Interviews – Nicholas Friedman – Editor of Funimation.com

Hello and welcome to Geekcast Radio Presents,

an interview that will also be syndicated on

Alter Geek and Studio 2009. Steve Megatron here,

and I'm your host for this special interview.

Today we have the opportunity to speak with Nicholas

Friedman, the editor of Funimation .com, who's

here to talk with us about anime. Hello, Nick.

Hey, how's it going? Good, good. Glad to have

you. Yeah, glad to be here. So, as we get started...

Could you tell our listeners a little bit about

your background and how you came to be at Funimation?

Yeah, you bet. So, you know, I've been an anime

fan my whole life. Started, I think, with a lot

of people from this generation with Toonami and

Dragon Ball Z. Yep. As well as, you know, Saturday

mornings with Pokemon and Yu -Gi -Oh and the

like. But I'm also, you know, I'm a career journalist.

So I studied journalism in college after discovering

it kind of at a really young age. And I was always

fascinated with the research and the information

and the idea of reporting, right? And bringing

those facts to a wider audience. And so I really

hit my stride with that in college. Started doing

some pop culture reporting on the side. And out

of college, I worked for a newspaper for a few

years and an amazing opportunity popped up at

Funimation. And I saw it as a call to fate that

drawing those pictures of Goku in my notebook

when I was 12 has finally paid off. And so I

took a chance and they liked me. And here I am,

you know, two and a half years later. It's a

dream. It really is. That's awesome. Yeah, I

too grew up on that era of Toonami and Funimation

on there with Dragon Ball Z and the Pokemon era.

I was heavy into Dragon Ball Z. I was kind of

the go -to person for information on that in

school. I love that. Yeah, it was awesome. Actually,

one of my first websites was on Dragon Ball Z.

and yeah back in the geocities days you know

oh man my favorite pokemon chat rooms and yeah

oh yeah yeah so um yeah so what with with being

at funimation what are some of the the top animes

that you can suggest for people um especially

for like this time of year yeah so um halloween

is a great time to get into anime if you are

a fan of the supernatural if you're a fan of

horror if you're a fan of you know psychological

thrillers i mean there really isn't a better

time of the year i mean honestly anytime's a

good time to get an anime based on what you're

interested in but horror internet horror anime

creates a great great entryway um some core standouts

some core favorites just off the top of my head

like One of my favorites is Mob Psycho 100. It's

a supernatural comedy show, I guess, if I had

to describe it. There's a little bit of shaman

in there. And it is basically the story of this

young kid who has psychic powers. And he basically

interns for a professional psychic who is actually

a con artist. And they get thrown into very real

supernatural situations. you know, it's, it's

up to a mob, the main character to use his psychic

abilities to, you know, make up for Reagan, his,

his mentor, not having them, except he has no

idea that, that, you know, his mentor doesn't

have the powers. And so it's, this is really

fun back and forth. You get a little bit of buddy

cop in there and that, you know, the comedy,

the writing just, it hits and it's great. That's,

that is a more of a lighthearted recommendation.

If you want to get a little bit more cerebral,

I'd have to recommend Paranoia Agent. It's a

classic series from legendary director Satoshi

Kon from Perfect Blue and Paprika fame. Those

are some you may have heard of. But it is just

this truly thought -provoking thriller that has

its moments that are almost like Hitchcock -esque

murder. um moments um but the core of it is is

really around you know the people whose lives

are affected by you know by this this mystery

and then the detectives looking to solve it um

and it's wrapped in this in this anime unique

style that one you can only get from anime but

two you can really get from satoshi khan and

his amazing body of work so um, that is, that

is a great option. That is a, that's a fairly

quick watch that I think is, is perfect for getting

in the mood of all things, uh, spooky and scary.

Nice. Nice. Um, so with like, I'm, I'm not very

well versed in the horror genre of, of anime,

but I have seen quite a few just regular anime.

Uh, what, what are some of the, What are some

of the main ones that you see people gravitate

towards, even outside of this time of year? For

sure. I mean, you know, one big one that you've

probably heard of that's been a big hit in the

last few years has been My Hero Academia. You

know, it is the story of Deku, a young... boy

in a world where almost everyone has superpowers

known as quirks, but he doesn't. He is quirkless.

And like all of us with big dreams, he hopes

to become the number one hero. That is always

the, that is the soapbox I give for that series

because you just, you got to watch it to, to

experience it. And if, if you're a fan of superhero

popcorn, everything from Marvel movies to comic

books to. You know, your classics, like My Hero

is a great option. And it's a great option for

a first anime. I have seen so many people join

the community through My Hero Academia in the

last few years. And from there, it is a deep

dive because it brings across all of the things

that make anime so unique while still being incredibly

approachable. Those are my favorite types of

series because they bring so many new people

into the fandom. And the anime fandom is already

just so incredibly diverse. And I love when shows

make it easy to celebrate that. Yeah, that's

good to know because I've heard of it over the

years. And I've always been a huge Dragon Ball

Z fan. a fan of of various like dc and marvel

and things like that but i've never heard it

uh this particular series uh explained that way

yeah to um gauge my interest in it which now

that you've said all that i actually have interest

in it yeah i mean look in a lot of ways it is

it is this generation's dragon ball in a lot

of ways and i i you know i hate to make that

comparison because they are different But it

is a show that is capturing the moment, right?

Like, I think Dragon Ball Z captured the moment

in the West for a lot of reasons. But one of

those reasons was, you know, this was at a time

when, you know, late 90s, early 2000s action

movies were the... Oh, yeah. And so, you know,

you could get your Matrix, Mission Impossible

fix through something like Dragon Ball Z every

week. And, you know, with the zeitgeist around

Marvel movies and the MCU, like... It was the

perfect time for a series like My Hero Academia

to come onto the scene and introduce a whole

new generation to it. Similar to, you know, this

happened earlier in the 2010s with Attack on

Titan capturing an audience that may have been

watching like the beginnings of Game of Thrones

at the time or the end of Harry Potter, where

it's like this big sprawling fantasy epic that

has adult themes in it. I mean, especially Attack

on Titan, which is a very gory. um there's a

lot of body horror that kind of stuff but it

it did so much to bring new fans in and it's

like the people who are watching attack on titan

when it aired you know maybe following seasonally

now and it's it's easier than ever to do that

like to follow it you know and funimation like

our our seasonal lineup is just it's always packed

and there's just oh wait i mean i know for me

my watch list is like 10 to 15 shows a season

and Oh, wow. And I make it a priority, even though

I'm also juggling, you know, playing video games

and reading comic books, because the content

is just so good. And it comes out, it's just

coming at such a rate that it's just, there's

just, there's not enough time to explore it all.

And so it's like, you want to prioritize it and

really dig deep into it. So what are a couple

of your specifically favorite shows right now?

Yeah, so one of my favorites from Well, this

year and this year, the second season aired,

but the first season aired a couple of years

ago called Kagi Sama Love is War. It is a romantic

comedy series. Which I know doesn't exactly get

people in the Halloween mood, but it is I like

to describe it as like. Like traditional romcom

meets Death Note, if you're familiar with Death

who are top students who are hopelessly in love

with each other, but refuse to admit it to one

another. And so they try and get each other into

scenarios where the other will confess their

love first. And it is written so smartly. It's

based on a manga, the same name, where there's

a narrator that plays out the scenarios. And

at the end of every little vignette, they call

a winner, you know, winner. such and such um

and it's so funny and it's so smart and one of

my one of my favorite um things in anime is when

they can capture um like the reality of relationships

not just romantic but even between friends and

um kagi is one of those series that i think does

a great job at like showing what it was like

to be a kid in high school and have a crush and

have friends and and be a part of that high school

experience. And it's a hilarious show. First

season is available subtitled on Funimation.

The second season is actually currently being

dubbed by Funimation, as well as the simulcast,

the subtitled version. And both of those parts

of season two are streaming exclusively on Funimation.

And, you know, I watched all of season one in

like three days because I was hooked. And I had

no idea that romantic comedy anime would become

one of my favorite genres. But now it is. It's

actually funny because a lot of the time they

capture some of the things that regular shows

don't. And that there's a little bit of more

of a realism, even though some of it might be

a little bit over exaggerated. But it's still

it kind of touches on those bases that you feel

naturally when you're in the moment of those

scenarios. Exactly. It's funny you bring up the

over -exaggerated thing because while it may

not have been how it was, it's how it felt. Yes.

That, I think, is a great call -out. So how can

people learn more about anime and also stream

thousands of titles? Yeah, so obvious answer,

Funimation .com. No, it's... I always like to

call Funimation like a destination for anime

because like we do, we have such an immense library

of shows and they cover, like I said, just generations,

everything from Speed Racer and Astro Boy and

Kimball the White Lion to Cowboy Bebop, Yu Yu

Hakusho to, like I said, Attack on Titan, My

Hero Academia, and then the currently airing

stuff that's in season, like Shout Out Fire Force,

which is a great supernatural entry. That's just...

It just kicks all kinds of ass. That's airing

right now. But we've also got everything else

that you might need for your anime journey. So

if you're a super fan and you've got to get apparel

or a figure for your shelf, like me who has too

many figures on my shelves, or you want to buy

the home video, you've got the Funimation shop

right there on the website. And then another

one, you know, another kind of pillar of that

is the Funimation blog, which, you know, we have

an amazing team of writers from all around the

world that are just anime super fans. And we

write guides and features and deep dives into

anime. So a great example is one of my favorite

series that we run is A Mom's Guide to Anime.

And it is about, you know, a younger mom who

grew up on, you know, the same stuff that we

grew up on. She has a kid, and she not only wants

to get him into anime the right way, the appropriate

way, but wants to use anime as a teaching tool

to help with parts of life, like going through

puberty or experiencing heartbreak for the first

time. She has just this awesome perspective on

that. I think that's a really good snapshot of

how we can use content outside of just the anime.

to really show people what it's all about um

and you know we've got guides and if you're a

if you're if you're a big watcher and you want

to re -watch anime you know we've got guides

for that um so yeah i mean funimation .com is

like it's it's your it's your destination for

for anime wherever you are in your journey with

anime there's there is a way for you to jump

in um through funimation and make that your home

basically Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. And, and as

you, you heard it in the interview, everyone,

that is your place to go. If you would like more

information, I know for one, I need to be updated

on a lot of stuff. So that's probably where I

should be going. Um, my, my info is a little

dated, so I, I'm still catching up on, uh, Dragon

Ball Super and things like that. So, um, So,

yeah. Thank you, Nicholas, for joining us on

this chat on Geekcast Radio Presents Interview.

Is there anything else you'd like to plug before

we go? No, I mean, just, you know, if you're

not into anime, give it a chance. It is one of

the coolest art forms out there. It is... It

is absolutely worth your time. And, you know,

Funimation is the place to do it. And if you

want me to yell at you about all the amazing

shows you can watch, you can follow me on Twitter.

Awesome. So thank you again. And this concludes

this interview on Geek Chaos Radio Presents.

Until next time.