Why? A large part of why I agree with you about Canada getting back in the dubbing game is that I’m underwhelmed by what has been coming out of California.
So long as they didn’t awkwardly cast The Major’s actress as another, non-Major character, and they used Epcar as Batou (Picking Chris Sabat was extremely lazy and the dub suffered for it) they’d be light years ahead of what Funi did.
I’m thinking that you’re picking dubs from the cast and working backwards to get the studio, while I would rather pick the studio and director and derive the cast from there as I’ve come to learn that even a great cast is-without a great director, writer, staff and studio-like ship without a rudder.
At least it’s better than nothing for California IMO. Still, I want Vancouver to come back though (dubs in general, both California and Texas, feel homogenized no matter how good or bad, and Vancouver could provide a breath of fresh air. Sentai could become a major client to Ocean if they start outsourcing some of their dubs to them since Seraphim Digital is dubbing at such an obscene pace that it shows a questionable effect on their dubs, and Ocean could be the cheapest alternative to Seraphim Digital since the USD/CAD ratio is already improving to the point that it could potentially be cheaper than outsourcing to California. Personally, I could see Saban give the dub of Digimon Adventure tri. (when they get it) to Ocean since many of the VAs involved in the original Digimon Adventure are either retired, such as Joshua Seth and Michael Lindsay, or not as active as they used to be).
If CA had been putting out dubs that I really liked on a regular basis then I’d be more favorably disposed towards them.
It’s time to get NGP/Ocean/NY back in the rotation as Bang/Zoom and Studiopolis alone aren’t cuttin’ it.
[quote]Sentai could become a major client to Ocean if they start outsourcing
some of their dubs to them since Seraphim Digital is dubbing at such an
obscene pace that it shows a questionable effect on their dubs, and
Ocean could be the cheapest alternative to Seraphim Digital[/quote]
I still wish I knew why Sentai is speed dubbing, though I don’t know what I’d do with that knowledge. If
The Sentai/Seraphim relationship is one that I wonder about as I suspect it is some oddball “vertical integration” type setup as they’re all separate-yet-linked through some TX corporate law mysticism. Speaking of Vertical Integration, wiki lists the following as a potential pitfall and it seems a little appropriate:
[quote]Weaker motivation for good performance at the start of the supply chain
since sales are guaranteed and poor quality may be blended into other
inputs at later manufacturing stages[/quote]
It’s a pretty hard task. First of all, it would have to start with Viz and Aniplex realizing that it’s getting increasingly hard to use LA union-only talent in their dubs since the recession and that Ocean could be the best alternative due to the USD/CAD ratio already improving to the point that it would be deemed “favorable” to outsource on the USD side of the equation (Viz has outsourced to Ocean in the past, so they could renew their ties with them if they start outsourcing to them again). NYAV will probably become the new dubbing house of the Gundam series, though they’re probably going to need more titles (I could see Viz and Sentai become clients for them since both outsourced to NYAV), and NGP could become an alternative dubbing studio for Funimation and Aniplex.
Mostly to outpace Funimation in terms of “how many dubs can they churn out in a year?”.
Sentai doesn’t own Seraphim Digital, nor are the two companies owned by the same company. They are 2 completely independent companies, so technically Sentai is still out-sourcing their dubs, it’s just that they’re having them done by a local studio since they don’t have the budget to establish an in-house dubbing facility ala Funimation (and if they did, Seraphim Digital would lose its biggest client. Also, since Seraphim Digital also handles the production of Sentai’s DVDs & Blu-Rays, Sentai would have to make all of that on their own, and they wouldn’t even have the resources to take up that responsibility on their own). The only reasonable explanation for the Sentai/Seraphim relationship is that John Ledford has been the CEO of Sentai since its establishment back in 2008 (he was also the CEO of the late ADV Films until its closure as well, and ADV was the original distributor of Sentai releases until its closure) and that ADV used to own Seraphim Digital before ADV was broken up into numerous companies in September 2009, which pretty much means that past corporate ties are the cause for this relationship.
Concerning Vertical integration, there are other disadvantages.
[quote=“Razzamtazz_Buckshank, post:24, topic:7862”]
Higher coordination costs
Higher monetary and organizational costs of switching to other suppliers/buyers[/quote]
Which might be a big hurdle to get over for them to really get into outsourcing.
You seem awfully sure that there’s no relation, that Sentai is truly (ie:not just in the eyes of TX corporate law) independent of the post-ADV companies. I’m significantly less sure.
I wonder. If that’s the case then they’ve already won, and won handily: it doesn’t seem like Funi is even trying to win that race.
Well, considering that Sentai’s actually more willing to outsource compared to Funimation, it might not as be as big an obstacle if Sentai actually arses themselves into outsourcing titles outside of those with a pre-existing cast to the likes of Bang Zoom! (which they already have outsourced to in the past), Ocean and NYAV, which is probably going to be necessary eventually since Seraphim Digital has been dubbing too many titles at once and will reach capacity pretty soon unless they establish an additional facility like what Bang Zoom! did last year to relieve some capacity.
Sentai was established a year before ADV closed down in 2009 and did not inherit any assets from that company, and I explained the whole Sentai/Seraphim relationship with John Ledford’s corporate history concerning Sentai, ADV and Seraphim Digital.
Are you sure about that? Don’t forget that Sentai in-sourced Rozen Maiden.
So have you been blasting the social media of Viz/AoA/Sentai with requests for them to hire Ocean? Perhaps if a campaign were started now, Funi could be shown the light of outsourcing to NGP the pending new GitS property by the time they’d get to dubbing it.
With RightStuf’s new arrangement with Pony Canyon, perhaps now is a good time to try and persuade 'em to dub and to dub with lesser-used studios.
I’l not sure why you’re giving a negative response to Bang Zoom! opening an additional facility.
That was for Zurückspulen, and it was somewhat justified since it was based off the reboot manga as opposed to the original manga that the prior anime adaptations were based off of.
Not really, though I suggested Funi 2 years ago to give Future Diary to Ocean to dub, though it didn’t happen as expected, and look how that turned out once Funi in-house dubbed it (I did make what the cast would have looked like if it was dubbed in Vancouver, which you can see below).
I have heard on Behind the Voice Actors on various posts in the SMITE page that suggested fans to suggest Atlus, Aksys, NIS, XSEED/Marvelous USA and Tecmo-Koei (via Facebook, Twitter and e-Mail) to outsource several of their dubs to Okratron 5000. The posts also suggested that if more and more fans emailed them those messages, it will become harder for these companies to ignore those suggestions and ultimately they will listen and outsource some dubs over there. I guess the same can be said with Viz/AoA/Sentai, but it’s gonna take a combination of that, strong sales and demand (especially for sub-released DVDs with Sentai; 3000 copies sold would seem like a good-seller for Sentai, which might become Ocean’s largest client if they start outsourcing some of their dubs there), and them arsing themselves into realizing that Ocean could provide a good alternative to LA and Houston in terms of dubbing prices since the USD/CAD ratio is already on the way to reaching what would be considered “favorable” levels on the USD side of the equation (i.e. what the ratio was up to mid-2000s; ever heard why many dubs from the 1990s to mid-2000s were recorded in Vancouver?). The likeliness of those three companies outsourcing to Vancouver will be further helped once Toonami launches in Canada (and even Animax launching in the US and Canada as 24/7 channels).
[quote=“razzamatazz_buckshank, post:28, topic:7862”]
Future Diary (Vancouver)
Yukiteru Amano - Kristian Ayre
Yuno Gasai - Tabitha St. Germain
Takao Hiyama - Michael Dobson
Keigo Kurusu - Kirby Morrow
Reisuke Houjou - Jillian Michaels
Tsubaki Kasugano - Rebecca Shoichet
Marco Ikusaba - Colin Murdock
Ai Mikami - Saffron Henderson
Kamado Ueshita and Moe Wakaba - Chantal Strand
Minene Uryu - Maryke Hendrikse
Karyuudo Tsukishima - Garry Chalk
John Balks - Brian Dobson
Yomotsu Hirasaka - Allistar Abell
Deus Ex Machina - Richard Newman
MurMur - Shannon Chan-Kent
Akise Aru - Brad Swaile
Hinata Hino - Chiara Zanni
Mao Nonosaka - Kelly Sheridan
Ouji Kosaka - Samuel Vincent
Masumi Nishijima - Michael Adamthwaite
Rea Amano - Janyse Jaud
Kurou Amano - Brian Drummond
Ushio Gasai - Scott McNeil
Saika Gasai - Venus Terzo
Orin Miyashiro - Andrea Libman
Taro Nanba - Andrew Francis
Ryuji Kurosaki - Kyle Rideout
Naoko Kurusu - Lalainia Lindbjerg
Funatsu - Alec Willows
Hinata’s Mother - Lisa Ann Beley[/quote]
I’m not sure what Zach Bolton was thinking with that one. His dubs of late have been almost all down at CA levels. Might as well have outsourced 'em as far as I’m concerned. The mystery with Bolton is that he’s done some dubs in the past that were exemplary and his dodgy recent dubs have featured veterans who have been in scads of great dubs.
Bad things get negative responses lol
This definitely needs to happen. The CA dubs of J-games are pretty dodgy and alike. Case for Atlus branching out:
Funi infamously didn’t call in the complete Eva cast (and even made some lazy substitutions) and barely gave us Vash’s VA for the Trigun movie, indicating that they didn’t care about cast/studio consistency. Now they’re paying NGP to globetrot among studios to preserve cast consistency for lesser titles. I’m thinking that fan demand caused that “paradigm shift”. Maybe it can cause another.
What’s wrong with Bang Zoom! opening an additional facility?
I actually though about Atlus outsourcing the dub of Devil Survivor 2 to Houston (Seraphim Digital) to be consistent with the anime dub cast that came out earlier, though they probably decided otherwise since to them (and most companies specializing in J-games), Texas is completely alien to them in the voiceover world
Concerning the Rebuild series, Funi could have gotten Vic Mignona for Shigeru Aoba and Funi retain Monica Rial for Maya Ibuki. Anyways, how should Funi handle the Rebuild cast since most of the original NGE cast has retired.
For Funi not outsourcing to Fafner and Fam to Bang Zoom!, it mostly boils down to “everything must be in-house dubbed”, which I got to say is pretty much becoming biased since they could have easily outsourced them to Bang Zoom! without too much difficulty, yet at the same time they outsourced Ikki Tousen to NGP (and actually spent more money since it involved recording at LA and New York), so it seems kind of double-standard here. The most logical reasoning for Funi being more likely to outsource to NGP than Bang Zoom! is that Funi has relations with that company since 2006 when NGP talent such as Patrick Seitz and Carrie Savage began appearing on their dubs and ultimately became regulars to Funi’s dubs.
It implies that they’re getting more business, business that ought to be going to other-better-studios. Their expansion also implies that they’re secure in the increased demand for their services continuing, which isn’t the news that either the other studios or myself want to hear.
I still wonder about this as not only could they have dubbed Ikki Tousen themselves, and it would have been better as if there’s one thing that Funi can dub it is really raunchy fanservice shows (a skill they have, in large part, as they’re the only active dub company that heavily adapts its dub scripts), but I don’t recall any significant fan movement for dub continuity for the rather late releases of the show. For Bayonetta, was Klein already in/going to England for dubbing, or was that a special trip just for the dub of the movie that he did for Funi?
By making replacements that sound close to the original, instead of picking actors who sound little like the original. If they’re going to make such obvious replacements then they ought to have replaced the whole cast.
Hey, T&A sells, whether in the east or west. Sentai did it as well with Queen’s Blade, not only once (Rebellion had a handful of recurring characters, some used sparingly if at all that they’ve could have gotten away with an in-house dub) but twice with Beautiful Warriors. Ikki Tousen prob in the same boat, they sell enough to make profit even after outsourcing compared to other popular, selling shows.
With Funi’s big grab this season, they may have to start outsourcing if they decide to give them all dubs.
The issue as to why Bang Zoom!'s getting all stuff (much to your dismay) these days is that Bang Zoom! has been the premiere studio for LA dubs ever since the early 2000s when they dubbed Rurouni Kenshin. Bang Zoom! was found to be cheaper than its competitor Animaze yet also used most of the talent that worked at Animaze (the familiar anime dub names such as Steve Blum, Wendee Lee, Kirk Thornton, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, etc,).
Geneon was pretty much the only major client of New Generation Pictures since everyone else would rather hire well-known voice actors for dubs than use VAs completely new to the voiceover game.
Agreed, and Funi could outsource Assassination Classroom since it would be a good-seller for them. In general Funi and Sentai need to reach out more and expand their dubbing scope beyond what they currently have now that the USD/CAD ratio is almost back to normal, especially once Toonami launches in Canada…
If there’s a target audience for the average Bang/Zoom dub, works that amount to audiobooks of the subtitles, then I’m certainly not in it.
I dunno, they have the capability to simuldub atop their normal dub load. I’m suspecting that we’d see more dubs featuring large amounts of green actors with a slapdash script, or maybe even some more sub-only releases (ugh), before we see Funi outsource if they can’t handle the demand. Maybe they’ll outsource BlazBlue, though that is something (like Ikki Tousen) that would be best done in-house for Funi.
Dunno if this has made it here yet but RightStuf has confirmed that Pony Canyon’s US release of Yuki Yuna (whatever that really is) will have an English dub. I don’t know who convinced them to do that-it certainly wasn’t the non-dubbing pinch-pennies at RS-but the time for some fans to convince them to use Ocean seems to be at hand.
Though if they were to use NYAV (or anyone besides B/Z and Studiopolis) it would at least add some variety to the proceedings. IMO it’s essential that they don’t follow AoA’s lead and take the low-hanging fruit that is Bang/Zoom.
[quote=“celestial_being, post:35, topic:7862”]
Dunno if this has made it here yet but RightStuf has confirmed that Pony Canyon’s US release of Yuki Yuna (whatever that really is) will have an English dub.[/quote] Posted in the Yuki Yuna is a Hero thread
[/quote]
