FUNimation suing A.D. Vision, Sentai, Section23 and others

I definitely agree about the importance of the voice overs. For example Trigun was partly made so great for me thanks to Trigun's perfect choice of Dub actors. Although Trigun is a good example of a show whose's dub is hands down better in English (In my opinion).

However I would also agree that the majority of mediocre anime does have pretty poor voice acting (in my opinion) and in all honesty, it's not a huge amount better in it's native Japanese dub. Some of those voices are actually painful to even listen to(in both languages).


Back on topic: All this recent news we've had of suing and closing down of companies in the anime industry, makes me sad :(
 
Gee, i didn't mean to spark the old Sub vs dub debate,

All i was saying that i possibly underestimated how popular dubs are, and those fans must be upset by the remaining publishers (in the worst case) being sub only

Though, i do find a lot of people prefer the version they heard first, For example Macross plus, i heard the dub version first, and i don't mind it so much.

But that is partially because the japanese audio track is much quieter than the english track, probably a manga snafu, after all, the discs have the wrong titles printed on them ;)
 
Eh, it's not like it's been a heated debate, and it is tangentially related to the matter at hand.

On that note, I trust that a mod will intervene if they judge this thread to be moving too far off topic. Backseat moderation isn't required.
 
ConanThe3rd said:
ilmaestro said:
Rui said:
As a selfish fan rather than a lawyer in the US standing to profit from this, I want both to stay in business and release lots of anime, so this totally sucks.
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I almost want this, but the picture painted by Just Passing Through is too attractive given my base position of "**** Funi". They really are a horrible company.
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As apprently bad as they are, do you really want to contend with Zombie ADV? Because if this blows up in funi's face, we're going to be left with them and then once they die, it's £100/two episdoe releases for us for the rest of the ever.

And, frankly, Zombie ADV are in the wrong anyway. ******** Texas Tax Loophole be damned.
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This has nothing to do with principles or legitimate grievances, otherwise Funi would have started this legal action a long time ago. It has everything to do with money and competition. If I was being cynical (and I am) I could say much of the present legal system also has little to do with principles or legitimate grievances either, and that whoever can afford the best lawyer will win.

I don't want to see Funi win for the simple reason that they're powerful enough as it is. The specifics of the case can go hang, I want Sentai there as a counterweight to stop Funi from establishing a monopoly.

fabricatedlunatic said:
I trust that a mod will intervene if they judge this thread to be moving too far off topic.
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devilrules666 said:
Right so bad can this thing get? cos i just read about the lawsuit and i don't quite understand what this has to adv and sentai. Nor why funi is suing?
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I believe the summary is that in the old days, ADV owed some investors a load of money. Rather than selling what it had and paying the people it owed, what it actually did was set up a bunch of fake companies and quietly, over a period, 'sold' those new companies what it still owned for almost nothing. This made it look as though ADV had nothing to use to pay back its debts with. Then ADV collapsed, and had nothing left to give the people it owed money to. The companies who had invested in the old ADV would have lost money and been forced to accept that.

Funimation is saying that it was one of those people ADV owed money to (whether it was at the time or became one by transferring debt from a different company isn't clear; I've heard people stating both as fact). As ADV's new companies are now doing reasonably well, Funimation is cross because they should have been paid back as a priority. ADV effectively used some legal trickery to hide what it owed from the people it owed it to.

I think we can safely read into this that Funimation could really use the money. Neither company seems to be particularly loaded, so an expensive ongoing court case isn't great. In response to how bad this can get, in the worst case the legal fees and ruling might shut one (or even both) of the two companies down depending on how much things escalate. Even in the best case, if Funimation wins and gets their eight million dollars (IIRC) from ADV's new companies, ADV is going to have a large hole in its licensing and dubbing budget. If ADV wins, both of them have legal costs to pay and Funimation has to write off the sum it was owed, which will have a similar effect.

The dub comments are related to the topic in as much as the two companies involved are the two big English anime dubbing houses (excluding Viz as they're strange), so I'm happy for the side debate as none of us really understands the legal aspect and the case won't go to trial (if it even ever does) until next year at the earliest I would think. So long as everyone keeps it civil, which people are doing a decent job of so far, there's no problem.

R
 
Outside of a miracle, Unless they settle, one of them (hopefully Zombie ADV because they're in the wrong, probably Funimation because the US courts are about as intelligent as anything else America has to offer) is going down.
 
ConanThe3rd said:
ilmaestro said:
Rui said:
As a selfish fan rather than a lawyer in the US standing to profit from this, I want both to stay in business and release lots of anime, so this totally sucks.
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I almost want this, but the picture painted by Just Passing Through is too attractive given my base position of "**** Funi". They really are a horrible company.
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As apprently bad as they are, do you really want to contend with Zombie ADV? Because if this blows up in funi's face, we're going to be left with them and then once they die, it's £100/two episdoe releases for us for the rest of the ever.
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Yes (not that I think it would come to that, as "someone" would step into Funi's shoes and might do a better job of it), and I already pay Japanese prices for most of my anime, so I'm probably not the best person to answer the second part.

Just Passing Through said:
There are infinite permutations of anime fan in this world, and making generalisations that disparage one group with respect to another will probably offend someone.

That said,
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I have bolded the part where it all went wrong. You could have still saved it after "that said" (although you were on a slippery slope), but the deep breath you drew during the comma and the space was what set up the debacle afterwards. :p

alexrose1uk said:
I really don't mind the sound of the japanese language, I find it far more listenable than say Chinese.
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Not that I don't agree with you to some extent (I love how Japanese sounds), but I feel like someone should go to bat for Chinese here. Amazingly evocative language imo, the natural tones give it such a wonderful rhythm.
 
The thing with Japanese is, it sounds, at least to my ear, like a conventional language despite its own uniqueness, whereas Chinese to me sounds to over vowel-sound heavy, not to say I won't listen to it, infact Shinjuku Incident which was a mixture of Japanese and Chinese language was one of the favourite films I came across last year.

From your comment it might actually be what I dislike is what you like.
 
At risk of being very off topic now, I find Mandarin Chinese very beautiful to listen to (I can understand some Mandarin), but I'm less keen on the dialects I'm less familiar with and still find Cantonese rather rough. I find with all languages though that the more I hear them, the more I learn to appreciate them in spoken form. That's part of why I always like to watch foreign cinema in the original language; experiencing the unique tones and quirks of new languages is a nice bonus.

R
 
Absolutely, I love the sounds of mandarin. I do also like the sound of Japanese as well, it's maybe a little bit softer? I don't know, I like how they both sound.
 
Rui said:
At risk of being very off topic now, I find Mandarin Chinese very beautiful to listen to (I can understand some Mandarin), but I'm less keen on the dialects I'm less familiar with and still find Cantonese rather rough.
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In fairness, that is exactly my position on the matter, too. Rather poorly I always assume people mean Mandarin when they talk about Chinese in a general sense.

As for this "risk" of being off topic... what was the topic, again? ^^;
 
Or how through further clever use of the legal system Sentai are going to walk away with a trollface expression and bags of cash from Funi?

Seriously Conan, did you lend money to ADV? 'Cause that was a bad move.
 
ConanThe3rd said:
How, god willing, Zombie ADV is going to get theirs?
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ADV might, the companies they sold their assets to are probably totally safe.

Buying stuff off someone in debt doesn't mean you take on their debt, or that it isn't now your stuff. If they're bankrupt it's obviously different.

FUNi are alleging that ADV is bankrupt (or that they were when they did those sales). Officially they are not.
 
ayase said:
Or how through further clever use of the legal system Sentai are going to walk away with a trollface expression and bags of cash from Funi?

Seriously Conan, did you lend money to ADV? 'Cause that was a bad move.
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Did we not all lend them the money of comradery when they viscously stabbed us (And propeller) in the back when they switched to the dark robber-barron known only as Lace only to then blame us as if we were the very same devil kings that hid behind the persona of John Ledford?

Seriously though, no. Because investing in anime is something of a mugs game at this point.
 
I see this as Ledford's "phoenix company" move as finally coming home to roost. Nobody was fooled when he killed ADV only to come back doing the same thing with three seperate companies and continue to make a profit hoping to get away with not settling ADV's debts. It was a cowboy move that has caught up to him. Ledford and Levy both drink in the same saloon. :wink:

Anyone who thinks sub only is ever going to save anime outside of Japan better get out of their room more often. How many more companies that have gone that way and failed will it take before any of you are convinced it ain't gonna happen? :roll:
 
Yeah, lets dub everything. Just don't complain about the lack of variety (there are plenty of niche shows that won't then get western releases as they wouldn't sell enough to warrant a dub).
 
You can snark all you want with the same old cliché chanted over and over. Meanwhile the denial keeps flowing and body count keeps rising.
 
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