English Dubbing

[Vata_Raven]

I feel ripped off that our yaoi can't get English voice overs. Hentai does, why can't yaoi? The guys in them still make the same noises, I don't see what the difference is. Animeworks did a fine job on dubbing Loveless, I sort of want more dubbed by them. I would love to see Betrayer Knows My Name in English dub. Oh, and drama CDs with English voices, too, that would be awesome! *sighs* But sadly, this would never happen. maybe the fans should come together and do our own dubbing or things. Find guys that have the voices that fit and work from there.

[Senyoru-Chan]

Dubs are for children's shows. ( where I come from. ) Yeah, I hate dubs. :s Even if I watch dubbed, Yaoi would be the LAST thin I'd watch dubbed. I like my sex scenes in Japanese. And anyways before they get dubbed they would have to be licensed. Not many BL series are. The 18+ ones would most likely not get dubbed either way, cause there's not many people in the US willing to do such, that have a good voice and are professionals anyway. I don't understand what you are disappointed of at all. But that's just me I guess? But maybe you just meant the slashy/fluff yaoi series. That have no sex. In that case I guess it's all about waiting. The manga would need to get a bigger crowd first. Licensing them isn't easy, plus not many people pay for anime these days. lol piracy.

We could go on for ages, but you can always have hope of course. Try telling the anime companies to license series you are interested in. And MAYBE they'll dub it, knowing the US most things end up dubbed. Blergh. Good luck with that.

[Vata_Raven]

....Dubs are not JUST for children. Media Blaster dubs a lot of their hentai or they at least to, Sentai dubs mature rated stuff, and even Funimation dubs mature animes...Aire Gear is rated 17+, even though it's about extreme skating or whatever. And why I want my animes dubbed is because I DON'T READ MY TV. I never lived off subs, like people who have wireless internet. I have dail-up, I have to wait for my anime to put on dvd. Sort of annoys me that I pay $20-30 for a yaoi dvd that is only like an hour long and it have no English voices to it.

And it's just not for yaoi, either. don't buy Sentai's stuff because it's all subbed. if it was dubbed and up for rent, I could give it a try. I'm too bloody busy to read the TV.

[payang]

For me, I'd prefer mine subbed too. Even if the anime was dubbed, I watch it (in English) with subtitles anyway because a lot of the voice overs are somewhat poorly done (as in the voices just don't match OR they're way too low and I can't hear anything that's being said OR they say things way too fast and I can't catch it).

A lot of companies are going with subtitles only because it's cheaper. They don't have to pay voice actors when all they do is subtitle the anime. It's up to the companies whether or not they choose to dub a series (from what I gather, it seems those with the possibility to garner more profits ends up with dubs and those that don't..well, don't). If you have an issue with it, I would suggest writing the companies that actually licenses yaoi anime, most of which, I'm almost positive, are very small and are unable to afford voice actors (or voice actors mature enough do such performances). If it's going to be dubbed, I would prefer it be high quality work, not some subpar worthless piece of garbage.

[Vata_Raven]

You do know...Media Blaster dub all their hentai, right? That's what I'm talking about, why dub the hentai and not the yaoi, when most of the yaoi doesn't even show sex. There is only 1 that's 18+, and that's the Sensitive Porn one.

And Media Blaster, isn't as small people think, they're brought out as many animes as Funimation. And...you can't live off voice acting, they'll all tell you that. You pretty much do it because it's fun to do, even people like Yuri Low, Steven Blum, and Freeman. You just can't live off the pay from it.

[payang]

You do know Funimation struggles financially too, right? Sure, it releases XX amount of anime in a year, but that doesn't mean it's prosperous. It isn't "small" as in "small business" but it sure ain't a corporation either. It's a struggling business. Anime is a struggling market (so is manga). Hentai gets dubbed because the likelihood of it getting sold is higher than that of yaoi (I'm not too sure of many yaoi fans who would actually buy yaoi anime...as I know for a fact that I would never buy yaoi anime). The niche for yaoi anime isn't even half of that for hentai, so comparing the two is absurd. I'm not talking about maturity levels here. I'm referring to marketability and profitability. No one in their right mind would put in so much money and effort into something that will hardly sell.

[Vata_Raven]

You know how I know they're not struggling...Funimation has One Piece, Fairy Tail, and DBZ, those are their major titles they rely on. They will tell you those titles did horrible in Japan, but hits in the US, the owner of Funimation, the Japanese owner, he's not an idiot. That's why he wanted ID to be redubbed and not just take the original TokyoPop did.

And do not forget, these titles that Funimation, Media Blaster, and ect do go to other English speaking countries. Madhouse Entertainment has to pay Funimation to allow them to put that anime out in Australia, and so on.

And again, Funimation has started to get into the live action Japanese films...they even dub those over. They dub over live action, something that shouldn't even be done, but they do anyway...they're far from money issues. If Funi ever shuts down, then that'll be the end of it in the US.

[payang]

You do know that the anime niche isn't as big as you think it is. It may be basically your entire life, but that doesn't mean a lot of people in the world are actually part of it. There will be more people who don't know it than those who actually do. So saying "they have One Piece, Fairy Tail, DBZ, etc" means nothing when you compare it to the average potential sales of a more general company (say...WB or whatever other junk is in Hollywood too). Your comparisons and information doesn't mean much because you seem to fail to understand (or you just won't accept the fact that) anime is not a big part of the world (or not as big as you'd like to think it is).

Anime companies struggle just as manga companies do. Media Blasters struggled (if you recall, they did quite a bit of layoffs) and if they struggle, they don't have the money to do as much projects to the extent that they wish (plus, Funimation has delayed so many projects, which may or may not be related to financial related issues).

Funimation was close to shut down a few years ago (I'm not sure if you recalled, as their mother company, Navarre, was selling them and if they didn't get sold, they'd go bye bye). It is very likely that an anime production company can go out of business.

If I also recall correctly, a number of Japanese companies are preferring to do all of the releases themselves, cutting out the American companies. This also means less potential income for the American companies (which dubs animes).

The problems are so much more than you make it out to be. Also, my main point is, the niche for yaoi anime fandom here in America is so little, it is a complete waste of money to dub them. YOU might want to buy them, but that's you (and perhaps a few others, but not enough to get any company to actually care). The profits will not equal the losses, which means, as a business move, it's stupid.

[Senyoru-Chan]

Dial up doesn't exist here anymore, so I can't relate. And here in Sweden dubs are just for children. So that's what I base my opinion on. Thanks to subs, I've basically mastered basic Japanese speaking on my own. 50% of the time I don't even need sub titles anymore. It's a great way to learn. I learnt English the same way. Most anime fans hate dubs, that's something you are gonna have to deal with. And when we are speaking yaoi getting something licensed at all should be considered lucky. :/

Comparing yaoi to Shonen jump stuff is like comparing bombs to flowers. They are often two entirely different groups of people. Like the others have already said. It's not just "anime"...they wont sell to everybody. Something like Naruto are more likely to sell to everyone than any yaoi anime.

[Vata_Raven]

I'll tell you something, it's because of these so-called anime fans that are making the anime die out. They rely on the damn internet for everything. And these same anime fans complain about everything they can on the market. "Why do they keep dubbing my anime?" few weeks later. "Why the hell aren't they dubbing anime anymore." "They translated one word wrong in my manga, I'm no longer going to buy it."

US is the worse when it comes to bootlegging shit, and TokyoPop even said that, but that wasn't the full reason of shutting down, that part was on Border closing. But in Germany their TP over there... translates all the titles that Viz does over here and even the TP stuff, they do better over there. And with how popular MangaFox is, I have no idea why the hell it's even still open.

And the US isn't the only English speaking country, I don't see why Canada and US has to do all the dubbing.