FUNimation Entertainment
Logo used since 2016
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Formerly called
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FUNimation Productions (1994–2005) FUNimation Entertainment (2005–2011) |
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Multimedia entertainment |
| Genre |
Anime Japanese/Asian cinema Foreign entertainment etc. |
| Founded | May 9, 1994 |
| Founder |
Gen Fukunaga Cindy Fukunaga |
| Headquarters | Flower Mound, Texas, U.S. |
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Area served
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North America |
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Key people
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Gen Fukunaga (President and CEO) |
| Parent |
Navarre Corporation (2005–2011) Group 1200 Media (2013–present) |
| Subsidiaries | Giant Ape Media GameSamba Funimation Films |
| Website | www |
Funimation is an American entertainment, anime, and foreign licensing company based in Flower Mound, Texas. The studio is one of the leading distributors of anime and other foreign entertainment properties in North America alongside Viz Media, Sentai Filmworks and Aniplex of America. Their most popular property is Toei Animation's action-adventure series Dragon Ball Z, which had a successful run on Cartoon Network's Toonami block from 1998 to 2003, and has been re-released on DVD and Blu-ray several times since. It was founded on May 9, 1994 by Gen Fukunaga and his wife Cindy as FUNimation Productions, with funding by Daniel Cocanougher and his family, who became investors in the company. Funimation was sold to Navarre Corporation on May 11, 2005 and the company was renamed FUNimation Entertainment. In April 2011, Navarre sold Funimation to a group of investors including Fukunaga for $24 million. Around the same time, the company's trademark ball, star and blue bar were dropped from its logo and the company was renamed to simply Funimation. In May 2013, Funimation consolidated its divisions under its new holding company Group 1200 Media. Funimation is a portmanteau of the English words "fun" and "animation".
The company was founded on May 9, 1994 by Japanese-born businessman Gen Fukunaga. Fukunaga's uncle, Nagafumi Hori, was working as a producer for Toei Company; Hori approached Gen about licensing Dragon Ball to the United States. He proposed that if Fukunaga could start a production company and raise enough money, Toei Animation would license the rights to the franchise (which also currently included the English subtitled version of Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure 02, and Digimon Tamers). Fukunaga met with co-worker Daniel Cocanougher whose family owned a feed mill in Decatur, Texas and convinced Cocanougher's family to sell their business and serve as an investor for his company. The company was originally formed in Silicon Valley, California as Funimation Productions in 1994, but eventually relocated to Flower Mound, Texas, located near Fort Worth. They initially collaborated with other companies on Dragon Ball, such as BLT Productions, Ocean Studios, Pioneer and Saban Entertainment. By 1998, after two failed attempts to bring the Dragon Ball franchise to a U.S. audience, it finally found success on Cartoon Network's action-oriented programming block Toonami, and the Dragon Ball phenomenon quickly grew in the United States as it had elsewhere. This led Funimation to begin licensing other anime to the U.S.
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Wikipedia