Forum - View topicAnswerman - Back in the USA
|
Goto page Previous Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
gloverrandal
Posts: 406 Location: Oita |
|
|||
|
To me, if a company resorts to a parody dub like Shin-chan or Ghost Stories then it basically says they have given up. They don't want to put any effort into these shows or have little faith in them or simply do not care about them at all. They just want to slap on some Family Guy level of jokes to hopefully cash in on the non-anime watching crowd, which I assume is what Shin-chan was going for given it aired on Adult Swim. People who don't watch anime might like it because it has all the same style of jokes from American cartoons on that block.
It's a shame because you have comedy anime which are streamed on Crunchyroll and their scripts are fine without all those heavily localizations. No reason the dubs couldn't have been like those translations.
I can't think of a single series that is merely 'pure fanservice'. Throwing that term around is dishonest because most series with fanservice in them have a plot or character development or comedy. The only example I can think of is those Training with Hinako OVAs where we just watch a girl do stretches for 30 minutes with little to no dialog. That's the only thing I can think of that would fit the 'nothing but fanservice' definition. Shows like Kill la Kill, Seikon no Qwaser, and Queen's Blade all have over the top explicit fanservice, but they also have stories and character development as well. Even most hentai generally have stories, so not even in the realm of porn can you find much in the way of 'just sex'. It seems like an over generalization of the genre. |
||||
|
||||
|
Just-another-face
Posts: 324 |
|
|||
But for all that translation work, something still gets lost in the process regardless. It's hard to label it 100% accurate when some nuances and terms just can't be completely explained (which is fine, because this gives them a chance to work around it or even come up with a close equivalent in English dubs that fits just as well without losing too much of the impact, something I've seen some crafty translators do quite well). Oh, they don't proclaim it out loud; they keep that declaration to themselves. When you call them out on it, they can't back it up as fact (many examples abound on gaming websites like GameFAQs). We have a name for this kind of scum. You probably know what it is. |
||||
|
||||
RokugoPeachMoon
 Posts: 79 |
|
|||
Pretty much. Ultimately, people who use the "Well, the Japanese subtitles aren't 100% accurate!!!!" argument, in my opinion, are just grasping at straws in order to justify and defend foster dub rewrites. I'm not interested in hearing jokes and references that some random a**hat in the US thinks is funny, I want to hear the intended jokes and puns, no matter how complex and hard to understand they are. I see no value in watching the alternate audio-track, and no argument from the dub-lovers is going to change that. |
||||
|
||||
Top Gun
 Posts: 4570 |
|
|||
|
As I've said in past kerfuffles, I'd be generally okay with AoA targeting the SCREW COMMON SENSE I HAVE MONEY! crowd with their overpriced releases up front, if they would then put out a reasonably-priced bargain set a year or two down the road. But as it stands, we get the overpriced release...and then nothing else. Who knows, maybe they just enjoy leaving guaranteed money on the table. In any case, I think it's high time I looked into importing some of those UK releases, since the distributors over there actually respect their customers.
|
||||
|
||||
Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23761 |
|
|||
Then hopefully you are spending some time trying to learn Japanese so you won't have to depend on any intermediary at all. Fortunately, R1 companies are smart enough to understand you have to localize a script to remain in business (and be entertaining) as opposed to catering to a small cadre of pretentious tossers. |
||||
|
||||
|
SpacemanHardy
Posts: 2509 |
|
|||
Except... ya know... when it *does*. Apparently you seem to have forgotten about the subtitle issue with the Garden of Sinners DVDs? You know, the issue it took them eight weeks to even acknowledge? Or the DVD mixup with the SAO DVDs? Or the adhesive backing sheet that messed up a lot of people's SAO bluray art boxes? How about the absolutely *terrible* video encodes on the SAO, Blue Exorcist, Madoka Magica, and OreImo DVDs? How about the fact that they have steadily and consistently been lowering the bitrate on their English dub tracks and not telling anyone about it, despite the fact that there is more than enough room on the bluray discs to hold lossless audio? How about the fact that their DVD-only/sub-only releases rarely have any more extras than your equivalent Sentai Filmworks release, other than a slipcover and some cheaply made postcards, and yet cost twice as much? How about the fact that their upcoming Silver Spoon release doesn't even have *THAT*, and yet still costs the same? How about the fact that in some of their recent releases, they didn't even bother subtitling the opening and ending themes? How about the fact that they have never, EVER offered a full-English credit scroll on ANY of their releases, leaving all of the little people who worked on the show - both Japanese and American - completely unrepresented and out in the cold? And how about the fact that, despite everything listed above, they *STILL* insist on selling their product for 2 to 3 times as much or more than their competitors, under the baseless declaration that their releases are of a "higher quality" than everyone elses'? It's one thing to be a fan of AoA. It's another thing to sit back and foolishly defend them and say that they've "never" had a problem when in reality, they have had just as many as everyone else, and even worse, most of their problems they're not even willing to fix. 
|
||||
|
||||
MeggieMay
 Posts: 607 |
|
|||
|
Easter Eggs - as much as I love them, Justin's right that they just as well be extras these days. IMO, most of the ones like Sock Puppet Theater wouldn't be produced now to begin with due to having to get it cleared with the Japanese licensors, pay extra money to do them (supposedly the cost of extras is why Sentai isn't doing them (Source is from twitter, so make of it what you will), according to a report back from a recent convention panel, so wasting them on a Easter Egg would be silly), other issues similar to this or a combination of all of these things. Justin may need to post back on that issue (or save it for another Answerman - if he wants me to email in any of this post, just say something and I'll try and do that) to be certain on it but that would be my guess as to why we don't see some of these types former Easter Eggs just not showing up as extras (plus all the things in the article that where pointed out).
Then there is the issue of finding the Easter Eggs to begin with. Back in the day AnimeOnDVD had a listing that was helpful, but not complete, on how to find some of them but AoD is long gone. So someone would have to start re-compiling the list of how to access them if the can be/or have been found. That underlined part is another issue. What good is a Easter Egg if no one finds it? I ask this question because it's been nagging at the back of my mind, when the question of Easter Eggs come up, about the ANNCast a while back where the former Bandai Entertainment person mentioned something to the effect that he had stuffed the Planetes DVDs full of Easter Eggs but since no one had mentioned many of them to him, he wondered if anyone had ever found them? I looked around and I couldn't even find a list of Easter Eggs for that show! The only listing on the Wikipedia entry is for in-show Easter Eggs - not what he was talking about (he mentioned something about a visit to the NASA space school?). This seems to point to a US anime release that is chalked full of really good extras that no one ever saw because no one ever figured out where the Easter Eggs where 
Which leads me to a question for Justin - is there a way to find Easter Eggs without using the built way to find them? I seem to remember there was a way to "cheat" and find them using DVD player programs, back in the day, and I know VLC player shows DVDs broken down into file chapters. So I would think you could just go through each listing and see what plays, though it would take some time. Anyway, is that a workable way to find Easter Eggs or not? [I was going to say "realistically find Easter Eggs" but I'm not sure how "realistic" it is to go about doing that if you have a life  ]
|
||||
|
||||
|
Cptn_Taylor
Posts: 925 |
|
|||
Then learn Japanese and buy the 100$ 2 episodes blu-rays of your favorite anime. That's the only way to watch anime as the Japanese watch it. 100% faithful. Subtitles are as far removed from the "original" script as a dub is. So those so-called purists, and it seems you're right among them are just spouting nonsense. Time to get a reality check man. |
||||
|
||||
Greed1914
 Posts: 4422 |
|
|||
That is mostly how I look at it. If paying a premium price was the only way to see an Aniplex show, I might get worked up over it, but there are other methods. As much as I might want those prices to be lower, I can't begrudge them too much for sticking to a system that obviously must work. That said, I've only bought one series from them, which was the Read or Die blu-ray set since it's my second favorite anime, and even then I waited for almost a full year for it to go to half price during Right Stuf's Christmas sale. |
||||
|
||||
Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5421 Location: Iscandar |
|
|||
To me that is a losing (money) strategy because people, even the "no common sense spenders", might want wait for those cheaper versions if they know they are coming down the road. For example, I like Kill la Kill enough to want to pay $200-250 for the 5 regular edition BD volumes, but I would be willing to wait if I knew that Aniplex USA is releasing a complete BD collection for $100 in 1-2 years. The only title that I could really see AoA releasing a cheaper version down the road is a complete BD collection of Sword Art Online, mostly because they did not offer regular edition BD volumes for it, like they did for Madoka and Kill la Kill. For the record I also think Funimation's S.A.V.E. line is a bad business strategy because it dissuades customers from buying the original releases, which are already at very reasonable pricing. |
||||
|
||||
|
angieness
Posts: 162 Location: Columbus, OH |
|
|||
|
1.Someone wasn't paying attention last season when one of the biggest shows was Kill la Kill, which is filled with fan service. Funnily enough, my 2 favorite series the past few seasons have been Attack on Titan and Kill la Kill. One is gorey and the other has tons of fan service.
For me, the harem genre has been sort of dead for years. It's not that I think the genre is bad, I loved Tenchi Muyo and enjoyed Love Hina. There just hasn't been a series in the genre that has gotten my attention in a long time. Same with romantic comedies. I'm fine with fan service, just those shows have to work extra hard to get my attention. 2.I'm one of those people buying Aniplex titles! Sorry! haha I can afford the releases, but the prices do make me a bit more selective about what to pick up. I've been into anime since the days of having to pay $30 for 2 episodes on a VHS tape so I just sort of shrug when I see the Aniplex prices. I'll only pick up their titles if I really loved the series like Madoka, Fate/Zero, and Kill la Kill. Whereas a company like Funimation I'll take more chances on a series I might not have watched yet. Sure, it'd be nice to have them cheaper, but at the very least I approve of their method of only picking up series that are doing well. |
||||
|
||||
v1cious
 Posts: 6202 Location: Houston, TX |
|
|||
Really? I thought the redub of Super Milk Chan was pretty damn funny. |
||||
|
||||
|
SpacemanHardy
Posts: 2509 |
|
|||
I enjoyed it too, but I will admit that it's a product of it's time. I think a lot of the pop culture references and jokes would come across as very dated if you watched it today. |
||||
|
||||
|
SpacemanHardy
Posts: 2509 |
|
|||
Super Milk-Chan actually has *two* English dubs. Both were made at the exact same time, with the exact same cast, by the exact same director. The difference is, one is SUPER literal, leaving all the Japanese jokes and references completely in tact, and the other is SUPER liberal, re-writing pretty much the entire script and swapping out the Japanese jokes with American ones. For some strange reason, though, when Cartoon Network ran the show several years ago, they chose to air the non-Americanized one. The American public, naturally, thought it was the most nonsensical, unfunny thing they had ever seen, which ultimately led to it's poor performance on network TV. |
||||
|
||||
vanfanel
 Posts: 1242 |
|
|||
True, but what was even funnier was how in the 90's a lot of people viewed fansub scripts as automatically more accurate. The most famous example of that was the once-widespread belief that DBZ was a show for "adults only" because the characters cursed like sailors in the fansubs. On the subject of American reactions to violence vs sex: I don't think it's so hard to understand as a cultural thing. American culture has been and continues to be tremendously influenced by Christianity (I'm not complaining since I'm a Christian myself). If you go to Matthew 5-6 (Jesus' "sermon on the mount" where he lays out the basic philosophies and teachings) you find a message that deals not just with outward actions, but with the heart of the believer. Not committing murder isn't enough; he says the believer shouldn't be filled with anger and hate toward others, which can lead to murder. Not simply "don't commit adultery" but also "don't lust" which is "committing adultery in your heart." I don't think it's really debatable that fanservice exists to stoke lust, so the Christian will definitely feel conflicted about watching such material, and even the nonbeliever who is culturally influenced by these teachings may have a guilty reaction he doesn't quite undertand. But in the case of violence/gore, does watching it fill the viewer with anger and hatred for fellow human beings? I don't think so. If you are a normal, healthy person, you don't watch those shows and want to go out and try what you just saw yourself. In fact, certain types of violent depictions may have the opposite effect by showing the kind of horror and suffering real violence brings about. There may be other factors as well, but I think this is a big part of why Americans often have a stronger reaction against fanservice and nudity than we do against violence and mayhem. I'm not posting this to start a debate over the teachings themselves; I'm just trying to give an explanation for an American trait that many Americans seem perplexed by these days. |
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group