Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The Anime Conservative: BangZoon to stop dubbing in 2011?

Let's be honest folks, Anime in the US has gone done hill, and fast. When you take into account what things like buying binges, shitty release schedules, fan subs, and a host of other problems it was bound to happen sooner or later. Now, right on the heels of Aniplex's stab at the US market by releasing sub only discs, we have news that BangZoon might stop dubbing Anime in 2011 is fan support doesn't pick up and while this might not matter to some, it matters to me as I'm a huge dub fan and BangZoom fan.

The founder of BangZoom Entertainment, Eric P. Sherman posted a rather dire sounding editorial on GoAnimeT.V.com saying that is folks don't start buying the DVDs and stop watching fan subs, the Anime market is going to go down and BangZoom will stop producing dubs. I agree that fan subs and the massive sense of self entitlement doesn't help thing, however I would like to add a few things if I might.

One of the biggest factors in the decline has got to be the fact that there hasn't been a massive hit in the mainstream for a good 5 years with Fullmetal Alchemist and nothing that has been aired on television lately took off, I don't even think Sci-Fi still shows Anime. I honestly don't even know if Brotherhood is even doing all that well on Adult Swim.

Secondly, the mass licensing of super niche' show doesn't help either. I mean, I know shows like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya have it's fan, but I can't imagine it selling more than a couple hundred units and I'd be surprised if they even broke even. So, maybe I'm not surprised the market as a whole has tanked. Not to mention several great shows will probably never get released chief among them are Gundam X and V Gundam. Gundam X should have been like the second or third Gundam show they brought over here and sadly I doubt it will.

Thirdly the blame game has already started on the massive cluster fuck known as the Anime News Network forums like it always does and believe me, I'm with my fellow dub fans on this one. I want most shows to be dubbed. I want Anime on T.V. This sadly, won't happen happen anytime soon, and I'd be surprised if it ever fully recovers.

Fourthly it's time for some good news. BangZoom is seeming to be more work with Vampire Knight, even if Vic will shit it up. They are doing the second season of Suzumiya and maybe even Kekkaishi. I think the US market can make a come back if companies could get shows on T.V. Gungrave would work well on Adult Swim and they could even hype it up as being from the creator of Trigun.

All in all, I hope BZ can bounce back. I'd hate to loose such a great dubbing studio .

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