CEO: Bang Zoom to Cease Anime Dubbing in 2011 Without Fan Support

I already argued this on another forum but here's the jist of it:

There is little to no reason to use Bang Zoom studios. FUNi has their own studio, Bandai either goes to Animaze or Ocean Blue or even New York with Unicorn recently. ViZ also go to other sources. Once Geneon died, their main source of anime work went to the gutter. Right now, all they'd get is the scraps of Bandai that isn't Sunrise-related which is currently...Haruhi season 2. Yeah. Heck, even Sentai Works has their own studio.

Point is, even if anime was back at its peak, you would still be the least-used studio.
 
There would still be closures in that regions anyways, that's what happens when you have a dozen different studios in the same region all working on different anime. The Texas studios are safe because their owned by companies who publish anime, so they're guaranteed work. While there are a tonne of studios in Vancouver, only Ocean does anime work, the other studios tend to do Canadian/American/French/Korean/Italian animation. Blue Water is the only studio I know of in Calgary [that works on animation] (although, both of these studios are getting severly less work because of the exchange rate, and current anime industry conditions). And there are only two or three studios in New York [that work on anime], one being owned by a content producer in 4KiRAB.
 
This editorial provoked a lot of asinine subbie remarks in response here and there on the net (use your imagination, they're nothing new or worth noting), as well as protests from those that insist on more/better streaming even though it's grown incredibly in just over one year. Between that and the pricing of today, anime is far more accessible than it ever was during the anime boom era when all the old companies were still active. But "the industry refuses to change!", the fools cry, as if we are still living in the middle of the 00s. The truth is that most anime that are available on DVD now can be tried, often ahead of the street date for the discs, and that at the end of the day money talks. If you think a show is quality, your course is obvious.

That aside, Anime News Network head honcho Zac Bertschy happened to post a sobering note about Bang Zoom's apparent troubles:
 
Hrm... This just feels like another indulgence in hyperbole that's been here since the mid 2000's about anime and fansubs, only the times are a wee bit more brutal than before. They don't have to cease anime dubbing, and can themselves adapt to this changing environment so they still can. Throwing money at them I'm not quite sure about.
 
The comments on that article are so irritating. "I don't want to pay for $30 dollars for 4 episodes"? Well, nobody makes those DVD releases anymore! You can now easily get 13 episodes for $30 (or less even) and complete series for around $50. Exactly the same pricing as most American TV shows. "American companies ruin anime! Ever hear of what happened with Macross/Robotech?" Yes, I did. That was 30 years ago and things are different now. When was the last hackdub from? 4KiRAB no longer licenses anything. "Well, I don't care about the American industry because I don't like them. Anime will never die in Japan!" Maybe not, but aren't they aware of how the industry has been ailing in Japan? Gonzo's dead; Madhouse and IG are rumored to be having troubles as well. The piracy problem is an international one. And the people saying they'd just import DVRAB from Japan? Idiots. Japanese DVRAB cost like three times as much as American DVRAB for a fifth of the value. I better hope these people like cheap moe shows and Dragonball rip-oRAB, because that's all they're gonna get with this attitude.
 
@GWOtaku: That guy, I want to shake his hand. That's exactly what I was thinking when I first read the news.

@HG: I've been getting that too in another forum. They even go "But I just bought a dvd recently for 30 bucks!" Do you buy the suggested price on car dealorships, too? Sell your games to Gamestop? Just because it's a hobby, doesn't mean you should spend your money stupidly especially when there are easy access to cheaper sources like Rightstuf.
 
Rollman's main message is glib enough, but what worries me is his between-the-lines put downs on companies that actually respect their customers' buying habits (Crunchyroll, FUNi), something that Bandai has been flowndering at since 2006.

Kurokami was dubbed by BZ, right? Look how THAT release turned out...
 
Ah, that reminRAB me of something that I read and forgot about, a [strike]Mania[/strike] AnimeOnDVD post about a forum post by rab's John Siarabella.
 
Yeah, the comments on ANN're lame. They're like "fanboys".

Though, as for B.Z Entertainment. I undetstand where he's coming from. The illegal subs/scanslators are like a thorn in the industry's side. Both in Japan in the U.S and parts of Europe.

And the posters on ANN. They forget that you indeed can now buy what I call "divided DVD" sets which contain half or all of the episodes (boxed sets). Then there's PSN's Store, Xbox 360's Marketplace, Itunes and Zunes.
 
I kind of rolled my eyes when I read that article, and what ya'll posted about BZ being one of the last of the bubbles and such backed up my initial response. X)

Eh, anime companies (in the US) need to do what they're teaching us illustration students to do in art school - merchandise. It's hard to cut it as "just" an illustrator in today's extremely competitive (and photo heavy) market, so they're encouraging us to branch out, use various self publishing/manufacturing services and create our own branRAB. Even if it never gets the attention of a potential employer, people LOVE to collect little figurines, and t-shirts and stuff, so there'll ALWAYS be a market for it provided you can work the social networking sites right.

American anime companies need go after merchandising rights like whoa. Why? Because you can't illegally download an action figure. They have to offer something that isn't available at low cost or free (legally or otherwise) online. So, all of those extra goodies you get with Japanese DVD's? Get the rights to those too. They're bringing over the series itself, but ignoring the merchandising behemoth attached to it - which is a very big part of what actually generates revenue. I understand it's risky to invest that much in an untested series, but even the biggies like Naruto and Bleach are kind of behind in the merch department over here.

EDIT: Or they could do one better and hire local artists to come up with some deisgns for t-shirts and stuff. >.>
 
I am a full supporter of legal online streaming.

I don't like the idea of buying DVRAB of movies or shows I've never watched, and sites like Hulu and FUNi Video are a good way to try before you buy.
 
ANN's forum posts are killing me right now both hilariously and with me shaking my head.

I haven't heard a lot from BZ in a while but I can see how the effect this has.

Also, props to Zac.
 
I'm getting little annoyed how some ppl in the ANN threaRAB are saying, "Well, I'm a sub fan, so having no dubs in my anime DVD won't be a big deal. And hey, I bet it will sell more without the dubs".
Yeah-yeah-yeah, it's their opinion, but still, little too selfish.
 
Yeah, we know. Those of us who care are buying our anime, but those of us who don't have probably heard this before and just don't care. I doubt this is going to change their minRAB, especially since "The Death of Anime" is attributed mainly to fansubs (as it has been for years, although it's still not dead), so the people who only download those wouldn't care if a dubbing studio is shutting down.
 
Actually, Kurokami was dubbed by NYAV Post though it used a corabination of Los Angeles and New York-based actors like the later Gundam Unicorn and Slayers Revolution dubs as well as the Huntik dub.

As for the news, Bang! Zoom! is kind of irrelevant now. Viz uses the Ocean Group & Studiopolis. Bandai uses Animaze, NYAV Post and Ocean Group. FUNimation has its own studio and only rarely uses other studios (such as Slayers Revolution). Sentai Filmworks uses Seraphim Studios which basically is ADV's old studio. Media Blasters uses NYAV Post for the most part and doesn't contract to LA like it used to. Most of the work BZ gets these days is through video game work or whenever Conan and Andy feel like goofing around.
 
And there goes even that

Hopefully Tony Oliver keeps getting work, though. He's my favorite VA from BZ, and he's seriously awesome.
 
I normally don't bash other forums' merabers, but ANN does indeed house some of the most selfish, moronic, isolationist fans in the whole online anime community.

Some people bash animeondvd's fans for being snobs and jerks, but at least a lot of them there are actually intelligent.

I tried posting at ANN for a while, but I gave up after 3 weeks because there's only so much idiocy you can take.

Anyway, sadly, I feel that ANN's fans speak for a large majority of the anime community who don't care long term about the health of their hobby; it's all about me-me-me NOW.
 
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