Fukunaga, Gen

Birthplace: Itami, Hyogo, Japan

Gen Fukunaga is the founder of FUNimation Entertainment (now known as Crunchyroll, LLC). From its founding in 1994 until his retirement in 2019, he also served as Chairman and CEO as well as acting as executive producer for all works published by FUNimation.

Born in Itami in Hyogo Prefecture, Fukunaga grew up in West Lafayette, Indiana in the United States. He graduated from West Lafayette High School in 1979. Fukunaga then attended Purdue University where he got his BSEE in 1982 and his MSEE in 1984. He later moved to Boca Raton, Florida to work as an engineer for IBM. He then attended Columbia Business School, obtaining an MBA in 1989. He held a position with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) before getting a job with Tandem Computers in Sunnyvale, California.

Originally, Toei Animation told Funimation that they could not have the Dragon Ball series. However, Fukunaga's uncle, Nagafumi Hori, was one of the producers for Toei Company and helped him convince Toei Animation to give the license to Funimation. So Fukunaga went to coworker Daniel Cocanougher, whose family owned a feed mill in Decatur, Texas, and convinced the Cocanougher family to sell their business and invest in creating a production company. With that, Funimation Productions was established on May 8, 1994 along with his wife, Cindy Brennan. The success of Dragon Ball has led to Funimation to license, distribute, and localize anime in the English speaking markets.

In 2005, Funimation was acquired by the Navarre Corporation for US$100.4 million, Fukunaga still remained the company's CEO. In 2011, the company was reacquired by Fukunaga and various investors. Funimation was sold to Sony Pictures Television Networks in late 2017?for US$143 million, with Fukunaga retaining a small 5% stake until he stepped down as general manager of Funimation in 2019 with his remaining equity interest was repurchased by Sony Pictures after he left the firm. In March 2022, Funimation was renamed into Crunchyroll LLC, named after a streaming service of the same name it was acquired by one year earlier by parent Sony, before Funimation's brand and services ultimately shut down in April 2024. During and after his retirement, his company expanded to non-English speaking regions around the globe and acquired Iowa-based anime distributor RightStuf.

He is also the co-founder and manager of EchoLight Studios, a Texas-based Christian television production company run by Rick Santorum. EchoLight initially shared office space with Fukunaga's Funimation in North Richland Hills. As of October 2011, Fukunaga was also the chairman of online video game publisher GameSamba.

During an October 2023 seminar at Columbia Business School's Center on Japanese Economy and Business, Fukunaga was asked by an audience member why he chose to retire from Funimation. Fukunaga replied, "Honestly, after cashing out twice in the company, I really didn't need to work for a living anymore!"

Fukunaga is widely described as a well known revolutionary figure who established a then-niche anime genre not known in the western world, who transformed into a major pop culture mainstream icon.

Instagram: @gfukunaga1