Forum - View topicAnswerman - Who Dominated Dubs Before Funimation?
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Punch Drunk Marc
Posts: 1742 |
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I've thought about this a lot. At first I thought that it was that the actors that Sentai started to get Post-ADV era were just worse than Funi's stable, but that was obviously a lie when Emily Neves, Katelyn Barr, Adam Gibbs, and a few others came over and essentially started killing it with performances (I still consider Oreki to be one of Gibbs' best roles). At the end of the day I think it comes down to the directors. Essentially Funi's are better than Sentai's and are able to get much more out of the actors that come their way. That's not to say Sentai doesn't have good directors though. Conversely, most Funi actors that go to Houston don't sound as good. |
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John Thacker
Posts: 1006 |
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Coastal Carolina also did a few things for Media Blasters, including the legendary Shinesman dub, one of the best dubs ever made that treated the material with the respect it deserved. (Not a veiled insult, the original material was parody.) |
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Ojamajo LimePie
 Posts: 766 |
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Air and Kanon were dubbed by ADV Studios. Funimation license-rescued the series during the big ADV implosion. |
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Divineking
 Posts: 1293 |
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You're a little bit off there. Both Fate/Apocrypha and the recently streamed Fate/Extra Last Encore were recorded at Bang Zoom. Granted that seems to mostly be for consistency's sake (even if Netflix's general refusal to do union dubs means a couple of characters got recasted) but they did go to Bang Zoom for them. Cyborg 009: Call of Justice and Kakeguri were also Bang Zoom dubs so Netflix is willing to use them on occasion. As for why they tend to use SDI Media/Spliced Bread more than Bang Zoom my guess is that it has more to do with speed than anything. While we've all harped on Netflix for waiting till after shows finish airing in Japan to start streaming them, the gap between the end of the TV broadcast and Netflix's streams is generally 3-4 weeks and baring a few exceptions, Bang Zoom has generally steered clear of simuldubs so their dubs take more time to produce. It's a shame because SDI Media/Spliced Bread's dubs have been somewhat inconsistent where as Bang Zoom is pretty much always reliable but they're used somewhat. |
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I_Drive_DSM
 Posts: 217 |
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I must be getting really old.
I too was trying to think back to what major studio was a large dubbing force prior to Funimation and couldn't think of any in particular. I may be speaking for myself but most of what I remember prior to Funimation was prominent roles from recognizable VAs (Mike Reynolds, Julie Maddelena, Matt Miller, etc) more so than a particular studio. If anything the moment I began to think of a "studio" itself as recognizable was ADV. The production issues that a lot of publishers faced is interesting to point out in that prior to DVDs most subtitled anime was more expensive than dubbed works, simply because all the equipment and work exhausted to subtitle a particular IP was often more difficult than finding people to act out translated lines. At that time releases in the United States were split at retail where applicable, with anywhere from $25-$35 for a subtitled tape and $20-$30 for a dubbed tape. As a younger fan I often bought dubbed simply because it was cheaper in the long run; I never even fathomed the whole sub/dub argument whatsoever and was solely focused on saving money. Of course the disadvantage here is that there were a great many amount of releases that never saw a dubbed version, and it's only been in more recent times that I've attempted to revisit some of those older series. One thing that could probably be done if someone had the ability - or time - is to look at all the old sales figures that were tracked in the 90s and get a good idea of what people were buying. I remember well that Diamond Distribution Company's pre orders for anime were tracked monthly in Animerica mag. The top five, dubbed or subbed, were listed monthly, and until bi-lingual DVDs came along dubs would typically fill the slots. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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Actually, that had nothing to do with the pricing discrepancy. They had the equipment anyway, as it was often used to create the video credits anyway. The reason for the difference in price was due to sales. The subtitled editions sold less and had fewer copies produced, so the cost per VHS tape was higher. There has to be two separate print runs, as opposed to only one for bilingual DVD. |
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An Average Aspie
 Posts: 23 |
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I thought my comment implied that. "From" was for originally licensed, dubbed and released at the mentioned company. Air and Kanon were not "From" funi originally. Too lazy to edit atm.
Think its more in lines with the chase method being a somewhat challenging way of performing for some Funi actors which is another reason why some don't make the trip and effort. Though directors can be another issue too. Heard Caitlin Glass mention having huge difficulties doing work over at ADV back in the day due to the chase method which took a long time to adapt until she stuck in Dallas. |
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Haterater
 Posts: 1727 |
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How I exactly feel. I miss so many voices that I would like to see in anime. Such a waste. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13552 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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Many thanks for Justin for giving explanation to something I don't think I have ever wondered (not sarcasm).
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2444 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Sorry, should have checked. I did indeed think of Ranma and Maison Ikkoku first, and then said “well, Lum came out here before those, so I’ll just put that in the parenthetical.” |
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5316 |
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There is the chase that someone else mentioned, but I also think it comes down to them just doing things differently, not a lack of talent. Funimation feels very conservative, it's translated well with some tweaks, the voice actors fit their role and maybe add their own touches. And all this is I suppose what most fans what, and possibly because they started with action shonens, they are really good at those types of shows. With Sentai they feel more loose and depending on the director, take more liberties, and wander more outside, but not too much, of what they are adapting. The Hick accents they give people from rural parts of Japan is a great example. Or if the characters in a comedy are zany, they dial that up a bit more. And this approach seems less favourable to most people. So if someone is of the mindset that Sentai need to "catch up with Funimation", then they are unlikely to ever like their dubs, as they are looking at it all wrong. |
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CaptainAvatar
 Posts: 381 Location: Saint Louis, MO |
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One persons treasure is another person's trash. The Ghost Stories dub is trash, IMO. I haven't seen anyone mention Coastal Studios. The You're under Arrest dub is one of my all time favorites to this day. |
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Primus
 Posts: 2761 Location: Toronto |
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AICO was dubbed in Miami. Not much anime has ever been done there in English, but the new Captain Tsubasa is also being recorded there. Don't know if it's the same studio as AICO, though. I've heard conflicting information on who handles the dubs for Netflix. There's reason to believe Netflix themselves have little input on that and it instead falls upon the individual production committees to contract that out. That may be why we tend to see all foreign language dubs for a Netflix show produced by those big multi-national localization houses (BTI Studios, Iyuno Media Group, SDI Media, etc.) even if the work they produce isn't exactly acceptable (a problem that seems to happen more often with non-English dubs). |
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PurpleWarrior13
 Posts: 2025 |
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Ocean probably got the most work in the 90s simply because they were the best at the time. Even today, their dubs for Ranma 1/2, Maison Ikkoku, Gundam Wing, and the Galaxy Railways movies still hold up. They're not perfect, but they're solid, professional work. Ocean's had some mediocre dubs, but never any outright awful ones (in terms of voice acting). Animaze was usually good, but they had some stinkers like the Gundam movie trilogy. ADV was very hit-and-miss in the 90s, and so was TAJ in New York.
New Generation (Hellsing, Read or Die, Ikki Tousen) is probably the best now, followed closely by NYAV Post (Berserk, your name., Gundam UC). I also enjoy most of Studiopolis' work (Naruto, Bleach, Sailor Moon). Coastal Carolina was another terrific studio in the 90s. Their dubs for You're Under Arrest, Oh My Goddess OVAs, Blue Submarine No. 6, and even Virtua Fighter still hold up well. Their only stinker was their weird dub for Lupin III: The Fuma Conspiracy. Clamp School Detectives wasn't amazing either. Too bad they don't get any work anymore. They were far better than the other studios AnimEigo worked with (Southwynde, Swirl, etc). |
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gravediggernalk
 Space Cowboy Posts: 246 Location: Alabama |
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ADV definitely held the title for most output, regardless of quality, before the bubble burst. Seeing subtitle-only releases from ADV was weird, but definitely a sign of the end times for them. I wish more people were outsourcing to Ocean these days. It's a real disappointment that all of the new Gundam dubs (especially The Origin) aren't being done by Ocean. Animaze and Ocean always meant quality to the young me.
I think that one of the reasons that we so distinctly remember how great the dubs are for Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, etc. is because those dubs were high-quality dubs released at a time when 9 out of 10 releases on the shelf were cheap shovelware that ADV and CPM rushed to dub and push out that no one can even remember the name of now except when they see 40 unopened copies on the shelf at the local second-hand bookstore. Note for others: Streamline =/= HGUSA. Carl Macek worked on a few things (most notably Robotech and Captain Harlock & The Queen of a Thousand Years) for HGUSA. Then he founded Streamline Pictures with Jerry Beck. Regardless of anyone's views on localization, Streamline was putting out the ONLY high-quality dubs at the time, and they were all (that I can remember) uncut. There's an episode of ANNcast where Justin and Zac interview Macek and I recommend it 100% to everyone. |
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