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Answerman - Why Aren't More Dubs Available For Streaming?


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Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5407
Location: Iscandar
PostPosted: Mon Mar 21, 2016 12:46 pm Reply with quote
Answerman wrote:
Going back and reformatting shows for streaming sites can be quite time consuming (Hulu and Netflix both make content providers jump through a number of technical hoops to deliver their video), and when manpower is limited, the publishers' time is far better spent on current season shows. Perhaps there are still a few executives that think withholding a dubbed version will boost sales of the DVD, but presently I don't see much logic to that conclusion.

Last time I checked Attack on Titan remains sub-only on Netflix. I continue to be perplexed that the biggest show in the last few years cannot be watched dubbed in one of the biggest, if not the biggest, streaming platform. It seems dumb to me that Funimation is possibly doing this to drive more people to buy the disc versions and/or that Netflix does not get that having AoA with the dub is the way to go.


Last edited by Angel M Cazares on Mon Mar 21, 2016 3:16 pm; edited 1 time in total
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NearEasternerJ1





PostPosted: Mon Mar 21, 2016 12:47 pm Reply with quote
The most unbiased view on dubs from Justin. Usually, he's berating dubs, but I'm surprised.
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DmonHiro





PostPosted: Mon Mar 21, 2016 12:49 pm Reply with quote
I don't remember Justin outright bashing dubs. He calls bad dubs trash and good dubs great, he never seemed biased to me.
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Mr.Shonen



Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 269
Location: Brooklyn, NY
PostPosted: Mon Mar 21, 2016 1:08 pm Reply with quote
It might be time consuming to make the format change from DVD to stream but the effort could be made. Especially if a company has a dub thats 5 years or older, the market on that show would be long gone except in certain cases like DBZ
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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Mon Mar 21, 2016 1:13 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Perhaps there are still a few executives that think withholding a dubbed version will boost sales of the DVD, but presently I don't see much logic to that conclusion.

That seems to be the mindset at Aniplex. Kill la Kill appears on multiple streaming sites but without a dub. I'm pretty sure the intent is to protect the expensive dubbed disc releases from cannibalization.
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WingKing



Joined: 27 Apr 2015
Posts: 617
PostPosted: Mon Mar 21, 2016 1:15 pm Reply with quote
DmonHiro wrote:
I don't remember Justin outright bashing dubs. He calls bad dubs trash and good dubs great, he never seemed biased to me.


I think he's mentioned that he prefers subs when he's watching for his own enjoyment, but Justin also keeps his personal tastes in perspective, and doesn't fall into the myopic trap of assuming that the entire industry would be better off if it tailored all of its business practices to what he likes best. On the contrary, he's talked in many columns in Answerman and elsewhere about why good quality dubs are not only necessary but generally beneficial for the anime market as a whole.

In fact, if you look up Justin Sevakis hates dubs on the site-search here, the very first result that comes up is a column he wrote all the way back in 1998 titled "Why dub-haters are killing anime."

Anyway, good question today! This is something I've wondered about too sometimes, and the answer makes a lot of sense.
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mangamuscle



Joined: 23 Apr 2006
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 21, 2016 1:24 pm Reply with quote
angelmcazares wrote:
It seems dumb to me that Funimation is possibly doing this to drive more people to buy the disc versions and/or that Netflix does not get that having AoA with the dub is the way to go.


When I access "The Seven Deadly Sins" (another aniplex title) on Netflix it has dubs in japanese, english and spanish so it is quite clear Netflix do understands the importance of dubs for anime titles.

So it goes back to disc companies executives with zero vision that do not understand that more people will watch the streams if dubbed on their native language and therefore buy the disc release they so desperately need to sell.

*goes back to nailing his voodoo doll with the label "Funi"*
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NearEasternerJ1





PostPosted: Mon Mar 21, 2016 1:26 pm Reply with quote
Justin has called dubs cheap, which is misleading and inflammatory. Cost effective is a better term. Sounds more neutral.
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Hypeathon



Joined: 12 Aug 2010
Posts: 1176
PostPosted: Mon Mar 21, 2016 1:38 pm Reply with quote
angelmcazares wrote:
Last time I checked Attack on Titan remains sub-only on Netflix. I continue to be perplexed that the biggest show in the last few years cannot be watched dubbed in one of the biggest, if not the biggest, streaming platform. It seems dumb to me that Funimation is possibly doing this to drive more people to buy the disc versions and/or that Netflix does not get that having AoA with the dub is the way to go.

In the case of Attack on Titan, Funimation does have the dub version available for elite subscribers whereas Adult Swim's website at the moment has a bunch of episodes available. It seems like they add a new episode a week while removing an earlier episode available to the public. They also have the first 10 episodes available given you have a cable provider to help you log in. And if you do have one, the first 9 episodes are available on Adult Swim on demand as well.

I'm aware that may not sound ideal for those who find cable too expensive and like to binge watch stuff, but I'm merely stating the options that exist for the Attack on Titan dub since that was the example you pulled out of a hat. Although, back in September Adult Swim started doing these live stream marathons on their website Toonami related stuff. I think on some days they rerun the latest broadcast episodes of the shows they run on the block on Saturday nights and their latest episode of Toonami Pre-Flight whereas on other days, they air marathons of whatever anime they still have the rights to. You don't need a cable provider to see these live streams either. Although I don't know if they done this recently for Attack on Titan, there were marathons streamed back when they started this sort of thing in September.
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PurpleWarrior13



Joined: 05 Sep 2009
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 21, 2016 1:58 pm Reply with quote
I remember 7 years ago when the only show I could fully stream legally dubbed was Slayers. FUNi probably had no issues with streaming that dub since they didn't pay for it. I think it was their first ever license "rescue" since Dragon Ball.

Lots of dubs are streaming now though, from Viz, FUNi, and Aniplex. Viz dubs usually premiere on Hulu, and FUNi has their streaming service. Sentai has some catching up to do though. Most (all?) of their shows are still sub-only on Hulu. You have to be a paying member of The Anime Network to stream their dubs. Aniplex usually uploads their dubs to Hulu, Netflix, and Crunchyroll, and CR's also been streaming more dubs from Discotek and NIS. Almost any dub of a Nozomi show is streaming for free on YouTube and Hulu.

For some reason, the Dragon Ball franchise is represented very poorly in streaming. They have all 153 episodes of DB subbed (only 1-5 dubbed), and all 64 of GT, but for DBZ, only episodes 1-10 and 225-291 are on Hulu (both dubbed and subbed), and none of the movies. It looks like they still really want you to buy the DVDs and Blu-rays!
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 21, 2016 2:08 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Dubs are also very expensive and time-consuming to produce, and for a few years after the bursting of the anime bubble, they could cost more than licensing the show in the first place.


And not to point out the bonehead-obvious, but also the problem that someone has to MAKE the darn things--

Which has been Netflix's, and now Hulu's, misunderstood fan bugbear since they started streaming in 2010--They don't make this stuff themselves.
They can license exclusive deals, or even co-executive producing credits, to broadcast Seven Deadly Sins or Little Witch Academia, from whoever makes it and dubs it into English, French and Spanish, but the idea that Netflix is a little Keebler hollow-tree where they sit around in a backroom digitizing all the movies and TV shows, and then run out with their cameras to film more retakes on Daredevil, has been an annoying misconception for the last six years. (Or as frustrated Netflix defenders call it, "the Netflix Santa-Claus fallacy".) Every time you read Netflix reviews, and fans say "When will you bring my favorite movie onto streaming?", as if they were the craftspeople who had something to say about it.

And now that they're trying to encroach on the anime-streaming market, the confusion hasn't gotten any better:
Funimation.com makes its own dubs--since they're also in the business of selling them on disk--and Crunchyroll does its own subtitling--which goes with the business of simulcasting--but Netflix, Amazon and Hulu are distributors and don't make a darn thing.
Some by now may be too young to remember, but Netflix started out as a service that showed existing disks somebody else had already made, decided to stream whichever of them they could license from the studios, and that hasn't changed with the move from disk to digital.
Like the old commercial says, We don't make the dub, we make it digital.
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 21, 2016 2:11 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Many of the people that watched dubs, it was thought, were more "fringe" fans, who were less likely to download a torrent, and were more apt to watch the show through traditional means such as TV broadcast or DVD. Additionally, dub fans could never be fully satisfied by fansubs.
Maybe not by TV-rip fansubs while a given series was airing in Japan, but they were pretty well satisfied by dual-audio DVD/BD-rips once the discs got released over here.

I do like that Funi rotates the availability of dubs on their site, so that non-subscribers at least have some chances of watching a complete dub here and there. I know I caught some or all of shows like Birdy the Mighty Decode, Save Me Lollipop, and Witchblade that way. And sometimes there are odd exceptions to the pattern, like how Sasami Magical Girl Club is freely available dubbed, but all the subbed episodes are subscriber-only. (Possibly to keep the amateurish/child-star Japanese voice acting from becoming an embarrassment.)

The main/only downside I see with restricting dub access at the streaming level is that it feeds the "no dub, no buy" crowd's mindset of "Japanese versions of anime are easily available online and therefore worthless; only dubs are worth paying money for."
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rinkwolf10



Joined: 05 Apr 2009
Posts: 750
PostPosted: Mon Mar 21, 2016 2:17 pm Reply with quote
mangamuscle wrote:
angelmcazares wrote:
It seems dumb to me that Funimation is possibly doing this to drive more people to buy the disc versions and/or that Netflix does not get that having AoA with the dub is the way to go.


When I access "The Seven Deadly Sins" (another aniplex title) on Netflix it has dubs in japanese, english and spanish so it is quite clear Netflix do understands the importance of dubs for anime titles.


You do know that Netflix licensed and produced the dub for Seven Deadly Sins right?

animenewsnetwork.com/daily-briefs/2015-10-09/netflix-lists-the-seven-deadly-sins-anime-in-u.s/.93974
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Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5407
Location: Iscandar
PostPosted: Mon Mar 21, 2016 2:25 pm Reply with quote
@Hypeathon

I get that dubbed episodes of Attack on Titan are available at several places, but the fact remains that they are not available in Netflix.

And speaking of Netflix, I just checked their anime selection, and they have added Your Lie in April with both Japanese and English audios.
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Just-another-face



Joined: 08 Feb 2014
Posts: 324
PostPosted: Mon Mar 21, 2016 2:32 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Additionally, dub fans could never be fully satisfied by fansubs.


Damn straight. I'd never subject myself to watching fansubs all the time unless the shows in question aren't available any other way.
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