@MikeyDPirate:
The most likely reason why they haven't done any recording for Hetalia or announce anything involving DVDs is because there isn't enough material to release at a steady pace.
Y'know, you're actually right about this and I believe Funi did license the Hetalia movie so in this case it's just a matter of hearing an announcement about a DVD release once more material is released.
@Badass:
I honestly don't understand why Funimation goes on "breaks" with various series. They should finish most of the series they have before attempting to acquire new ones. I understand they can't do that with OP considering the whole 5000 episode thing, but they shouldn't just flat-out stop producing it.
It seems very nonprofessional to me. They've had enough of a "break" from One Piece since they stopped dubbing Alabasta over a year ago.
@Zach:
It's not unprofessional. In our interview with Mike McFarland he discussed how for large series they often need to relicense them because buying the whole series is just too expensive. Now think about the series that are on break:
Shin Chan (700 episodes and counting)
Sgt. Frog (338 episodes and counting)
One Piece (483 episodes and counting)
I think it's safe to say that due to just the closed-lipped attitude at FUNimation and the ignorance of all their voice actors concerning the subject, it's either already been bought or it's in negotiation … far more likely the latter.
I agree with Zach, it's not unprofessional. Unprofessional is when your company isn't doing something right and you do release that information to the public. The other thing that Zach brought up was that these licenses are long series but here's another thing to consider:
Shin-Chan was a weird license to begin with because they started in the middle of the series, this show I treat like "Hey if we get more, cool" It's kind of like how the other Adult Swim show, The Boondocks, has an on and off schedule. We may get a fourth season and if we don't I'm satisfied with what is out.
Sgt. Frog is a carry over from the days when ADV was licensing everything under the sun and Funi was privileged enough to license save the show. During the window where Sgt. Frog may have been a big seller and now anime fandom has cooled down a bit. I'm not sure what numbers Sgt. Frog made but it seems to have niche fanbase where it did "just good enough". There's is a bigger point that I'll make later.
@Badass:
Isn't there a pretty big audience that watches the Funimation dub of One Piece?
So with all these people in favor of the dub, would sales REALLY be that poor? And what numbers represent "poor" sales according to Funimation?
I'm willing to believe that behind Dragon Ball and Fullmetal Alchemist that One Piece has to be their third or fourth bestselling series. One Piece's popularity and recognition in America has grown considerably and steadily. The thing that bothers me is how Toei sees all this…
@firecrouch:
The most I know of future "One Piece" is what I heard from SDCC last year. Someone asked the FUNimation CEO about "Strong World" and he said they're trying to negotiate it but that Toei Animation is slow. Or something along those lines, basically Toei Animation is tough to negotiate with from what I remember. So let's see.
@MikeyDPirate:
It is a bit unfair to say how Funimation works and stuff but I think we can all think that Toei is a bit hard to work with. This is a big assumption to work on but we can all believe that Funi been trying to get streaming rights to DBZ for years yet they only just got it. Does this seems a bit off to you that the company that was made famous because of DBZ is just getting online streaming rights to it? Then seeing how Toei was after the original simulcast One Piece episode was leak then I think we are good to believe that Toei is hard to work with.
and he's where the meat of all this is…
When Funimation licensed One Piece the deal they had originally made with Toei is that they were going to continue the TV dub from where 4kids left off. As a result the Season Three episodes we are just now getting on DVD were dubbed years ago and apparently G8 was part of that original package. As part of the original deal when the other multimedia factions of One Piece were still valid (i.e. video games) Funi was allowed to dub Unlimited Adventure and Movie 8 (which was released shortly before the new Funi dub). Then shortly after the Skypiea dub had started CN had changed gears and stopped promoting the Toonami line. The One Piece video game line was dropped. So two avenues for getting One Piece more exposure in America were done away with. Now there's another side to this coin, look at what happened to Viz's Monster. It had a well acclaimed manga release, and all 74 of it's episodes aired last year on SyFy with a decent fan following YET Viz somehow felt that finishing the DVD release was unjustified even though the DUBBED ALL THE EPISODES! It's kind of a weird reversal of what we're experiencing with One Piece, but it should quell some fans theories that a TV airing automatically means a healthy DVD release and is one of the reason I watch Kekkashi on Adult Swim because that may be the only chance to watch the series.
Still, I think there was some expectation from Toei that within the 3 or 4 years Funi has had the license they could be as successful with the show as Dragonball was for them. Keep in mind three things:
1. Dragonball Z pretty much helmed the Toonami era at the height of the anime boom while One Piece's dub started when the bubble burst and ended the Toonami era.
2. There's been a stigma that Japanese licensors are a little naive to how American practices and anime businesses work within our own country. Toei could have made the assumption that One Piece would be immediately as popular here as Dragonball because it's that way in their own country.
3. Anime fandom has changed. A lot of the newer fans are used to much shorter shows. These days it's hard to come by an anime fan who is dedicated to a show that goes past 52 episodes. A lot of my acquaintances who are into anime are openly vocal about not being into long running series any more. Many of them would rather read the manga or focus on newer shorter shows. Even though I believe that if you were going to watch a long series just watch it in small doses (if you like it) or arcs, it is understandable why for some people that's a bit of a difficulty (on the other hand most of these acquaintances spend hours and hours playing video games something I have a lot of trouble with these days).
With all this to consider I don't think One Piece is taking a break because Funimation wants to. I believe it may be because Funi's numbers may have still fallen short of what Toei was expecting from them. Also keep in mind that since then we have gotten the simulcast and the expanded manga release so we are more or less caught up with Japan. I think One Piece is in a weird place where it is popular but it is not making the same strides as Dragonball, Naruto, Bleach, and Fullmetal Alchemist. It is also a show that is a harder sale to casual anime fans because it's not backed by great animation or some type of legacy.
In the end, all these are factors as to why One Piece may go on a short hiatus after the end of Season Three.
O-chan