Funimation President Says They Would Manage Evangelion Better Than Netflix

Popular video game website Polygon recently did an interview with FUNimation Entertainment president, Gen Fukunaga, where he discussed his concerns with Netflix’s latest acquisition of the Neon Genesis Evangelion TV anime.

“I’m 100-percent sure that we’d have done a much better job brand-managing it and turning it back into what it was,” Fukunaga told Polygon.

“Honestly, Netflix is willing to significantly overpay for something like [Evangelion] and outbid anybody by multiples, no matter what their ROI is. I’m 100-percent sure that we’d have done a much better job brand-managing it and turning it back into what it was.”, Fukunaga tells Polygon.

With Netflix’s wealth of content including anime, Fukunaga believes that Evangelion will get drowned out by other Netflix content. Because of this, he mentions how Netflix isn’t a great place for major anime releases.

“Take a title like [My Hero Academia]”, Fukunaga says referring to the popular hit anime under Funimation. “Had My Hero Academia gone onto Netflix, it would have just dropped on the platform with any number of titles and probably would have died as a brand. It would have just been another brand on the platform. “Funimation markets it 360 — theatrical marketing, etc. — gets it available on iTunes and Xbox and PlayStation and gets it on other streaming platforms on its own, and really promotes it 360. […] While if it had gone on Netflix, it would have just gone up there.”

You can read more on Polygon’s interview with Gen Fukunaga here.

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