Forum - View topicAnime licensor you lost faith in.
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Dark Paladin X
 Posts: 268 |
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Has there been an anime licensor in the U.S. that you lost faith with? Or put it in more simpler terms, an anime licensor you felt that let you down and lost support with. In addition, what do you the licensor should do in order to regain your support? Here are the following reasons you may think up of:
If anyone asks me, I've completely lost faith with Bandai Entertainment mostly for the first reason. When Bandai Entertainment had plans to distribute Hayate the Combat Butler!, I thought they would dub it like they did with Lucky Star (and I even thought Hayate is worth more dubbing than Lucky Star itself). However, when they released the anime subbed, I just lost my support and faith to the licensor (even though someone said Bandai wasn't able to "break even" to get it dubbed). I mean, even trying to get Yuri Lowenthal or Tara Strong to voice Hayate and Nagi respectfully would have been a small start. Apparently, this is the reason why I DON'T want Bandai to license To Aru Majutsu no Index (instead, I was thinking of Viz Media, Funimation, and even Disney to do the job  ). I feel that the only that Bandai can regain my faith and support is to get Hayate the Combat Butler dubbed, then I would consider Bandai to dub my favorite said anime. Of course, trying to get GOOD voice actors is hard nowadays with the recession. But then, unlike many dub lovers, I don't mind subs, as it gives some insight of Japanese voice acting (I even watch To Aru Majutsu no Index subbed, probably done by fans).
Side note: And yes, I am aware there is another English dub distributed in Southeast Asia. From what I've been told, it sucks (but I can't make this conclusion since I didn't see it myself). [EDIT: Changed your topic title to make more grammatical sense. -TK] |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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Hmm, good question.
As of late, I have lost some of my faith in two companies, first: ADV/Section23/Sentai Filmworks, they've been releasing a lot of stuff in sub lately, they lost several titles to Funimation and have just in general been releasing poorer quality titles as of later and then in sub only. Not to forget that they never finished publishing a whole ton of manga and I am left without the last 5 volumes of Cromartie High's manga. And then of course the whole scare about switching their names in the most confusing way possible so as to make people think they were shutting down. And my god, those damn stack packs! I don't think I've seen a more infuriating packaging design for a DVD series in years. Tokyopop is another hot contender for this, they've been annoying me for years, the thing with the paper, the big push on those god-awful OELs, their poor translations, lack of good titles, you name it. Some of their old stuff is great, but now that Kodansha titles got cut off, they're practically surviving on table scraps. Now, on just about every company, I've had my small complaints on a few titles here and there, but these two have really been making me turn away from them lately. Bandai isn't too far from joining them, but they did handle Gurren Lagann rather well and I still love their legends sets and most of the shows they've got rights to (Cowboy Bebop anyone?), but they need to stop releasing things sub only too. |
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the Rancorous
 Posts: 2248 Location: Hunting the Dragon in Gransys |
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I'll agree with ADV/Sentai/Section23. Its not just the fact that they were releasing sub-only, but the quality of said subs and releases were far under par with their past releases. I can deal with grammar mistakes in fansubs, since its free and unprofessional (but even then, only to an extent), but if I'm paying for something done by 'professionals,' I expect them to have taken the time to weed such typos out. In fact, both Clannad's and Princess Resurrection's releases were the first time I found myself noticing typos in DVD subs because they were surprisingly frequent. I can only hope that this new restructuring they're finishing up will bring them at least halfway back to the level they used to be at.
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7985 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Yeah, pretty much any company that pulls that sub-only crap. Namely ADV and Bandai. I really hate it when the freedom of choice is taken away from me. The Japanese track is not always the best option as some shows are way too long winded or have Japanese actors I don't like in which case switching to the English track is easier on my eyes and ears.
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Mr Adventure
 Posts: 1598 |
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Its funny. I find my faith in companies rise when they do 'sub-only' and pass the savings on to me (hello Media Blasters) I didn't realize ADV has been doing Sub-Only sets recently.
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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Even if you're not fluent in Japanese, chances are you've picked up a good deal of words and phrases and have committed them to memory. And through natural language skills, you understand the basic sentence structure, and the diction helps piece everything together. Also, chances are you know if a sentence is phrases awkwardly or not based on all the time you've spent talking, writing, and listening in your life. Through this, even if you're not fluent, you can tell sometimes tell when something has been oddly or wrongly translated to an extent.
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DuelLadyS
 Posts: 1705 Location: WA state |
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I suppose I'd pick Bandai, for the cutbacks on the releases I've got from them lately.
I can understand not making the nice fancy-schmancy LEs for Code Geass R2, it must be expensive to print all those extra CDs and books. I can understand not dubbing Hayate, it's a niche show and not likely to turn a big enough profit for it. ...but Code Geass drops from 2 DVDs in 2 cases with lots of goodies to 2 DVDs in 1 case with just a manga I can buy seperately anyway? And no artbox this time around? At least it got 2 discs, for Hayate they put the same number of episodes on 1 disc, with no extras at all save for the occasional clean open/closer (and I never watch those.) Worst of all for me- no liner notes in either?! It really bugs me to open a case and just see a disc, and nothing else. Geneon's bare bones final releases had a paper with a nice picture. Funi's barebones releases have a general Funimation release schedule. They can't do either of those? I know Hayate would've benefited greatly from even having a few of its Otaku in-jokes explained in some nice liner notes. I'm sure I'll finish both shows (as they're the only 2 releases I'm following at the moment), but I'll defintely be more leery of any of Bandai's future releases. |
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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I've completely lost faith in Geneon, who gave us a roller coaster of titles but secretly made decisions which put them out of business.
I've also lost faith in companies who've made bad decisions to the point they had to break themselves apart, then turn around and expect their customers to clean up their [bleeping] mess by overcharging for dubless poor quality in a new two-part distribution method. Luckily, I still have complete faith in companies who indicate to its fans dubs will always be around and even take steps to becoming producers of anime series. While I may not enjoy their two-part distribution method, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to accept such that my monies go to these companies. As for Nozomi, great faith given this company took this once "I'll only buy dubs!" fan to actually purchase two sub only box sets and the second box set being in two parts! In addition, also took the steps to introduce a limited edition lithograph of that very series. *huggles* I'm curious to know if those lithographs all sold out. |
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Bento-Box
 Posts: 1049 Location: Florida |
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ADV
They invoked my rage back when I ordered some DVDs from them that were on an excellent sale (like $5 a disc). This was back in like summer of 2005. Among those was an LE Spriggan CD/DVD box set that I wanted really bad. So I get the DVDs in the mail like 4 weeks after I ordered them but I didn't care. When I opened the box to inspect my yummies, I found there were no bubbly packaging. The DVDs were just floating around in the box with no paper or anything. I shook the cases slightly to inspect for rattles and nothing so I wasn't too angry. That's when I noticed the back of the DVD boxes. Those rats had drilled holes - yes, DRILLED HOLES - through the UPC codes and packaging all the way through to the discs. WTF?! The Spriggan set was completely ruined as the drill went not only through the LE cardboard holder, but through the CD case as well, puncturing and cracking the CD, further through the front of the CD case and into the back of the DVD case. There were a total of 8 DVD boxes they destroyed. So, of course, I'm angry as all hell and I start calling their customer service. I get hung up on. Now, I didn't yell at them or anything on the phone. I did nothing that deserved getting disconnected. As I was a telecommunications retention customer service employee for an internet company, I think I perfectly understood how to speak to someone on the phone without being rude or abrasive. All I wanted was to talk to someone in regards to holes being drilled in my DVD cases. They replied to my emails (I sent many over the next few months) only once and said that when I purchased them, I knew that I would be receiving them in whatever condition the boxes were in. I told them that they destroyed their products and of course I wouldn't want those. They explained to me that it was their way of making sure I did not intend to resell the product. ?! I asked for an exchange for some DVDs that weren't damaged and they said no because they wouldn't be able to scan THOSE DVDs into their inventory. Also, they wouldn't accept the return since the DVD cases were damaged. So I couldn't get my money back either. I've seen TRSI put stickers over JUST the barcode in situations where they are giving you a promo set to screen at a convention or something, but never HOLES. It's unheard of. Why would anyone want to purchase something that was destroyed? Nowhere on their website did it say anything about drilling holes in DVD cases. Also, if I purchase a product, it's mine. I can sell it if I want to. After emailing some more, I found out that they do not drill the holes until they have been purchased. So, they take my money, ruin MY perfect product AFTER I had purchased it, and then tell me I should have seen this coming and I can't do anything about it. So, I did the only thing I could think of: I, for the most part, stopped purchasing New Type since I knew they were part of its success and I refused to purchase their DVDs unless they were on a super good sale on TRSI or on Amazon - therefore, giving them as little of the profit as possible. I also reported them to the Better Business Bureau and forwarded them my emails. About a year later, I get correspondence in the snail mail from someone at ADV (by this time I had nearly forgotten about the incident). He was apologizing but still would not replace the DVDs or accept a full return/refund. So, I stayed an unhappy customer, despising ADV and I couldn't have been happier when they met with financial difficulties and had to "reorganize" or whatever you wanna call it. They're losing to FUNimation and other licensing companies and that makes me happy. I feel like the marketplace is getting my revenge for me. Bad business practices will bring companies down. |
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Maryohki
 Posts: 526 |
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I have to agree with Tokyopop. They've made many bad decisions, their OEL being a grand example. That just puts a really bad taste in my mouth, especially when you think about how horribly they apparently treated the artists behind these titles. They don't appear to care about the fans at all. Also some of their choices with titles are just...strange. I'm still miffed about Kimi wa Petto being called Tramps Like Us. How hard would the direct translation "You're my Pet" have been? And apparently their FAKE translation was off, though I can't say for certain since I don't know Japanese (I've heard this from people that DO know Japanese, not just scans-are-better snobbish morons). And then their cancellation of a ton of really good titles is also rather upsetting.
I'm also not exactly thrilled with ADV and their treatment of fans with their manga line. They claimed it would come back several times. It never happened. The practice of stripping extras from the Thinpak releases also didn't sit very well with me. |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8461 Location: Penguinopolis |
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I've been pretty disenchanted with Bandai Entertainment for a while.
It all started back with the Zeta Gundam fiasco. Releasing "limited edition" sets they said would be the only way to get the series, which featured a bad Blue Water dub, dubtitles, and were missing the OP and ED songs, then releasing double-disc volumes later on with corrected subtitles. Refusing to exchange the discs they made mistakes on for the new ones. Releasing better sets later on under the "Anime Legends" banner. Zeta Gundam is my favorite mecha series of all time. You cannot imagine my anger with Bandai over that mess. Their Haruhi release had subtitles so big that they took up a quarter of the screen. Their Gurren Lagann sub-only sets had subtitles that were almost in the center of the screen. It's a wonder I buy anything from them anymore. They're liars and incompetents. I'm now pretty upset at Viz, as well, because of their handling of Monster. |
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ninjapet
 Posts: 1517 |
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I agree with the Bandai stuff
Over pricing sub only stuff and not bothering to dub titles that would make money. I really have nothing else to say about that that haven't been touched yet. I also agree with the Tokyo pop stuff, even if they only do manga there translation are worse then fan translations and none of there manga volumes hold up that well with more then two or three readings. |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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I've been very disappointed to get DVDs with the Japanese soundtrack only in 2-channel stereo while the English track is in 5.1 Dolby Digital. The latest example of this is Funimation's release of Claymore. It's bad enough to get shows only in 2.0 on both soundtracks like Saiunkoku Monogatari, but it's an even worse practice to have an inferior Japanese track. I doubt it's a question of space on the disk; more likely it represents a wrong-headed belief that R1 DVD buyers won't be listening to the Japanese track.
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Bento-Box
Posts: 1049 Location: Florida |
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I've noticed this too and not just with FUNimation. I think it was FMP Fumoffu and DN.Angel that both had better surround sound options and better audio quality on the English track but not on the Japanese track. I'd imagine that Japanese tracks would also be recorded or coded for 5.1, etc. before they ever get here. So why not keep it? Is it a DVD disc space issue or something? Also, like many of you, I am VERY disappointed with the general quality of box sets from all distributors lately. For some reason, we're getting a cheaper product (i.e. thin cardboard like the new Code Geass R2 SLEEVES - not boxes) rather than high quality stuff (i.e. Basilisk LE Box). What's even worse: we're paying about the same price for the cheap stuff. That's why I've stopped purchasing starter boxes. Other than Code Geass, I'm just purchasing everything when they release a nice collector's LE set with some yummies. If they don't, then I'll just cheap out and purchase the Thin Sets when they reach the bargain bin on TRSI's site. |
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qollocust
 Posts: 182 Location: Philadelphia |
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I don't usually let the company releasing the product dictate my buying tastes, I just buy the series I like.
I did however dislike ADV, and that goes way back. I never got screwed over by them or felt ripped off by what they were offering, I just got fed up with the series they were releasing. It seemed to me like they got really big in the early 2000s and then just started releasing crap. I'm sure there are exceptions out there, but I haven't seen anything by them that seemed interesting to me in years. I think the last series I purchased by ADV was Excel Saga and that was back in what, 2002 2003? Also a lot of the DVDs I have that were released by ADV had, in my opinion, pretty cheap packaging. I have become a lot more particular about my anime purchases though since back then. |
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