Yeah…but I was right with Spice and Wolf. I knew that would sell decently. Never said it would be a big hit or anything. And you thought Funi would lose money on dubbing that too 
.
I understand what you mean though. But “some” of those otaku titles are decently popular, really depends what ones you mean. Strike Witches would not be one I’d rank high on the list though .
[quote=Prede]
I knew what you meant Cody, but it was still funny to hear you say “big hit” and “Strike Witches” in the same sentence .
And everytime you talk about sales it depresses me. I don’t want you to stop telling people of course, because we must all face reality. But it’s very depressing 
.[/quote]
Nothing is more depressing than walking past the anime section in my store that was once 16 ft, and finding it is now only 4 ft. Or going to one of the stores with the “fully expanded” anime selections to find that they still have a sizable section, but everything is spread out and they are missing tons of new releases. What really depress me is when I looked at my employee purchases over the past two years and saw how much anime I use to buy at work, and then realize most of my purchases have to be made at Right Stuf now.
I think Strike Witches will do okay, even if just from all the controversy it generates. Notoriety, even if negative, can help a title immensely. Just look at Elfen Lied for proof.
Prede - You’re confusing me for PP and blakdragon, they’re the ones you were arguing with about S & W. I only said it was very risky and that it was likely not a worthwhile deal given no one was taking the bite. Funimation ultimately did because Kadokawa USA was exiting the market and likely got a better deal than they bandied about for many months without anyone biting.
Which otaku titles do you think are popular enough to be dubbed? Popularity online has nothing to do with sales at least not directly. 
I don’t recall you saying they were wasteing their money on the dub. But you did say it wouldn’t sell to well IRRC. And my point still stands. Sorry for putting words in your mouth though. I confuse who says certain things sometimes, but I’m really good at rememeber WHAT is said.
Otaku titles worth dubbing? I don’t know, haven’t been keeping up on new stuff thats airing. I was just saying in general there are a handfull that would sell well enough to justify dubs IMO. IMO Clannad would have been a good title to dub for example, just based on AIr and Kanon doing well (although I understand why Sentai didn’t and have no problem with that). K-On! is another title that IMO would be worth dubbing, because it would probably sell enough. **Familiar of Zero 2 ** would be another guess, just based on the fact that fanservice sells. But of course looking at what the first season sold would be helpful for judging this.
Ultimately it comes down to risk and profit. With the way licensing deals are structured nowadays, there’s not much profit to be had for the R1 companies. Even if something sells well, a lot of that money is going to the JP companies. So when adding the cost of dub production over that, that’s where things get complicated. In that sense I think S&W would not have been a fruitful venture for other companies, especially if they dubbed it. When companies don’t have the cash cows, these are their sources of profits, so… they can’t take those other risks.
Case in point, Toradora. The most popular online anime in the last year along with Clannad and K-On… yet no one even bid on it or had much of an interest in it. Big tell-tale sign there.
For that title, I’m not sure if it would be worth dubbing. Especially not for a new company that’s for sure. IMO dubbing most otaku titles today is a risk. It could turn out to be profitable, or bite them in the ass. This is an art, not a science. Your never sure what will sell well, until the DVD is released. But you can make some educated guesses.
Exactly. Now more and more, it seems like companies can’t or won’t take that risk… and I believe there’s a good reason for it like some of the stuff that Cody mentioned with the B&M retail market contracting again. So now, if it’s risky in their books, it’s a pass unless they get a real good deal for it.
Not to mention you have to take into affect that the Otaku-oriented titles are some of the most expensive and difficult to dub. Not only is an intense amount of work required, but fans of these are quite discerning. They won’t generally except some hack job dub for their favorite shows. They have much higher expectations for them, especially given the excellent work we’ve seen over the past few years.
Well, there has been some movement by companies to go back and dub titles that have proven successful. So Clannad may get dubbed at some point. Toradora, well, who knows with that one. Right now NIS is an unknown company in this market, and just because they have a solid track record in gaming doesn’t mean they will develop one in anime.
As for Shana Season 2, it hasn’t been picked up yet. It’s been assumed that Funi would be the front runner for it, but without knowing exact sales numbers for season 1, it’s hard to say how well it would do. Plus, you have the whole mess with Universal Geneon in Japan and no one knows what is happening there. I hope this one will be dubbed as well if it gets acquired.
Also, don’t forget as Dragoon has said, just because something is popular on an online forum, doesn’t mean it will sell a lot of units. There have been plenty of Otaku oriented shows that were hugely popular online, but ultimately failed with their DVD releases. The majority of anime buyers may not buy a lot of series, but they buy a few and most of them don’t post online regularly.
Good points Cody.
Shana is a mirage in my book. I think it did and 2 could do well for a niche title without a dub, but I personally have seen nothing to suggest that it could profit well with a dub (especially an outsourced dub to Ocean for continuity, that’ll waste even more money on a non-sure hit). Especially when you consider why Shana 2 is taking so long to get picked up - there’s a reason for that - otherwise we’d have seen it out by now.
Btw I think we need an offtopic thread. It seems like we all post only when we go off-topic. lol
One my list of the Top 10 Reasons why TAN is better than those other forums, “No Locking of Off Topic Threads is number 9!” LOL
That’s the only thing I liked about when the TAN forums were down. We could BS about this and that on that chatroomy thing. We had a lot of good convos over there . Of course I’m not sure I like the idea of having one of those things on this forums, because then no one EVER talks in the forums… We need a happy medium.
We go off topic a lot, but hey at least it’s interesting!
These forums are not about the destination. They are about our journey and the fun we have getting there! 
Might as well throw the destination as well while you’re at it! 
lol
Sure, why not!
You know what would be hilarious? If a couple of months down the line, Sentai/MB/etc. announces their new anime licenses and they included the 2 seasons of currently licensed Funi series - Hell Girl, Shana, Darker Than Black, Big Wind Up, etc. and sub-only. I’ll be ROFL :laugh: over the angry mail and comments toward Funi on all the anime forums, but more specificaly those on Funi’s own site.
It’ll be the wake up call for all the dub whynners (hoped that’s spelled right) out there on the precarious nature of anime in today’s age, when their “knight in shining dub everything armor” didn’t get the licenses to their favorite series.
Of course, for those of us who’ve adapted or never had a prob with subs (u know, us “old timers” who watched anime back in the VHS era), it will be anime watching as usual.
Sadly the way fans are, most blame the other companies for picking it up even if it makes no sense or have any basis. These clueless people were mad Sentai picked up Clannad + didn’t dub it. They have this false imagination that if no one picks it up someone else will way down the line. (Proven false) Same with all these sub-only titles - only for them to find out now, in the case of stuff like Toradora, there was no competition on it.
Thankfully it seems like more facts are coming to the surface lately that the complainers are getting educated about, and there really has been a strong reduction in complaints lately. Hopefully we are at a turning point in the industry as well as fandom. 2010 will temporarily be a better year, how the fans react to the evolution remains to be seen - I’m skeptical though. I fear that the whiners will get what they want, only to aid in the downfall of the industry, just like in the bubble period. A lot of the people complaining now about no dubs are the very same people who did not buy the singles necessary to support dub productions on niche titles. I hope we don’t see it again, but we’ll see.
The question is whether all the facts that care coming to the surface will actually stick or not. Most of these whiners completely glazed over the Geneon podcast when it was revealed how dismally some of what were thought to be their successful titles sold. Not to mention most of the cry babies don’t read the news, they just b*tch about it. rolls eyes
I think it’s starting to compound. The last 2 months seem to be a turning point. That or SZS and Toradora really are so niche that they didn’t know about it. Or maybe they’ve finally been weeded out and found a new hobby, like trying to learn common sense.
I think their heads imploded and their headless bodies are laying next to their stacks of external hard drives they bought to download fansubs instead of buying Anime.