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Ocean Group Denies Involvement in 'Dubtitles' of Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction Being Used for Japanese Audio Stream
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda, Crystalyn Hodgkins
Media production company Ocean Group has told ANN that while it produced closed caption subtitles based on the English dub it produced for the Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction anime (often called "dubtitles" by anime fans), the company asserts that due to a number of legal, creative, and practical reasons, it was not involved in those subtitles being used for the anime's Japanese audio version being streamed on Crunchyroll.
The company stated it "does not know how English dubsubs ended up on earlier episodes of the Japanese version," adding, "in any event, it appears that this no longer seems to be an issue."
ANN can confirm the subtitles on earlier and current episodes now seem to match the timing to the Japanese audio, and (for earlier episodes) are now different from the subtitles that were first released on Crunchyroll. The earlier episodes also now translate on-screen text, when they did not previously.
ANN reached out to Crunchyroll for comment on the situation, but the company did not respond.
The "dubtitles" for the Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction anime had come under scrutiny from watchers of the anime, as it is common practice to produce a separately translated subtitle track for the Japanese audio presentation of an anime to reflect differing adaptive requirements and choices between the English dub and the Japanese audio.
The television series version of the two-part anime film adaptation of Inio Asano's Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction manga premiered on May 23. Crunchyroll debuted an English dub for the anime simultaneously with its stream of the Japanese audio version.
Crunchyroll streamed the 18 episodes weekly. Episodes feature new footage not in the film versions.
The first film opened in Japan on March 22, and earned 83,773,890 yen (about US$553,300) in its first three days. The second film opened on May 24, after it was delayed from April 19.
Source: Email correspondence