Forum - View topicEric P. Sherman, President of Bang Zoom! Entertainment
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Jadress
 Posts: 807 Location: Seattle. It purdy and nerdy! |
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This was a great interview and I appreciated that the hard questions were not held back. Overall it was nice to hear that Eric Sherman was a real fan of anime and Japanese culture long before his business was even involved with anime. Kinda takes the wind out of the sails of the "zOmG duBbers wAnt 2 dEstroy Animez!!" stance. Bang Zoom! Does a lot of great work. ^^
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Ranma824
 Posts: 456 |
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Wow... I knew fansubs were bad, but: LESS THEN a 1/3 of EVERYONE who watched Haruhi is ACTUALLY SUPPORTING the show. That's just f***ing ridiculous! One way or another, fansubs & bootlegs need to be dealt with. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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You're usually really insulting and cynical about things but I'm curious to know why you think that's a 'loaded question' and how you would rephrase it. |
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CCSYueh
 Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
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Wishful thinking? Don't forget we've seen MANY Japanese anime makers comment the Japanese anime industry would not exist to the extent it does without the investment of money from America & Europe--licensees pouring money into the cofers of the Japanese studios. If the American Anime industry collapses as so many downloaders seem to be longing for, you're going to see far less anime made & it will be directed once more at a Japanese audience as what was made in the '80's & early '90's was. Anime is a business. If the business doesn't make money, it closes shop. If you love anime, you'll use some of your hard earned cash to pay for their hard work so it can continue. It's not a difficult equation to understand. I've always preferred the West Coast studios & in particular Bang Zoom. One can tell they put a lot of effort into trying to match the show either in the original performance or the title itself. I've seen Crispin Freeman & others comment how sometimes they'll have a VA who's a dead-on match for the Japanese VA, but someone else who's perfect for the role & the turmoil of going with the pitch the Japanese makers believes the role needed or the American actor who can do it best. A lot of people whine Crispin Freeman's in everything. I love pretty much everything I've heard him do. I like Michael McConnohie also (Just finished Disgaea. Wow. So over-the-top, I loved it.) I love buying a product & seeing Bang Zoom's name on it. |
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Tyrenol
Posts: 398 Location: Northern California |
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Awesome questions. Manly answers. Thank you, Mr. Sherman.
spoiler[Favorite BZ!E anime by higher approval: Ninja Cadets, When Kira (Yamato) Dies - Higurashi, s-CRY-ed, Scrapped Princess, Ground Defence Mao-chan, Tsukihime, Ai Yori Aoshi, Mahoromatic, and Hanaukyo Maid Team: La Verite.] But what he said was true. We're getting more anime fans and less customers; more people who are getting what's from over there yet less people willing to pay for it. This amazing technology is out there where we can see a show when it's coming out from Japan. And we as anime fans can make the decision as to what passes and fails. And it's saddening that those American companies are listening to the WRONG vocal people; anime fans who'd rather see cute girls who don't speak English than, say, an organized group of people (men and women) with a couple of them having accents. This is mainly about content. Now more than ever. spoiler[I've been continuing to say this a lot of times: You don't just cater to the small audience and wonder why you can't make enough to support a company and license more products. The pro-moe and pro-fansub anime people... Don't you know that people survive on "inclusion" rather than "exclusion?"] To have so many titles done by BZ!E on AnimeTV sounds like these guys are doing better than expected. Getting Haruhi, and then her 30-minute commercial known as Viral*Marketing; Eric should be proud. spoiler[Try sending out those promoters (with some of them not speaking English) though, and you won't get as warm a reception this time around.] And even though "mainstream" may be a dirty word for the most vocal anime fans, "moe" is a dirty word for the more casual, and paying, anime fans. And it's a shame that this industry is where it's at now. Will it get better? It depends; the US is currently in a spiritual budget crunch. spoiler[And then there's Bandai Visual, Broccoli, and JapanAnime; these companies need to get their heads out of their rears>] Finally, I always thought that the NewType Magazine was $unrise's mouthpiece; talking badly about Shinn whilst dryhumping Kira and Athrun during Gundam Seed Destiny's heydays. 
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Lucca_Ashtear
 Posts: 68 |
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A large portion of this interview was spent debating the credibility of "Anime TV", in a few episodes I did watch I noticed that there was quite a range of the "fans" opinions, but there was something peculiar about how the shows were scored...
I recall for "Hare + Guu" during the discussion portion of the show, aside of maybe 2 people it was pretty obvious that the group as a whole disliked the show. when the rating average was given however, the show scored 8's in just about every category. This wasn't a unique case either, few defended PlanetES, and yet in the end, it received a high score, too (what, are they forced to grade on a scale of 7 to 10?  ) The quality of the series they picked isn't the issue here (I enjoyed both) but the inconsistency between what the reviewers say and the scores they give is a problem. I gave up after a few episodes (it was too flashy for my tastes anyway). And as Zac and many others have pointed out, it was glaringly obvious they only bothered to review their own products (if Eric Sherman really did make a list of non-Bang Zoom! shows, why were none of them picked? Did they really lack the resources to feature other shows? Or did other studios not like the idea of having their products reviewed on a show put out by Bang Zoom!?
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Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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I kind of wish there'd been a little more talk about the live-action projects BangZoom's working on. I've been curious about that side of their company ever since the Adventures in Voice Acting was announced. (And wow is that WAY overdue for a release.) |
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britannicamoore
 Posts: 2618 Location: Out. |
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I wonder how they knew this little stat. Did they go around looking at every video? Or is it an assumption? I know that for me (at least) many people borrow the dvds from me. But thats alright or so I hear. |
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 1684 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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It's easy to figure out how many people downloaded a particular bittorrent from its tracker. Most make that number public. And that number will still be a very conservative figure, as it won't take into account the number of people who just watched it on a service like Youtube or downloaded it through other means. You seem very skeptical of any data that doesn't tell you what you already wanted to hear. |
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calawain
Posts: 192 Location: New York, NY |
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Well the definition of a loaded question is one that's designed to bring about a specific response. And this fits the definition pretty closely, is it really a interview worthy question that the current fansub and bootleg situation is a problem for the industry? Anyone that has some semblance of a logical though process can tell that there is a problem, the question seems more designed to get the guy to say yes fansubs/bootlegs bad, very bad. I think my favorite loaded question (albeit much more egregious than yours) comes from President Bush's pollsters in the 2000 South Carolina primary. They called people up and asked them something along the lines of "If you discovered that John McCain fathered an illegitimate black child would you be more or less likely to vote for him?" Also, using the term "some speculate" to lead is a really poor interviewing lead, it's like saying you know one day I heard on the internet that you like to molest children, some have speculated that, what's your response? I would have rephrased and asked something along the lines of "Speaking of the health of the industry, we have more and more fans, but DVD sales are going down. A couple of the major concerns that arise from this fact are how the industry can adapt to the digital age as well as combat rampant bootlegging. For the industry in general, and specifically for studios such as your own, what are some measures you believe should be taken to ensure the future health and survival of the anime industry?" Bootlegs and fansubs are fairly different problems and require very different solutions. Everyone who reads this should know there is a problem, I think the real question is what an industry insider thinks should be done about the problems. Aside from my problem with that question, the rest were fine. I can appreciate the fact you didn't pull punches on the topic of AnimeTV. While I have never watched the show, if the statistics are as you say they are then it is a very pertinent question to ask about bias. In addition, that was a much more personal question using "I have a personal criticism of AnimeTV – one I've levied against the program many times," which is significantly stronger than "Some speculate," and illicits a better response in my opinion. |
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Goodpenguin
Posts: 457 Location: Hunt Valley, MD |
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calawain wrote:
Just from a quick neutral reading, and saying the question you posed and the original question both seem fairly innocuous, one could point out your question 'leads-by-intent' as much as you were accusing of in the original question. While I can't say one way or another if the industry is in dire straights, to say 'we have more and more fans, but DVD sales are going down' seems a high degree of an intentional 'soft pedal'. And to address fansubbing with the only the very passive 'how the industry can adapt to the digital age' is very much placing the issue by way of inference in the 'well, it's your own fault anime companies' camp. Again, thats not to say your proposed question was bad, it just clearly inferred a point of view as much as (supposedly; I thought the interview question was fairly straight-forward/neutral) the question you were attacking. |
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Dargonxtc
 Posts: 4463 Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋 |
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Good interview.
Quoted for truth. Me too! With a completed dub hopefully that would mean it would be more attractive to be released. Which hopefully will be sooner rather than later. Speaking of his glaring truth correlation, I doubt even 1/8 of people supported Rozen Maiden. Tracker numbers for that were quite large if I recall.
What a simple, straightforward answer. And guess what, he's right! Everything else, I am sitting this one out. Last edited by Dargonxtc on Thu Nov 08, 2007 8:37 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Tyrenol
Posts: 398 Location: Northern California |
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The "pro-moe" promote shows that are mean-spirited, and not much else but the eye-candy. The "fansub worshippers" are quicker to sub moe anime than not. ...meh... 
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Paploo
Posts: 1875 |
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it's been dropped by Media Blasters' John Sirabella at AnimeonDVD that Tweeny Witches [Mahou Shojo Tai Arisu] will have a dub...... is Bang Zoom! going to be dubbing it?
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britannicamoore
Posts: 2618 Location: Out. |
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No, I just don't except things without facts or numbers to back it up. As a wannabe journalist I can't just take what someone says and run with it. |
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