Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Aren't New Dubs Made For Old-School Shows?
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Brand
 Posts: 1028 |
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Yeah during the bubble when companies would license and dub pretty everything even crap. Since the bubble burst companies are a lot more cautious about these things. |
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DmonHiro
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Tell me about it. I was born in the 80's, and I absolutely adore the anime aestethic of th mid 80's early 90s. Even someting as bland (no offense to anyone) as the 1st season of To Heart has some sort of "heart" to it's design. Can't exlplain it and I know it's not logical, but you know... |
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2862 |
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then pray for a slow motion wo mou ichido anime |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4426 |
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I have to give Justin credit for having plenty to write when many questions come down to the basic answer of cost-effectiveness. |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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While the materials issue is a "bonus" problem (and no doubt very important to people like Justin that worked on that kind of thing) the simplest answer is the most obvious: There's no money to be made in it. I'm not saying the old materials thing isn't a factor, but like he started with, the older shows don't move a lot of units to begin with AND the cost of just getting dubbing actors basically prices out most shows. To spell it out, the math that Japan uses for keeping their prices high applies to these dubs. (ie. Is it worth the sales lost for the net profit) If you assume 1000 people (period) would buy X old show, you can estimate (with decent reliability) that a large percentage (for an OLD show that never got a dub) will buy it without a dub. So if you're looking at selling 1000 units WITH a dub vs. say you COULD sell 600 units without a dub: let's say the discs cost $20/disc and for the sake of argument the company keeps 100% of that. That's $20,000 for a disc with dub, vs. $12,000 for a disc without. If the dub costs more than $8,000 (the variance between) then its not worth the time and effort. And that assumes a 60% sub-only buyrate. I'll bet for shows that predate the mid 90s, the number of "hardcores" that'd be ok with no dub exceeds 60%. EDIT: It's easy to say "you'd move more units WITH a dub", but if you're only talking an extra 100 units, that's simply not worth it unless you price them insanely high. |
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Shar Aznabull
 Posts: 236 |
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Such a shame, because some of my favorite dubs are newer dubs of older shows like Mobile Suit Gundam, Red Jacket Lupin, and Gatchaman (props to ADV for actually going through with that one, I can't imagine it was a big seller)
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mrsatan
 Posts: 909 Location: Olympia, WA, USA |
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Dude, if you could compile a library of stock Golden Age anime sound effects and open it to the public, you would be my hero! |
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Dr.N0
Posts: 149 |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2545 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Yeah, it's really just a case of simple "demand vs. costs", and if there isn't enough demand for the product that paying the extra cash to produce a dub is worth it, then sub-only is really the only way to go. Hell, look at Skip Beat!, which was mandated to include a dub just so that it could be released, and it took nearly the entire Kickstarter campaign for it to make enough for the dub to happen. Not all anime are even that lucky, honestly.
As for other M&E-less dubs, Media Blasters' release of the Ys OVAs were an example of that; ANN even reported on it back in 2002. However, if you listen to the original Japanese & then listen to the dub you'll notice that the dub uses different music cues, if not completely different music, all over the place. Hell, the dub for the first Ys OVAs sometimes uses music from the Ys II OVAs, and as a big fan of those original games it is a tad bizarre. Still, I do commend MB & Bang Zoom! for going through the trouble of actually trying to replicate the M&E track for those OVAs, because (aside from the music inconsistencies) it's a rather solid dub. |
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JoeOfTomorrow
Posts: 61 |
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You can find them here. |
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Beltane70
 Posts: 3881 |
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I can't speak for Tylor, but I do remember Nadia getting a dub by Streamline Pictures a year after its release. Granted, the series was never completed, but an attempt was made. |
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belvadeer
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Really now? Huh, thanks for that information. I'm planning on picking the complete set up since I've been getting more and more into the Ys series, but it's good to know this. That way I won't be scratching my head when those things happen while I watch the episodes. |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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What a confused game show you're on!
On the other hand, someone WAS able to find home recordings of many (but not all) of the early seasons--someone happened to be both a dedicated fan and a technician who operated magnetic tape equipment. But that's probably a matter of good luck than differences in fan culture, unless there's some legal matter about home recordings in Japan.
It can be hard to remember, when you're a hardcore fan of something, that the businesses have to, well, stay in business. It sounds really obvious, but it's a pattern I keep seeing when I hang out with hardcore fans of anything that isn't inherently free (and even those that aren't). And I don't mean to belittle anyone with that statement: There are behavioral factors into that, namely fan myopia (I really want it, and my fellow fans really want it--why wouldn't it sell?) and the presence of "labor of love" projects among the hardcore (those guys made an English-language Mother 3 all by themselves! Surely it can't be THAT hard). Then there are the "die for us" kind of fans who don't care that something is cost-ineffective (companies should take on projects at a loss, or else they're soulless corporate fat cats), of which I WOULD belittle them for their egocentrism. |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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@leafy sea dragon
Dr Who was on magnetic tape, and they were wiped so the tapes could be re-used. While cels can be washed and reused up to a point, the film negatives can't so there is no pressure to save costs by recycling. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4078 |
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The elephant in the room: Why didn't Nichijou get a dub while Gosick did? Better yet, what's will Funimation's practice of dubbing shows that aren't even complete yet over shows that have a fan base? Did they make back their costs on First Love Monster yet? Will they? Dubs are cheaper than ever these days, especially considering the fact that anyone with a decent computer set up has a recording studio and the speed of broadband internet makes compiling such distant sources a breeze. My own answer would be a combination of laziness and lack of sound effects/music tracks on non digital productions. You can work out which applies where yourself. Eventually the idea of simulcast will lose the allure as not only more and more mediocrity gets produced and licensed but also dubbed. So it's only a matter of time until this anime bubble bursts... this time through lack of quality content being produced instead of paying too much for licenses. Unless you can honestly hype yourself up for that 10 episode adaptation of whatever Light Novel or App game is popular in Japan at the time. |
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