Forum - View topic

NEWS: Kurokami's U.S. BD Release to Have English Dub Only

So what is Bandai doing here? If reverse importation was that much of a concern then it could have been virtually nullified by just having dub-only release. But they didn't stop there, they reduced the episode count. It's silly, it's stupid, it's overkill. They said they didn't have the license to the foreign track on the Blu-ray release, that means the episode count decision between the Japanese and their American counterparts was probably made with a little spite, a little ignorance, and a little desperation. It's a trifecta.

It's not just a slap in the face for American fans. It's a kick in the crotch as well.

Every Japanese foreign exchange student and young businessmen that I have meet (among the best English speakers that fit the anime age category, not expatriates) prefer to still have English subtitles on when they are watching movies and other such media.

Crazy. Those are the two shows I was waiting for on Blu-ray. Guess I'll have to settle with owning the DVDs...which really sucks.

Either release the U.S. BD versions with the same options as DVD (maybe pricing them much higher) or don't release them yet, period. If you absolutely lose money regardless by releasing on BD here because of reverse importation, then just don't do it now. In a year, or when the risk is low enough, release the BD's. Simple.
...
You won't sell as many discs, but I would bet you could at least sell half as many as you would of crippled versions. Meaning you actually make the same profit, but you won't be losing goodwill and customers either. Once the reverse importation threat abates, lower the cost of BD's. The economic effect is the same as delaying the release, because then those who waited for price drops will buy it, except you did gain some revenue during the high-price period.

But don't forget, Bandai U.S. themselves made the decision to release this BD--I'm assuming, since they do not release exclusively for Bandai and also made a point of blaming the Japanese for lack of rights, indicating they are a separate entity. Bandai U.S. could have simply waited until they could get the rights like any other R1 company does. Saying that the "Japanese" wouldn't give them the rights doesn't absolve them from responsibility for designing and scheduling this release.

Blood- wrote:

Pardon my potential ignorance here, but if Japanese companies wanted to do things that would make an R1 Blu-ray release less attractive for re-importation, couldn't they just insist that the English subtitles can't be turned off if the Japanese sound track is playing? It seems to me having subtitles in a foreign language on the screen would be a turn off. I know it would for me.

I realize you're trying to point to a solution. But what if you live in the U.S. and understand Japanese? You've once again excluded a segment of the market.

@ Zalis116

I see what you did there.

Even though I'm a dub person, I never would have thought that this would happen unless it was the usual Pokemon type DVD stuff. So I wonder how those who feel the opposite now see how we feel when surrounded by sub-only DVDs. Perfect world, would love to see more audio tracks(more than just Japanese and English), but alas.

Haterater wrote:

@ Zalis116 I see what you did there. Even though I'm a dub person, I never would have thought that this would happen unless it was the usual Pokemon type DVD stuff. So I wonder how those who feel the opposite now see how we feel when surrounded by sub-only DVDs. Perfect world, would love to see more audio tracks(more than just Japanese and English), but alas.

Like I've said, it's slightly different and not as simple as that "hah now you see how it feels!" because for the sub-only DVDs, can you really be that pissed over something that hasn't, or might not ever exist in the first place? It's crying over spilt milk that you haven't even purchased yet. Cutting out something that already does exist is a bad move because it already has recognition or people that might like it. The studios here can do whatever they please with a dub, make it sound dumb, hire bad actions, hire good actors, turn it in to a joke dub, but I feel it's imperative that they leave the Japanese dub alone. It's somebody's work and effort, and I wonder how not-including it on the BD affects royalties/other monetary issues back in Japan for the actors/recording studios/etc.

walw6pK4Alo wrote:

Like I've said, it's slightly different and not as simple as that "hah now you see how it feels!" because for the sub-only DVDs, can you really be that pissed over something that hasn't, or might not ever exist in the first place? It's crying over spilt milk that you haven't even purchased yet. Cutting out something that already does exist is a bad move because it already has recognition or people that might like it. The studios here can do whatever they please with a dub, make it sound dumb, hire bad actions, hire good actors, turn it in to a joke dub, but I feel it's imperative that they leave the Japanese dub alone. It's somebody's work and effort, and I wonder how not-including it on the BD affects royalties/other monetary issues back in Japan for the actors/recording studios/etc.

It appears you're doing exactly what you are accusing Haterater of doing, also you appear to not have read the updates to this. The Japanese track wasn't licenced for the US R1, or RB release, therefore the master tape/disc/data probably had no language at all, only background sounds and music. You didn't loose what you never had, and as for royalties in Japan, that is an oxymoron.

@ Zalis116

I see what you did there.

Even though I'm a dub person, I never would have thought that this would happen unless it was the usual Pokemon type DVD stuff. So I wonder how those who feel the opposite now see how we feel when surrounded by sub-only DVDs. Perfect world, would love to see more audio tracks(more than just Japanese and English), but alas.

Haterater wrote:

@ Zalis116 I see what you did there. Even though I'm a dub person, I never would have thought that this would happen unless it was the usual Pokemon type DVD stuff. So I wonder how those who feel the opposite now see how we feel when surrounded by sub-only DVDs. Perfect world, would love to see more audio tracks(more than just Japanese and English), but alas.

Actually this whole debacle does provide us with a rare chance to experiment, to test what people would choose they had to choose one or the other but not both. I don't mean to be antagonistic but I hear all the time that dubs are critical for the success of a show, but how critical? Enough to stand on it's own without a sub? In other words, which would fare worse: dub-only or sub-only?

This could have been an interesting experiment to determine how much dub-only fans contribute to the success of a R1 anime release with sub-only fans excluded from the sales data. But the reduced episode count combined with a superior DVD release prevents me from imagining anyone but the most hardcore blueray-dub-only fans from purchasing this. Even if they didn't get a license for the Japanese audio, they still have not explained the reduced episode count.

After all, people don't want to pay for language tracks they don't want, right?