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wizard55
Joined: 10 Oct 2003
Posts: 198
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Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:58 pm
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I am looking for some pros and cons of each of the major anime licensing companies. What do you they do with their dvds? are there extras usually? how many episodes per discs?? edited and unedited versions?? etc
Bandai
An Entertainment
4Kids
ADV Films
Media Blasters
Manga Entertainment
Geneon
FUNimation
Right Stuf
those are the main ones i am looking for, so please help
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Kagemusha
Joined: 20 Feb 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Boston
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Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2004 11:13 pm
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Bandai-good amount of episodes per disk, good dub (usually)/sometimes cheap on extras
Geneon-average amount of episodes per disk, good dub
ADV-good extras, appealing product designs/can be cheap about episodes per disk, questionable voice acting
Funimation-varies for episodes per disk, poor voice acting, dubs theme songs poorly
4kids-sucks, sucks, and sucks some more
Media Blasters- good on episodes per disk, ocasionally good voice acting/ cheap unproffesional products
Manga- well, they're usually pretty good about everything (they mostly do movies or OVAs), but they're products don't support some sound systems (at least that was the case on my tv)
dont have anything from AN or Right Stuf. Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust from Urban Vision was kind of cheap (crappy extras, poor presentation) flcl from Synch-Point was exellent in every catigory, but i dont know if they're other stuff is as good
overall id have to say the best company would be Geneon, but Bandai comes close (i like when they go all out for boxes like Wich Hunter Robin or Wolfs Rain)
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Kawaii Moon Kitty
Joined: 17 Jun 2004
Posts: 76
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Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2004 11:21 pm
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I'd probably have to say ADV is pretty good because they're dubs aren't too horrible. They do good subbing jobs. On their DVD's you get a good dose of episodes per disc and a few extra's, depending. The down side is bad voice acting on ocassion. Funimation... I just.. don't want to get into that.... -_-;;
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Nagisa
Moderator
Joined: 19 Aug 2003
Posts: 6128
Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh
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Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2004 11:56 pm
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FUNimation's actually become a really good company since the days of DBZ. Their dubs are improving and their subtitles are actually really well done (though they are a bit fast at times, a la Fruits Basket). They still seem to prefer putting only three or so episodes per disc, though, so long series could be a bit of a pain (though they usually sell their DVDs for less than the other companies).
The only Right Stuf release I've seen has been Boogiepop Phantom, but they did a really good job on it. Fair amount of Extras, excellent subs, a good dub, and the feature-length commentaries were really fun to listen to. It's clear they really made an effort to give the series a quality release.
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Samurai CDZ
Joined: 22 Mar 2003
Posts: 776
Location: Manhattan, KS
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Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 12:25 am
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ADV does good comedy anime dubs (AzuDai, Colorful, Abenobashi). They have pretty funny extras. They are a bit stingy on episodes per disc though.
AnimEigo (unmentioned above but I want to mention it) has great series which get pretty good dubs as well (OMG, YUA), if they do them, that is. They have some decent extra's on their disks, too. Their eps. per disc though leave a bit to be desired (UY's gonna be 10 box sets) and they are REALLY slow with new releases, but they do get the stuff out there eventually.
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Lone Wolf and Cub
Joined: 12 May 2004
Posts: 301
Location: tumbleweed, South Dakota
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Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 12:31 am
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Bandai - good on eps per disk, sometimes questionable on voice acting. The extras vary so much that it's hard to give them a rating.
Geneon - Pretty good about eps per disk, and usually very good voice acting. Extras are good, but this company is almost impossible to get a hold of.
ADV - not always good about eps per disk. I know I sound spoiled when I say this but three eps per disk just is not enough IMO. The voice acting is good sometimes and questionable others. Extras vary, but for the most part I find them to be lacking
Funimation - Although I think that they screwed up DBZ and DBGT, I think series such as Fruits Basket, and Blue Gender were very well done. Their voice acting can sometimes be very strong, but it can suck at others. The amount of eps per disk was good with Fruits Basket(7 to 8 eps per disk ), but was sometimes bad with DBZ(sometimes only three eps per disk). The extras were either non-existant, or pretty darn good.
4Kids - it's for kids, so that's about what you should expect from them.
Media Blasters - This company is funny. They sometimes have good dubs(12 kingdoms was good IMO), and they sometimes have very questionable dubs(Rurouni Kenshin had some very questionable voice actors in my opinion). The extras are sometime good(kenshin actually had some good extras in the Kyoto arc such as really funny outtakes, and some information about the real Japan of the Meiji era). Eps per disk is almost always four to five which keeps me smiling.
I don't own anything from Manga or An entertainment so I will not comment on either of them.
Right Stuff - I only own Comic Party from them so I will comment that although it was an allright DVD, the voice acting was kind of bad. The extras were bad, and the episode amount was unfulfilling.
Overall I would have to say Bandai comes in first with Geneon in second. Hope this helps you some
~LoneWolf
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Kazuki-san
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 2251
Location: Houston, TX
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Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 1:02 am
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Already have a lot of good info here, so I'll add just a bit...
ADV has pretty good dubbing on all of their new stuff, and also their new stuff typically starts of with a 5 ep first disc, and then 4 eps per disc after, with everyonce in awhile a 3 ep disc thrown in.
FUNi - has gotten better by leaps and bounds.. They have disappointing extras (usually just a vid of the OP and ED themes, and the same trailers, for DBZ, DBGT, Blue Gender, that they've had forever) Also they typically are skimpy on eps, usually around 3, although occasionally you see good ep counts, like on Fruit's Basket.
Rightstuf - I also only have Comic Party from them, and I have to agree the VA choices suck, for the most part they just don't seem to fit, such as giving Inagawa a much older more mature voice.
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Lone Wolf and Cub
Joined: 12 May 2004
Posts: 301
Location: tumbleweed, South Dakota
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Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 2:17 am
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Kazuki-san wrote: | Rightstuf - I also only have Comic Party from them, and I have to agree the VA choices suck, for the most part they just don't seem to fit, such as giving Inagawa a much older more mature voice. |
My thoughts exactly! The role was so miscast that I stopped watching the dub right there. In my opinion it just ruined her character.
Tokyopop - No one has mentioned them, so I though I would add them. I have seen Initial D and GTO by them. Initial D's English version sucks, bad music, bad voice acting, and boring extras. GTO fares a little better, but almost all of the female characters were miscasted(Miss.Sakurai and Miyabi stood out the most here), but other charcters such as Urumi and Fuyutsuki were casted very well IMO. The extras were ok, primarily the outtakes were humourous. The episode count is always a good four to five eps per DVD though, so that's good.
~LoneWolf
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aoi777
Joined: 11 May 2004
Posts: 72
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Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 4:51 am
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Well I would have to say some of my favourites are Bandai because they do a good job on there dubs, usually good extra's.
I actually liked blue gender dub that funimation did. I thought It was well done.
Even though I have seen only one from this comany right stuf international did a really good job on his and her circumstances. They had different angles on there opening, and closings. They had 3 different version of subtitles (japanese, enhlish, just signs only). I really thought they did a good job on that.
Pioneer later stuf was good, but now geneon discs all look the same. They have the red labels on discs now, which is OK but they all look the same to me.
Tokyo pop I refuse to watch anything from them in english. I have only seen initial D, and GTO. Both english version didn't appeal to me, and the tricked out version in inital D is really stupid.
That about covers it
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Kazuki-san
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 2251
Location: Houston, TX
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Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 5:09 am
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aoi777 wrote: | They had 3 different version of subtitles (japanese, enhlish, just signs only). I really thought they did a good job on that.
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That's standard of pretty much all companies now, I know FUNi doesn't do it, but I know ADV does.
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the_soultaker
Joined: 25 Mar 2004
Posts: 685
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Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 8:46 am
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My 2 Cents:
ADV: A company with a HuGE library of titles and accquisitions of diverse Anime genres.(from goldenboy to Rayzephon) English dubs are ok for the most part,and ya gotta respect their track record when it comes to snagging most of the interesting if not popular stuff I.E. Evangelion,Robotech Remastered,Samurai X,Princess Blade etc.
Geneon/Pioneer; From day one these guys have took my hard earned dollar$, with cool titles like;Bastard,Kishin Corps,Heat guy J,Captain Harlock and Soultaker among many others.
Hopefully more of their stuff will include Dolby 5.1 audio tracks.
(Like Captain Harlock.)The extras are pretty decent too. Good work guys!! I'm not too crazy about the name change though. (Geneon sounds like a character from the X-men comics.)
Manga Entertainment; They had it goin on back in da day(mid 90's) when OVAs dominated the Anime scene. ah, the good ol' days.
But when it comes to godawful english only dubs like Devilman,Dangaio,Violence Jack and the censorship of Angel Cop
one is tempted to turn to the "Dark side" via purchasing bootleg versions of the aforementioned. and to top it off they opted out of releasing the Giant Robo DVD.
Oh wellz at least they have the R.O.D. OVA.
Bandai: "The house that Gundam built"
Very good dubs and accquisitions here and there; My all time favorite goes to Cowboy Bebop. Big O,and Witch Hunter Robin seem to have potentual, but as of yet i haven't invested enough of my all-too-busy-time to look further into the aforementioned series,especially when there are better things on the horizon.
Media Blasters: an up and coming company responsible for good titles like Beserk,Cosmo warrior Zero,Sadamitsu the destroyer and Gun Frontier. I don't care for the dubbing but the extras are hilarious (Outakes). Well deserved luck in the future fellas. And please improve the audio,especially when you release the Giant Robo DVD.
Urban Vision; They have amassed some of my favorite classic OVA titles like Vampire Hunter D,Twilight of the dark master,Wicked City,Golgo:13,Tekkaman blade and Gatchaman 94. good audio,lackluster dubs but the extras aren't bad. How about releasing Hurricane Polymar on DVD?
As for Funimation;(which to many, are deemed the Black sheep of Anime companies.) well, I don't care for their weak english dubbing nor their titles like Blue Gender (Mospeda rip-off IMO)
or Kiddy Grade (a more subtile version of dirty pair)I'm not one for comedies like Fruits Basket either. Maybe the upcoming Full Metal Alchemist will change my opinion.
Anyway good luck to all.
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Nagisa
Moderator
Joined: 19 Aug 2003
Posts: 6128
Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh
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Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 3:44 pm
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the_soultaker wrote: | Oh wellz at least they have the R.O.D. OVA. |
Where they translated one character's name as "Up! Up! Up!"
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ANN_Bamboo
ANN Contributor
Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 3904
Location: CO
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Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 3:57 pm
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the_soultaker wrote: | As for Funimation;(which to many, are deemed the Black sheep of Anime companies.) well, I don't care for their weak english dubbing nor their titles like Blue Gender (Mospeda rip-off IMO)
or Kiddy Grade (a more subtile version of dirty pair)I'm not one for comedies like Fruits Basket either. Maybe the upcoming Full Metal Alchemist will change my opinion.
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Licensing is based largely on how much money your company is able to dole out. With the more and more great properties that FUNi is acquiring (i.e. Kodocha, FMA), I wouldn't be surprised if they started licensing more series. I don't think they have weak English dubbing. They started off a bit weak with their Dragon Ball Z stuff, but they've really grown as a company. Saying that you don't like what a company has licensed is kind of an unfair way of judging their DVDs. The Fruits Basket release was awesome. Keep in mind also that companies like Bandai and Geneon are able to dish out cooler extras (like necklaces, blood packets, etc) because they have a parent Japanese company that can help out.
I used to dislike ADV because of how they only had 2 episodes per tape, but since then, they've grown as well (though Foster's dubs still leave much to be desired, for the most part).
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balla
Joined: 15 Jun 2004
Posts: 255
Location: Toronto aka T.DOT
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Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 4:07 pm
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why did kenshin hte series and the OVA come out of different companies
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Kazuki-san
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 2251
Location: Houston, TX
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Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 4:27 pm
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balla wrote: | why did kenshin hte series and the OVA come out of different companies |
Actually it happens more often than you might think. Such as ADV having Eva, and Manga having the Eva movie. It happens because (usually) a company only licenses 1 particular show, and not say the rights to all of a show ever made. So when a new version of a series comes out, everybody has to try and aquire the license from scratch. So Adv won on the OVA front, and Media Blasters on the TV front.
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