Anime dubs are serious business.
So there's an anime comedy series called "Super Gals", which is basically about a kogal named Ran and her friends. (If you're scratching your head over "kogal", here's a helpful link.)

I know it's hard to believe, but this zany comedy series aimed at ten year old girls failed to make a huge splash when landing here. Only the first twenty-six episodes were brought over, even though it's a fifty-two episode series. Hell, even in Japan, the second season was never released on DVD. Nevertheless, there is a hardcore contingent of fans who mostly seem to hang out on the Anime on DVD forums.

While up until now the original licensor had been noncommittal about the future of the series, an announcement was made at Anime Expo that the second half had been picked up by a different company.



Things pre-emptively start off with this comment by slerch666:
I'll be interested in seeing how this sells w/o the dub. I guess we'll find out which was more important to "fans" of the show, the dub or the content. My guess? The dub.


Chiyosuke agrees:
I swear, as hard as it was for this to even get licensed, if anyone complains of the lack of dub, they're in need of a serious series of triple bitch-slapping and a trip to Chris B.'s sig!!! Of course, I'm kidding about the slapping part...


IanC says:
*snort*

So if someones a fan of this show due to the dub they arent a fan?


slerch666 responds:
*sigh*

Way to take offense to everything posted that has to do with a dub. You're like a damn magnet to this shit.

All I meant was that I've seen plenty of instances on this board where people claim to be a fan of a "show" then when something happens and it is a single language, they are no longer a fan of the "show," they magically become fans of the language they wanted it presented in.

People who like a "show" would be fans regardless of how it was presented.

Being disappointed there is no dub is one thing, using it as a flimsy excuse not to buy is another is all I meant.


Skywise interjects some logic here about dub costs:
But enough to cover the dubbing of a full 26 episode season though? Remember dubbing costs are around 10k per episode, so they'd have to sell enough extra copies to make up for $260,000. You do the math for how many copies they'd have to sell at $35 per box (it's $50 on their site, but account for wholesale prices and discounts and I'd say $35 is a generous figure). Presumably they think it less of a risk to release it sub only if it fails - ADV has already given up on the title. They do have the sales figures of the first season to base their licensing decision on, so hopefully that means they know what they're doing.


Vicserr:
I was referring more to the Dubbie zombie squad that will have to debate if they won't pick it up because it's sub only or just crack and pick it up because it's the only way to get season 2


EmperorBrandon is a member of said "zombie squad":
And for being a member of the "dubbie zombie squad", I've certainly watched and enjoyed the original Japanese version for the first season. It's certainly not as if every person who really enjoyed the dub hates the original version (as criticizers of the "dub moaners" seem to think).


IanC is too, I guess:
and saying Dubbie zombie squad just because they prefer dubs is pretty harsh, i guess your a "Subbie Zombie Squad" member then, eh?


Daniel Perales:
You know? I just can't help to wonder if the show were to be released "dubbed-only", I wonder if most people here would have been quick to preorder it?

Using Mediablasters "Bible Black" fiasco as a reference a few months back, I don't think so.

So in conclusion, I wish that some of these sub fan stop acting like a bunch of hypocritical jerks, saying that it's the show that matters, especially when they bombarded Mediablasters with a "No original language with english subtitles, no sale" posts. I guess back then, having it available in dual language did mattered.


And finally, our first "no dub, no sale"! And it only took oh, about two hundred posts.


Mike Dungan:
Chris, when you said there'd be a price to pay, I never imagined it would be this high. It breaks my heart, but I'm passing.


a grumpy old man ZenAmako:
There was a time when I was just glad when I didn't have to subtitle a show myself. In the very early days, I would print out the script for a show and have it next to me while watching in raw Japanese. Eventually, I learned to take the scripts and produce subtitled copies, but this took a lot of time. I can't tell you how many hours I spent in my '20s subtitling anime. But when anime could cost as much as $80 for a 30-minute episode, you tried to get as much out of it as you could.

Now we have fans who complain if there's no English dub. I'm not trying to be inflammatory, but I'm thinking there is a generational divide here. I look at a dub as nothing more than an extra feature that I can take or leave. Clearly, this is not the case for the current generation of fans.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying this is a bad thing. While I do think a lot of fans today take their anime for granted, it's what fans 10-15 years ago were working for. They loved anime and wanted others to be able to share in their enjoyment of it. Now you can go to your local Best Buy and pick up Zeta Gundam or Lupin. Anime fans have never had it so good.

If a fan enjoys dubbed anime, then so be it. But remember that there is a generation that grew up on subtitled anime and will always have a preference for the original Japanese.


Wrath of the Njr has this comparison to make RE: subs VS dubs:
More like haute cuisine v convenience foods.


Legion politely calls Mike out on his "no dub, no sale" stance:
I don't wanna come off as confrontational here since I know your preferred translation option and respect that, but for less than $40, isn't it worth it to have the second season and see how it all turns out, even if it has to be communicated through the other translation method?


(The answer, btw, is NO, because anime dubbing is the sort of thing you just have to make a stand on, dammit.)


"But why are all the fans gone"?:
I'm with you on that one, didn't AOD had all those Super Gals appreciation days and all that jazz, ok it worked The Dark Lord Kleckner had mercy on you all and thru his powers licensed it, you got it, here's season 2 but because Season 1 din't sell instead of the full package with all the extras, you're getting the standard package which a whole lot of ppl will be happy with, some will live with it and some will not.

If they were part of all the brouhaha and all... and here the case in not that pronounced but as stated somewhere else on the thread, in other forums some ppl are jumping ship. So where is the Super Gals Love now after all the crying and moaning to license season 2?...


Then there's this exchange:


Wrath of the Njr:
I think describing the SG2 release being dub-less as a "high price" to have the release licensed is wrong wording.

disarm:
How is an opinion wrong?

slerch666
This is the Internet. Any opinion that isn't mine is wrong. Haven't you been around long enough to know the Internet mentality?


And that's just the tip of the 500+ post iceberg.