Sunday, March 14, 2010

Kanokon Dub Update + Vampire Bund Censorship News!

Greetings and salutations fellow anime fans, I am Richard J., your slightly demented but typically friendly blog host! Welcome to another edition of Blog of a Heretical Dub Lover, where I pretend to be important!

Today was going to be a post just about a few new developments on the censorship front with Funimation but our good friend bal-anime was nice enough to treat me to some news about the Kanokon dub! (Which made me very happy. I love dub news!)

What was revealed about the dub? Two cast members!

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First, we have Jessica Gee playing Kiriko Takane. This is according to her website, which also has a slightly better list of her anime roles than ANN, and appears very much a fully confirmed fact.

Next, we have Steve Cannon, possibly better known to some of you as Steve Staley! He's voiced several characters I'm quite fond of like Hitsugaya from Bleach and Soma from Kannazuki no Miko/Destiny of the Shrine Maiden. (His ANN profile has a pic and I don't know yet which character he's playing so no character pic.)

Now, this comes from Amazon.com's listing for the first volume so while good news, it should be taken with a grain of salt as Amazon does on occasion get their anime info wrong. Also, we're still unsure of the studio being used. It could be Bang Zoom, it could be Arvintel or it could be someone else in LA that we either don't know or wouldn't expect to be used.

Still, dub news is dub news and I need to start getting a little more serious with my efforts for this blog!

Speaking of serious, Media Blasters, the company that will be releasing Kanokon, had to make a tough choice and recently cut it's workforce. This prompted the team at ANNCast to make some rather dismal predictions about their future.

Humorously, major player at MB John Sirabella responded over at Mania.com's Anime on DVD section. If he's actually worried, he hides it very well. Personally, I'm not buying that the company is doomed. Should you buy any English dubbed anime they've got out? Yes, go for it! But I'd say that about most anime!

Well, since we're getting serious, lets talk about a topic that is close to my blood pump: censorship. I am a very strong Free Speech advocate. I've been quite vocal all over about my irritation with Funimation over their statement of intent to censor the DVDs for Dance in the Vampire Bund.

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It now appears that, perhaps, we won't have to worry about censored DVDs after all. On their Blog, Funimation has begun backtracking away from the apparently VERY UNPOPULAR choice to censor their DVDs. Robert of the Anime Corner Store (buy from them, they have awesome customer service!) talks about this on his blog, including a great quote from a company rep at Funimation. From what is being said now, the issue was never a matter of legality as the first 7 episodes are okay for uncut on DVD. Either someone was being overly cautious or they thought censored anime would be easier to market.

Hmm, apparently all the rage over that decision is changing their minds!
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Good job anti-censorship otaku!

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Well, that's all for today folks! It's been a crazy week for me but hopefully sanity will be restored on all fronts soon. I'm hoping for the best but planning for the worst.

Bye-ni!

5 comments:

  1. The two George's (Jessica and Grant) seem to often leak their roles a bit early. I remember back in 2007 Grant George leaked that he was playing Keiichi in When They Cry a few months before the DVD released.

    And yeah, I don't see MB being in that bad of shape, they seem to be doing well.

    And as for Vampire Bund, releasing it uncut would be the best decision, and it seems like that's how it'll turn out, so that's good.

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  2. I was rather surprised when I heard the comments Justin and Zac were making on the ANNCast in regards to the problems over at MB. I'd like to hear Sirabella on their podcast. It seems that Justin and Sirabella have a history, so can someone enlighten me as to what went on between those two, if anything?

    I don't see the DITVB thing to be an issue of free speech since there is no govermental involvement here; only unfounded speculation that there will be in the future on the part of FUNimation. There were other things about DITVB that I had a problem with when it came to the things that were said on the ANNCast, but I'll leave those out of here.

    In any case, all was well here until Chuck Norris came out. Sorry, but I'm not a fan. It's in the same vein as "IT'S OVER 9000" and other memes for me.

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  3. @ braves: Not sure what the deal is with Justin and Sirabella either. Probably one of those things man was not meant to know. ;)

    Ah no love for the Norris? I like the man and the memes. (Though admitedly this is largely a result of the movie Sidekicks.)

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  4. At least they are going to try and not edit Vampire, which makes me happier. Edits are usually wrong, mainly in DVDs.

    As for Kanokan, I'm sort of interested in how that dub will turn out.

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  5. As much of a step backward as what I'm calling "The Bund Relapse" seems to be (or would "seemed" be a more appropriate word, since they changed their mind?), I really couldn't find myself begrudging them for considering the possibility.

    Admittedly, I don't know a lot about this series, but hearing about the whole naked loli vampire business made me think of that guy in Iowa who got put away for owning some explicit manga. The fallout, however limited it could be, from such a case could likely have been taken into mind when making this decision.

    Now, I applaud Funimation for listening to their fans and reversing this decision. I think this can only help them in the long run.

    However, I think it's important to consider possible reasons they would have chosen that route beyond "wanting to destroy music and fun forever."

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