FUNimation Entertainment

FUNimation Entertainment (previously known as FUNimation Productions) is an United States entertainment company formed by Gen Fukunaga in the early 1990s to produce, merchandise, and distribute anime and other entertainment properties in the United States and international markets.

On May 11 2005, FUNimation was acquired by Navarre Corporation and provides financial update and guidance.

FUNimation is headquartered in North Richland Hills, Texas, near Fort Worth, Texas, occupying one and a half floors of a four story office building.

FUNimation took the rights of dubbing One Piece to English in June of 2007. They took off from where 4Kids abandoned the project in the Skypiea arc and followed many of the trends established by the old dub. However, they had plans of re-releasing all the series from the very start in Uncut volumes of 12, 13, or 14 episodes. Each set so far includes an episode with alternative audio featuring a commentary from people working in the dub, denoted by a red background in the episode number.

FUNimation English Version
FUNimation was one of the bidders in the original war over the rights to One Piece. FUNimation was noted to have registered the URL for One Piece, despite not owning the rights to the series at the time (along with other animes). A later announcement stated that though FUNimation had discussed and mentioned One Piece, the company had not received the license but remained in the top companies still in negotiations.

Following the cancellation of the 4Kids dub of One Piece, on April 12, 2007, FUNimation Entertainment announced they acquired the license to One Piece, and would produce an English version of the series to premiere on Cartoon Network in August. In an interview with AnimeOnline, marketing director Lance Heiskell claimed that the company had been aiming to license the series since before 4Kids had acquired it.

The series was given a brand new dub cast, the original background music, and lighter edits. Due to Cartoon Network's standards, the practice of altering Sanji's cigarette into a lollipop was changed to it being removed entirely, and Smoker's cigar will be brought back but instead have the smoke removed.

Name changes such as "Zolo" used by 4Kids are only used in the televised dub to keep continuity with casual viewers. All correct names are used for both the uncut dub, and Japanese with English subtitles track. FUNimation plans to distribute the series in bilingual DVD box sets, retailing for $49.98 and containing 13 to 14 episodes each. The target release date for the box sets is May 27, 2008, with a release schedule of one set every two to three months. Lately the DVDs have been released at a steady rate of every eight weeks

While the televised airings run with edits and continue from where 4Kids left off, the DVDs are completely uncut and unedited, with FUNimation releasing the DVDs starting with episode 1.

Premiering on September 29th, 2007, the long-awaited FUNimation dub has been well-received for the voice acting, dialogue, and original music. However, Cartoon Network chose to remove it for unknown reasons, even with its drastic increase in ratings. It should be noted however, that Cartoon Network has also done this with several other anime. It appears to be purging the network of any anime that they don't outright own, even Naruto, which had been a ratings behemoth for the network has been pulled.

The dub is currently being aired on Cartoon Network in Australia as of November 3, 2008, an is uncut as of episode 175 of the original Japanese version. The last episode of the Skypeia arc aired January 7, 2009, and has rerun once before being put on hiatus again.

FUNimation had planned to start simulcasting subbed One Piece episodes an hour after their original broadcast on their official website, starting May 30th with episode 403. On May 29th someone accessed their website and uploaded episode 403 before FUNimation had agreed to put it online. As FUNimation became aware of this they then shut down the video service and announced that fans will be "deprived" of One Piece for the "immediate future" and that they will also be trying to "locate and prosecute the perpetrators".

On August 18, 2009 FUNimation announced the return of the simulcast One Piece episodes starting Friday, August 21 with episode 391. They have planned to release 3 episodes daily at 9:00 pm CDT, leading up to the August 29th release of episode 415 one hour after the Japanese release.

Reception
In the wake of 4Kids abandonment of the show, FUNimation took over dubbing of One Piece. The fan propaganda for the 4Kids dub made FUNimation's take over seem almost "heroic" and a number of on-line fans praised the company even before its release. FUNimation were said to have their best "A-team" on the dubbing of the show and some of FUNimations popular voice actors were chosen for the cast. While editing and censorship continued for the TV version, the fact the DVDs were only being released in an uncut version seemed to please One Piece and anime fans most of all. The dub overall tends to receive good reviews and the contrast between 4Kids and FUNimation has been constantly noted.