Interview w/ ADR Director/Writer: Steven Foster

WEll, don’t really know what the people say but Guin was a good idea, implemented badly, and the voices given were probably the best that could be done with its half-stories. I mean the woman general was jsut… Can someone slap her! Even with th sound off, she makes no sense unless she was jsut some sort of fanservice drone character of the semi tsundere variety…

I wonder if there is manga or light novel bits that were missing from the story animated? When it started pickking up, it just rushed everything to the end probably because the whole episode count thing that kills most good shows (NGNL).

You jsut have to watch it to understand it, like Nadia and the real secret of the Blue Water… the show jsut goes off the rails quicker than a bunch of drunk at a bar.

Since you made it through all 26 episodes dubbed without being phased by the Fosterization, I’m thinking that it was well done. Though when the Fosterization is taken out of context, as the Internet has done, it seems to be making the case that it couldn’t be ignored. I wouldn’t mind if that weren’t the case, as I found the out-of-context Fosterization to be hilarious, but if it fits seamlessly (as proper Fosterization did) then that’s even better.

More corroboration of Foster’s remark in the interview.

I am unsure which remark that would be because getting back to the first post now is an impossible task in this joke of a forum…

I don’t think ANY dub or sub could ahve a chance to fix a show that was created poorly from the Japanese studio. You cannot add scenes to lengthen a show to add the missing parts that the original animators left out when the director of the original animation made the call. I would fault the people like Sunrise for the ending of Inuyasha at 167 episodes, and those Studio Perrot(?) that ended Bleach at 366 episodes.

I am not really sure how all that works, the only thing I know is things I ahve heard like they were catching up to the manga too quickly and didn’t want to add filler. Isn’t every movie for InuYasha and Bleach jsut filler anyway since they are not canon to the story, jsut part of the franchise money making engine? Also how Log Horizon got a second season in part thanks to streaming viewership. Though a 3rd season is quetionable there because the studio DEEN treatment is already being frowned upon in the way everything looks off, and they added T&A content to a former DTP member, jsut for the sake of given bigger boobs to the girl with the biggest boobs already. LH isnt a T&A show, and there is already backlash for that.

Which could in no way be something Sentai could be responsible for because it was the idiots that did the original animation who screewd it up. Thus while sales in foreign marktes fail to raise and even drop on sequels is msotly because animation values were bad, not the foriegn market distributor had any real control. I think Foster did say something about that in there that was along the lines of you cannot make something look serious that already looks bad? If that is what you mean. I would need a new link to the interview since I can’t get to the first post in a thead ever now to see what was said. Thus is the reason why forums have pages, so you can always view the opening post, and why this junk is useless. (aside from the fact it kills tabbed browsing and wants to go back to AOL days and newshroups days)

or was it he was saying about the script not animation? i dont remember. but sub/dub script cannot help badly animated and rushed series either way.

[quote=“shadzar, post:23, topic:7663”]
I am unsure which remark that would be because getting back to the first post now is an impossible task in this joke of a forum…[/quote]
I don’t know what kind of device you’re using, but there should be a green box in the lower right of your screen with the number of posts. Click on that and it should pop-up. You can then jump to the top of the category.

I know what you mean. On PC, getting to the top is relatively easy as the post box is easily clicked but on mobile, where the post position box too often doesn’t respond to being clicked, it can be a very long scroll back to the top that turns a mobile device into a finger treadmill.

Here’s the bit I was referencing:

[quote="Stephen Foster]I’m no heretic by pointing out that a lot of anime, narratively
speaking, just goes off the rails. Even Miyazaki, who’s a genius, can
get a little shaky in Act Three with the storytelling.[/quote]

(He seems to exclude Le Chevalier D’Eon from that, which strikes me as odd as Act Three is where the show took its turn for the worse)

Hey Guys ,

Like Slowhand said, we need to know what device you are using when you experience this issue. Also helpful to know is what browser and version of it are you using.

Thank you,
-Mo-

I think the craziness in Howl’s and Spirited Away work great. Nothing there that should have been changed to accomodate a different audience that lacks culture. It is jsut when something like Guin or Nadia pull some Star Ocean: End of Time crap and forget the rails are even there and are underwater and in the sky at the same time!

Nothing a sub or dub can do to fix that, and since too many anime have that unfinished nonsense that is a bit too much in the way of Japanese culture, it leaves a sour aste in your mouth. Shadow Skill should be left unfinished like Shingu. Many other things like say Guin, there could have been an ending for Guin since it was HIS saga afterall. Cpt Earth got not only an end for the titular character, but a sequel to come. Log Horizon didn’t jsut end…InuYasha ended. If I were the mangaka for InuYasha I would have been pissed. If I were the dub/sub person of a foreign language I would ahve been pissed. You msut give this incomplete and half-assed product to people with YOUR name on it, that is incomplete because some studio screwed up in Japan.

Didn’t get to see the end of D’eon because it was lsot along with B’t X, AM Driver, Fumoffu and the rest so have no idea what happened in it and likely will never care to check because changing hands really kills a show for me when one company gets something screwed up like 4Kids to Funi with One Piece. Luckily Naruto was strong enough to continue on after Disney got scared because of it being UNCUT, even though Disney runs rampant with murder since the 60s in its programs, and even promotes bullying with Big G/D in Doraeman, and everyone else that bullies Nobey, from the kdis to his parents. Or maybe not bullying but general child abuse is funny to Disney I guess, and that is ok for the laws, but Buggs, Daffy, Wile E etc getting blown up as talking animals is too realistic and harmful to children.

MAybe I need to research foster more to see what he was doing other than Guin that I have seen and see if anything in my memory was a problem with scripts and stories other than the timing and wrong words like has occured in recent Sentai titles as I have been noting since that Cecil Bannister, and the older one where the boy clone became god when only the army was allowed to fly in planes…whatever that show was. Talk about going off the rails and ending on a bad note and having a lack of an ending! Wolf’s Rain ended better than that and it just ended showing episode 1 all over again so the cycle could continue and be neverending!

IMO, you’re not missing much with D’Eon so long as you made it through the Russia storyline.

I thought that the issues I’ve had with some Sentai dubs, problems that came up regardless of director, were due solely to Sentai trying to dub shows as fast as possible. Reflecting upon the dubs and this article, I realize that I didn’t want to believe that Sentai could be deliberately not bringing its A-game to the table out of some misbegotten pursuit of “faithfulness”.

A dub that sets out to be lackluster and a dub that sets out to be “faithful” both end up in the same place.

This seems to be a problem Sentai jsut has and has nothing to do with Foster, unless Foster was the reason for the hald-assed job. That boy with plane goes to school but is really clone fighter and ends up being god show, Wizard Barrister, Haiyku! where the translation problems are glaring and the timing of the subs are so bad that you don’t have time to read them or they have so many typos you have no idea what you are rading is jsut either the case of rushed or hacked work.

I agree it seems a company problem not jsut a single director if it is happening so often with many varied people working on the different things/shows. Thus why I am so vocal about it. MAybe Sentai wishes to hide it and sweep it under the rug, but if you are going to be doing such poor quality, then maybe the word needs to be spread so the ones granting the licenses will look elsewhere or Sentai will clean up the problems in the stream so the watering hole doesn’t get poisoned.

But this is a bigger problem in America where people don’t want to accept fault or resposibility and jsut pas it off so that is in EVERY industry, jsut look at the current/recent Chevrolet case where the CEO knew about the parts problem and decided to do nothing thinking she could get away with i and now wants to feign ignorance or the Texas police department that took money under Asset Forfetiure claiming the money was guilty because it might be intended to be used for a crime and bought a margarita machine for the police station. People jsut don’t think their **** stinks and refuse to amdit fault or failure EVERYWHERE! Thus we have to call the Hudson River pilot a hero because he actually did his job correctly by trying to make sure the passengars got from point A to point B alive. I agree with him that doing his job correctly doesn’t make one a hero, jsut makes those too arrogant and lazy to not do their jobs so pathetic that it is disgusting.

I take your word that it was a Sentai fault not a Foster fault in this matter, because I did see the episode up to the Russian before we lost it among the rest on VOD in that Arm or Sojitz or whatever lawsuit where Sentai/ADV seems to have been proven they have faults. :shrug:

I jsut know I hold everyone up to my standars which are:

  1. form follows function. make something to use not for vanity or popularity sake
  2. KISS (Keep It Simpe, STUPID!)
  3. don’t waste everyone’s time to do something unless you are going to do it right.

I really don’t see why a human would do anything contrary to those 3 simple things. :shrug:

http://ask.fm/KyleColbyJones/answer/132037421318

Q. I don’t know if you know the answer, but out of curiosity, what ever happened to Steven Foster?

A. I’m afraid I do not know enough to answer that. Just rumors mostly.
Many moons ago, Steven called me up and brought me in to ADV. I will forever be grateful. All I can hope is that he’s in a happy place.

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