Thoughts on Funimation Removing Interspeciec Reviewers from their Streaming Service?

[May_Lily]

This morning as I was preparing to bird watch while listening to a channel I watch on Twitch, one of the videos of that channel implied something bad happen that involved Funimation and Passione's adaptation of Amahara's and masha's Interspecies Reviewers. Curious I decided to listen in on what they had to say, and from what I have learn apparently the show was removed from their service due to receiving an e-mail about the content, which led to the statement of the anime not being "outside of the companies standards." Furthermore, Funimation has yet to make an official statement of this matter. The host of the show were not please with this, and neither were the fans not surprisingly as one of the host brought up Funimation's twitter account receiving messages of how unpleased they are of this decision.

This decision does not affect me personally as I was not planning to watch Interspecies Reviewers as from looking at the promotional art alone I knew this was not going to be an anime for me (although the hosts of the show claim the anime is actually better then it looks from their surprisement), however it's concerning, as they pointed out in the show, how this is going to affect the people behind the scenes who were working on the translations and dubbing. Also, from a business standpoint this does not look for Funimation as I imagine they have come off as being less trustworthy then they were before (and the company already has other issues as it is with the whole dubbing issue). Furthermore, the hosts made a good point that if this anime was really going against their core values as a company then they should not have license this anime in the first place only to have waist the work (as well as money I will add) that went into bringing this show to American audience. This appears to be similar to when 4kids years ago license Toei Animation's adaptation of Eiichiro Oda's One Piece without being aware that the anime they required did not fit with who they were targeting.

But what do you all think of this situation, especially to anyone who was watching Interspecies Reviewers? Are you disappointed or mad with how Funimation is handling the situation, or are glad the anime was removed for whatever reason?

Here is the link to the show I was listening to that talked about this matter: link The time they talk about this matter is from the beginning up to 00.39.48

Or if you can't watch it Anime News network has an new articles that sums it up: link

 

[421cookies]

Errr, why? They do licensed quite a lot of ecchi anime right? why now? what's so wrong with this show?

 

[Granitefish]

I suspect they didn't know every part of the series, and then learned that in episode 4 the protags reach the brink of death because of ravenous succubi. Which, while fault is on the side of the protags, looks an awful lot like 4 men being raped by a bunch of females. which given their leanings wouldn't be something they want to air.

 

[DjAlexDubCheck]

I wasn't watching through them, so I'm not particularly affected by the removal.
This said I think it's one of the most spectacularly retarded moves in the streaming industry
and confirms that throwing your money out of a moving car is still more sensible and rewarding
than giving it to those people 😁
Moreover they were streaming its scene-obscured version, making it already useless to pass through them:
the whole thing was bound to end in a circus 😀

Good ol' Nyaa still has its day in the end

 

[Greenfrost]

You don't piss-off the hand that feeds you; that's something everyone learns as a child. I like Funimation because they release most of their stuff dubbed and physical, which is why the controversies they keep getting into has me worried. The Dragonball one wasn't their fault, but this one definitely is.

 

[DjAlexDubCheck]

There are some developments on the front
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2020-02-02/france-wakanim-continues-to-stream-interspecies-reviewers-anime/.156036

 

[DarkFlame]

well I mean... getting complaints about an ecchi show isn't something new... after I watched episode 3 of Interspecies Reviewers, I had the feeling the series might get axed from licensing...

Spoiler

episode 3 felt pretty close to watching a hentai imo...nearly without showing the sex scenes

 

[Xzayer]

@djalexdubcheck
Nyaa is the way to go.

I don’t use Funimation so I’m not effected. But I feel that what funimation did was particularly ridiculous. People liked the series, yes it was heavily censored on their end. In addition some could reason that episode 3 was a catalyst for the removal. But we’re talking funimation here, they had licensed ecchi content before.

Spoiler

Valkyrie Drive Mermaid, High School DXD

Not to forget they have changed the dubbing of series to suit there politics. So add another on to the list of why do we need funimation. So to say that overall this series falls outside there moral compass seems weird.

 

[crazybars]

This should not surprise you guys. A big problem in the Anime industry is the fact that Anime News Network and Funimation have essentially become extremely political.


Look at Anime News Network's review of Rise of Shield Hero on their so called "Worst of 2019 list". It barely talks about the anime and It's practically a Political piece about their own politics and beliefs, not even close to being on topic. Seeing an Anime and Manga news site start selling political views like used Cars Salesmen instead of doing their jobs reporting facts about Anime and Manga is weird and uncomfortable man.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2020-01-03/the-worst-anime-of-2019-and-our-mega-poll-results/.155020

===============

Funimation does the same thing by censoring "anything they find offensive" Like, ARE YOU GUYS MY PARENTs? WHY DO U GUYS GET TO DECIDE WHAT'S OFFENSIVE? ARE WE PAYING YOU TO BE OUR NANNY???????????

 

[May_Lily]

One of the people I watch on youtube by the name of appabend posted a video last night that is related to the decision Funimation had made concerning Interspecies Reviewers, and I thought it would be a good video to share with you all here: link

A particularly interests I got from watching his video is that video games are easier to distribute around the world then manga and anime, and that both the manga and anime industry are not doing as much to cater to the international audiences.

 

[AK140]

I don't watch Interspeciec Reviewers, but as I mostly watch anime dubbed by Funimation, so this move concerns me a little weather Funimation will be increasingly political.

@crazybars
I noticed it, in Attack on Titan season 3 dub, at one point one of the character said "special snowflake" which wouldn't make sense in such time period.

 

[KatoShuu]

Did Funimation license it withouth knowing about the anime? What about when they dubbed it? Heck, I was surprised they even dubbed it, but did no one complaing how it was sexual or was being an SJW?
I watched the sub, but I only listen to dub in the background. Decent dub, especially Krim/Crim

 

[May_Lily]

It looks like Amazon Prime Video has also removed both the Japanese and U.S dub of Interspecies Reviewer from their server, although the listing is still available: link I would imagine this is tie to the decisions Funimation made (after all why else Amazon would have the U.S dub in the first place). On another note, I was not aware that up until recently Interspecies Reviewer was also available on Amazon Prime Video.

Update

It would appear that Funimation is adding Doga Kobo's adaptation of Quro's seinen manga Asteroid in Love to their server as a likely replacement for Interspecies Reviewer: link

 

[crazybars]

@AK140

Yeah, It doesn't feel good does it? It's particularly noticeable if you pull up some controversial jokes or sexual puns or some off color remark on the fansub version and Funimation has dubbed over it with "SHOUTING" or "MEME" or "Yeah Yeah Yeah!!!" or "Insert common American Joke here".