We know they have one person in charge of the license at Funimation. So a lot is up to them.
Funimation is also a company obsessed with numbers and what makes sense to them internally only.
About the only way I see them getting Petrea (and since the cat’s out of the bag, that relationship may be
even harder to repair) is if they get a announcement that they are doing OVA 4, and the fans make another stink
in a very public manner. It’d help if Mona was too booked to pick up Tenchi too, but the problem is she’s more than
one voice. So as far as cost, she makes a lot of sense.
Remember back in 2013 we were told the movies and universe were selling well for them. Ai was just not taken well
in Japan, so they might get that cheap, but I expect that they have no interest. They could have picked it up already and
said something if that was the case. On the flip side, AIC could demand if Funi wants OVA 4, then they have to take Ai,
that’s not an unusual tactic, but then Funi will probably camp on Ai and not spend the extra to dub and release it. Sadly
they aren’t the type of group to do sub only releases.
At the end of the day it’s about money with Funimation, and in their mind they have to have costs low enough to have probability tell them they will more than break even, and that means squeezing VAs and every step of the process. So they have to be shown there is value in returning Petrea for that role for them to care. Otherwise, they will substitute her. It’s a business, not a fan club, despite what they claim.
Really if they were smart, they’d try something like a kickstarter or presales poll. If you have choices between box set A, and Box set B, and one has these features and one has those, then you go with what is most popular, and put a premium on it. As long as the customer believes it retains enough value, they’ll buy it. For a lot of fans Petrea is worth a handful of bucks to cast as Ryoko. This would solve both problems, as well as their issue with special features and physical doo-dads.
But hey what do I know, I’m just a guy leading an anime club of 360 people, starting a convention, and been in Tenchi land for 14 years.
