funimation.com
Funimation is a large scale streaming site that offers thousands of shows. It has grown into a business, and sells everything from anime stream memberships, anime DVDs, BluRay, and other merchandise.
Funimation is proud of its dedication to keeping anime fans at the heart of its business and employs people who are directly connected to anime viewers. In terms of anime entertainment, Funimation has always delivered exemplary content.
Funimation has been around for a long time, and they're known for their impressive dubbing skills. They've worked hard to make sure that American viewers are happy with the anime they deliver.
Website Design
Funimation's website is modern and clean with a white background and bright colors. It has a sleek, likable appearance.
The company logo is fun and relaxed, with a smiley o. It's the name Funimation in an easy-to-remember, casual style. The smaller version they use on their website is a purple square with a colorful circle inside.
At the top of the home page, a banner promoting a free trial of their premium membership is displayed. The banner is emphasized by an animation that plays through popular and recently added anime. As you scroll, recommendations by genre pop up.
Content
Funimation is a streaming service that is focused on anime. They offer two membership options: a free account with limited features, and a premium account for $7.99 that offers more features, like the ability to download shows for offline viewing, 5 simultaneous streams, and free shipping on merchandise over $20. One issue with the free membership is that there are ads, while the premium membership does not have this issue.
The website offers an entire shop full of anime-related merchandise. Some of the items are exclusive to Funimation and can only be found here, like rare Funko Pops. They offer T-shirts, collectible figures, and many more things.
One of the coolest things about Funimation is their blog. They have a variety of articles answering fun questions about your favorite characters. They update it almost daily, and they always include a lot of fun topics.
Desktop & Mobile Accessibility
Funimation does a great job of making their website and app's navigation smooth. There aren't any glaring flaws with either version, and the optimization is impressive. But we shouldn't expect any less from one of the most well-known streaming companies on the web.
Shop is a portal to purchase anime merchandise and find out more about the show's creators. Finally, the search bar brings up specific results for popular terms.
When it comes to the desktop browser version, the menus are streamlined. From left to right, the categories are What?s New, Discover, Shop, and the search bar. The What?s New menu has a schedule of upcoming popular anime release days and scheduled events. The Discover menu finds blog posts and genre-based recommendations. The Shop menu is a portal to purchase anime merchandise and find out more about the show's creators. Finally, the search bar brings up specific results for popular terms.
The mobile application for the site, Funimation Now, offers a streamlined interface that mirrors the one found on the website. The startup 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
There are many reasons to choose Funimation as your streaming service. One great reason is their emphasis on website quality. They have a large site with many employees who can make sure it is perfect.
The genre organization is great for finding shows to watch. The current breakdown of genres 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 shows can be found as well.
The recommendation system Funimation uses is easy to use, but it still provides helpful suggestions from your watch history. Sometimes the recommendations are accurate, and sometimes they're not so great. However, in my case, the system has convinced me to watch shows that I had never heard of before, and they turned out to be really good.
The basic membership is a pretty sweet deal for only $7.99. Sometimes Funimation 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 option to stream up to 5 screens at one time.
Negatives
I don't think there are many problems with this website. The only thing I can think of is that the paid membership isn't worth it because you have to subscribe and sometimes the pages don't load properly, but otherwise the navigation is great.
One common issue for users is the slow load time. It feels like the browser takes a long time to respond to specific actions, after you've clicked for the third time. It can be frustrating after that.
Navigating around your favorite show can be a bit tricky at times, but luckily there are options to help you out. After watching the stream, users should not need to exit out of the stream and into videos again to skip an episode. The only option after the stream is over is to go to the next episode.
The worst part about Funimation is that their Premium Plus Membership and their Premium Plus Ultra Membership have a huge difference in price. Premium Plus is only $7.99 per month, while Plus Ultra is $99.99 per year. The Plus Ultra package includes all of the benefits ofPremium Plus but also includes two free rentals per year, free shipping on all orders with no minimum purchase, and an annual anniversary gift. The few extra perks don't make the jump to Plus Ultra worth it in my opinion.
Improvements Needed
There isn't a ton of development needed for this site. It's already awesome. However, Funimation could do a few things to improve user experiences.
Several people have noticed that the response time from clicking on an option compared to when the website takes you to your virtual destination is not great. Fixing the website's response time would make it even better.
Getting to the desired episode is easy, but once you're on the episode page there are few options available. A dropdown menu that included the option to skip around in episodes would be ideal, as not everyone wants to go in chronological order of the show. It would be much more convenient to have one page where episodes are listed, instead of going to the main menu, then back to shows and finally episodes.
I don't think the Premium Plus Ultra Membership is worth the extra money. The benefits are not very great and it's not really worth it to pay extra for them. Funimation should try to come up with better perks for people who are Plus Ultra members if they want to attract more customers.
Summary
Generally speaking, Funimation is a great streaming website. It offers many positive features, such as a massive amount of dubbed content and continuous hosting of subbed anime. The site is a great choice and enjoyable to use.
Despite some minor hiccups, the site is still a pretty good option. The free content is good, but there are a lot of annoying ads. Plus, you can upgrade to Premium Plus for a small fee, but Funimation will still try to get you to try their underwhelming Premium Plus Ultra.
Funimation is the best anime streaming site. They've improved a lot in recent years, and I hope they continue to do so. They're an excellent example of what can happen when people who are passionate about what they do are at the center of it.
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