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NEWS: Sentai Filmworks Licenses Persona 4 The Animation

Not even remotely true.

Do you not remember Demon King Daimao?
(I'd also like to point out that even with it being on CR, it still pulled in good enough numbers that they decided to dub it just from that alone)

Or let's go with the most recent case from last season, No. 6?

It has been long enough since Demon King Daimao was licensed that I honestly don't recall if TAN announced it first, but in the case of No. 6, it was well after CR had announced it (as evidenced by TAN currently being up to episode 8, while CR posted the final episode 12 days ago).

Crunchyroll has not shown any signs of requiring exclusives on the titles they license for simulcast (which probably helps keep the cost down).

Obviously, TAN, Funimation, or anyone else cannot obtain an exclusive license to a simulcast if CR has already licensed it, but they can also license it.

As your claim my statement was "Not even remotely true", please point to a single simulcast since Daimao by TAN (or Funimation, for that matter), that was announced first by them, and then later by Crunchyroll.

Being licensed by Sentai means it will not be on Crunchyroll

beggars can’t be choosers.

Your statement was generalized.
Therefore making it "Not even remotely true".

TheAncientOne wrote:

Being licensed by Sentai means it will not be on Crunchyroll

Where in this statement did you specify "announced first by them, and then later by Crunchyroll"?

And even if you did allude to that, the fact that Demon King Daimao was licensed and announced first before CR, still makes your statement false.


True, that it doesn't happen often and hasn't happened since, but the fact that it actually has happened, means that there will always be a chance that it will again.

First of all, here is what we know for certain: the show starts airing in Japan on October 6th. This means it will likely be one of Anime Network's simulcasts for the season. It may also air on Hulu, and possibly end up on PSN like High School of The Dead did.

Secondly, we know it is getting a bluray release next year. So far Sentai has only released dubbed shows on bluray. They've even said they aren't interested in doing sub-only blurays at the present time. Of course that could have changed, but it likely means that the bluray will be dubbed.

I'd give the chances of the video game cast being used at 50%. In fact, I'd say it's more likely that Sentai would use the original cast than if Funimation had got it. Has everyone already forgot Trigun Badlands? They didn't even bother getting most of the cast back for that one, and it's only 1 movie. What makes you think they would fly the entire cast to Texas for a 25 episode series? (And yes, Funimation is in Texas, NOT California.) The only time Funi has really done that was Slayers, and even then it was not the entire original cast. They haven't done it since. Remember, we still don't know the dubbing status of shows like Black Lagoon, Hellsing, and Shana.

ADV had a mixed track record on this in the past as well. The Slayers movies were mostly recast, as was Comic Part Remix. However, they did outsource the dub for Ah My Goddess Season 2 to NYAV Post, and the YUA Movies to Coastal Carolina. Sentai also recently contracted Bang Zoom for the Rozen Maiden OVA, and ADV used them in the past for a few shows as well.

The chances of them looking into using the original dub cast is about 100%. Whether or not it actually happens will depend on a number of factors, likely including the success of the streams and how it influences their budget for the show, and whether they can reach a deal with a West Coast studio like Bang Zoom. If they do decide to utilize the original cast, it would likely be more cost and time effective for them to outsource it rather than fly all the actors to Houston. So this is why I believe it's about 50/50.

Also, I don't know why someone would say Sentai was struggling. They don't dub less popular and more niche shows, but at least they're releasing them unlike Funimation who simply passes them over. They've increased the number of dubs their producing. Unlike everyone else in R1, including Funimation, they can actually hit their street dates and they don't need to reschedule shows four or five times (like Funi and Rosario + Vampire or Media Blasters and just about everything they release). And now they are doing several simulcasts every season, and actually confirming they've licensed the shows, unlike Funimation. Being smart about what shows to sink your resources into isn't really sign of a struggling company, and if it were than you would have to say that all the R1 distributors are on death's door.

agila61 wrote:

John Casey wrote: Sentai > Different dub cast > Not worth giving a shit. Hooray, we get a level-up from "no dub, don't care" to "no dub with the game English dub cast, don't care". Because there just can never be enough reasons on our "instantly dismiss an anime series" checklist. Supposing that "multiple sources" means it will have a subtitled simulcast accessible from somewhere in North America, I wonder whether the sub would be worth watching? And while I don't care intently one way or the other, such a sub would actually have the original VA cast.

Yeah, the original is the best for this, its basically an all-star cast of Seiyuu. Yui Horie, Rie Kugimiya, Ami Koshimizu, Romi Paku, Kappei Yamaguchi, Daisuke Namikawa. But I can understand people who are used to the game who want to hear the dub voices.

TheAncientOne wrote:

minakichan wrote: Cool move, Sentai. Hope this comes out on Crunchyroll or the likes first. Being licensed by Sentai means it will not be on Crunchyroll, as CR competes with their own streaming service, The Anime Network (which you can expect to simulcast it).

Not even remotely true.

Do you not remember Demon King Daimao?

However, what has not yet happened is TAN streaming the whole season on free streaming in competition with the Crunchyroll subscriber streaming period. The Demon King Daimo stream was when TAN only streamed the first few episodes for free and the No. 6 stream was on a substantial delay to the Crunchyroll stream.

...yet does not actually guarantee that it won't happen someday.

agila61 wrote:

However, what has not yet happened is TAN streaming the whole season on free streaming in competition with the Crunchyroll subscriber streaming period. The Demon King Daimo stream was when TAN only streamed the first few episodes for free and the No. 6 stream was on a substantial delay to the Crunchyroll stream.

Demon King Daimo was in free streaming competition with CrunchyRoll

agila61 wrote:

...yet does not actually guarantee that it won't happen someday.

And this, right here, was my whole problem with his generalize statement.

While I would love the same cast as the game, beggars can’t be choosers. I’m grateful they will be releasing this in NA, and it will be nice to hear the JP voices.

But this, This is something that has a game, with an english cast, AN ENGLISH CAST THAT PEOPLE LIKE! So, Sentai, Dub this, or give it to someone else. Preferably Bandai or Viz, because Funi would just Funimize it.

This situation is interesting though.. it's interesting seeing some double standards on why a game changing a script/being a bad dub is more acceptable than your average anime changing the dub script/being a bad dub.