Rozen Maiden License Discussion Thread

[nekokaburi]

my guess is, since it's a name, they went with how it is said, with a little less accent... so sui do-rii-mu became sui dream....

it's kinda like how in eureka 7, eureka's name is not pronounced 'yoo-ree-ka' like the word is pronounced in english... they kept it the same as the japanese but with a little less accent... so 'e-ool-lre-ka'... became 'el-re-ka...'

tokyopop's translation of the rozen maiden manga takes way too much creative licence... changing desu to 'yes' was a bad move (it should have been left as desu, or cut out all together, none of this half measures crap)... and they miss spell suigintou at least once (suginto or something) so i wouldn't exactly trust them... besides, geneon wouldn't talk to tokyopop about their dub, they would listen to their own translators.

my dodgy hong kong DVD's translated everyones names in the subtitles... so shinku became 'ruby'... suisei seki became 'jade'... sousuiseki became 'lapus lazuli' etc... i think they translated suidream as "jade dream"... (tomoe became 'bar'... of all things... so it could have been worse...)

still... at first, i thought suiseiseki said 'come out 'silly-dream'..." when she first summons her artificial spirit...

EDIT: i dunno about consulting peach pit (since they're the manga artists, they probably didn't have very much to do with the actual anime production) but they would have gotten the original script with the visual/audio masters from TBS (the guys who made the anime)... and they would have consulted with the original director about this or that... i think when anime is licenced, a lot of time, it's part of the contract that all 'creative changes' have to be run through the original japanese director to make sure he's fine with it... otherwise... we would end up with a dub like the 'one piece edit'...

[Asrialys]

I was under the impression that either sub or dub version of Eureka 7 said "Eureka" as it's spelled. No "El." Just "Eu."

I don't bother with griping over misspellings and grammatical errors, unless they pop up everywhere. Although, I'd rather have that everything was perfect. I see more errors in fansubs than subs from R1 DVDs. Well, errors often go unnoticed anyway, no matter how professional a job.

LOL I thought I heard Silly Dream also. I had to rewind and turn on the subs to make sure.

[Mirrinus]

From what I understand, both Suiseiseki and Souseiseki had their artificial spirits named after perfume fragrances. Suiseiseki's is named after Anna Sui, so technically the R1 release may be considered more correct in regards to the original meaning behind the name, rather than translating it as "Sweet Dreams".

[nekokaburi]

well that is probably true (wikipedia says it is... "anna sui")... i know lempika is named after some perfume called 'lolita lempicka'... so 'sui dream' is prolly pretty accurate... reba west just has that kind of voice that pronounces every syllable just a little too accurately... hence why 'silly-dream' is the first thing i heard...

i'm so interested to hear souseiseki's voice now... she'll prolly sound kinda like sophia from last exile since july ann tailor is her voice actress... she should sound pretty good...

[Asrialys]

Well, another reason would be that we so much expected to hear "Sweet" that we really had no idea what we heard the first time. Ah, but that's just crazy speculation.

Anyway, I forgot about the perfume. So that would explain it better.

[QueenNori]

Originally Posted by Asrialys

Whether you're watching the R1 DVD sub or dub, some of you may have taken notice of how they translated Suiseiseki's little shiny thing as Sui Dream. I can't remember how the fansubs translated it, but I'm sure I've only ever seen Sweet Dream, even in Tokyo Pop's translation of the manga. If Wikipedia is correct, it is spelled スィドリーム (Suidoriimu). I can't confirm that though. If anyone has a raw of the manga or some other source, then maybe they can check.

Sui Dream sounds correct based off the spelling, but Sweet Dream sounds better and would make more sense. If the spelling above is accurate, then my assumption for the use of that spelling would be that it's easier to speak. I tried saying Suiito Doriimu, but it seemed difficult and weird. I don't know. For simplicity and clerity, I would have spelled it スィッドリーム (Suiddoriimu). Meh.

Ah, whatever. Geneon should have stuck with something that made more sense rather than something seemingly more literal. Wonder if they consulted Peach-Pit or whoever about it.

It's also called "Sui Dream" in the German dub, btw.

[Dandruff]

Got the first volume yesterday, I wasn't bothered much by the dub, perhaps since I had not watched Rozen in quite a while xD. Suprisingly my father liked it alot (the only anime he's ever seen and watched was Yu gi Oh, he watched all four episodes with me and was asking me when the next volume would be coming out, lawl.

[QueenNori]

Geneon's latest schedule confirms the first volume of Rozen Maiden Träumend for an October 23 release in North America!

[nekokaburi]

yeah, i was most vexed that they posted that piece of news, whilst rozen maiden volume 1, still sits there all alone, and unloved...

they haven't reviewed volume 1 yet is what i'm getting at... i know it may sound trivial, but many many people go to ANN, and i'm sure just as many read the reviews... even if it gets a bad review, it's better than it being swept under the carpet and forgotten about...

otherwise, how else are we going to improve RM's popularity 10 fold, so geneon will license overture...

[FireChick]

Wheee! I got Rozen Maiden volume 1 on DVD! But I have to wait until Monday because it's a birthday present and...I dunno. I can't wait to watch it in english! I bet my mom also got me that Naruto special on DVD too! The Rozen Maiden DVD was from Suncoast in the mall.

[Katsu Koneko]

Squee DVD 2 comes out soon~ ^^ Can't wait to buy it unless my plan backfires and boo.

[FireChick]

Whee! I got Rozen Maiden volume 1! I only watched the first half of the first episode because I heard a curse word. I know I'm 14 now but I don't like swear words. Shinku's voice is cool and Jun sounds EXACTLY like Izzy from Digimon! Cool! I still find it strange that Geneon still uses the japanese suffixes (kun, chan, san, vice versa) but I don't mind. Nori's voice is nice.

[the.Merines]

Finally got my hands on Vol.1 and the Ltd. Edition box. I'm impressed by the box more than the fact that I have RM in English. >.< Though the box is already almost full w/ my R1 Vol1, R2 Vol1+6, and Traumend R2 Vol.6.

The limited edition Ouverture box is a nice contrast, too.

[Potatochobit]

I am getting sick of this Cheap @__ DVD packaging done in mexico. this is the THIRD time the front insert was torn because it was STUCK to the sticker seal at the top.

I;m all for supporting production in mexico and NAFTA, but that is NO excuse to cut corners, something so miniscule as this REALLY P____S me off.

If geneon and funimation plan to make a long lasting habbit of this I am going to start exchanging my DVDs.

other than that, I'm happy since I got Disc 2 today ^_^

[nekokaburi]

WHAT!!!!

i cry foul!!! i demand a recount!!! i demand a refund!!! and above all i demand vol 2 to be delivered early to me too!!!

you lucky sod... it'll be the 17th before my copy comes in the mail... if not later...

p.s. Potatochobit... your user name has made my night... lol...

[Katsu Koneko]

*O* I wanna get volume 2~ Though there isn't a good time to get it this week. *is sad*

So Potatochobit (cute name), how was volume 2?

[nekokaburi]

i got mine in the post yesterday, or rather, it was waiting for me when i got back from my holiday...

i'm rather impressed with it do be honest... episode 5 is as funny as ever... they took a bit of creative licence in a few places to make the dialogue fit the lip flaps (for example: suiseiseki telling jun and hina to "shut up" in the 'aligator of truth' (they changed that too) part, she says "shut up conspirators"... which is rather fitting). "flower topped hamburger" got translated as exactly that, and pretty much everything else is pretty close too.

we get to hear shinku's english emotional "in destress" voice, which was pretty good and we get to here more of Mia Bradly's performance as suigintou... very nice... especially when she calls shinku junk for the first time...

souseiseki's english voice is pretty good too... she sounds pretty unfeminine, but just girlie enough that she can be recognized as a girl...

there are a few parts where suiseiseki's "so this" and "so that" are a little more obvious, but i don't see it as an attempt to translate 'desu', more like making up for extra lip flaps that 'desu' creates... she certainly doesn't say it as often as she said 'desu' so it doesn't really feel like they were trying to replace every desu with an english word... just the more over the top ones...

i'm pretty much loving everything about the R1 release of RM so far... except... the extra's on the dvd's... and the amount of (or should i say, lack of) coverage RM is getting...

the extra's are typical fare from geneon... they're almost nonexistent... but then again, this is geneon... not ADV...

RM is getting SFA 'media' coverage ever since it came out... ANN haven't even reviewed volume 1 yet and newtype USA basically gave it the cold shoulder this month... even animeonDVD have dropped the ball and haven't reviewed volume 2 yet... pretty slack if you ask me...

geneon have said they're disappointed with how badly it's selling at the moment. they reckon karin is doing better... if this continues i think we can kiss overture's possible R1 licence good bye...

i've tried to rally the fans of RM around my banner of getting the word out, but the interest doesn't seem to be there... it's a shame, because i doubt geneon will bother with overture, or series 3, when it comes out (note, my total confidence of a 3rd anime series)... if the first 2 series don't sell very well... or worse yet... media blasters could get it and release it sub only (GAG! HOK! SPITEW!!)...

maybe it will pick up some pace when traumend comes out... we can only hope...

[FireChick]

I managed to get volume 2 of Rozen Maiden early last week at the anime convention which was on the 8th of July along with Shounen Onmyouji. I was surprised!

[•••Shadow•••]

Originally Posted by Shiroth

Yes its finally happened - and Geneon are the ones to do it.

Source at ANN~

Spring sure needs to hurry up, can't wait for this one. Especially looking forward to seeing what they'll use for the box art - maybe go with the R2 release versions.

To tell the truth. I don't even know what does it mean when something is licensed..
(I don't really care about this stuff so I never learned it anywhere)...
All I know (well, think) is that when something is licensed you can't download it anymore.....
So why is this guy saying "Yes its finally happened" [Well I think finally can also have other meaning in sentence like this]... Isn't it bad that id got licensed?

[mdauben]

Originally Posted by RozenMaidenSK

To tell the truth. I don't even know what does it mean when something is licensed..

It means a US company has bought the rights to sell the DVDs in the US (in general, most original Japanese anime companies do not release their own anime in the US, they usually "licence" another company or US subsidiary to do it). None of the US anime companies (ADV, Viz Media, Manga Entertainment, etc) produce their own original material. They licence it from Japanese companies, and then add the subtitles/english dub and relase it in the US. In the case of Rozen Maiden, a company named Geneon bought licenced the anime for US release.

The problem is that Geneon has recently announed it will stop releasing DVDs, so Rozen Maiden may not be completly released on DVD in the US, unless Geneon sells the licence to someone else, or subcontracts another company to release it for them (no one seems to know what will happen to all the Geneon licenced at this point).