I think I may have linked to this article before, but here it is again because it’s a very good one which lays out the blatant agenda-pushing.
Man, talk about one heck of a negative character arc. Ten-fifteen years ago FUNimation was regarded as one of the better licensing companies because they seemed to be trying to make up for past mistakes they made in the 90s and early 2000s – People celebrated when they got the rights to One Piece from 4Kids, and when they brought the DBZ Dragon Boxes, the definitive way to own the series, over to the USA it was seen as giving fans of the Japanese version of DBZ a treat they had been begging for for years. I still proudly own all seven: It’s not just the best picture quality available, but by far the most accurate subtitles you could get an official DVD release (right down to the original Japanese pronunciations). Can’t remember his name, but the guy who worked on them is big a Dragon Ball fan and is very fluent in Japanese. Even stayed in the country for periods of time. No idea if he still works at FUNimation, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he doesn’t anymore.
From the examples in that article listed, it’s pretty clear that FUNimation have developed nothing but contempt for their audience. They’ve overstepped their boundaries as an interpreter and deliver thinly-veiled attacks against a group of people they dislike and decided to target; they’re basically saying, “All these ecchi anime are gross! I bet only fat perverts who hate women and can’t get laid watch them!” Then… why did you license these shows? If the content is so objectionable, then you’re free to take a moral stance as a corporation and just let another company purchase the rights. Instead, this kind of behavior comes off as incredibly spiteful. It’s like the bully at preschool who hauls all the toys for himself and will only share if others play by his rules as he defines them (but then, this is kind of mean-spiritedness I would expect from self-styled “progressives.” I know some TradCaths on the hard right who aren’t really into those kinds of shows, either, but they don’t really talk about them often because they understand they’re a product of modern Japanese culture).
Oh, yeah, and the whole thing with Vic. That was the last straw for me. Pandering to the woke mob is one thing, but throwing your own co-worker under the bus is quite another. After that I refuse to buy anything from FUNimation and hope they eventually crash and burn. They deserve to.
.
