Dubbing of K-On!

[bloppyblue]

Wow. I'm scared.

I really hope they don't ruin my favourite character D:

[CrowKenobi]

Hey, you're forgetting that Bandai is going to release K-ON! in four parts in deluxe and regular editions for both DVD and Blu-Ray! (MSRP of $29.98US for standard DVD).

Sold!

...and songs will not be dubbed.

source: ANN

[GMT]

Originally Posted by CrowKenobi

Hey, you're forgetting that Bandai is going to release K-ON! in four parts in deluxe and regular editions for both DVD and Blu-Ray! (MSRP of $29.98US for standard DVD).

In four parts . . . for a 14 episode season? I'm sorry, but did I take a wrong turn somewhere and walk into a time-portal to the year 2000? They released all fourteen episodes of Haruhi 2009 in a single set for a mere $60. But nearly $120 for fourteen episodes of K-ON! They've got to be off their <GITAH CHORD>ng rockers! I suppose I'll just have to wait six or seven more years when Bandai releases K-ON! in a single pack for $30 as an "Anime Legends" release.

EDIT:

And they're doing this with one known VA, a butcher, and two (AFAIK) complete unknowns. At least they haven't gone completely off the deep end and offered to let Christina Vee re-dub murder the songs.

[Baru]

Originally Posted by GMT

In four parts . . . for a 14 episode season? I'm sorry, but did I take a wrong turn somewhere and walk into a time-portal to the year 2007?

Fixed that for you

Anyway, this shouldn't be that surprising, this is the same way they released season 1 of Haruhi.
Haruhi09 was probably only in 1 set because of Endless Eight.

[GMT]

Originally Posted by Baru

Fixed that for you

Anyway, this shouldn't be that surprising, this is the same way they released season 1 of Haruhi.
Haruhi09 was probably only in 1 set because of Endless Eight.

Back then, the Western anime-watching audience could be expected to take their molestation with a rusty chainsaw with a smile and then eagerly come back and beg to have it done to them again.

But this is 2010. Shelf-space for anime is shrinking, peoples' pocketbooks are shrinking and average internet connection speeds are only going up. You can buy a full season of, say, House for $60 list price. I thought Bandai might've been seeing the light when Haruhi 2009 came out as a box-set, but I was apparently wrong. Worse, these days, by the time material is released in R1, the fandom has already torrented the original HD Japanese broadcast seven ways from Sunday.

K-ON! was something that should've been released as a competitively-priced box-set. Worse, if you go all out and buy the special edition Blu-Rays with bonus CDs, you will have spent about $180 for one season of K-ON! For $20 more, you could have all four seasons of the most recent incarnation of Battlestar Galactica. Either Bandai stuck their heads back up where the sun doesn't shine, or they're expecting K-ON! to bomb, and they figure they'd might as well get all the money they can out of the one or two parts most people would buy.

Oh well, at least I have the Haruhi movie to look forward to. That's supposed to be coming out dubbed at the same time K-ON! is.

[Baru]

K-On is a very hot property right now. Bandai probably had to pay a lot to get the license, and they probably couldn't afford to release it in one set. (reasonably priced anyway).

Comparing it to DVD/BD release price of US TV programs is foolish because they already get money from their TV run, plus they don't have to pay licensing costs to anyone.

This K-On release plan is perfectly fine and understandable.
I'll be buying the 4 volumes of K-On, and look forward to enjoying the series.

[GMT]

Originally Posted by Baru

K-On is a very hot property right now. Bandai probably had to pay a lot to get the license, and they probably couldn't afford to release it in one set. (reasonably priced anyway).

And Haruhi Suzumiya isn't? How about Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood? Yeah, sure, that's being released in four volumes, but there are 64 episodes and four OVAs . . . and each volume costs about $50 (with the Blu-Rays running something like $5 more.) So each volume has at least as many episodes as the entire first season of K-ON!

Of course, FUNimation themselves put up English subs of new episodes practically at the speed of fansub, so they broadcast them over the interwebs, but how many views does that realistically generate? And sure, Fullmetal Alchemist was broadcast on Adult Swim right when the dubs came out, but the ratings (i.e. viewers, which translates directly into how much a given 30 second television ad spot goes for) for late night cable television are minuscule.

Even then, add it all up, and you'll be paying nearly four times as much for a given episode of K-ON! as you would be for an episode of FMA:B.

Comparing it to DVD/BD release price of US TV programs is foolish because they already get money from their TV run, plus they don't have to pay licensing costs to anyone.

That's not nearly as true as it was even five or ten years ago. When you broadcast a show on TV, it earns revenue from ads sold during that block of broadcasting time. Only there are lots of things that make those profits a lot smaller than one might think. First is the cost of having a studio produce a show. In my previous House example, Hugh Laurie makes $480,000 per episode. When you throw in everybody else's salaries and other material costs, House probably costs about a million dollars an episode (compare this to an episode of anime, which costs roughly $125,000 to produce.) Second is all the competition. The typical household with satellite or cable has access to something like 100 channels. You have to spend a lot just to advertise a show on TV so viewers will know when to tune in, and that they really do want to tune in. Instead of watching Dancing With the Stars or something else. And if there's not that, there's streaming over the internet, where the ad revenue is even less. And even then, a family might save House to their TiVo and skip through the commercials, and producers of advertising are aware of that.

End result, a television show makes much of its money on DVD sales. Only the studios and actors are entitled to their cut of those too.

[Recette]

Originally Posted by CrowKenobi

...and songs will not be dubbed.

It's a bit odd how the only song with "official" english lyrics never gets the chance to appear in the show in a vocal form. They should have taken the BECK route and made all their songs full of engrish so english singing fits it like a glove.

Joking aside, it's always weird seeing how songs translate across languages, especially when it comes to fitting english words in phrasings meant for japanese syllables.

[xBTAx]

While I'm pretty mad at the decision to split it into 4 parts at that price myself, I'm hoping the CDs will make up for it. If they're using the actual CDs that were released in Japan (which I think they've done for some past releases?), that's ~$20 per CD.

Still, $40 for 4 (or less) episodes... I don't know how Bandai thought that would be ok.

[Recette]

Originally Posted by xBTAx

Still, $40 for 4 (or less) episodes... I don't know how Bandai thought that would be ok.

Considering the show made some fans willing to drop $700 for Fender Jazz Basses and $400+ for AKG K701's minus amp...

[darkchibi07]

Originally Posted by Baru

Two new Cast Announcements were just made for Bandai and Bang Zoom's K-On dub:

Cassandra Lee as Ritsu
Shelby Lindley as Tsumugi

I've never heard of Cassandra Lee at all, and I've only heard Shelby as Shamal in Nanoha A's. (and it's her only notable role)

Seems a lot of newer VAs will be part ofthe K-On cast...

Emerje from ANN found out more about Cassandra Lee. It's actually Cassandra Lee Morris, and she goes by a different name who had roles in Yu-Gi-Oh GX and 5D's.

[xBTAx]

Originally Posted by Recette

Considering the show made some fans willing to drop $700 for Fender Jazz Basses and $400+ for AKG K701's minus amp...

Yes, but those are Japanese fans who are paying ~$60 for DVD/Blu-ray releases of 2 or 3 episodes.

[GMT]

Originally Posted by xBTAx

While I'm pretty mad at the decision to split it into 4 parts at that price myself, I'm hoping the CDs will make up for it. If they're using the actual CDs that were released in Japan (which I think they've done for some past releases?), that's ~$20 per CD.

Still, $40 for 4 (or less) episodes... I don't know how Bandai thought that would be ok.

Either because someone at Bandai is trapped in a time-warp (where time hasn't progressed since the days that three-to-five episode single discs were a good idea,) or the Japanese are trying to curtail the phenomena of reverse-importation (since K-ON!! S2 coming out on DVD/Blu-Ray in Japan might encourage people to buy K-ON! S1 who haven't done so already, and heaven forbid that the K-ON! product be diluted by cheap American import versions.)

And I doubt they'll be using the actual CDs on the special-edition releases. They'll be stripped down because Pony Canyon might be delusional enough to think that huge numbers of Americans will want to pay Japanese import prices on the singles. I'd bet that one CD would have Cagayake GIRLS! full + instrumental, one would have Don't Say Lazy! full + instrumental, and one will almost certainly have some version of Fuwa Fuwa Time! on it + instrumental. If we're lucky, the one I haven't mentioned will have Fude Pen Boru Pen on it, and/or My Love is a Stapler . . . but I'd gamble on one CD being Mio-version Fuwa Fuwa Time, and the other being Yui-version Fuwa Fuwa Time.

[xBTAx]

Originally Posted by GMT

Either because someone at Bandai is trapped in a time-warp (where time hasn't progressed since the days that three-to-five episode single discs were a good idea,) or the Japanese are trying to curtail the phenomena of reverse-importation (since K-ON!! S2 coming out on DVD/Blu-Ray in Japan might encourage people to buy K-ON! S1 who haven't done so already, and heaven forbid that the K-ON! product be diluted by cheap American import versions.)

And I doubt they'll be using the actual CDs on the special-edition releases. They'll be stripped down because Pony Canyon might be delusional enough to think that huge numbers of Americans will want to pay Japanese import prices on the singles. I'd bet that one CD would have Cagayake GIRLS! full + instrumental, one would have Don't Say Lazy! full + instrumental, and one will almost certainly have some version of Fuwa Fuwa Time! on it + instrumental. If we're lucky, the one I haven't mentioned will have Fude Pen Boru Pen on it, and/or My Love is a Stapler . . . but I'd gamble on one CD being Mio-version Fuwa Fuwa Time, and the other being Yui-version Fuwa Fuwa Time.

Well, I looked into it- apparently, the Haruhi LEs had the character singles, and I think the Lucky Star LEs did too. (Personally, I'm hoping for the character singles, since I'm buying the Houkago Tea Time II album and that has all of the inserts on it.)

But the Haruhi and Lucky Star LEs (well, based off the first of each) seem to have 2 CDs per set... So how they'll separate them will be interesting to see.

[Goggen]

Originally Posted by xBTAx

Well, I looked into it- apparently, the Haruhi LEs had the character singles, and I think the Lucky Star LEs did too.

Hm, really hope they don't do that. The character singles are the least interesting of all the CD releases, IMO, and certainly the least appropriate ones to be bundled with the series. ('course, for my own personal sake it doesn't matter since I'm buying the CD singles/albums I'm interested in anyway... but in principle the HTT songs should get priority on a release such as this, no?)

[bloppyblue]

I didn't know whether to put this under Ritsu or dubbing...

This is a demo-reel of Ritsu's voice actress, Cassandra Lee Morris for animated roles

Her site: http://www.cassandramorris.net/

[GMT]

Originally Posted by bloppyblue

I didn't know whether to put this under Ritsu or dubbing...

This is a demo-reel of Ritsu's voice actress, Cassandra Lee Morris for animated roles

Her site: http://www.cassandramorris.net/

And just when I was thinking that Bang Zoom would do a better job than Animax did on their English dub, since Animax set the bar pretty darned low. But, all current indications would suggest that they've managed to limbo right under that bar.

I'm really, really trying to envision Cassandra Lee as Ritsu. I mean, don't get me wrong, there is a fair bit of overlap between Cassandra Lee and Ritsu Tainaka. But after listening to her VA reel and watching her Youtube video . . . I'm very worried that her take on Ritsu is going to be much, much, more bratty (and sounding like Ritsu at twelve) than genki.

[darkchibi07]

Ehhh, no. Animax set the bar very, VERY low their their miscast roles, clumsy readings, and the ability of making everyone not sound distinguish. It'll be interesting hearing some fresh voices coming out of this since I know some of the people complain (well, they always complain about dubs anyways) about "reusing" the same people.

[U<3Anime]

Originally Posted by Need More Coffee

In general, Yui's lovable absentminded yet thoughful and lovable stupidity is completely gone in the Animax performance, particularly in the flashback where she begs for icecream.

And the Hong Kong Dub has TOTALLY wrecked Mugi's gentle and beautiful voice.

Let's hope the American dub does a lot better.

Just had to how bad it is, but it wasn't as bad as I anticipated. I'm sure TVB could have chosen a more fitting voice for mugi. But man Ui also has timid voice but she sounds likes a total brat in the dub. Man, is it just me or canto dub has gotten pretty bad in the recent years? I grew up watching lot's of anime in canto dub and I don't remember them being this bad. I still rewatch chibi maruko chan in canto dub once awhile and it's still very enjoyable for me.

[winhlp32]

For reference, K-On Taiwanese Dubs. In my opinion a lot better than Animax dubs.