FUNimation’s 2010 Roll-out Riot: Day 1

FUNimation starts the new year by announcing they have “acquired 15 films from the Kung Fu Masters the Shaw Brothers.” Not really my thing since I’m not into kung fu stuff nor Chinese stuff (just a matter of personal tastes is all). However, I did notice the reaction of the fan community.

Understandably, most fans were looking for anime license announcements. As such, a live-action movie license announcement does disappoint. That level of disappointment is furthered as these live-action movies aren’t Japanese, but Chinese. However, what seems to incense some people the most is that this isn’t a case of FUNimation going out and grabbing some new licenses but rather Navarre, FUNimation’s parent company, transferring the licenses from its defunct BCI to FUNimation.

From FUNimation’s perspective, this is a new license for them and as such totally qualifies as a new license announcement. From a business perspective, with BCI gone, Navarre has licenses that it needs to make productive and generate revenue. Since FUNimation is a proven brand name, it makes sense that Navarre would get FUNimation to market and distribute these titles in the hopes of gaining a wider audience than might otherwise have been there.

As I said, this announcement does nothing for me, though if FUNimation puts the videos on their website, I may check them out (I do like Big Trouble in Little China so I’m not opposed to watching Chinese-themed stuff). I don’t have the problem that others have about FUNimation trumpeting these licenses as new because to FUNimation, they are new. I do understand those fans who are severely disappointed in this first announcement and I do think that FUNimation does run a risk of lessening the impact of future multi-day announcements like this by making a big deal out of something that most aren’t going to see as a big deal.

Now, for those who’ve seen these movies (“Sword of Swords”, “The Duel”, “The Lady Hermit” , “The 14 Amazons”, “Shaolin Hand Lock”, “Invincible Shaolin”, “Soul of the Sword”, “Life Gamble”, “Shaolin Rescuers”, “Shaolin Prince”, “Bastard Swordsman”, “Opium and The Kung Fu Master”, “The Supreme Swordsman”, “Return of Bastard Swordsman” and “Hong Kong Godfather”), what is your opinion?