[Quirriff]

I think I've stumbled upon the reason.

I went to a convention on the weekend, and there were a lot of Imported DVDs from the US normally not available to those of us who live in Australia.

There upon I discovered something, a lot of them only had subs, and among those many I remember are Geneon-Universal titles. There I made the realisation.

I remembered that Funimation is taking forever with the titles it has licensed but not released, because of Red Tape issues with Geneon-Universal (Index, Railgun, Shana S2, etc).

It seems they won't release an anime when they can't get the raw video and audio assets to do their own dubbing.

But it seems that other companies such as Sentai in the US and Siren in Australia aren't so picky, If they can't get the Raw assets they'll just release it subbed only.

[Nominis]

Interesting, Umm didn't Geneon go bankrupt or was that only the US branch?

Off-topic rant? It is still sad that fan-subbers (that don't get paid to translate anime) do 110% better jobs on subbing most anime, then the so-called professionals that have access to more resources. Then again it may be that professionals have no pride in their work.
This coming from an American may sound weird, however, next time you watch a professionally subbed anime compare this,

Color (US English) vs Colour (Traditional English)
Favor (US English) vs Favour (Traditional English)

to a fan-sub, though it seems that many of the best subs are done by European or Traditional-English speaking, spelling people.

[moonshine02]

Personally, I disklike dubbed anime anyway. I have become so accustomed to Japanese voice-overs for anime that if I watch dubbed I just stop watching it. It also is partially because the Japanese put so much effort into making the anime come alive with their acting but the Americans just do it half-assed. I mean I watched Code Geass subbed then watched 1 episode dubbed and had a completely different outlook on the anime because of the shitty voice-overs.

I think it may be due to Japan excepting anime more than America does. In America and Australia(where I too live) anime is looked at as a childs show and nothing more which leads me to believe they don't care so much about making the show as best they can.

The Japanese make the best anime but unfortunately they usually make the worst movies!

[aktan]

I'd have to agree with you there. To me, when I'm watching their movies, it seems like they're trying to direct it in the same style as a anime, which doesn't work very well. Because of this, a lot of Japanese movies aren't very good, but of course there are exceptions, "The Depatures", is a great one I've seen recently.

[Quirriff]

I prefer to watch anything in their original language whatever that may be, but that's not the case with everyone.

My cousin for example prefer dubs, because it allows him to concentrate freely on the visuals.

Is it better that a company would allow their local release to go through development hell because it's their policy not to release something unless it can be dubbed and reach a wider audience. ?

Or release it redubbed it if it's reasonably practical, else just sub it.?

[PN04]

I went to an anime club one day where they had actually snagged a fairly well known voice actor who worked on anime mostly (it's been a while so I've forgotten who it was), but one of the attendees had the brilliance to ask why some dubs suck so horribly while others are actually pretty well done (regardless of which you prefer) and the answer was that some productions either just dont have the time to refine the performances or they're being produced by people who just dont care enough.

The same can be said for Subs aswell but it's more noticeable when it's badly voiced. If it's well voiced you hardly even think about it unless you simply prefer Subs.

On the subject of development though, the people that license shows for domestic release think fully that the majority of people in the US wont watch something with subtitles. Similarly in videogames, Sony for a time specifically had a policy that they wouldn't release a japanese game in the US unless the game was dubbed which lead to many games never making the jump. The policy has been relaxed a bit recently with titles like Yakuza mainly because the fans showed up for it when they released the 3rd game in the main series on PS3 (also if you were going to release a game in Japanese a game ABOUT Japanese people makes sense). In this case it's clear that the idea of simply releasing it subbed was more acceptable than never releasing it at all or spending more money on Dubbing than they stood to make. I think it's a matter of how stubborn the company is on the whole idea.

[nokou]

i like the option to watch dub or sub... but some animes do get crappy dub translation like adv's ghost stories which the dubbed version was pathetic

[venomqo]

though i havent bought anything, siren doesnt care about dubs, and releases the subs as they can put out the dvd's alot faster then waiting ages for dubs to get done. good company and if u have the money, do support them <3

[zhaoyun99]

The only good sub anime out there are Kenichi (not good like the original but still had a lot more emotion and more effort to the series especially Siegfried), You're under arrest and Irresponsible Captain Taylor. The other Dub anime today is just Meh. Oh, I forgot the Saiyuki is also very decent. BTW, have you watched Animax? if not, I recommended to listen to their Dub since they stay very true to the original line. For example, Sanzo in the opening of Saiyuki Reload would say "Are you ready, you punks?" in the Japanese version while the U.S. version said "Are you ready, you hellions?" Animax dubbed the original line of Japanese version which is sound WAY better than the rest.

[Quirriff]

Originally Posted by venomqo

though i havent bought anything, siren doesnt care about dubs, and releases the subs as they can put out the dvd's alot faster then waiting ages for dubs to get done. good company and if u have the money, do support them <3

To be more accurate they do care about dubs, but they aren't too fussy about it. If there's no dubs so be it, they'll release it subbed.
I like that attitude in a business.

So it all results down to Money and Politics. Basically they dub it if they can afford it, and get access to masters through negotiations.


Madman doesn't get anything unless it has an english Dub, But curiously they have acquired the license for Ao No Exorcist...Which is released in America but doesn't have an english dub. Does that mean they're going to commission a dub? Or are they going to hoard it/throw it away.