Bandai's Taking Action Against Imports/Bootlegs

[gubi-gubi]

Originally posted by Prophet Hero
It's not really a waste though, is it? Although, I don't watch the dubs it's good to have the choice. More importantly it makes anime more accessible for some fans and perhaps for the consumer in general.

Anime took a battering in the UK when it was introduced because generally only what was considered 18-rated films and series were released. The medium became synonymous with schoolgirls showing their underwear and tentacle rape and so the videos were tucked away or worse not even sold.

I think subtitles-only releases would be simply shoving anime unecessarily into another niche and if this move were to have a negative impact on sales...well it could precipitate an all too familiar chain of events.

I don?t want to get into dub v sub but saying sub only would impact sales is not true as Cardcaptor Sakura is a prime example seeing as the dub (yes a heavily edited version but still) sold less than the sub. Urusei Yatsura a title that even got sold in VHS format a while ago in the poor UK market even though it was sub only, cant be doing too badly seeing the high amount of DVD volumes produced. Saying 'oh its good to have it there' is pointless seeing as you never watch it (especially in HK as it takes up space having two audio tracks) and saying dubs make anime accessible is true but its also dominates anime to the extent that (now I don?t live in the USA but) nearly all anime on TV is dubbed and all anime in cinemas is dubbed... We don?t have much anime on TV in the UK but what is dubbed and if there was more no doubt it would be dubbed so having all this 'accessible' anime still isn?t accessible to someone like me who wont watch dubbed anime...