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Full Moon wo Sagashite is licensed to R1 by VIZ

That's exciting! Full Moon wo Sagashite was one of the best animes i've ever seen! I was wondering why it hadn't been licensed yet and when it was going to be.

Watch, Viz is going to dub the songs.

Advent_Nebula wrote:

Watch, Viz is going to dub the songs.

That would be a shame...I loved the songs from this show so much! They were some of the best songs/music from any anime i've ever listened to. If they really do dub the songs I honestly hope they do a darn good job.

TO: Viz Media, Inc. (Domestic Licensing)
RE: Full Moon wo Sagashite, AKA "Full Moon" Video Animation

Dear Sir or Madam,

I learned of your company's licensing of this product today, and I believe I speak for many anime fans when I say that I'm glad that this anime series has been licensed for Region 1 distribution. Even though Full Moon is intended for young girls, I, as a twenty-four year-old male, enjoyed it greatly. However, I have a few questions regarding the content of the DVDs. As you may know, Full Moon is an anime largely concerned with music and singing, and as such my questions relate to the handling of the songs.

1) Will the English language track feature English dubbed versions of the openings, endings, or songs sung within the episodes, or will they be left in Japanese? (This question is primarily for curiosity's sake.)

2) For any songs sung in Japanese (whether featured on the English audio track or the Japanese audio track), will there be subtitle translations of the song lyrics?

I ask question (2) because I own a number of Viz Media products that do not provide subtitles for songs, specifically Saishuu Heiki Kanjo ("SaiKano") and Ayashi no Ceres ("Ceres, Celestial Legend"). Unfortunately, many fans have been led by these trends to believe that Viz Media might not provide subtitles for the songs in Full Moon on the upcoming DVDs. Given that the songs form a significant portion of the Full Moon's content and running time, I feel that failure to provide translation of anything (excluding minor background dialogue) that appears in Japanese audio would consitute an incomplete localization of this or any product.

As you are no doubt aware, various fan-created and otherwise unauthorized versions of the Full Moon anime have been in circulation for some time via Internet Peer-to-Peer networks and pirated DVDs. At least one of these versions contains full translations of these songs, including the English lyrics, the romanized Japanese lyrics and Japanese text. While I understand that it is not feasible to include all of this information on DVDs, I wish to emphasize that fans will desire subtitles for the songs in Full Moon, and the absence of such subtitles may cause fans to skirt copyright law and either seek out unauthorized versions or keep what they may already have in lieu of purchasing DVDs.

As a fan who downloads fan-subtitled anime to sample titles yet unlicensed for Region 1 distribution, I am willing to buy DVDs of shows that I enjoy, especially if they, like Full Moon, are not "mainstream" titles. Unfortunately, I have a hard time justifying the purchase of DVDs that lack sufficient translations for those not fluent in Japanese, especially when sufficient translations are available elsewhere. I believe I also speak for many anime fans in feeling this way.

I hope that my concerns are unfounded, and that you can tell me, "Yes, the songs in Full Moon are subtitled." But if they are not, I urge that steps be taken to correct this problem on future DVDs; for reasons described above, I believe it to be in Viz Media's business interests to provide these subtitles, lest the fans turn to illegal versions in a form of protest.

Once again, my thanks for licensing this product that many thought to be "un-dubbable"; I hope for its success in sales and popularity.

Sincerely,

[name omitted for this post, suckaz]

P.S. If licensing arrangements with the Japanese copyright holders of the music has prevented Viz Media from localizing the songs (as happened with Funimation Entertainment and their localization of Kodomo no omocha (AKA "Kodocha" or "Child's Toy"), then I fully understand that any translation omissions are not the fault of Viz Media.