Funimation Licenses 2 New Anime?

By Cowhat Ninja

The fansub team Rumbel has received three cease and desist orders from Funimation.

Rumbel, a fansub group, has been ordered to stop releasing and distributing fansubs (anime subtitled, usually in English by fans) for Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn!, Soul Eater and D. Gray Man.

Funimation’s ownership on the US copyright of D. Gray Man was announced earlier this year, with DVDs coming out sometime next year. As I am writing this, there has been no official news release to confirm that they have also licensed Reborn! and Soul Eater, though though this is usually the case when a fansub group gets a C&D order from a US distribution company.

The comments on Rumbel’s newspost regarding the C&D orders have been very negative towards Funimation, which I personally find to be very unfair to the people running the company. You see, if companies like Funimation didn’t license anime and distribute them through *legal* means in the US, then stores wouldn’t sell anime, which would mean that anyone without high-speed internet would not be able to enjoy the series. That would hurt small businesses that specialize in selling anime merchandise because the people who buy the merchandise from the series usually buy their stuff online anyway. Further, fewer people would know about the series, cutting business even more.

So a couple of your favorite series got licensed. I liked them too. Get over it, there will always be more series for you to download before they get licensed and the whole cycle starts over again.

Or, you could be patient and wait until Funimation releases the subtitled episodes of the anime. They do subtitles too, you know. Why? Because there are people (like me) who prefer to watch the series in Japanese rather than English. And because THEY’RE FANS TOO. They care about these series just as much as we do, which is why they try so hard to bring these series to the US in a way that they are accessible to more people. This also means creating a dub version because some people can’t read all that fast or, in fact, PREFER dubs. SHOCKING, I know. But it’s true.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Rumbel’s subs. But this is the way things work in the real world. Though, that might be changing…but that’s another story for another day.

Peace out, and Funimation: Thank you for bringing these shows to the US.