> Sony Pictures Television Networks will acquire a 95% majority stake in U.S.-based anime distributor Funimation Productions for about $143 million.
> Funimation’s catalog includes such titles as “Dragon Ball Z,” “Cowboy Bebop,” “One Piece,” “My Hero Academia,” and “Attack on Titan,” and last year acquired U.S. rights to Japanese smash hit “Your Name” (pictured above). The deal will augment Sony Pictures Television Networks’ multiplatform Animax network, geared around Japanese anime content, in 23 countries including Japan.
Spider-Man and 80s nostalgia (Ghostbusters) is a thing of the past. Sony is about to get the head-start on live-action anime adaptations.
Sony is Aniplex. They produce anime like Fullmetal Alchemist, Blood: The Last Vampire, Persona 4: The Animation, Birdy the Mighty, Angel Beats!, Rurouni Kenshin, Charlotte, Black Butler, Bleach, DBZ, the list goes on.
Evan Clark
That's a nice source you got OP.
Caleb Cooper
>Sony
my lord.
Asher Rogers
Sony music owns Aniplex not Sony Pictures the division that bought Funimation.
William Fisher
Cast em
Landon Walker
>Sony Pictures
Levi Morgan
So does that mean DBZ movies written by Amy Pascal?
Blake Garcia
Does this mean there will be a changeup in how the One Piece anime is handled? Because it literally cant get any worse.
Carter Nelson
Idris Elba and Melissa McCarthy
David Peterson
>SONY
Cameron Nelson
Idris Elba playing both parts.
Joshua Martin
Idris Elba and Tom Holland
Michael Hall
Paul Dano and Dan DeHaan
Joseph Jackson
We are fucked. We are so fucked.
Robert Powell
Why didn't Disney do more with the Ghibli films they had the rights to back in the day? Spirited Away was a massive critical success, borke records in japan, and came out at the height of the US's affair with anime, and Disney buried in until the surprise Oscar win. If they couldn't make anime acceptable for normies at that very moment then nobody can.
Dominic Watson
>No link
Connor Young
prease no.
Parker Hernandez
I still don't believe this is a real thing.
Blake Price
nvm I thought you meant the forthcoming live action One Piece series
Lincoln Lopez
Ah yes, very good. However, you are a liar.
Jackson Butler
Sony music is owned by Sony Entertainment
Daniel Perry
2d doesn't make money outside japan
Christopher Scott
maybe it would if someone were to put serious money into promotion
Sebastian Cook
>and Disney buried in until the surprise Oscar win. I don't know. They spent a lot of time and money doing quality dubs with recognizable actors doing the v/o. But you have to remember studio executives are like a decade behind the times at best and anime was still niche despite a few breakouts. Ultimately, they also compete against their own brand. The last thing you want to do is advertise how nips are making better animated movies than the godfather of the animation industry, right? That's just my speculation obviously, but I don't think the reasoning is flawed.
Connor Diaz
Oh that's exactly what they did. I think the success of Pixar and Shrek at Dreamworks really spooked them, and they tried to nip anime in the bud quickly.
Promotion of what? Do you have any idea of how expensive a wide release is? National advertising on television and radio? Viral marketing campaigns online? To advertise a cartoon that's going to alienate a big portion of your general audience for being a cartoon? One that you can't market to little kids because of the subject matter? Who do you market it to, and how? Maybe a handfull of neckbeards on Sup Forums would shill it and be legitimately hyped, but those are the kind of basement dwellers that don't go see movies, probably because they already pirated it when it was released in Japan, and just want to complain about how bad the dubs are? I was a professional artist for a while, and I've always had a soft spot for comics and animation because that's what first sparked my interest in drawing and painting. So I'd love to see a movie with a huge budget and a great animation studio and director behind it get made and do really well, but I'm certainly not representative of the general audience at large. So how much money do you spend marketing, and to whom?
Jackson Hall
why not include that in the OP? also fuck shit goddammit cock cockels cockless spunk spooge ass
Julian Nelson
>Sony is about to get the head-start on live-action anime adaptations. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it means that at all. Funimation doesn't make shit, they just own the rights to sell that media in the US legally. Licensing is an entirely different thing, right?
Jack Evans
>Funimation doesn't make shit, they just own the rights to sell that media in the US legally. Licensing is an entirely different thing, right? Correct. Though, unlike Funimation, Sony has the means to produce films and would it really be that difficult to negotiate with the IP owners?
Jose Powell
>Hi, this is Amy Pascall with sony pictures. We're just calling because we wondered if you would let us make a movie of your... Hello?
Parker Collins
>Sony pictures will waste their little remaining money and go bankrupt even quicker, and have less chance of making a gem that saves them
Jacob Butler
Is he taking after Eddie Murphy?
Austin Evans
>Sony Pictures Fucking no, please god don't let this happen.
