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Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Don't DVDs Contain Japanese Commentary Tracks Anymore?
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Vaisaga
 Posts: 13242 |
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I dunno, it feels like I've listened to a bunch of Japanese commentary tracks in recent years. Gundam 00, NakaImo, Infinite Stratos and others I had in my head before I lost my train of thought :/
Anyways, I'd have to check when I get home. |
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SonicFanA
 Posts: 159 |
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I think Sentai's release of Hakkenden season 1 came with Japanese commentary tracks.
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BalmungHHQ
Posts: 463 |
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Yeah, Sentai Filmworks has been including a fair amount of Japanese Commentary tracks on their releases for the past few years.
I recently listened to the ones for "Himouto! Umaru-chan" and they were a lot of fun! One of them even featured the original mangaka Sankaku Head, which was a real treat. 
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moogrin
Posts: 43 |
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Another Sentai one I own is The Garden of Words which has both Japanese and English commentaries (iirc the Japanese one is with Shinkai).
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5525 |
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While the Japanese ones are informative. I didn't find them as interesting as some of the English ones. The one for Bakemonogatari, where the VAs play play their characters was good, it is a shame that Aniplex stopped including them.
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Codeanime93
Posts: 599 |
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Media Blasters had actual commentaries for the three Genshiken OVAs that were released with the Kujibiki Unbalance anime which were pretty interesting to listen too, if not for the rambling talk of Tomokazu Seki and Kenji Nomura speaking about maid cafes (including Tsundere Maid Cafes) , airport security, collecting fish as a hobby and AV Idol videos. Seriously it's rather odd that the extra OVA episodes of Genshiken on those discs got an audio commentary and the actual spin off show that was meant to be the main part of the disc didn't get one.
Also I think Planetes did have a commentary tracks on it's discs, including one with Takehito Koyasu which I didn't listen too fully enough maybe in the future. I do remember the MD Geist one as the director legit didn't understand any of the popularity that his anime was getting and couldn't remember I think much about the making of it besides he was a frustrated 20 something year old who wanted to make something cool he thought. Last edited by Codeanime93 on Mon Nov 13, 2017 1:55 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18507 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Yeah, Japanese actor commentaries are usually pretty worthless unless it's one of your favorite actors. (English actor commentaries have a better track record, but not by a huge margin.) Production personnel commentaries, OTOH, are usually worth the time; I highly recommend the one which came with the Ninja Scroll BD, for instance, and Satoshi Kon had a reputation for being very insightful on these back in the day.
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Codeanime93
Posts: 599 |
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I certainly found the MD Geist one to be insightful and enlightening I guess, if not for how earnest and honest Ohata acts during it. |
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Hawkmoth
 Posts: 62 |
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I like commentary tracks if the people are interesting, but most voice actors are indeed quite bland, too terrified of causing offense to say much other than wow or cute. Hideaki Anno's commentary for the Nausicaa film is highly entertaining, howeer. He pulls no punches in criticising himself or Miyazaki's mistakes, and those of others, along with some nice anecdotes of working back on the film. He should do commentary tracks for all films.
And I concur with Key: Kon's commentary on Paprika (with Susumu Hirasawa) is a wonderful talk about the metaphysical concepts of his and Hirasawa's work. I heard somewhere that there was a commentary recorded for Perfect Blue, but it either doesn't exist or could not be brought over to the west. If the latter, I shall commence crying immediately. Let's not forget the Cowboy Bebop commentary track where Yoko Kanno provides comprehensive proof as to who the character Ed is based on. Watanabe literally does not get a word in and it's hilarious. (Episode Mushroom Samba for those curious) |
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MarshalBanana
Posts: 5525 |
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rizuchan
 Posts: 980 Location: Kansas |
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Wow, I came here to ask if the person asking this question had ever actually listened to a Japanese commentary track, because every one that I've tried to listen to was basically a cure for insomnia. But it sounds like there actually are some that are worth listening to.
Edit: To elaborate, I actually tend to enjoy commentary tracks in general, obviously some are better than others. But I always got the feeling that part of the reason they stopped bothering with them in R1 releases (completely ignoring the difficulty of translating and subbing) was for similar reasons that they stopped including the interviews and stuff that were extras in the Japanese original - they're just not usually very interesting. Despite a lot of fun and silly interviews being aired on Japanese television, when it comes to on disc interviews, Japanese staff members seem to always be in ultra PC mode, like the whole industry will crumble if they say something remotely controversial. But I haven't bothered watching one in probably 10 years, so maybe they've become more entertaining recently. Last edited by rizuchan on Tue Nov 14, 2017 10:24 am; edited 2 times in total |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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They're also difficult to watch--
Commentaries have to be subtitled, so unlike listening to a Hollywood movie commentary where you can sit and listen to the director, you're chained to reading the subs either way. You either have to watch the dub, while the subtitled commentary throws you off by not matching the onscreen dialogue...Or, like most movies, you have to turn on the audio commentary in mumbling, rambling Japanese with the subtitles, without the audio of what's happening onscreen. Either way, they'd have to say something interesting: Only two anime disks with director commentaries I ever owned were CPM's two "special edition" DVD's of Project A-Ko and UY: Beautiful Dreamer...And while Mamoru Oshii might have a few interesting, if pretentious, things to say ten years later (he finally answers the question of "Who's watching Shinobu from the window?", if you can call it "answered"), listening to how Project A-Ko came together is pretty much standard anime-business-as-usual. |
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ScruffyKiwi
 Posts: 710 Location: New Zealand |
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The Bakamonogarati release by Hanabee in AU/NZ luckily has the commentary tracks. These are amazing as they are done by the different voice actors in character. They are a MUST LISTEN for fans!!!
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Zhou-BR
Posts: 1463 |
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The US release includes the in-character commentary tracks as well, but it's a shame that Nisemonogatari and the subsequent Monogatari releases didn't get the same treatment from Aniplex of America. I wonder if it was due to reverse importation fears or because it would be too much of a hassle to translate all those commentary tracks. |
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Heishi
 Posts: 1357 |
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I really wish I could have some commentary tracks for some of my favorite anime.
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