funimation.com
Funimation is a very large anime streaming site that sells a variety of products, including anime stream memberships, anime DVDs, BluRay, and other merchandise.
Funimation is dedicated to keeping anime enthusiasts at the forefront of their business. They believe that employing individuals who are personally connected to their viewers is the best way to connect with them. With regards to anime entertainment, Funimation has consistently provided high-quality content for years.
Funimation, a long-standing anime company, was founded in 1994. It has strong ties to Japan and brings impressive amounts of dubbed anime to the United States. For many years, Funimation has worked diligently to ensure viewer satisfaction.
Website Design
Funimation's website design is sleek and modern. The primary color is a white background with a splash of purple and other bright colors. The website appearance is likable and clean.
The company logo is Funimation in an engaging and laid-back text style. The o in the title looks as though it is smiling. The smaller version they sometimes use for the app is a purple square with a circle inside that looks like it is smiling on the front page of the site.
At the top of the website, a pop-up prompts you to start a free trial of their premium membership. Attention is drawn to the center of the page, which hosts a slideshow that shows popular and recently added anime. As you scroll, recommendations by genre will appear.
Content
Funimation is a streaming service that primarily focuses on anime. They offer two membership options, a free account that includes fewer features and ads, and a premium account that includes more features, such as offline access, 5 simultaneous screens playing, and free shipping on merchandise above $20.
The website offers an extensive range of merchandise, including anime-related items exclusive to Funimation. Some of the merchandise is only available through the website, such as rare Funko Pops. They also offer T-shirts, collectible figures, and more unique products.
Their blog is an important part of Funimation; it has articles that answer fun questions about characters, as well as updates with a variety of interesting topics.
Desktop & Mobile Accessibility
Funimation does an excellent job of making both their website and app's navigation smooth as butter. There are no glaring flaws with either version. The optimization is quite impressive, but we shouldn't expect anything less from one of the most well-known streaming companies on the web.
The Shop category includes popular anime merchandise such as T-shirts, phone cases, and posters. The search bar allows you to quickly and easily type in what you are looking for.
The desktop browser's menu is streamlined with a prioritized category of "What?s New," "Discover," "Shop," and the search bar. What?s New has a schedule of upcoming popular anime release days and scheduled events. Discover provides blog posts and genre-based recommendations. The Shop category includes popular anime merchandise such as T-shirts, phone cases, and posters. The search bar allows for quick and easy access to what you are looking for.
Funimation Now is a mobile application for the Funimation website that functions similarly to the website. The app has a cute animation and lands you on the same slideshow from the desktop browser. The app prioritizes your watch history and prompts you to continue watching where you left off. Tapping the top left home button reveals the same horizontal menu from desktop, but instead is vertical on the app to save space.
Positives
Many people choose Funimation as their streaming service because of the great support they offer for their website. It is a large scale site with many employees who work hard to perfect it.
The genre organization is great for sorting through shows. There is a current breakdown of genres, which includes shonen, shoujo, psychological, comedy, sci-fi, fan-service, romance, drama, fantasy, action/adventure, a slice of life, and horror. A small library of live-action can be found as well.
The recommendation system Funimation uses is straightforward but still useful. It's not like the complicated Netflix system, but it makes base suggestions from your watch history. Sometimes it hits the mark, and sometimes the shows are big misses. In my case, it has convinced me to watch shows I hadn't heard of that turned out to be pretty good.
The Premium Plus membership is the basic membership with some added benefits. For example, Funimation sometimes offers deals on merchandise that are only available to members, as well as special events. Other significant highlights include ad-free streaming, offline access, and the ability to stream up to 5 screens at one time.
Negatives
It can be challenging to come up with many problems with this website. There are a few things that could be considered negative if you are not subscribed to the paid membership. Another problem is that sometimes, you have to click a few times for something to fully load. Navigation on the main page is phenomenal, but once you are streaming a video, it can get a bit trickier.
Many users have reported that the browser's slow load time is a common issue. After clicking for the third time, it can definitely become frustrating.
Users should not need to exit out of the stream to the main menu and into videos again in order to skip an episode. The only option after the stream ends is to go to the next episode.
The worst part about Funimation is that the price difference between their Premium Plus and Premium Plus Ultra memberships is very significant. For Premium Plus, the cost is $7.99 monthly, while Plus Ultra is $99.99 annually. However, the Plus Ultra package includes all of the benefits that are currently available in Premium Plus but also includes two free rentals per year, free shipping on all orders with no minimum purchase, and an annual anniversary gift. In contrast, the few extra perks that are available in Plus Ultra make it kind of worthless compared to the full benefits that are available in Premium Plus.
Improvements Needed
There isn't much development needed for this site because it is already so awesome. However, there are a few things Funimation could do to enhance user experiences.
Several users have noted that the response time from clicking on an option compared to when they are taken to their virtual destination is not great. Working on better web browser response times would be a great way to make the website even better.
Getting to the desired episode is an easy task to complete. However, once on the episode page, your options are limited. Ideally, a dropdown menu could give viewers the option to skip around in episodes. Not everyone wants to go in chronological order of the show. It would be beneficial not to have to go to the main menu, back to shows, then episodes when it would be much easier to select from one page.
The worst part of the Funimation Premium Plus Ultra Membership is that it does not provide any benefits that are worth the extra money. The company should brainstorm ways to improve the membership benefits if they want to attract more customers.
Summary
Funimation generally is one of the best anime streaming websites out there. It offers many positive features such as a large amount of dubbed content, generous quantity of subbed material, and early release of new episodes. The site is a great choice and enjoyable to use.
There are a few aspects of the site that keep it from being an all-star. The free content is pretty good, but the constant ads are frustrating. Additionally, upgrading to Premium Plus offers some small benefits, but Funimation's insistence on trying the underwhelming Premium Plus Ultra frustrates users.
A company known for supplying anime to Funimation streaming sites, Funimation, comes out on top in terms of quality and features. They continue to improve their service and aim to be the best they can be. Their dedication shows through their excellent work, which is why they are a great example of what can happen when passionate people are in charge.
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