Funimation and their.. quality output

[NormanicGrav]

So I was just looking over on the Fandom Post, checking what people thought about the Soul Eater Premium Edition, and I noticed someone brought up this.

Apparently the quality of their workplace isn't up to standards. Such comments have included everyone hating each other, low pay and no chances of promotion.

More examples here.

I figured it would probably be a thread of its own, since Funimation has some flaws in their products. We know the video quality has banding issues, brighter video in contrast to the original Japanese version, some missing subtitles that they haven't bothered fixing (Eureka Seven Part 2 being the worst victim) and of course how everyone reacted to Attack on Titan's release. Oh, and of course Evangelion: 3.33 but that's an issue beyond their control.

So what do you guys think? Probably a controversial topic overall but then again I guess Sentai isn't the only one we should be concerned about now.

 

[Lutga]

Was rather amused at the comment that called out 'increasingly porn like product' - are they even an anime fan?

Sounds pretty bad, although I'd single the low pay issue out as symptomatic of the situation across the media industry as a whole, especially if your company is handling a niche product.

 

[HdE]

Those anonymous reviews in the second link really are demoralising to read. Especially the comment about 'hating the product, and hating the fans'.

Then again, I can't say as I'm surprised. Working in comics, I've met a fair number of people who seemed to be squarely in it for their own self aggrandisement, all other concerns be damned. In those circles, those kinds of personalities tend not to last very long. But this sounds way worse. Those comments about the HR department sound very serious indeed.

 

[Rui]

Having fired people before I suspect there's a certain level of exaggeration in some of the really negative ones. However, it does sound as though something is up with their HR department.

Staff who don't know about or care about the product isn't all that unusual at all. We like to think that all of the anime companies are run by passionate fans, but in actual fact there are only a small handful of professionals in the industry I would trust as fellow devotees. For most people, it's just a job like anything else. The PR staff who show up at conventions have to at least pretend to be interested, but the people who work behind the scenes don't need to know their Evangelions from their Dragonballs to do their job.

R

 

[Lutga]

Yeah - I think there's a difficulty in situations like this, as obviously they dream every anime fan has in mind is working for an anime company - cue the endless online commentary of 'Oh, such and such aspect of the release sucks, I could easily do a better job' - And whilst that might be the case, there will always be a divide between fandom and the stark, cold realities of working life and formal employment.

I'd definitely expect people working at the coal face to be abreast of the medium they're working in - but equally, there are always reasons for everything that perhaps aren't evident on the outside looking in. The company could be staffed by the most passionate people in the world, but if it isn't making money then it isn't really functioning as a sustainable business - and that's where sometimes a little bit of distance helps.

That said, maybe it really is a bad place to work. To be honest, low pay is often the origin of many sins - why would people work hard if they're getting paid peanuts for it? Hence the constant cycle of fresh young grads and interns in many areas of the media industry - these are the only people with the raw enthusiasm to paper over the bitter sting of low pay.

 

[Rosencrantz]

So I was just looking over on the Fandom Post, checking what people thought about the Soul Eater Premium Edition, and I noticed someone brought up this.

Apparently the quality of their workplace isn't up to standards. Such comments have included everyone hating each other, low pay and no chances of promotion.

More examples here.

I figured it would probably be a thread of its own, since Funimation has some flaws in their products. We know the video quality has banding issues, brighter video in contrast to the original Japanese version, some missing subtitles that they haven't bothered fixing (Eureka Seven Part 2 being the worst victim) and of course how everyone reacted to Attack on Titan's release. Oh, and of course Evangelion: 3.33 but that's an issue beyond their control.

So what do you guys think? Probably a controversial topic overall but then again I guess Sentai isn't the only one we should be concerned about now.

eh, given that those are all anonymous reviews it's hard to know how much we should trust them, could just be one disgruntled individual for all we know or 'Funimation haters' waging a campaign.

Pointing at Banding issues and brighter video is tricky, video standards are different between Japan and the US so has it actually been made brighter? Banding wise even Japanese companies with the perfect master are unable to compress it and come out with something that is guaranteed to have no banding (this strikes me as something they need to do some serious work on to identify what stage of compression causes this rather than shoulder shrug)

Missing subtitles, especially if a company has released a title and then releases it again later in another format are definitely something that should not happen. Though I'd not expect anyone but AL to actively seek to fix a broken release at this time.

 

[ayase]

Working a high pressure, low reward office job for a corporation with "pretend we care" nonsense like "core values" doesn't incentivise them to do their best work and in fact makes them want to kill themselves, more news at 11.

 

[HdE]

Having fired people before I suspect there's a certain level of exaggeration in some of the really negative ones. However, it does sound as though something is up with their HR department.

Wouldn't surprise me in the least. The only problem is - and this is where the comments about HR stand out to me - I've found there's quite often a grain of truth to these kind of claims. Sure, the Chinese Whisper effect could see it blown out of proportion and embellished by the time any greivance is publicly aired, but what was it that got the ball rolling in the first place?

I'd definitely expect people working at the coal face to be abreast of the medium they're working in - but equally, there are always reasons for everything that perhaps aren't evident on the outside looking in.

Yep. Speaking from experience in my own field, there's a lot to be said for that. Some of the behind-the-scenes stuff that goes on is really strange. As in, what-the-hell-has-this-got-to-do-with-anything strange.

 

[ilmaestro]

I'd definitely expect people working at the coal face to be abreast of the medium they're working in

Maybe twenty years ago I would have expected this. In this day and age, so much procedure in almost any industry is "solved" to the point where you can be trained to do it without any direct interest.

The debatable nature of its direct correlation to real life aside, just look as Satou when she interviews at MusAni in Shirobako.

 

[Rosencrantz]

I'd definitely expect people working at the coal face to be abreast of the medium they're working in

Maybe twenty years ago I would have expected this. In this day and age, so much procedure in almost any industry is "solved" to the point where you can be trained to do it without any direct interest.

The debatable nature of its direct correlation to real life aside, just look as Satou when she interviews at MusAni in Shirobako.

Certain parts need knowledge, other areas not so much.

The major complaints these days seem to be subtitle errors and video quality. Neither of which need Anime knowledge. One is a QC issue the other a skill level in encoding/compression issue.

I very much expect writer/re-writers to have a good back ground so they can get the references a script might contain, there's probably an argument either way for the raw translators. Directors should be familiar with the source material so to keep the feel of the show but might not need special knowledge beyond that show.