Court Documents Reveal Anime Licensing Costs

[nathan-dts]

Not much of an anime afficionado so could someone tell me if the quality of the anime series is proportional to cost in that list?

 

[Lunar Templar]

Not all dubs are bad, these days most of them are pretty good actually. I don't think I could watch Baccano! in Japanese to be honest...

Perhaps. But the ones that are bad....

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Are REALLY bad.

>.> .....

i ....

don't think even GOOD VO work could make that not suck, battle tops? really ....

Not familiar with Beyblade no? I think it's been around for over a decade now. Think of it along the same lines as Yugioh, only spinning tops instead of cards.

yugiho had 'hologram' monsters to got with said cards though, so calling out attacks made sense (sorta ...) i mean, come on, imagine MTG, with holographic monsters you could field, that's awesome sounding, more so if the monsters are to scale (like they tended to be in Yogiho)

combat tops ... >.> ... I'm sorry but what are they on exactly? and why hasn't it been canceled yet?

 

[chaosyoshimage]

Not all dubs are bad, these days most of them are pretty good actually. I don't think I could watch Baccano! in Japanese to be honest...

Personally I'm the opposite. I used to NOT have a problem with dubs. The change for me came when I got the Rurouni Kenshin box set back in high school. I watched it in english all the way through then one night I decided I wanted to see what the original Japanese and found I liked it much better. It got to the point where I just can't stand english versions of japanese dialogue (in most cases...the Ghost in the Shell series and Cowboy Bebop have superb dubs that I actually prefer the english over the japanese) because it seems to me that the original japanese voice actors are closer to how the characters are supposed to be represented and, believe it or not, but I think you get a better sense of the emotion in the lines despite the fact that I have no idea what they're saying without subtitles.

I'm the same way with Fullmetal Alchemist, I used to love the dub, but then I watched the Japanese version of Brotherhood while it aired. Now, while I do enjoy some of the dub VA's, they aren't as good as the Japanese version, but some of them are really wrong. Envy for example...

 

[Xpheyel]

"UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie"

Is this anime good? The name is amazing and I hope the anime itself is just as amazing as the name.

I don't think anything can live up to a title like that. I'll let live as an awesome mystery in my head.

 

[awsome117]

I don't watch many things Funimation does, but I know for certain Dragonball and Dragonball Z were edited on the network i saw them on. That last part is important because it could have been a network edit as opposed to a Funimation edit.

Well they usually were aired on CN and Nick so massive edits had to be made since the viewing audience were of a really young age. However, when they aren't aired on those networks they are unedited (Yu yu hakusho and One piece only being some examples).

DBZ Also has famously horrible English Voices.

To be fair, we can't judge all dubs on DBZ's standards.

You can like dubs if you want, that's cool. No skin off my back. I've seen some good ones. IMO (and this relies a lot on my personal experience) I've just found so many of them to be garbage in comparison to their native Japanese counterparts I don't even bother anymore.

I understand that as it's the opposite for me (well not really, as I don't find the original garbage).

My issue with that is, not being a fan of dubs, Anime's take years to release here as opposed to months as all the voice work needs to be re-done. It also adds an additional cost on the price of anime because of the cost of voice work. And i've seen some insane prices.

We had an anime store locally here that went out of business years ago, but holy shit if it wasn't price gouging. I'm talking $90 for a movie (yes a 90 minute movie), before tax. If removing dubs would drop that price, I'd be down.

But that's just me.

In reality it's the same for them when a movie/show is released here and they have to do the same.

 

[Taynas]

Not all dubs are bad, these days most of them are pretty good actually. I don't think I could watch Baccano! in Japanese to be honest...

The Japanese dub is excellent, particularly Isaac and Miria.

But let's be honest, the English dub was spectacular. The accents were well done and Brain Massey stole the show as Ladd Russo. I generally prefer subs. Naturally there's always the argument about seeing the original presentation as intended. I'm not so hardcore however that I refuse to give another actor a chance or to give credit where it's due. You don't go to a performance of Macbeth and boo the cast for not being the original director's picks do you? Characters in anime are just roles and I have found sometimes another actor handles the character better than the original. There are times when I do think the localizers earn their share of the take and that this was certainly one of them.


It's fair to say that some dubs are terrible. Many of them are. However some people are going to take issue because you seem to be saying that all dubs are terrible. When the Japanese fandom themselves will famously pay exorbitant amounts to import the English dub of "The Big O" because they think the dubbed cast is better that argument somehow falls flat.

It might not look like it but I do prefer subs (even with the direction this post seems to be taking). Couldn't dream of watching Bleach in English and Excel Saga's dub was a form of audio torture. There are a lot of hurdles involved in creating a dub from time constraints to translation gap. That said, I try to avoid making blanket statements and judge on a case by case basis. I'm not going to act like Brina Palencia was "terrible" in spice and wolf, because she wasn't, nor that Crispin Freeman was "terrible" as Alucard in Hellsing because he wasn't (they got that entire cast back together) nor that Steven Blum, the Jim Cummings of our day, did a "terrible" job as Spike Speigel in Cowboy Bebop because he didn't. Let's be fair, shall we?

Then again I guess everything boils down to personal taste. Especially comedy.

This was just such a wonderfully thought out and reasonable argument for why to give dubs a chance, it warmed my heart a little. I personally prefer dubs due to my habit of sewing or crafting while I watch things which is nearly impossible with subtitles but I don't hate subs. Subs are wonderful. But over the years I've grown to loath them a little not for what they are but for the blind ignorance of those people that only like them and refuse to listen to dubs ever because they are all "terrible". Thank you for not only being so logical a fan of subs but for forming such a nice argument for why dubs can be good.

 

[lazinesslord]

Can someone explain to me why anime is so expensive? I mean in theory shouldn't dubbing be pretty cheap because you don't have to make the show just, translate and voice act? (and making changes when necessary.)

 

[Sylveria]

And this is why anime is starting to die in the US: no one wants to spend fortune to bring it over.

Can someone explain to me why anime is so expensive? I mean in theory shouldn't dubbing be pretty cheap because you don't have to make the show just, translate and voice act? (and making changes when necessary.)

You really have to blame Japan. They think this crap is worth way, WAY more than it actually is. Because of that it takes eons for the stuff to actually get over cause who wants to drop 3/4 of a million dollars on Airgear. (Thus fansubbing was born).

And there's sooooo much of it that is just garbage copy/paste slice of life that only the weaboo of weaboos are interested in. Even if you like that stuff, the volume of it that's produced is insane. Those people would probably just have subs anyway cause they subscribe to the "everything done in japan is better" mentality.

Then you have tons of stuff that isn't selling cause A. It's garbage and 2. It costs a fortune. Half the time a season of any show will go about $50. And it's not like there's many official avenues for people to watch these shows without buying DVDs, so no one wants to make that kind of gamble. We have to do that enough with games these days.

On top of all that, you have the cost of dubbing which gets... mixed results if I'm being generous and is almost universally terrible if I choose to be realistic.

 

[SomeGuyNamedKy]

After looking at this list made me realize something:

King of Bandits Jing was a bargin.

(I was probably the only person in America who gave a damn about that series, but still...)

 

[Draconalis]

These prices do seem a bit low, considering the ludicrous cost of anime boxsets

1 volume in japan... which is to say... maybe 1/5th of a boxset on average... was 40 dollars. When I saw that... with my own eyes... I figured I'd stop bitching about box sets being roughly 40ish dollars around here.

 

[Aethren]

The only four animes on that list worth watching are Welcome to the N.H.K., Magikano, Excel Saga, and The Wallflower. Subbed.

 

[Tharticus]

Some people in Japan are willing to spend over 6,000 yen for 1-2 episodes which is = volume 1. Total is either 12 or 24 depending if the show is confirmed to have 1 cour or 2. (1 means 1 season = 12 episodes) Spending for anime in the states here is a bargain already.

As for dubbed anime, all in all it comes down to personal tastes. I enjoyed some dubs and the recent anime that's airing in Japan I'm watching it subbed. Some are laughably bad (dragonball Z), some are horrible (Ikkitousen) others are mediocre (Angel Beats) and some are great (Cowboy Bebop, Death Note, Baccano!, Gunslinger Girl and Full Metal Alchemist) Some dubs work because it depends on the actor's behalf.

I think this person says best about dubs.

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Same goes for fansubbing. Fansubbing is not perfect unless those translators did a good job with little to no mistakes. I've seen certain fansub groups don't know anything about subbing and go straight out troll the series ie: lack of typesetting, quality control and editiing. Most fansub groups care about their e-penis and popularity and why certain fansub groups are superior to another. Comparing fansub screenshots of their translations along with the Japanese language spoken line is an eyeopener why you shouldn't rely on fansubs 100%. Granted it is faster than licensing and fonts that match the show but I rather have the licensed release here with crappy fonts. And best of all, some fansubs suggest to support licensed releases.

 

[Toy Master Typhus]

I would say Xenosaga is in a good price range. Now if they continued the games and the show that would be great. Where are my other 3 Xenosaga games I was promised?

 

[Nihilism_Is_Bliss]

Dubs are (almost) always produced to an absolutely horrible standard, which leads me to believe they're all developed on a very tight budget.
Seriously, I challenge you to find one dubbed anime where a minor character (like a shopkeeper or something that the main character only has to interact with once) doesn't sound like mickey mouse. The added cost for these companies to dub anime is so small it is ridiculous.

Dubs have a place on children's anime like Pokemon and most miyazaki movies, but seeing as such a large portion of the western fan-base actually hates american dubbing, and it's produced at such a low added cost to the original production costs in Japan, western licensing companies make me sick to my stomach when they charge upwards of $80 for a normal 26 episode series.

Anime isn't aired on television here in Australia (unless you have pay TV and want to watch a select few generic dubbed anime after 10:00 on cartoon network) so the only available legal way we have of watching proper anime is to buy box sets from these licensing companies, switch the language on the DVD from default English to Japanese, select English subtitles (oh how I envy those fluent in Japanese) and then sit through each episode cringing at the poor translations and americanised references even present in the subbed translation.

So we're paying over $80 for an anime, when all the licensing company had to do was translate the series and put the DVD in an English case instead of a Japanese one. And then they wonder why everyone is downloading 720 and 1080p fan-subbbed anime 2 years before the licensing companies even release them in 480p. I spit on licensing companies.


And don't even get me started on censorship.


And @ dub lovers. I don't care what you say, I'm not elitist, I am just right. Dubs suck something thick juicy and pulsating.