07-09-2004, 05:04 AM
Let's just look at the whole supply and demand thing for a minute. This is one of the most basic foundations of business and I think it's important to know.
I'll start with anime back before DVDs were around. Someone in here has already mentioned that the subbed versions usually cost a few dollars more than the dubbed versions back then. That's kind of interesting because it has to cost more to produce a dubbed movie than a subbed movie. Let's look at the potential reasons why this was.
1) Retailers were randomly putting prices on video tapes to see how much people would pay... sounds like a good business practice to me.
2) Producers needed to encourage people to buy the more expensive to produce videos so they could continue throwing their resources into an unpopular format.
3) The anime companies did market research to see what consumers were more likely to buy. Then they produced more dubbed videos than subbed to match the market demand. To offset the difference in numbers of units sold, they raised the price of the lower demand item.
Just sit and think about that for a while.
As for subtitles vs. dubs; if I have a good dub, I prefer to watch that as opposed to subtitles. They do happen and the North American companies are getting better and better at it every year (I've been watching anime long enough to have noticed that trend by now).
I'm also enough of an anime junkie that I'm willing to watch a show with pretty bad subtitles (I just sat through L/R and loved it in spite of some very hard to understand subs) if there isn't any alternative available to me.
To offset me being an anime junkie, most of my friends who are only marginally interested in anime and would probably never even read a forum about it only want to watch dubbed anime. When the dubs are bad, they just assume that anime is bad and they walk away. They don't want to put the effort into reading ANY subtitles and consider me a fanatic for having mostly subtitled movies in my collection (I'm also into Bollywood, French, and Spanish cinema... I just like seeing how other cultures see the world.
So... if you're going to continue pursuing this sub vs. dub idea then go get some hard data beyond your opinion. Check with friends who aren't INTO anime and see what they think. Anime is still a fairly small market but it is growing. Most people who watch it for the first time are starting with dubbed anime (oops... sorry, I just made that up... I don't know it for sure... I can only go on my 20 years of anime experience... but it sure sounds good... that would probably make an interesting survey though).
I'm done... I'm going back to my squirrel.... blah blah blah gnf hru gurgle...
I'll start with anime back before DVDs were around. Someone in here has already mentioned that the subbed versions usually cost a few dollars more than the dubbed versions back then. That's kind of interesting because it has to cost more to produce a dubbed movie than a subbed movie. Let's look at the potential reasons why this was.
1) Retailers were randomly putting prices on video tapes to see how much people would pay... sounds like a good business practice to me.
2) Producers needed to encourage people to buy the more expensive to produce videos so they could continue throwing their resources into an unpopular format.
3) The anime companies did market research to see what consumers were more likely to buy. Then they produced more dubbed videos than subbed to match the market demand. To offset the difference in numbers of units sold, they raised the price of the lower demand item.
Just sit and think about that for a while.
As for subtitles vs. dubs; if I have a good dub, I prefer to watch that as opposed to subtitles. They do happen and the North American companies are getting better and better at it every year (I've been watching anime long enough to have noticed that trend by now).
I'm also enough of an anime junkie that I'm willing to watch a show with pretty bad subtitles (I just sat through L/R and loved it in spite of some very hard to understand subs) if there isn't any alternative available to me.
To offset me being an anime junkie, most of my friends who are only marginally interested in anime and would probably never even read a forum about it only want to watch dubbed anime. When the dubs are bad, they just assume that anime is bad and they walk away. They don't want to put the effort into reading ANY subtitles and consider me a fanatic for having mostly subtitled movies in my collection (I'm also into Bollywood, French, and Spanish cinema... I just like seeing how other cultures see the world.
So... if you're going to continue pursuing this sub vs. dub idea then go get some hard data beyond your opinion. Check with friends who aren't INTO anime and see what they think. Anime is still a fairly small market but it is growing. Most people who watch it for the first time are starting with dubbed anime (oops... sorry, I just made that up... I don't know it for sure... I can only go on my 20 years of anime experience... but it sure sounds good... that would probably make an interesting survey though).
I'm done... I'm going back to my squirrel.... blah blah blah gnf hru gurgle...
Gullible isn't in the dictionary.