CosmoDNA Forums - ourstarblazers.com

As seen in the minimal announcement here, and other places no doubt:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... amato-film

Not that startling, given, I think, Madman licensed it for Australia and I seem to recall Manga Ent. UK picked it up for England.

Naturally all the speculation will be if it will be dubbed. Given how strongly the star (and producer) was against such a thing, it's probably not going to happen. The second biggest speculation would be will it get a wide, national Theater release. Again, strongly doubtful. Probably more of those specialty 'one night/one show/one theater' things that is becoming the hot thing in the industry.

The Third speculation will be when does it come out. Ha. We still haven't seen Yamato:Resurrection on an even hinted at release date, so... OK, OTOH, Live Yamato does have some slight 'heat' from the recent boutique theater showings, that might push Funimation to get it on the schedule soonest. Plus it's a standalone live action film, not a chapter in a larger saga they don't have the rights to.

It wasn't a bad film. Compared to what would have happened were it an American production it's bloody wonderful. I'd pick it up eventually, probably when Right Stuf knocks it down to $5 to get it off the books.

Steve H wrote:Naturally all the speculation will be if it will be dubbed. Given how strongly the star (and producer) was against such a thing, it's probably not going to happen.

There won't be any speculation about it being dubbed, because as Tim has said in his reports, and multiple times in the Cosmo DNA facebook community, it was a condition of Takuya Kimura's contract that his voice wouldn't be dubbed over:

http://ourstarblazers.com/vault/594/

For those still holding out for a dubbed version, there won’t be one since Takuya Kimura’s contract specifically states that he can never be dubbed by another actor. So it’s sub-only in other countries.

DanGeorge wrote:

Steve H wrote:Naturally all the speculation will be if it will be dubbed. Given how strongly the star (and producer) was against such a thing, it's probably not going to happen.

There won't be any speculation about it being dubbed, because as Tim has said in his reports, and multiple times in the Cosmo DNA facebook community, it was a condition of Takuya Kimura's contract that his voice wouldn't be dubbed over:

http://ourstarblazers.com/vault/594/

For those still holding out for a dubbed version, there won’t be one since Takuya Kimura’s contract specifically states that he can never be dubbed by another actor. So it’s sub-only in other countries.

Except as I've seen on the Facebook page and the ANN forums, there's a LOT of people who should have read this kind of info yet persist in asking that question over and over. Funimation could have gotten ahead of the game by stating the release will be sub only, but they didn't.

OTOH as we all know, things change. Of all the remaining American Anime releasing companies Funi has resisted falling back on sub-only 'quick,cheap, grind-it-out' releases to keep afloat. On the gripping hand, Funi likely looks at Live Yamato as a small profit boutique release...

Steve H wrote:Except as I've seen on the Facebook page and the ANN forums, there's a LOT of people who should have read this kind of info yet persist in asking that question over and over. Funimation could have gotten ahead of the game by stating the release will be sub only, but they didn't.

True. Hence why the FAQ on this forum exists. I should add that to the FAQ. All other things aside, the only time English dubbing of live-action Japanese anything is when it actually increases the amusement factor, e.g. with Iron Chef where aside from Chairman Kaga himself (whose actor for all we know might have had the same contractual clause, although his "if memory serves me correctly" segments were dubbed over). Certainly wouldn't work for anything intended to be a serious-mooded action/drama like Yamato.

Steve H wrote:OTOH as we all know, things change. Of all the remaining American Anime releasing companies Funi has resisted falling back on sub-only 'quick,cheap, grind-it-out' releases to keep afloat. On the gripping hand, Funi likely looks at Live Yamato as a small profit boutique release...

I do know that at least one Funimation release has been sub-only title announced before now which was OniAi, announced on ANN in September which those who only watch dubs think it signifies the end of all anime dubbing >_>. Funimation and Sentai will both continue to dub those shows they see having a strong demand for, especially on the various online premium streaming services like those on Xbox's video streaming, which mandates an Englsih dub. Opening their operations to include sub-only releases will allow them to sell more niche titles which they have the licence for but on the other hand don't have the demand to break even on a dubbed version.

But now that gets into the circular logic of the Industry, to wit:

Given: It's good to sell a product (in this case, anime, either TV series or movie or OAV) to as many people as you can.

It's a simple fact that listening to a show in one's native language is more desired, more accessible, the casual buyer might be hooked.

Carl Macek's proclamation that "people don't want to read their movies" does hold in the broad sense.

So for MAXIMUM sales potential of any anime license, dubbing is a must.

HOWEVER:

Dubbing into English is fairly expensive, much more so than a simple subtitling job. Increasing the bottom line means sales have to increase in order to keep the Return on Investment in line with expectations.

Dubbing runs risks. If one alters the script in order to try and attain some kind of 'perfect' synch to the lip movement, one may well be completely making s**t up instead of translating. The Japanese really aren't too concerned about 'perfect lip synch', not compared to, say, Disney or Macek.

The QUALITY of a dub job is purely subjective. There is no way to create an objective standard. What one person considers an outstanding dub another may think it's just terrible. You cannot have an objective standard on what is a completely emotional issue.

And on and on.