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Hey, Answerman!

by Brian Hanson, Sep 25th 2009

Hello people!

By now I'm assuming that you are all quite inured to me talking during these brief introductions about how tired I am. Boo-hoo, the anime columnist isn't sleeping enough, whatever, I've got better things to do with my day than listen to some nerd complain about sleep deprivation. And that's fair. I get that. But let me just reiterate: I am very, very tired. I say this not to excuse any shoddy writing that may occur as a result, but simply because it's cathartic. I can't sleep, but I can whine and moan about not sleeping. And that at least helps, somewhat.

What's this? Questions? Oh, yeah:

I was wondering what, if anything, determines whether an anime gets dubbed for American audiences and why we see some titles popular among fans (the only one I can think of right now is dub or is there some underlying cultural work going on? Sure, anime purists might not enjoy dubbing, but they do bring our beloved artists more money, which means more opportunity for them to continue making the anime/manga we love. What I'm really getting at is if there is a sort of criteria that is fairly common among all anime that gets dubbed (aside from the obvious profitability).

Here's the thing: "Popular among fans" does not always translate into "popular at retail." Honey and Clover is a relatively popular manga series, sure, but there's a dedicated market for Gurren Lagann was initially released dub-less.

Unfortunately, in this terrifying modern era of the stark anime market, the simple act of including a dub is no guarantee whatsoever of being able to connect to that elusive "wider audience." Make no mistake, it's been statistically proven that anime DVDs do not sell above a certain amount if they don't include a dub, but it's also been proven that the audience that buys Naruto and Fullmetal Alchemst on DVD do not seem too interested in much else, dub or not. So, simply put, companies consider it a wiser move to save themselves the $30,000 dollars or whatever it costs to dub something and make a sub-only release to cater to the hardcore fans, and call it a day. In a perfect world, either every anime would include a dub, or the so-called "wider audience" would be more accepting of watching a subtitled product, but as we all know the world is far from perfect, so we have to make do. And make do we shall.

What is the real story with Cartoon Network and Anime? I understand why Cartoon Network has reduced their amount of anime shown, but do they really disdain it as it seems and has been mentioned in other forums. I have seen some of their apparent wisecracks about anime and its viewers in their several second spots that they litter around their anime broadcast hours. I have rarely seen much nice said about Cartoon Network in anime forums. Is it a love/hate relationship with Cartoon Network? Does CN only view anime as trash filler for their dead broadcast hours?

First, let's make this a little clearer: Cartoon Network doesn't "disdain" anime more than they seem to disdain animation in general at this point. I mean, who needs actual cartoons on the Cartoon Network when kids are all about lame reality shows for teenagers and Andrew W.K.?

Second, I think you're really referring to Astro Boy, when they know that no one in their right mind would ever watch them? Sure, yeah, those shows are given lousy "filler" timeslots, but Adult Swim could easily throw a repeat of Family Guy or King of the Hill in place of any of their anime shows and the ratings would triple, guaranteed. Even at 5:00am on a Sunday morning.

I definitely think it's a love/hate relationship that Adult Swim has with anime, but probably not in the context you're thinking of. Adult Swim loves anime, but they hate that nobody watches it. The blame for that simple fact could be attributed to many things; lack of promotion, lousy timeslots, or just plain lack of viewer interest. But anime is still on the air, and that's a good thing.

I was watching TV last night and came across an old Carol Cheng). Halfway through the movie I had to IMDB it to make sure I was correct. But I couldn't find an english dubbed cast list for it, nor was it listed when I looked up Bridget Hoffman's filmography. But when the credit's rolled and we got to the US production company stuff, sure enough her name was there but It was not credited properly with her character's name. They just listed all the voice talent by their names only and not the characters they were dubbing.

So my question is about Dub actors. I had thought all entertainers had to be part of some guild or union. Is this the case with voice actor's? And if they are, don't they have to be properly credited in everything they do?

Two dubbing questions! My.

In case it's not fairly obvious to everyone, dubs of nearly every stripe tend to be done on the cheap. And I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way. Unless Disney is dubbing a new Studio Ghibli movie, dub studios and especially dub actors have to work very fast to produce the best product they can with a shoestring budget. And that becomes a problem when you enter Unions into the equation.
If you're any sort of an actor in, say, Los Angeles, even a voice actor, you need to be a member of the Screen Actors Guild to find regular acting work. And if you're a member of SAG, you're lucky in that you have a minimum wage that your employer, even a lowly dubbing studio, is required to meet. But let's say that you're having trouble finding work, even as a SAG member, and this little dubbing studio is willing to hire you on for a few voices, but they can't afford to pay you SAG wages, ellipses...

One of the dirty little secrets about the dub industry that's often mentioned but never really discussed is that often, not so much recently but certainly in the past, recognizable voice actors took part in anime dubs under pseudonyms. Dub actor needs work, dub studio can't make the SAG wage, so the dub actor just accepts credit under an assumed name and uses the smaller check to buy his daily bread. But that's the sort of thing that could get both the actor and the dubbing studio in a lot of hot water, potentially, so the subject is usually brushed aside. Again, this really only applies to dubbing studios around Los Angeles, as SAG's control doesn't extend beyond the borders of California, so studios in Texas and Canada don't need to worry about Union-related litigious troubles. Besides that, there's also the little thing about fewer and fewer anime dubs even being made anymore, so this is largely a relic of anime fandom since past. So now, instead of actors having to take extra work under a pseudonym, they're not able to take extra work at all! SO it's kind of worse.

I gave the Flake of the Week segment a little bit of a breather last week, so this week I made a concerted effort to delve into the darkest recesses of the Answerman inbox to find something special.

I mean no sincere disrespect to the guy who gave me his Dragon Ball script treatment. All I'm sayin' is... no Comic Sans.

And now it's Hey, Answerfans time! Put on your Answer-caps and Answer along to the Bouncing Answer Ball as we revisit last week's question:

According to Jay Lorenz, it's all in the tagline, baby:

In one of our Journalism classes, we had at least 2 activities on advertising. (Strangely, some Journalism graduates here in the Philippines go on to become rs/PR men, if you could get your head around that.) One of the techniques I abuse often is the use of taglines or slogans. These short but meaningful statements in slogans, as we have found out, effectively gets the audience's attention, among other things.

I had an idea a few months ago for an advertising campaign for both Hayate, The Combat Butler and Kuroshitsuji (if, for some miraculous reason, they get premiered on local TV here). Since they are both butler-centered anime titles, I'm going to use their similarity to market both of them. And the ingenious slogan I made for it is:

"Who says we can't serve two masters at the same time?"

And the ad campaign pretty much shoots off from there.

Avoll oversees his answer:

If there was one show I'd want to try and introduce to the American audience, it'd be Bleach or Naruto to grab a casual anime fan's interest. I'd make a pretty good grand overseer... that is, if I had the money to do all this.

Tom is nothing if not a dude:

Well, I'm aware this series isn't exactly new, but the show I can envision a place in the U.S. for is mecha action with rather well-done female models.

But, being both a dub fan and an aspiring voice actor, my biggest reason for wanting this show on U.S. air is to take advantage of the DOZENS of good female actors we have working in the anime industry: Melissa Fahn, and so on and so forth...

Now, as to how I would go about promoting it...well, it doesn't seem like a show that would suffer from editing, so I would show it in daytime on Cartoon Network or CW4Kids/4KidsTV. I'd just have to make sure to promote it like crazy on the regular CW as well as make sure the content contains the same quality as the first season of "The Spectacular Spider-Man" did.

Rednal delivers:

How about Movie Theaters? There are several advantages to this; first, American movies as a whole are generally mainstream entertainment, and especially with the major films, a lot of people see them in the theaters. So that's a quick and easy way to actually find the audience, and get them to associate anime with being "normal", not "weirdo Japanese stuff". Next, the series can actually be chosen to fit with the movie; imagine, for example, having a commercial for Transformers. People are already going in thinking "Giant Robot Awesomeness", so why not when people are already in the mood? On top of that, Movie Theaters are used to playing relatively long commercials for other movies and such, and people actually expect this, and they're probably going to sit through and see the whole thing instead of walking out or changing the channel like they might in other places. I'm thinking that the Intro for a series, textless, might make a very good commercial, especially for a series that's action-oriented. In this economy, we might even be able to get a bit of a discount; I'm sure the theaters would enjoy any extra revenue. This might not be the greatest ment for the more... niche... titles, but for a series that can appeal to a wider audience, there's a good chance for it to work.

Raga's idea would go great with those elusive Mennonite anime fans:

I would choose to market Spice and Wolf. Obviously, the best way to do this would be to gradually introduce Trenny silvers into the American economy, until it becomes the dominant form of currency. Once that has been accomplished, the anime company that licensed it (which produced said Trenny silvers) would be able to rule the US via economic dominance, and, consequently, any further action would be child's play. Not to mention that the prevailing form of currency would double as promotional material, thereby further enhancing sales.

Alternately, hire pairs of representatives to travel via horse and cart from town to town bartering box sets.

Maureen's Response Ensues!

If the US anime companies had a surplus of cash (dream big, guys....), it's hard to say initially what show should be marketed to a mass audience. Safe to say, the only shows in recent memory that have truly become legends in anime fandom have been Michiko e Hatchin. Though the latter could be slow-developing at times, and the former slightly annoying in it's love-square/pentagon, both anime truly had heart, and they made you just the tiniest bit happier going through your day (which I think any true piece of entertainment should strive for). Toradora! I could see reaching the general anime populus, though it may be written off as just a school drama at first; it's Michiko e Hatchin that would be tough to market: "Badass Brazillian Woman Sort Of Kidnaps A Boyish Young Girl; Adventure Ensues!". Not much of a campaign. But hey, if they have this monopoly money we're pretending they have, why the hell not? Let them think up a slogan. I just want people to love these shows.

And... that's actually all the responses I got. Yikes. I guess people had a hard time relating to the question? Well, anyway, I've got a new question for next time that'll hopefully set your creative-response-glands ablaze:

1 comment

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