Funimation has a growing hate-hate relationship with anime fans over the years, especially after they chose to throw fan-favorite voice actor Vic Mignogna under the bus after spurious allegations were made against Mignogna in order to tarnish his legacy and get him kicked out of the anime industry. Well, the relationship between fans and Funimation will likely continue to sour as the company has acquired the U.K., distribution company Manga Entertainment.

Variety is reporting that the acquisition will give Funimation an additional catalog of 900 hours worth of subtitled and dubbed anime content to distribute to those in the U.K., and Ireland.

Jerome Mazandarani, managing director of Manga Entertainment commented about the acquisition by Funimation, stating…

“On behalf of Manga Entertainment, we’re thrilled to join Funimation and their expanding global business. We’re excited for the new opportunities that lie ahead and to serve anime fans in the U.K. and Ireland in a bigger way than ever before.”

Fans, meanwhile, are more leery than ever given Funimation’s history of censorship, such as the Dragon Ball Super alterations they made, as recounted by YouTuber FrozenParticle.

They were also lambasted for allowing localizers to politicize certain animes, such as Hajimete No Gal. But instead of addressing the issue they tried to paint the community as harassers by talking about how bad harassment is.

The company has also recently been removing segments from their distributed titles featuring Vic Mignogna, such as interview segments from the Dragon Ball Super: Broly Blu-ray.

This is also a bold move by Funimation given that they’re currently dealing with two lawsuits, one over their FunimationNow streaming service, and a second from voice actor Vic Mignogna.

A lot of people see this as Funimation trying to consolidate power over the anime localization and distribution market by usurping all of the smaller regional distributors.

(Thanks for the news tip Alex9234)