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REVIEW: Gakuen Alice Litebox DVD

The review seems a bit down on this show, but I really do think it's a great kids' series. This is the sort of thing that got me hooked on anime late in elementary school -- kid friendly goofiness mixed with a serious ongoing plot that doesn't talk down to either the young characters or the audience. (And well, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a fan of Gakuen Alice myself as a very-much-not-in-elementary-school adult... the anime serves as a nice teaser for some of the very serious, genuinely harrowing drama the characters get into in later volumes of the manga.)

it really would take a viewer with superhuman abilities to sit through this.

I remember watching this show on Animax Asia with english dub. The dub was kinda hit or miss.

Despite the fact that it's very true that Animax Asia dubs are hit/miss, is there a reason why we never seem to get them stateside? I'm really referring to the dubs that were comissioned to air on Animax Asia where there was no Stateside release, obvious example is Gakuen Alice which I'd like to hear just for the novelty of it, other less obvious example Nodame no Cantabile which never got any kind of release here and had an excellent dub that only aired on Animax Asia. Perhaps that's a question for a different time...

kakoishii wrote:

Despite the fact that it's very true that Animax Asia dubs are hit/miss, is there a reason why we never seem to get them stateside? I'm really referring to the dubs that were comissioned to air on Animax Asia where there was no Stateside release, obvious example is Gakuen Alice which I'd like to hear just for the novelty of it, other less obvious example Nodame no Cantabile which never got any kind of release here and had an excellent dub that only aired on Animax Asia. Perhaps that's a question for a different time...

I think I read somewhere once that Animax dubs generally aren't included due to licensing issues. Even if the dub is produced in North America, it's still made specifically for Asian audiences. I think because of that, if a company wants was to license a title like Nodame Cantabile or Gakuen Alice for North American release then they aren't allowed to license the Animax dub. Also, I think it comes down to the fact that Animax paid for the dub, so they have the rights to it, and not the company who is licensing out the anime. If Animax only wants the dub to be shown to Asian audiences, then there's not much a North American licensor can do about it. That's also probably why Nozomi's release of Emma didn't have the Animax dub made for it, either.

Finally, I think that was probably why Nodame Cantabile was taken down from Crackle, since it was showing the English dub that was made specifically for Animax Asia. Kurozuka's dub, on the other hand, looks to be produced for all Animax-related services, which is why we can watch it on Crackle.

Lord Geo wrote:

kakoishii wrote: Despite the fact that it's very true that Animax Asia dubs are hit/miss, is there a reason why we never seem to get them stateside? I'm really referring to the dubs that were comissioned to air on Animax Asia where there was no Stateside release, obvious example is Gakuen Alice which I'd like to hear just for the novelty of it, other less obvious example Nodame no Cantabile which never got any kind of release here and had an excellent dub that only aired on Animax Asia. Perhaps that's a question for a different time... I think I read somewhere once that Animax dubs generally aren't included due to licensing issues. Even if the dub is produced in North America, it's still made specifically for Asian audiences. I think because of that, if a company wants was to license a title like Nodame Cantabile or Gakuen Alice for North American release then they aren't allowed to license the Animax dub. Also, I think it comes down to the fact that Animax paid for the dub, so they have the rights to it, and not the company who is licensing out the anime. If Animax only wants the dub to be shown to Asian audiences, then there's not much a North American licensor can do about it. That's also probably why Nozomi's release of Emma didn't have the Animax dub made for it, either. Finally, I think that was probably why Nodame Cantabile was taken down from Crackle, since it was showing the English dub that was made specifically for Animax Asia. Kurozuka's dub, on the other hand, looks to be produced for all Animax-related services, which is why we can watch it on Crackle.

There was a dub for Emma too? What a bummer. That's pretty lame, you'd think they could come up with some sort of agreement so that a version of their dub could be shown here (also I'm glad I caught most of the Nodame dub on Crackle, since it was the the best one of their dubs I've ever seen). What's worse is it's extremely hard to find clips from Animax dubs. Double bummer. I do wonder why though the Rurouni Kenshin animax dub is still streaming on Crackle. It's not as good as the US dub, but again the novelty of it is still worth a look.