Bizaar Studios, a rising force redefining adult animation, has announced that anime powerhouse Gen Fukunaga will be joining the company’s advisory board. The founder and former CEO of Funimation will develop original animation with the studio, including projects with Webtoon. Fukunaga joins Bizaar following a decades-long storied career in anime, bringing tremendously successful global franchises into the US.
“I grew up on Dragon Ball Z, which set a high bar for ambitious animation,” said Jeremy Iovine, Bizaar Studios co-founder. “Gen’s perspective helps shape how we think about impactful, long-running stories across everything we’re making at Bizaar. We are honored to be working with him.”
“What resonates with today’s audiences increasingly lives outside traditional narrative frameworks,” said Gen Fukunaga. “Bizaar Studios is reinvigorating the medium of animation for a new generation of creators and I am excited to see the team push boundaries and subvert norms.”
Gen’s Funimation was the leading distributor of anime including over 1,000 brands such as Dragon Ball Z. The company handled the full breadth of title production, marketing, sales, and distribution including the annual production of the English version of over 1,000 TV episodes and movies. Funimation also led a successful and fast-growing subscription video streaming service, as well as home video, broadcast and digital sales, in addition to theatrical distribution and partnering with over 100 manufacturers of character-based products.
An entrepreneur and investor, Gen retired from Funimation Entertainment, which he founded in 1994, after selling to Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2017. Gen has been actively investing in various early-stage projects since 2005 and is a board member, partner and/or advisor in various entertainment companies.
Backed by fantasy icon George R.R. Martin and legendary entrepreneur Jimmy Iovine, and led by co-founders Jeremy Iovine, Amir Mohamadzadeh, and Eric Bromberg, Bizaar Studios is on a mission to entertain global audiences through bold adult animated content, working with world-class storytellers to develop bleeding-edge IP.
Bizaar recently announced the launch of the Bizaar FAST Channel, a 24/7 free streaming destination now available on Samsung TV Plus, Xumo Play, Plex, and HiSense. Created for discerning adult viewers and animation fans, the Bizaar FAST Channel offers an always-on slate of world-class animated content with hundreds of hours of curated premium content – from globally recognized franchises to avant-garde indie hits.
