. However, since becoming a part of the Navarre Corporation, FUNimation has gained greater financial strength, but has lost some of its independent flexibility. I haven’t personally spoken to any FUNimation representatives about the announced distribution plans for select former ADV Films titles, but I can guess that FUNimation’s release plans may be influenced by the stipulations of its parent company.

The American consumer market has clearly demonstrated a preference for inexpensive multi-disc DVD sets, so, to some degree, it’s unfair for those same consumers to complain about FUNimation responding to that demand. The decision to forgo individual DVD volume releases, even for the consumers who already own previously released single DVDs from these series, may be a decision made by practical economic judgement. I don’t know precisely how many American consumers purchased individual Red Garden, Pumpkin Scissors, and Welcome to the NHK DVDs, but the number probably wasn’t especially high. If these titles had sold especially well, ADV probably would have been able to pay its royalties, and wouldn’t have lost the distribution rights to these shows.

The cost of manufacturing small amounts of commercial DVDs is greater, per disc, than the cost of manufacturing large quantities. I suspect that FUNimation’s parent company, Navarre, simply decided that printing a couple thousand individual final DVD volumes to benefit the small number of consumers still waiting for the conclusions to these series wouldn’t generate enough revenue to cover the manufacturing cost or justify the effort.

This isn’t the first time a situation like this has occurred. When Central Park Media debuted new DVDs in bundles with previously released volumes, there was little outrage because the previously released DVDs were included at no additional cost. Manga Entertainment released four individual DVD volumes of Tactics, but initially released the final disc exclusively in a complete series set, forcing consumers that had supported the series all along to re-purchase the first four discs just to get the fifth DVD. But that release caused little outrage because so few American consumers had any interest in purchasing Tactics DVDs. FUNimation’s move is causing outrage because it involves multiple series that a significant number of American consumers actually do have some interest and investment in.

I’m sure that the FUNimation staff is aware of the frustration that it’s new distribution plans have caused among American anime collectors, but this is probably a situation which FUNimation itself has little ability to control. The most logical explanation is that the giant Navarre corporation has decided that producing a small number of individual final Red Garden, Pumpkin Scissors, and Welcome to the NHK DVDs is not financially worthwhile. That decision may upset consumers that purchased volumes of these shows manufactured by ADV Films, but Navarre probably assumes that the number of angry fans that will boycott the release is minor compared to the number of consumers that will purchase these series in inexpensive multi-disc set releases.

Update:
Several hours after this article was published, FUNimation announced plans for a limited release of previously unreleased final individual DVD volumes of Red Garden, Pumpkin Scissors, and Welcome to the NHK.