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Funimation history
Funimation company history timeline
The company was founded on May 9, 1994, as FUNimation Productions.
Anime franchises like Dragon Ball and Pokémon are now household names in the United States thanks to one of its most ardent fans, turned entrepreneur who brought the art form to America back in 1994.
After two aborted attempts to bring the Dragon Ball franchise to television via first-run syndication, Cartoon Network began airing Dragon Ball Z as part of its Toonami programming block in 1998, which quickly became the highest-rated show on the block and garnered a large following.
She worked as a producer and casting director in 1999 in ‘Chuck E. Cheese’ in the Galaxy 5000.
On January 11, 2001 they licensed the action series Yu Yu Hakusho and just a few days later on the 19, they announced the science fiction series Blue Gender.
Then on February 4, 2002 they licensed the shojo series Fruits Basket.
Come August 31, 2002 the company made it’s fist anime convention at Anime Fest 2002 in Dallas Texas.
Beginning in September 2003, Funimation signed a North American home video deal with Canada-based Nelvana.
Then came May 11, 2004, they announced they licensed the original Fullmetal Alchemist.
On May 11, 2005, Funimation was acquired by Navarre Corporation for US$100.4 million in cash and 1.8 million shares of Navarre stock.
Then on April 13, 2007, a cry of joy erupted when they announced they license rescued One Piece after being mutilated by 4Kids Entertainment.
In 2007, Funimation moved from North Richland Hills, Texas to Flower Mound.
When December 31, 2008 came around, they announced they licensed the first of the Neon Genesis Evangelion reboot films and Soul Eater.
At Anime Expo 2008, Funimation announced that it had acquired over 30 titles from the Sojitz catalog that had previously been licensed by ADV Films.
Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone was then released on November 17, 2009.
In 2009, Funimation signed a deal with Toei Animation to stream several of its anime titles online through the Funimation website.
When May 24, 2010 strolled on in, they announced the S.A.V.E. line.
On May 27, 2010, Navarre Corporation announced that it began negotiating a potential sale of Funimation.
On October 22, 2010 the much better looking Anime Classics line launched.
On May 27, 2010, Navarre Corporation announced that it began negotiating a potential sale of Funimation. It was also announced that if the sale took place, Funimation would be reclassified as a "discounted operation" starting in the first quarter of 2011.
A colossal licensed announced was made for Attack on Titan (sorry for the terrible pun) on April 12, 2013.
On August 10, 2013 Funimation announces Sunrise properties license rescues.
Even so, Navarre remained as exclusive distributor of the titles until 2013 when it shutdown.
In 2014, Funimation released Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods to theaters in partnership with Screenvision.
On June 22, 2015, Funimation and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment announced a multi-year home video distribution deal.
In January 2016, Funimation introduced a new logo and announced the rebranding of their streaming platform as "FunimationNow". In April 2016, they launched their service in the UK and Ireland.
On December 4, 2018, Funimation inked an exclusive multi-year first-look SVOD deal with Hulu.
On February 1, 2019, Gen Fukunaga announced that he would be stepping down as general manager, and transitioning to chairman of the company, with Colin Decker assuming the role of general manager in May 2019.
On March 23, 2019, at AnimeJapan 2019, Funimation announced that they had partnered with Chinese streaming service Bilibili to jointly license anime titles for both the United States and Chinese markets.
On May 1, 2020, Funimation announced that they formed a partnership with Kodansha Comics to host a series of weekly watch parties.
However, on March 24, 2021, it was reported that the United States Department of Justice had extended its antitrust review of the acquisition.
On April 12, 2021, it was announced that subsidiary Manga Entertainment would officially be rebranding as Funimation UK in the UK and Ireland, starting on April 19, 2021.
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| Real Media | 1995 | $30.2M | 200 | - |
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| National Geographic | 1888 | $499.2M | 1,500 | 58 |
| KDHX | 1987 | $2.6M | 30 | - |
| Complex | 2002 | $122.6M | 639 | 24 |
Funimation history FAQs
Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of Funimation, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about Funimation. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at Funimation. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by Funimation. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of Funimation and its employees or that of Zippia.
Funimation may also be known as or be related to FUNimation Productions (1994–2005, 2011–2020) FUNimation Entertainment (2005–2011), FUNimation Productions Ltd and Funimation.