FUNimation Web site as prehistoric as its anime

Well, I visited FUNimation’s Web site a few weeks ago or at least I thought I did. When I say it was atrocious I really mean it was atrocious. They only had three news stories for the last two months: one of them was that you could buy their crap online and another was that Cartoon Network (a rival station) was playing one of their cartoons on Saturdays. Apparently www.funimation.com is the Web site for FUNimation Productions, A.K.A. the corporate Web site. Oops my bad. Then the Web site for the actual channel should be better right?

Wrong! What are they doing?

I recently discovered the FUNimation channel at my boyfriend’s house one evening. I think they only provide it for Verizon customers. Besides the obnoxious, repetitive commercials promoting Peach Girl and Suzuka DVDs, I really liked what I saw.

I remember watching classics such as Case Closed in Japanese when I was a kid. FUNimation gives me the chance to discover anime from when I was young and anime I have never seen before such as Baki: The Grappler and the extremely unusual Revolutionary Girl: Uetna. Plus there’s Afro Samurai, Dragon Ball, Kiddy Grade, Hare + Guu, Kodocha, and Negima!

So what is up with the FUNimation web site? There is definitely a market for ancient anime. Thousands of dorks collect the gundams and other merchandise. You think FUNimation would capitalize on this fact, but they don’t. The message boards aren’t complete ghost towns (to my surprise) so you know there is an online community to cater to. There’s potential. I guess FUNimation will have to just take the time to invest in it. When you’re a broadcast channel I think it’s absolutely necessary to have an engaging and fully-operational Web site. I’m not going to talk too much more about the site. The screen shots speak for themselves.

This is how they display the show calendar? Their multimedia section is massive.

To show you how great old anime can be, here is one of my fav’s: Project A-ko.