Guillotine

So… It’s the classic story of one idiot ruining things for everyone else… We all know the story… The kid who winds up causing everyone to have extra homework because he couldn’t shut up in class, or the co-worker who cost everyone at work to lose their internet privileges because he was surfing porn sites… Surely everyone knows this person, and it looks like the infamous fun destroyer has struck yet again.

By know I imagine the anime world is quite aware that a person (or more likely sub human monkey turd would be a more appropriate classification) accessed Funimation’s servers, and discovered the yet unaired episode of One Piece set to be released one hour after the Japanese broadcast, and began merrily distributing it around the internet. Mostly it was treated like a joke by most who said things like: ”it’s not like stuff hasn’t been leaked onto the net early before.” In this case it looks like the worst possible scenario is occurring… Meaning that Toei Animation is not too happy about the situation, and is reacting quite severely. Though who could blame them. No telling how much money they or Fuji Television could lose from advertisers that pull their commercials out of the broadcast slot for that episode.

Funimation has put this statement on their website:

As anime fans know, FUNimation Entertainment and Toei Animation had planned for the first ever online simulcast of the series One Piece tonight at 9:00 pm CDT., just one hour after its premiere on Japan’s Fuji Television. Unfortunately, in the last 24 hours we have determined that the FUNimation servers were compromised, even though we employ strict security standards. An unknown individual accessed and posted episode 403 online and as a direct result of this illegal act, all U.S. and Canadian fans will be deprived of access to this great anime series for the immediate future. We will make every effort to locate and prosecute the perpetrator(s) to the fullest extent of the law and will provide updates regarding this most serious matter.

It also seems that Hulu and Joost have removed One Piece from their sites, and although no reason has been given most are assuming that it is at Toei’s request. So it would appear that through one’s actions an entire series has been pulled from all American sites (at least the legal ones). It is unknown at this time whether Funimation will be able to get things straightened out, or what will become of the One Piece simulcast plans. For that matter we also don’t know what will become of the rest of the Toei titles that Funimation has acquired licenses for if they decide to just pull out of the deal altogether.

Days like this I’m glad I don’t write for a real media company because at least I get to say what I think of this matter. If anyone knows who the idiot who did this is please do us all a favor and turn the schmuck in… Interesting things are happening in the anime world,  and we are starting to get to see episodes of anime the same day they broadcast in Japan… This isn’t the type of stupid stunt that was needed right now to screw all of that up.

And it has not escaped me about the irony of a show about pirates being pirated.

Update: It also seems that Funimation has removed all episodes of Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. They have not made a statement on whether this is permanent or whether the episodes have only been removed until they fix their security issues, but it’s yet another example of how much trouble one idiot can cause. All I can say is if this causes them to stop streaming episodes of Phantom I may have to take it upon myself to personally hunt down and rid the world of the individual who caused this mess. I’m already on edge this week after hearing that Anime Network is no longer on Comcast and I won’t get to see the last volume of Princess Resurrection.

Follow up: Just because I sort of left this post hanging for a long time I realized I should update, and state that Funimation’s One Piece simulcast restarted on August 29th, 2009 and as far it goes everything over there seems to be fine. All shows that were put on hold at that time have also been put back on the site, although the video portal site as of now (October 24th, 2009) still has the site maintenance banner at the top.

Okay, so I’m sure everyone knows by now that Funimation has been going like gangbusters when it comes to streaming free episodes of anime online, and not even the lousy titles you would expect a company to stream at that… I mean all of Ouran High School Host Club, School Rumble, Shuffle, etc… The list is rather impressive, but for those who browsed their page today it must have been a shock to find that Funi has added all 109 episodes of Fist Of The North Star as well as all 43 episodes of Fist Of The North Star 2 onto their video portal in one bulk update. I mean… Are you for real??? I would never expect a company to release 152 full episodes of uncut anime in one day… That’s gotta be unheard of.

Funimation has also aquired 6 other Toei titles that it will stream in the (very near) future which are: Slam Dunk, Digimon Adventure 02, Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999, Pretty Cure, and Air Master.

As far as Fist Of The North Star I have not seen it, or honestly heard much about it before now, and as it appears to be a fighting anime I may not even watch it as that’s not typically my genre of choice, but for those that do wish to see then make sure you have lots of popcorn because that’s a whole lot of free anime right there.

And if I’m writing this as if I’m in shock… Well… I am… I’m accustomed to companies dishing out a few episodes here… A few more over there… And basically going nuts waiting for the next episodes to appear. For anyone to throw this much anime up at one time almost seems like someone must be breaking a law or two somewhere, but it’s really all legal.

On another note looking at Funimation from a business standpoint… If they aren’t already there then they are definitely in a position to take the reigns as the top dog in anime licensing. With other companies like Geneon and Bandai apparently having troubles, and reports that Yen Press is currently trying to buy as many of ADVs manga licenses as they can get their hands on it looks to be rather obvious that there are big wheels turning in that industry, and unless something drastic happens Funi is positioning themselves to be the “last man standing.”

Oh… And if anyone from Funimation reads this… Please hurry up and license Hell Girl Futakomori and Mitsuganae… Plus it’d be real nice if you got a hold of K-On before someone else gets a chance to.

Just wanted to add a little update without writing another article…

It seem’s Funimation is not quite finished with the madness. Less than a week after writing this they have also dropped 101 episodes of Slam Dunk on their page along with the first 5 dubbed episodes of Strain, and the first 7 dubbed episodes of The Big Windup. Are they at least aware that they are allowed to sell this stuff rather than simply giving it away? Although I’m sure their intentions are that people will be more likely to buy the DVDs if they get a chance to watch first it still seems to go against everything we’ve ever learned from the entertainment industry. And I haven’t even brought up the deal with Gonzo, but for those that may not have heard by now Funi has made a deal with Gonzo in which they will basically be simulcasting subbed episodes of Gonzo’s new shows the same day they are broadcast in Japan. And n top of all that they are streaming Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood subbed episodes (which I assume is part of The Gonzo deal). I can only say that for people who are in to anime the last two weeks have probably seemed insane, and of course the fansubbers are either crying themselves asleep or are getting a long needed rest. Well.. Not really there is still plenty of anime out there for them to translate, but it is quite obvious that Funi’s experiment with Shikabane Hime definitely shut fansubbers down quite effectively. My brain is gonna melt pretty soon if they keep this up.