Postby Mr. Hat'n'Clogs » Tue Jan 31, 2012 4:26 pm
I wouldn't say that Funimation is opposed to releasing non-fanservice/is trying to label themselves as a fanservice brand, rather, the number of sellable titles that are not fanservice are somewhat limited. Both Eden of the East and Summer Wars have done very, very well, and some other, non-fanservice titles like Spice and Wolf and Birdy the Mighty must have done well, since they've released multiple seasons of them.
I'd say it's more that Funimation is smart enough to think of themselves as a business, which I think is what put them on top in the first place, with moves like being one of the first to adopt 13/26 episode sets as the default and getting everything on Hulu/Youtube. They don't rake in enough money that they can just release underperformers constantly(or very often at all, see their reacting to Oofuri). Also, while Princess Jellyfish is good, I wouldn't say it's inconsistent with what has been great sellers in the past, like Ouran and Fruits Basket, and also has a bunch of people clamoring for it to be released, so I'm guessing it'll do surefine. I'll keep buying their good shows, and it would be nice if not being a fanservice was fine, but they still have plenty of girlbait stuff like Sengoku Basara on the other side of the spectrum, so yeah, I wouldn't write off Funimation as a fanservice group yet.