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Hey, Answerman! - Sense and Sentai-ability


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Divineking



Joined: 03 Jul 2010
Posts: 1293
PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 5:29 pm Reply with quote
On the note of Sentai they did set up a Twitter account starting at the beginning of the year and they've been doing more with their intitally empty Facebook account as well so at least in terms of fan engagement their making an effort to improve.

Their dubs on the other hand...yeah. Frankly I haven't really liked the majority of the dubs they've done since switching from ADV and while not all of them are terrible, their usually okay at best. Never anything mindblowing.

Mind you I don't think it's entierly on the actors. While I have issues with some of them I do think that most of their regulars are talented enough that they could do well if given the proper push but that seems to be the problem with most of Sentai's dubs. Compared to Funimation(which may admittedly be a very high bar) or even to current California based dubs it seems like the actors aren't being pushed enough. Whereas with with most modern dubs you can at least expect VA;s to give at least maybe 70% or so of their best in their performances, Sentai's dubs seem like 70% is the highest point they can reach.

I do think it may have more to do with Foster's personal direction style though since the VA's that also do work for Funimation tend to sound perfectly fine in those dubs. Well they do have Chris Ayres working full time as an ADR director for Sentai now so maybe there's hope they'll continue to hire more regular directors. That could help the issue a bit.
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danilo07



Joined: 25 Dec 2011
Posts: 1580
PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 5:41 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Granted, she hasn't done anything as dark or epic in scope as any of the Fate/stay night projects, but her titles are filled with charm and warmth. Night and day.

How about Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine,quite possibly the darkest and most ambitious Lupin 3 that was created or Blast of Tempest.And as a guy who has seen a lot of her work and liked it,I can say that she really has no style of her own.She seems to blend in perfectly with whatever course the production is taking.No really,drama,comedy,action she can do them all(it is also reason why she writes 90% of stuff that gets made today).I have also seen in a interviews with directors that worked with her,that she has been described as weird and interesting person.
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 5:46 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Remember when restraint was a good thing? Remember when people used to respect certain filmmakers who "didn't do sequels"?


Doesn't at all apply to things like long light novel series that only have a few novels adapted. These aren't original works and they're not the thing people groan about when a sequel is announced. And "leftover material" is an understatement, Horizon's only adapted a small portion of what's available. It's probably like that for a good number of LN adaptations, but not all of them move a considerable and consistent 20k per volume. I think with Horizon it's just a matter of time until S3 is announced, so the questioner might be hasty in asking. Though, time's a wasting and there's like another possible 6 or 7 seasonal cours Horizon could be adapted into, at this point, and it's important to have your marketable anime around when fervor is up. Why wouldn't they take the chance on a guaranteed, non-fluke hit?


Last edited by walw6pK4Alo on Fri Feb 08, 2013 5:49 pm; edited 2 times in total
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deathfromabove1993



Joined: 23 May 2009
Posts: 120
Location: Chicago, IL
PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 5:47 pm Reply with quote
Divineking wrote:
I do think it may have more to do with Foster's personal direction style though since the VA's that also do work for Funimation tend to sound perfectly fine in those dubs. Well they do have Chris Ayres working full time as an ADR director for Sentai now so maybe there's hope they'll continue to hire more regular directors. That could help the issue a bit.


Also, Kyle Jones is starting to dub anime for them again, with Phi-Brain.

Honestly, I was saddened that there was so much negative backlash over the Penguindrum release. That pretty much made me have less faith in Sentai's releases. That being said, I hope to god, they do a better job from new, specially since they're reaching out to the social interaction with fans now. I just hope one day they'll reissue Penguindrum with a better dub and release.
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littlegreenwolf



Joined: 10 Aug 2002
Posts: 4796
Location: Seattle, WA
PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 5:54 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Throwing an example out here, just in case you don't see my point. Masashi Kishimoto, in an interview, announced that he would be completely satisfied with an (ambiguous, of course) shounen-ai ending for Naruto. Now, I speak for all my fellow yaoi-lovers out there when I say, I would be ecstatic to see this come out in America, in print (there's just something about being an owner, ya know?) However, do you honestly think that the fine people who edit our manga will let that come out in America, when Naruto is one of the most popular and recognized manga here? I think not. We'll probably get an alternate ending that will leave us completely unsatisfied.



Geh. Is this thing really popping up, and not only popping again, but being re-worked into something where Kishimoto is being bullied by publishers?

Unless you have some actual witnesses from this convention that aparently took place around 2009, this was a rumor started up by a Spanish Yaoi fan years and years ago. It's not real. Sorry to burst your bubble, Alex.
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RyanSaotome



Joined: 29 Mar 2011
Posts: 4210
Location: Towson, Maryland
PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 6:14 pm Reply with quote
People probably are digging too deep to find a reason why theres no new Haruhi season, when it can be pretty much explained easily: Aya Hirano. Studios have been avoiding her like the plague ever since her scandal, and she hasn't voiced any of her significant characters since then (other than Lucy, but Fairy Tail isn't a show aimed at otaku). And its very frowned upon in the anime industry to replace seiyuus, so I think thats about it for Haruhi.

And regarding Horizon, its only a matter of time. The series itself ended less than 6 months ago, and only reason both series aired so close to eachother to begin with was because it was a split cour show. I have no doubt there will be a sequel to it... theres enough content to do 10 series.
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Sakura Shinguji



Joined: 09 Feb 2005
Posts: 190
PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 6:41 pm Reply with quote
RyanSaotome wrote:
And regarding Horizon, its only a matter of time. The series itself ended less than 6 months ago, and only reason both series aired so close to eachother to begin with was because it was a split cour show. I have no doubt there will be a sequel to it... theres enough content to do 10 series.


^ This.

The novels do keep going, the existing anime performed well in Japan, and the at-present final episode ended by almost screaming, "hey you guys we're not done with this yet and all of these random new people we're showing you one-second shots of are coming up next!"

Granted, there wasn't the typical text-on-black-screen announcement of more anime on the way that other shows have gotten, but it's also incredibly rare these days for a TV series to end with the clear promise of continuing, and then to not do so. Particularly not one that actually did well on TV and sales-wise.

I would expect it's simply a matter of Bandai Visual and Sunrise trying to find the right amount of room in their production schedules and budgets to run another split-cour 26-episode batch of episodes.

Re: the show itself, while it's understandable that the large boobies are off-putting to folks, it's really a Divergence Eve type of situation where if you accept the large boobies, there's a solid show to be watched. It's still not a show for everyone, because of the massive infodumping that you simply need to accept, but once you get in step with what the show is doing then it's a heck of an exciting and well-animated way to pass the time. Marathoning is recommended, as is a rewatch.
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Gwydion



Joined: 16 Feb 2008
Posts: 155
PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 6:46 pm Reply with quote
So... Kids on the Slope can be pre-ordered, and yet there's still been no word of a Tsuritama release despite the fact that they came out at the same time? Now I'm just sad... That's what I get for liking the lesser known show better than the one with all the publicity, I guess.

Actually on topic, I'm sad to hear about Sentai's quality being a bit lacking. I don't pay much attention to who picks up what (I tend to be more focused on IF something got picked up), but I remember being happy that someone had actually licensed Tsuritama, and now I'm hoping it doesn't wind up suffering from said issues. I guess I'd be glad just to have it at all (I did, after all, still pick up Castle in the Sky despite disliking it's dub and the subs being awful), but still, it'd be nice to get an actual quality product.
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RyanSaotome



Joined: 29 Mar 2011
Posts: 4210
Location: Towson, Maryland
PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 6:48 pm Reply with quote
Regarding Kids on the Slope and Tsuritama.. Tsuritama was the better selling show in Japan, so they might be worried about letting it release close to its Japanese release since it could hurt the local sales. Kids on the Slope didn't really sell much over there so there might not be as much worry about it hurting the Japanese sales.
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Keichitsu0305





PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 6:50 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I, personally, have made no qualms about my disdain for Stephen Foster in particular; I'm basically urinating myself already in anticipation of whatever weird dub they'll give to the understated, interesting and problematic film Colorful. Can't wait for those off-color jokes and bored voices, Stephen! Surely your dub will only highlight Colorful's boring moments of slightly witless profundity, instead of find clever ways to interpret them, like the best dubs do!

*sobs*

So long as the ADR director doesn't cast a VA with a deep voice for Makoto, then I can power through the blandness of the English dub. I've never met Foster but, seeing his work, I'm pretty indifferent with him in charge...except for this film. Actually, there are three moments where I'll be dreading Foster "improvising the script". Colorful is pretty "heavy" so there shouldn't be any off-color remarks or unnecessary allusions in the dialogue. How odd that Sentai and Funi share VA's yet the direction is complete off for the former and (usually) great for the latter.

Actually, if Haruhi got a sequel, then who would release it in the U.S? And, wouldn't that company have difficulties "rescuing" the previous TV series and films?
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chronoclast



Joined: 29 May 2008
Posts: 97
PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 6:52 pm Reply with quote
I got rid of my BD of Penguindrum due to it's video quality problems since it's 1080i, the Japanese BDs however are 1080p, and it has severe compression artifacts. Sentai has had a string of 1080i BDs recently that all suffer from compression artifacts. Their 1080p BDs have been fine in that regard though.

I believe their authoring is to blame as there is no pattern to suggest it's the masters they were given, though I did originally suspect that as their BD for Bodacious Space Pirates has the exact same problem of 1080i and artifacts, the Japanese BDs for that are also 1080p. I suspect Starchild, who Sentai licensed Penguindrum and Pirates from, gave them inferior masters hence being 1080i and then Sentai's authoring caused the artifacts.

Their recent BD for Fate/Stay Night which is from a different licensor is 1080i, the Japanese BDs are also 1080i in this case though, and it too has compression artifacts. They need to figure out what in their production stream is causing this and correct it so that it doesn't happen anymore.

I've got the upcoming BDs of Patlabor, Kids On the Slope, and Colorful on my radar from them. I really hope there aren't any authoring or master problems with them.
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Echo_City



Joined: 03 Apr 2011
Posts: 1236
PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 6:59 pm Reply with quote
I enjoyed reading this column's "educated speculation" upon Sentai. I personally like Foster's work but I do feel that he's getting buried under the dubbing burden. Dubs directed by others seem few and far between: Kyle Jones & Matt Greenfield came out of nowhere to do a title or 2 but then they disappeared into the ether again. The only non-Foster director whom I "encounter" with any regularity is Chris Ayres and his dubs strike me as underwhelming. Though I regard the shows he dubs as underwhelming (eg:Night Raid) so I'm not sure if that is skewing my opinion of the dub.

Though one bit in the AnswerMan's answer puzzled me:
The Answerman wrote:
...an ingenious plot to placate the earnest and devoted anime fans into a heightened state of rage...


How does one placate, a word I always took to mean "calm", anime fans into rage?
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ultimatemegax



Joined: 26 Jan 2010
Posts: 412
PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 7:23 pm Reply with quote
So let's dissect that second question a little more. Horizon was always designed to be a "split cour" showing meaning that they would take a couple seasons off between production seasons to allow the series to be sold on 14 BD/DVD volumes instead of 9 and to allow for scheduling of animation production. The second season's BD/DVDs are still being released, so asking for more anime episodes at this point is asinine. These shows take years to produce/plan out so that the staff have time to work on them (or else you get the reaction Little Busters has had lately). A sequel is likely in the works, but isn't advanced enough to announce anything and have people forget about it.

As for Haruhi, we're talking about a studio that has averaged two works a year. One is usually with Kadokawa Shoten and one is usually with TBS/Pony Canyon. These shows are decided years in advance. Nichijou was decided in 2009, Hyouka in 2010, Chuunibyou in 2010, and Tamako Market in 2010 as well with the K-On! sequel and movie in 2009. We can't say that "they've moved on" so much as "they had other projects booked." Of course learning about this requires researching the studio and reading interviews/discussions, which takes time Answerman doesn't have.

I highly doubt that Ishihara "has moved onto Nichijou" being that sales were so low it's unlikely to have any more animated portions. A better example would have been Chuunibyou since most of the story came from his own experiences. He was working on that since 2010, which meant there was no way he could do any more Haruhi. At the same time, the other big Supervisor for that series, Yasuhiro Takemoto, was working with his buddy Gatoh on Hyouka, another series he personally loved and wanted to animate to the best of his abilities. These projects were determined prior to any BD/DVD sales of the movie (and final returns) much less the sales for the TV series BD-box (having a 50,000 print run). As we all know, Kyoto Animation keeps a tight lid on internal projects (Tamako Market being announced 6 weeks before broadcast emphasizes that), so it's not correct to say "they're not working on it" since we don't know what they're working on next.
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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 6251
PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 7:29 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Oh, that's right: new things are scary and unknown, and given the choice, people would rather be fed the same familiar gruel than take a chance on an unknown property.


Because obviously no one will watch anything new until they see a sequel to something else they want.

Quote:
There's a risk here that I want people to consider. Sure, there's enough leftover material for Haruhi Suzumiya and Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere (I'll admit I haven't seen the latter, since the gratuitously large breasts in the promo art made me cautious) to keep going for another season or two. They could certainly wring enough money from the wallets of die-hard fans to make another series profitable, no matter how good or awful it was. But why take that chance? What we had was good already; wouldn't we like to see these talented artists, writers, and directors challenge themselves with something new?


You're right. Why should Peter Jackson have made any Lord of the Rings films after the the first one? The Fellowship of the Ring was perfectly good, no need for him to have risked making anymore. LotR fans should have been satisfied with that so we could see him and all the other talent involved work on something new. Silly LotR fans wanting the entire story to be adapted.

Do you not see how completely absurd this is? People generally aren't asking for a completed story to get something added to it, they want it to get finished in the first place.

This also pretends that any of the staff are absolutely required for sequels. It's not like new staff or entirely new animation studios aren't ever used for sequels (I think it happens somewhat frequently, but I'm not 100% sure; it doesn't seem like a rarity though). It's also pretty absurd to say that companies want to just pass on piles of money and just don't want to make more of a highly successful anime. If they aren't making more, its either not really a success and it really is a risk to make more, or something else is going on (such as an author stamping their foot down against more being made for some reason).

The second half of Horizon ended not that long ago and I believe the discs are still coming out. The reason we haven't heard of more yet is simply because its too soon, as anime sequels just don't usually get announced that quickly. The anime industry just isn't designed to crank out a sequel 6 months after a first season turned out to be a success, unless it was pre-planned that way (such as the split between the two seasons of Horizon). It's usually over a year, as companies already have other properties they are working on.

Haruhi is a bit more of a headscratcher, but this might be a rare case where it really is an issue of part of the production not wanting to make more and they're too key to the product's success to make more without them: the animation studio. Alternatively, they have some reason they're choosing to wait several years to make more, possibly related to the publishing of the original novels.
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Chagen46



Joined: 27 Jun 2010
Posts: 4377
PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 7:30 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Because obviously no one will watch anything new until they see a sequel to something else they want.


People will obviously watch new things, otherwise fiction wouldn't exist, but people are more averse to trying new things.
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