Ghadrack Posted October 1, 2015 Posted October 1, 2015 OK,as a now 40 something, nearly 30 year anime fan, with today's technology, the profit potential, fandom, why in the hell do the Japanese companies not as a given put an English subtitle option on all anime releases to get their products in US (huge market there ) hands? I mean with vhs, I understood , with DVD onset I still understood since Internet sales and marketting wasn't a thing, OK. Today, I think they are dumb. Even at Japan + import prices I would love to import Japanese Macross and other anime products, instead I'm hostage to hoping one of the US digital video services gets the license to view online, but I can't buy a permanent copy of their shows. Why is this still a thing? Quote
camk4evr Posted October 1, 2015 Posted October 1, 2015 As I understand it the anime that do have an English subtitle track are for an international release (it's cheaper just to put an English track than multpile different language tracks) and most anime are made for the Japanese anime market with little to no expectation of an international release. Of course this makes little sense for Macross which has a good sized international fanbase who can only legally get the franchise direct from Japan thanks to Harmony Gold. Quote
no3Ljm Posted October 1, 2015 Posted October 1, 2015 Yeah. If you're just pointing out Macross releases, then you could just put the blame on Harmony Gold. The rest is more like if it's not released internationally because some audience is not familiar with it, then there's no chance of getting it English sub. Whereas with Gundams, most of their releases now even initial releases already have english subtitles or better yet english dubs. Quote
F-ZeroOne Posted October 1, 2015 Posted October 1, 2015 (edited) From reading about the process of translation, one answer could be: translation, at least good translation, isn't easy. It would also be an additional cost; even in Japan anime is a slightly niche market (in the same way that, even though you can find science-fiction all over the damn place, its still considered a bit of a niche market in the West - even "Game of Thrones", possibly the hottest T.V. drama around at the moment cannot escape the "spotty nerds in the basement" association so beloved of media critics; you can tell by how hard they try to deny that a show that they like but which happens to have dragons, undead and magic in it is fantasy... ). Traditionally, though this seems to be changing a bit recently, Japanese companies have always been a bit cool towards marketing anime in the West. There can be other issues; Macross is a particularly famous example of an international licencing minefield (other sources claim that the only reason we got "Macross Plus" is because it had so much obvious appeal overseas that the various parties involved finally banged some heads together). Gundam, arguably the biggest (at least in terms of recognition) and most famous anime of all in Japan, didn't do very well in the West asides from "Wing" and I think "Destiny". Speaking as someone whos been an anime fan nearly as long you have, and can remember a time in the UK when the total amount of anime available (on VHS, no less!) could be counted without running out of fingers, the current situation actually seems to me to be almost magical. I saw someone at work the other day wearing an "Attack on Titan" Survey Corps jacket... Edited October 1, 2015 by F-ZeroOne Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.