Funimation

Funimation Productions, LLC   (commonly known as Funimation) is an American entertainment company that specializes in the dubbing and distribution of foreign content, most notably anime. Sony Pictures Entertainment, a division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony, is its majority owner. Based in Flower Mound, Texas, the studio is one of the leading distributors of anime and other foreign entertainment properties in North America alongside Viz Media, Sentai Filmworks, Aniplex of America, and more. Their most popular property is Toei Animation's action-adventure franchise Dragon Ball, which - through its sequel Dragon Ball Z - had a successful run on Cartoon Network's Toonami block from 1998 to 2003, and has been re-released on DVD and Blu-ray several times since.

The company was founded on May 9, 1994 by Gen Fukunaga and his wife Cindy as FUNimation Productions, with funding by Daniel Cocanougher and his family, who became investors in the company. Funimation was acquired by Navarre Corporation on May 11, 2005 and the company was renamed FUNimation Entertainment.

In April 2011, Navarre sold Funimation to a group of investors including Fukunaga (and John A. Kuelbs) for $24 million. Around the same time, the company's trademark ball, star and blue bar were dropped from its logo and the company was renamed to simply Funimation. In May 2013, Funimation consolidated its divisions under its new holding company Group 1200 Media. Kuelbs became Chairman of Funimation/Group 1200 after the acquisition from Navarre. Kuelbs and Fukunaga continued to make additional investments into Funimation. A new senior management was brought on and a multi-year distribution deal was announced with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. In January 2016 FunimationNow, a new ad free HD anime streaming service with Sony subscription, was announced at the CES show in Las Vegas. On July 31, 2017, Sony Pictures Television announced plans to acquire a 95% stake in Funimation for $143 million while Gen Fukunaga would retain his position with a 5% share. The deal was closed on October 27, 2017.

Funimation is a portmanteau of the English words "fun" and "animation". From 2016 to 2018, Funimation had a partnership agreement with Crunchyroll.