Lance M. Hatami (michio@jps.net)
Sun, 21 Feb 1999 10:52:01 -0700
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (Macintosh; I; PPC) Message-ID: <36D047BF.4FA9@jps.net> Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1999 10:52:01 -0700 From: "Lance M. Hatami" <michio@jps.net> Subject: Re: Sakura Wars OVAs dubbed in English!
> That's just evil to put Sakura Taisen in English...considering how extremely
> Japanese it is. Shame shame on American Anime distribution companies and
> their marking up of subtitles for us poor Japanese language fans. And also
> shame on people who are too lazy to read subtitles and demand inferior dubs
> from the distribution companies.
Yes, I agree that I hate most English dubs, especially things like
Sailormoon (Mitsuishi Kotono can never be replaced as the voice of
Usagi), but fans also must understand that it is a business technique to
get MORE fans. After all, if you catered just to just the anime fans of
Sakura Taisen, that's not very many people. Yes, I hear people saying,
I know people who love Sakura Taisen, but how many people is that
really? Definitely not as many people as Sailor Moon who mostly became
fans because of dubs (and god awful, choppy ones at that).
For one, putting the video out is just a gamble, because major rental
companies might not pick up the title due to its "ethnic" nature and low
rental potential. Come on now. How many times have you passed through
the video aisles and actually look at the non-anime, foreign selection
and rent it? While these movies might have good ratings, a lot of
people run for more blockbuster titles like "Something About Mary" and
the like. Also, not that many people rent "cartoons" on the weekends
compared to popular rentals. Plus, even though I haven't seen the
English version cover, I'm sure Sakura Taisen lacks the big-breasted,
scantily clad women of other anime videos (Cutey Honey comes to mind).
A first look at a girl in a kimono doesn't seem to interesting. I
didn't buy the game just because it had a girl with a sword on the
cover. If I was in a store, I would have just passed it by.
I must definitely agree that marking up a subtitled copy is a horrible
thing. It should be the same price as the dubbed version since it must
cost less to produce than a dubbed version (timing the subtitles instead
of creating a music, voice, and sound effect track). Even a basic,
cheap program like Premiere can do that, or at least a cheaper
production program like Media 100 which can produce excellent video
copies. But then again, the company might be thinking in terms of how
many copies are sold of this copy versus a dubbed one. Rental stores
usually pick up the dubbed one for its potential and cheaper price.
Plus, they probably are trying to pick up a few extra bucks from devoted
fans while they are at it.
Sorry to get all preachy. I took a course in college about marketing
products and my art professor made a movie and talked about all the
sacrifices that have to be made, whether they are good intentions or
not.