Ms. Answerman

10 out of 10

There are ten questions this week, so let's get straight to work!

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Hi!
i'm a big fan of BOF, but i'm pretty new to the anime scene. I'm confused over the fact that, are they going to finish the series or not? i mean in a dubbed Dvd version able to be bought! I couldn't stand being left in the dark! its the anime soap opera of our time! SO please! help me and answer this! Is Boys over FLowers going to be finished in a dubbed dvd available in America!

I'm not even sure why you'd be worried about this series not being completely released since the DVDs have been coming out on a regular basis. It's possible that you're just having trouble finding the newest volumes on the shelves, so if you are I'd suggest buying them from Viz's online store (I've even included a link for you so that you can find it easily). I've had a lot of trouble finding the DVDs for this series as well, so rest assured that you're not the only one.

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Hiya, I was wondering if you have heard anything about a Scrapped Princess Movie, OVA, or Sequel? Thanks so much :)

Asking for more Scrapped Princess is like asking for a sequel to the Matrix movies. Sure, there's SOMETHING to talk about since an entire world's been turned upside down, but no one is really interested in hearing that tale since the main story has already been told. The same applies to Scrapped Princess. You could throw in a new conflict, force the main characters to confront and defeat it, and maybe throw in yet another plot twist, but to what end?

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My question has to do with dubbing.Why is it,when they're doing it,they have to take so much out of the episodes?I don't actually mind the absence of blood or cursing,but the cutting of certain scenes is
ridiculous.Another issue is the voices.For weeks now,I've been watching One Piece in anxiety to see what kind of voice Sanji would have. I found out 2 Saturdays ago.Those of you who were also watching know just what I'm talking about. Some characters have the worst dub voices! The thing is,why can't the voices just stay as close to the original as humanly possible?
-Sarah

I'm answering this one yet again because I haven't tackled it in a while (and because Sanji's voice really is that bad). Violence, blood, cursing, and the on-again-off-again swapping of the cigarette for a toothpick are just a few ‘tweaks’ that are done to any series that airs in a timeslot aimed at a younger audience. Considering how violent One Piece is, there's a lot to edit out. Thankfully, such edits aren't as common as they used to be with the popularity of Adult Swim and the ability to air shows with fewer cuts and scrapes.
As for voice actors, people forget that they aren't the only ones who decide what a character will sound like. A lot goes on behind the scenes and sometimes choices are made to change a voice around so that they can create a new image for that character. Similar decisions were made when characters like Kenshin and Goku were dubbed with male VA's instead of female. Sometimes these risks pay off, and sometimes they don't. Sometimes dubs that try to stay as close as they can to the original end up sounding bad and sometimes it adds new life to the series. If you cannot stand watching the dub, try picking up the manga instead.

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I am wondering when will we see Disney release their version of My Neighbor Totoro? Is it worth getting the Fox version, simple as it is? Or will Disney's version be around soon enough? Thanks.
-Andy

The delay was explained here about a month ago, but no new release date has been announced since then. As far as quality is concerned, Disney has done a wonderful job with Miyazaki's movies. I guess it just depends on how long you're willing to wait. Simple as it is, there's nothing actually horrid about Fox's version (though I'm sure some will disagree) so if you're intent on having it now, go out and buy it. If you want to hear the Japanese track or are interested in special features of any type, wait for Disney to release their version.

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dear ms. anserman
i just bought ghost in the shell 2 from block buster for 12.99 and the dvd was only in japenese with english subtile and i was wodering why its not in english dub like the first movie and the tv series
thanks
sign
rken

It's amazing that I'm still getting these questions. I had foolishly hoped that they would die off, but it seems that they continue to thrive in some dank corner of the internet.
They didn't do it for various reasons and didn't go into great detail on those reasons. It's possible that they wanted to quickly get the movie to DVD to see how final sales would go, or they didn't want to spend the money necessary for a dub. It's also possible that they decided to treat the movie like a foreign release and figured that the public would be okay with only subs. For whatever reasons, the sub is what you're ‘stuck’ with. If you're acquainted with the Japanese VA's from GitS:SAC, you'll be happy to know that the three main players from Section 9 in the movie are the same as the TV series.

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Dear Ms. Answerman
I sure you are aware that Geneon got their hands and on Melody of Oblivion. What you may or may not have noticed is that the announcement was made only about 10 months since the program initially aired and just 5 months since it ended. Also, they are releasing it less than 4 months from now. Conversely, Bandai, waited until July 2004 to license Scrapped Princess, which ended October 2003. It's April release date is slightly more than 2 years after the show first aired in Japan and 9 months after the announcement.
Ti make a long story short, how can one company catch and release a title quickly while it takes other companies much longer? Is Geneon just that good or are GAINAX titles like Melody just that hot a commodity?
-Thanks for Anwering,
Joe Mello

It's actually a little of both. American anime companies are aware of the anime community's desire to own and view series as quickly as possible. They keep up with the titles that are coming out (or are about to start their run) on Japanese TV and get an idea of what the title is about. It's possible as well that they start looking at the previews of shows or speak with various representatives from Japanese licensing companies to get an even earlier jump on the competition. If they think that a title will sell here, they'll try to get the rights to the series. If two or more companies are trying to get the rights to the same series or if there are problems with the contract for either side, it could take longer to negotiate things.
If a company has already worked with another on numerous titles, it could also cut down on the negotiating process since both sides know what the other will want. Keeping up good relations with various companies could give one or the other an edge on the bargaining table as well. Any of these reasons could be why Geneon got this title as quickly as it did.

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Hey Answerwoman.
I've recently been digging Maria-sama ga Miteru, anime, manga, and now the novels, thanks to translation projects. I am confused ona few points, though.
I was flipping through a friend's Newtype magazine (the one with Full
Metal Alchemist on the front cover) and found an article from a Japan correspondent about the Marimite anime. He was trying to say that Marimite was a turning point in "male-targeted anime."
This is where I was confused. I see nothing male-targeted in the show (aside from the fact that many characters are ambiguously gay). There is no violence, none of the women have boobs, two out of three male characters in the show are ambiguously gay and I can remember only two vaguely sexually suggestive moments in the show, of any orientation. Moreover, the show is full of girly agonizing about relationships.
Does anyone else in the Japanese anime business consider Marimite to be "male-targeted?" Why?
-Chad Frederick

A lot of fighting shows that are meant for males, such as Rurouni Kenshin and Naruto, have an unusually high number of female fans due to the appearance/personalities/etc of the male characters. It used to be that only men watched male-oriented shows and only females watched female-oriented shows, so shows were labeled according to plot/story and audience. In more recent years, however, the audiences have been straying (and sometimes dominating) genres that were once only watched by members of the opposite sex. This has brought up a lot of debate regarding the definition of shounen and shoujo, since shows can no longer be defined by both their plot devices and audience.
Marimite, if it indeed has a large male audience, would be considered a turning point in male-targeted anime. As you've stated above, the show lacks the usual characteristics of an anime meant for guys yet guys are still watching it for the female characters and their suggestive relationships. If other series pick up on this, there's a good chance that future shoujo series will start to incorporate female characters/personalities/etc into their stories so that both male and female audiences will enjoy it. Don't be too surprised if the coming years are filled with a lot more shows that blur the lines and try to incorporate as many different audiences as possible.

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I've been following the fansub discussion in the comments of the 2004 Year in Review article, and there's a middle road that I'm curious to know if anyone has tried, namely releasing a series twice, once as a quicky sub-only with no extras as soon as possible after licensing, and then a more typical mainstream sub/dub after the studio has had a chance to do everything they usually do for a title.
Little or no work would be duplicated, since they would be translating and coding the sub tracks anyhow, and the sub-only could be marketed only on the company's website, thus preventing the average shelf shopper from becoming confused (As far as I'm concerned, the case artwork could be black and white, ala 80's generic products). The gotta-have-it-now fan would be able to get legal copies sooner, and the licensor would possibly be able recover some of the revenue now being lost to the fansubs.
The real question is how the market would split up - would people just buy the (possibly) lower priced subs? Would they buy both a plain sub now, and a dub with extras later? One indicator might be the sub/dub ratio of VHS sales, since the buyer had to choose up front which language they preferred.
I realize that this is a large issue, with many aspects such as reverse importation, but it seems like the market demand evidenced by the downloaders could and should be channeled into something more legal and beneficial to all. An early sub-only release might be one way to accomplish this.

I guess it all depends on whether or not people would actually buy the sub-only DVDs. Selling them only through a company's website would help with production costs since they won't have to worry about their product sitting on shelves collecting dust, AND they could remove the subbed-DVDs once the full DVDs are ready for sale. Toss them up for $10 for a few episodes and I'm sure they'd sell, but it's hard to tell if they'd sell enough to make it worth the company's time and money. It's also impossible to judge how a sub-only DVD would fare by comparing it to VHS sales of old. These were released side-by-side and the dubs were generally cheaper than the subs, so this (along with the desire to hear everything in English) is what caused the difference in sales.
A lot of people cry about how they can no longer keep up with longer running series, but most of these people would find some excuse to keep downloading fansubs even if there's a time-efficient and cheaper way for them to purchase the episodes. Nothing is stopping these people from downloading the fansubs and then purchasing the DVDs as they come out (which some do), but many are unwilling to pay or think it's their right to possess media for free.
As a recent example of sub-only media, Ghost in the Shell: Innocence was released sans-dub. I have no clue how the sales were for that title, but I'm guessing that if the numbers were low, it was mostly due to the state of the subtitles and not the presence of a Japanese-only track.

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is there another show after dragon ball gt? you havent poster anything about that? i love the dragon ball z series? please reply

1. No. Dragon Ball is fairly unique in the fact that its popularity caused the series to run much longer than originally intended. GT is the final installment and will hopefully remain this way until I die.
2. The reason nothing has been ‘posted’ about it is because there isn't anything to post. Could you imagine how annoying it'd be to make a separate news article every time a series finishes?
3. Are you uncertain as to whether or not you love the series, or are you asking for me to make a decision for you? If it's up to me, then the answer is ‘no’.

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man, u people are messed up for liscencing naruto, u threw away all the hope for people, that look forward to it everyweek, and that 30 mins is the best 30 mins of the week, now your company is gonna release it slow, probably with a high price, when can you learn, people arent gonna buy the dvd, we all freakn asain/white internet freaks. and the reason why people wont buy the dvd is because it release very very freaking slow, people want to be updated with the anime everyweek, and mostly the price is gonna be very expensive...soon or later you people gonna lose alot of money...stop teh stupidity and unliscensed this anime, and everything i said it true, look at wut happened to "ONE PIECE".......!!!

Yes, there are people out there who think that ANN licenses shows (not to be confused with people who think ANN is the Anime Network, since this is at least an honest mistake). Either that or they think I'll forward their messages to Viz so that they can add this letter to the pile that would most likely rival my personal pile of annoying emails.
I also received a letter asking if Naruto was actually licensed, mostly because they didn't believe it. Yes, it's licensed. Yes, you'll be able to buy it. No, I don't know if they're going to translate the jutsu. No, I don't know if they're going to “ruin the series” by dubbing it. They could hire God as a VA for this series and I'm sure some Naruto fans wouldn't be happy with it. No, I don't know how many episodes will be on a DVD. No, I don't know if you should wait to buy the DVDs in the hopes of them releasing a boxset for them. As for Naruto merchandise, yes there will be some. As for the specifics, checking ANN's news page on a daily basis is a great way of keeping up with this and other Naruto-related news.