Forum - View topicPR: Right Stuf's Nozomi Entertainment Announces the Gakuen Alice DVD Collection For June 30, 2009
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strawberry-kun
Posts: 301 |
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kakoishii
Posts: 741 |
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Well, from my stand point no dub equals I'm not buying it. It's the main reason why I'll never by anything from Nozomi. I remember how excited I was when Gakuen Alice got licensed and then how all that excitement faded away when I found out Nozomi entertainment licensed it. Now I don't mind subtitles I read them all the time (you can hate me for being a fansub watcher, I've coped with my own misgivings
 ), but honestly I only enjoy watching anime subtitled from the screen of my laptop. I can sit comfortably on my bed and read subtitles at a comfortable distance displayed at an adequately large enough font (that isn't yellow or white thinly outlined in black). I'm not a fan of the official release subtitles, not because I doubt their accuracy or anything ridiculous like that, but because I can never comfortably read them on my tv screens. The font size is always to small, the font style to thin, and the outline not dark enough, worse comes to worse and they're yellow. Anyway, if I buy a boxset I intend to watch them on tv and the most comfortable way to do that is with a dub.
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Macron One
 Posts: 151 Location: Netherlands |
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Ah, finally a release date.
Nozomi is rapidly becoming my favourite anime distributor thanks to their licensing of these great niche titles. I hope they announce a release date for Aria the origination soon. Marimite season 4 should take quite a while still, as the Japanese DVD release won't be complete until august. Some of the titles i'd like to see Nozomi license in the future would be Minami-ke, Nodame cantabile and Touka gettan. There are many great little gems out there that other R1 companies won't touch.
Business doesn't work like that, regrettably. Gakuen alice is a great, fun little series, but economically speaking a dub is simply unjustifiable. We're talking about a 5 year old shoujo series here. Shoujo has had a poor track record in R1, even during the boom time of 2002-2005. Unless a shoujo series has been on US TV (Sailor Moon), enjoyed massive online popularity (Ouran) or is based on an extremely popular manga (Nana) there is no way for a dubbed release to break even. Just look at some of the many failed shoujo DVD releases: -Corrector Yui: DVD release halted by Viz after volume 4 -Full Moon: DVD release halted by Viz after volume 7 -Kodocha: DVD release halted by Funimation halfway through -Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: Licensed by ADV, but license later dropped -Super Gals: DVD release halted by ADV due to disappointing DVD sales, license of second half subsequently rescued by Rightstuf/Nozomi and released as a sub-only boxset -Kaleido Star: DVD release on hiatus for a year due to disappointing sales, but eventualy finished. You seem to be content to casually brush off the economic reasoning, but for the companies who release the stuff it is the most important factor. It is the marketability of the series, not the quality, that determines if it should be dubbed. You spoke of marketing to fans of Kodocha and Cardcaptor Sakura, but keep in mind that these very series were not particularly succesfull. Funimation was losing money on Kodocha and halted it's DVD release for this reason. Geneon/Pioneer's Cardcaptor Sakura DVD release just barely managed to break even, despite outperforming Nelvana's mutilated Cardcaptors DVD release. And the anime DVD market has shrunk considerably since these titles were released. Something like Vampire Knight probably has enough appeal to get an american DVD release, but i wouldn't count on seeing the third Kyo Kara Maoh season or second Saiunkoku Monogatari season licensed anytime soon. |
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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With my small understanding of how the license process works, a lot of titles are picked simply because the Japanese also put them on the table when they're trying to acquire better stuff, so FUNi takes it. Other times they might have to take crap shows because they package them with other shows for a better price. Something along those lines. They don't go out of their way to pick those shows. Also, isn't CCS, from the DVD releases I've seen, only subbed as well? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've only seen like 5 DVDs my friend has. |
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strawberry-kun
Posts: 301 |
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Good point. It does work like that at times. I didn't even think of that.
Yes, the Geneon DVDs of the series were sub only. I know the second movie had a dub for some reason. I'm not sure about the first one. The only dub that exists for the actual series is the butcher Nelvana dub. |
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Aura Ichadora
 Posts: 2289 Location: In front of my computer |
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I've heard a lot of good reviews about this series, and I did like what I read in the Anime Insider preview article, so I may try and check this out. I'm not turned away by the sub-only aspect of it, so it should still be a good watch even for a usual dub-only watcher like me (thank you Clannad and Princess Resurrection).
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Altorrin
 Posts: 313 Location: Florida, United States |
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Please do make one. I really don’t understand why this wasn’t dubbed. ^-^;; I would’ve bought it if it was dubbed; I can read subtitles, but not that well. I have to do a lot of pausing ‘cause I’m a slow reader. And I also like to focus on the screen, rather than the dialogue. So if I had to choose between subs or dubs, I’d go with dubs. Unless the voicing was bad. |
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SongstressCela
 Posts: 615 Location: Pennsylvania |
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Wait, what? How is that screwing fans over? Unless you mean because some singles were already released, to which I say "boo hoo," given the combined sets were -still- cheaper given how few DVDs were actually released for each series.
This is true, but it's also true I can see why some don't get them. Mostly some Media Blasters releases. Anything Nozomi's done though? Not really, no.
Where are people getting the idea that the only people complaining are the ones on this forum? I know ANN is big, but my god. This is hardly the be-all end-all of the community. Hell, I've been watching anime for twenty years and only started posting here in the past few months.
Someday's Dreamers, Rumbling Hearts, Kaleido Star, Ultra Maniac...all lighthearted, calm series that are just as "niche" as anything Nozomi throws out.
Agreed. I've kind of given up on Nozomi and every time a release like this comes out it's become kind of a *sigh* rather than cause for anger. Kind of why I didn't even bother commenting on the Maria-sama set 3 review.
Pretty much agreed with your entire post, on all accounts and reasons. =\ |
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Furudanuki
 Posts: 1874 |
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 That has to be the first time I have ever heard Rumbling Hearts (or Kimi ga Nozomu Eien in game or anime version) referred to as "lighthearted." 
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Macron One
Posts: 151 Location: Netherlands |
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You're looking at Nozomi's titles from a very unrealistic viewpoint, to say the least. Their most recent acquisitions are: -A three season slice of life anime about gondoliers. -A four season yuri drama series -A two season period romance/drama -A sci-fi anime movie from 1980 -A shoujo series from 2004 Each and every one of them is pure retail poison. None of these anime series has much sales potential beyond their already established fanbase. Nozomi primarily targets this sort of niche, quality anime which have a small, yet devoted fanbase. Realistically speaking, i would estimate these releases will on average most likely sell between 2000 and 3000 copies. A theoretical dubbed release might add another 1000 to 1500 sales, which would come nowhere near justifying the expense of a dub. I expect Nozomi has learned from its previous releases like To Heart and Piano that the market for such anime series is simply too small to continue releasing them dubbed.
And what on earth makes you think any of those series was profitable in R1 ? The fact that ADV's Kaleido Star release was nearly abandoned after the first 6 volumes and never had any of its OVAs licensed suggests that it didn't do particularly well. Someday's dreamers and Ultra Maniac were extremely niche releases that in all likelyhood helped contribute to Geneon's untimely demise and really shouldn't have been dubbed to begin with. I'm not sure how well Funimation's Rumbling Hearts DVD release performed, but considering a complete collection of the series was released only half a year after volume 3 came out, i don't expect the individual volumes sold well.
I think this illustrates precisely how your expectations were unrealistic to begin with. With the exception of The Third, none of Nozomi's licenses from the past year and a half had a mentionable chance of being licensed and dubbed by any other R1 company. Rather than looking at these titles as a lost dub oppurtunity, it would IMO be more appropriate to consider them to be releases that could only be targeted at a sub-watching audience due to limited marketability. You, the dub-only watcher, are simply not the target audience. |
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Gewürtztraminer
 Posts: 1028 Location: Texas - Its like whole other country. |
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I think the Third was a distribution deal for Right Stuff, kinda like Bandai is the distributor for Haruhi and Lucky Star. The point is valid though, was Shinobu the last Right stuff title to get a dub? Judging from the still high price on the 13 episode set, there are many more costs left to recoup. I will admit that as a newbie I was lukewarm on To Heart and Boys Be after renting, but as I have watched more series, I have realized that they were better than I had thought. In my opinion, Funi is extending too far (unless they have the cash to make it through the 2 years that it is going to take to recoup the dubbing costs of all these series they are throwing out recently). Singles or half sets, full sets, then viridian release, and that is assuming they did not have to pay a lot for the license. Judging from the number of Weeks that Ouran has resided in the Right Stuff's weekly sale..... It is not working out as expected for that title at least. About the only recent sub only series that I thought was out of place was Bandai's Rocket Girls. As a dub fan, I would have LOVED to seen that dubbed, but given the performance of Stratos 4, it probably was a money loser also. |
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_Emi_
 Posts: 498 Location: Langjökull |
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Same here. I'm so glad they've now set a date on it.
And apparently, enough people clambered for an R1 release of Princess Tutu to warrant ADV bringing it over here. When they did, it almost got canceled due to poor sales because all those who said they wanted it, proceeded not to buy it. Having 100 people claiming that they will buy something doesn't translate into 100 sales of that thing. |
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strawberry-kun
Posts: 301 |
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Yeah, you obviously don't know what you are talking about because those series had only one DVD left each. Paying for one DVD is less than paying for a set. Also, I don't really care how you feel about it. I was just pointing out that Funimation isn't the angel of a company that you seem to think they are.
I am well aware that. I am just saying that the minority can whine and complain all they want, but it doesn't change the reality that these series would not be profitable dubbed. I wish they were. I prefer dubs, but I accept the reality of the situation that it's either this or no release at all. I'll gladly take a sub-only release over nothing. Even if I wouldn't be interested at all in a sub-only release, I'd at least be glad these series made it over here for others to enjoy. I'll leave it at that since I can't really add anything else to what Macron One have said. |
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