Maria-sama licensed by RightStuf / Nozomi Entertainment

[4Tran]

I think that the fear is that a show with the name "Virgin Mary" will spark the interest of certain religious types, and that they will find out that Marimite is often regarded as a lesbian show. It's trouble that R1 companies shouldn't have to deal with, and it's better to altogether avoid. With the name being "Maria", the religious connotation isn't immediately obvious, the name is both true to the Japanese original title and the original Latin

Originally Posted by Matrim

Would anyone think it refers to the Virgin Mary just from reading the title? I don't think so.

Quite true. However, the only change is that it's the type of title a new viewer will get only after watching the first episode. That's not all that different from how it worked with the original title in Japanese, since the "Maria-sama" more or less refers to the statue.

By the way, "Ave Maria" doesn't have "Virgin Mary" in the title either, and it's the furthest thing from being defensive.

[Matrim]

I have absolutely no clue about the issue of religious groups influencing the American anime market but there is for instance a hentai show with the word Bible in the title and I haven't heard of it causing much trouble. Maybe the fanatics don't go near the hentai section in the stores.

It's understandable that the distributors would want to avoid any possible issues but it just seems to me they are being overly cautious. The religious types might still be drawn to the show by the synopsis or covers - but the thing is the show itself is not ecchi at all and with no open lesbianism. And it's not as if it is a show about a convent or something, just a Catholic school. Chrono Crusade seems to be OK and it had a nun, the word crusade in the title and a demon on the side of Good among the main characters.

But of course, being the selfish bastard and a sucker for translation accuracy that I am, I am mostly annoyed by the companies bending over just because the title might offend certain fanatics. If it makes sense for the Maria-sama title to be changed, shouldn't whoever distributes Black Lagoon go erase all scenes with Eda, the murderous nun right now?

[4Tran]

Originally Posted by Matrim

I have absolutely no clue about the issue of religious groups influencing the American anime market but there is for instance a hentai show with the word Bible in the title and I haven't heard of it causing much trouble. Maybe the fanatics don't go near the hentai section in the stores.

You've got it. Hentai is lumped in the same category as pornography so it won't be in normal video stores and one would have to go out of one's way to see advertising for it. As such, it will fly under the radar of most such groups. Moreover, Bible Black would probably be able to garner publicity over any such controversy the way Marimite wouldn't.

Originally Posted by Matrim

It's understandable that the distributors would want to avoid any possible issues but it just seems to me they are being overly cautious. The religious types might still be drawn to the show by the synopsis or covers - but the thing is the show itself is not ecchi at all and with no open lesbianism.

That's quite true, but it doesn't change the fact that any research on Marimite will emphasize its lesbian over- and undertones. Since it's a character drama, it's fairly easy to strawman the show as if that's all it's about. Even worse, the show can be painted as targeting young teenagers, and little can raise the ire of family-friendly groups. With a name like "Virgin Mary" it'd have a much higher chance of catching the attention of something like the Family Research Council, and that's just trouble.

Originally Posted by Matrim

And it's not as if it is a show about a convent or something, just a Catholic school. Chrono Crusade seems to be OK and it had a nun, the word crusade in the title and a demon on the side of Good among the main characters.

Ah, the wonders of language. While "crusade" is historically a religious term, it's lost most of such connotations to just mean any great trial or conflict. While the nun bit can still raise a few eyebrows, most of the criticism is deflected by the fact that she's fighting demons from hell. For some whatever reason, the imagery of true believers fighting the forces of the Antichrist and Hell is quite popular among many American Christian groups.

Originally Posted by Matrim

But of course, being the selfish bastard and a sucker for translation accuracy that I am, I am mostly annoyed by the companies bending over just because the title might offend certain fanatics. If it makes sense for the Maria-sama title to be changed, shouldn't whoever distributes Black Lagoon go erase all scenes with Eda, the murderous nun right now?

Not necessarily. It's the kind of thing that will fly under the radar since the show is ostensibly about mercenaries. Being squarely in the over-the-top violence subgenre also tends to deflect criticism.

[sa547]

Originally Posted by Matrim

I have absolutely no clue about the issue of religious groups influencing the American anime market but there is for instance a hentai show with the word Bible in the title and I haven't heard of it causing much trouble. Maybe the fanatics don't go near the hentai section in the stores.

It's understandable that the distributors would want to avoid any possible issues but it just seems to me they are being overly cautious. The religious types might still be drawn to the show by the synopsis or covers - but the thing is the show itself is not ecchi at all and with no open lesbianism. And it's not as if it is a show about a convent or something, just a Catholic school. Chrono Crusade seems to be OK and it had a nun, the word crusade in the title and a demon on the side of Good among the main characters.

But of course, being the selfish bastard and a sucker for translation accuracy that I am, I am mostly annoyed by the companies bending over just because the title might offend certain fanatics. If it makes sense for the Maria-sama title to be changed, shouldn't whoever distributes Black Lagoon go erase all scenes with Eda, the murderous nun right now?

There's always the religious fundamentalists who will take on everything they think is blasphemy because it mentions about their hot button... er, favorite deity or prophet crossed with anything "unclean", and then whine about it with a scathing firestorm on the evening news, even if they haven't watched (i.e. Evangelion, the Da Vinci Code) or read (i.e. Salman Rusdie's Satanic Verses, Holy Blood Holy Grail) about it before deciding their judgment.

Often the fundamentalists' reasoning have been blinded by their fanatical faith, and thanks to the power of today's media and their capacity to influence the worshipers they can make or break any reputation of anybody discussing religious matters or themes, whether it's a manga author, an anime distributor or studio, a TV station, or a film company.

The TV station down here tried to air the first six episodes before pulling off the plug without any official statement, fearing that they could offend the sensibilities of the Catholic Church (remember that in some places the Philippines is still living in the convent, and the Catholic Church exerts a considerable amount of influence to meddle into everything, including politics and media) and the MTRCB (which includes Church officials in its board).

Even the dubbed AnimAXE Southeast Asia version has also been cut down possibly in order not to offend Islamic groups in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

I also thought of the Tokyopop Germany editions of the novel and manga, which sports a different title, and I guess the last thing they want is Catholic meddling.

If I were doing the marketing work, I might as well issue a primer with the boxsets to clear things up..

[xyber9x]

i hope the NEW 4th season will not be licensed by right stuff
Tee Hee Hee Hee

[BakaRanger]

I hope it is and is done right after I get the last subbed episode. This way I can watch it as soon as possible and then buy it soon after.

[Simon]

AOD have reviewed a sampler for episode 1:

In Summary:
Having seen a number of shows that take place in the all girls academy motif, having one that’s this relaxed and atmospheric is certainly a good thing. From the opening sequence alone you get a very strong feeling as to what the shows nature will be like and that it is all very much about the characters and the interactions behind them. This isn’t a show that screams out that there will be wacky adventures or outrageous misunderstandings throughout, but rather one that puts these young women in interesting situations where they have to grow and change into the women that they will become. With great looking character designs and smooth animation, the atmosphere is wonderfully set in conjunction with the music. Though the first episode throws a lot of terms and names at you, it leaves you wanting to see exactly what will happen next between Yumi and Sachiko. July cannot come fast enough.

*agrees emphatically with the last sentence*

[Dop]

I have to admit I cringed when I saw the trailer (available here) - 'Lady Sachiko', indeed!

But then I read the part about there being two subtitle tracks, one of which keeps the honorifics intact. Good news!

[sa547]

Originally Posted by Dop

I have to admit I cringed when I saw the trailer (available here) - 'Lady Sachiko', indeed!

But then I read the part about there being two subtitle tracks, one of which keeps the honorifics intact. Good news!

To quote a reaction from a fellow member of the Garden of Maidens LJ comm: "Yeah, I kind of imagine a southern rich belle kind of power when her name is put like that. " I find the use of odd honorifics a bit funny, but hey, methinks of someone like... "Lady Snowblood"!

IMHO, it's their way of trying to get new viewers to check it out, but it's a great thing they gave us more choices that we ever anticipated.

For feedbacks, the Rightstuf folks even opened a forum for that:
http://www.rightstuf.com/ubbthreads/..._Maria_sa.html

[mdauben]

Has anyone heard if the Season 1 set was actually released yesterday? I preordered it through Amazon.com a while ago and just got a notice today that it was delayed and the Rightstuff website seems to still list it as preorder.

[ziggr]

Released and shipping. Some people already have theirs. Mine's in the mail:

[Simon]

Finished watching it last night. Overall I'm very happy with Nozomi's work - they treat the show with gentleness and respect, and clearly understand what it means to its fans. I would've been heart-broken if they'd made a hash of it, so well done Nozomi for showing such good taste!

That said, there were a couple of goofs. The most serious was putting Sei and Shiori's character bios on disc 3, before the Ibara no Mori arc on disc 4 - for anyone new to the story this would be major spoilage. Both subtitle tracks also have a glaring error at ep4 21:04 when Shimako is talking about the Yellow Roses, but according to the subs refers to "Rei and Shimako".

Compared to The Previous Translation That Can No Longer Be Named, a few differences stood out. Ibara gets translated as "briars" instead of "thorns", though maybe that's just American English(?). The wonderful "walking slowly is preferred here" becomes "it is customary here to walk slowly and with decorum" (the original Japanese is 「ゆっくりと歩くのがここでのたしなみ」, which seems to fall somewhere between the two). And in ep11 when Sei and Shiori are taking shelter from the rain, Sei asks "why were we born as separate individuals?" - somehow that just doesn't have the power of TPTTCNLBN's "why were we born in separate bodies?"

But these are just minor quibbles. It's great to finally have official subs, so I hope everyone reading this will buy their own copy and support this wonderful anime

[Dop]

Originally Posted by Simon

It's great to finally have official subs, so I hope everyone reading this will buy their own copy and support this wonderful anime

Seconded, I pre-ordered as soon as it was announced, and moved it to the head of my 'DVDs to watch' queue when it arrived on Friday.
They've clearly done a fan-friendly job both with the honorific intact subs and the whole packaging and pricing, so in my opinion deserve our support both for this series and to encourage the licensing and release of other fan favourite series in the future.

Now to wait for the second series to arrive....!

[guest]

I am still trying to get used to that "Mother Maria" thing. But I agree that it is better this way to avoid trouble. I just watched the first ep from Otaku USA. I bought the magazine because of this. I am still waiting for the box DVD. I think it was done well. I don't know Japanese so I can't tell if the translation is good. At first glance, it seems good enough to buy the second season.

[animefanrk2k]

Ah, I vaguely remembered that this was being released and then it literally jumped out at me while I was browsing anime DVDs at GenCon, so I picked it up immediately.

The DVD release is actually done very well and other than the minor mistakes and the little translation gripes we may have, it's been done in a very satisfying way.

Hopefully, they'll release the next two box sets soon. =]

[mdauben]

Originally Posted by animefanrk2k

Hopefully, they'll release the next two box sets soon. =]

Second season is up for pre-order with a release date of Nov 25 2008

[Molenir]

Been wondering since I heard about the 4th season being planned. Now that its about ready to start coming out, any word on whether its been licensed already? Or do we just assume its licensed.

[Dop]

Fourth season: I'm just wondering about that. Does the RightStuf/Nozomi licence cover the fourth season as well, or not?

I'm kind of hoping the series will get fansubbed, so I can see it sooner.
But still, even if the existing licence doesn't cover the fourth season, I'm hoping RightStuf/Nozomi will pounce on the upcoming season and release it ASAP (following the release of the OVAs)!

I think they've been doing a really good job of these releases - the second set of subtitles with all honorifics intact is especially fan-friendly - and look forward to the OVAs (which I already have on order) and hope they will get the fourth series. My credit card is waiting!

[4Tran]

Originally Posted by Molenir

Been wondering since I heard about the 4th season being planned. Now that its about ready to start coming out, any word on whether its been licensed already? Or do we just assume its licensed.

Originally Posted by Dop

Fourth season: I'm just wondering about that. Does the RightStuf/Nozomi licence cover the fourth season as well, or not?

By all indications, the Rightstuf license only covers up to the OVA series, so the fourth season is unlicensed. Animesuki is taking this stance on it, and you can find the fansub link on the main site. When (and if) that changes, we'll put a notice on this forum.

Originally Posted by Dop

I'm kind of hoping the series will get fansubbed, so I can see it sooner.
But still, even if the existing licence doesn't cover the fourth season, I'm hoping RightStuf/Nozomi will pounce on the upcoming season and release it ASAP (following the release of the OVAs)!

I think they've been doing a really good job of these releases - the second set of subtitles with all honorifics intact is especially fan-friendly - and look forward to the OVAs (which I already have on order) and hope they will get the fourth series. My credit card is waiting!

In this current market climate (not to mention economic climate!), I'm already surprised that Marimite got licensed in the first place. I figure that the fourth season will only get picked up if the first three have decent sales.

[Simon]

This might sound like a dumb question, but has Season 2 actually shipped yet? I pre-ordered mine from DVD Pacific last September but they still list it as "on order". By contrast Right Stuf claim it's in stock - is it time to start writing stroppy e-mails?