How Would You Rate The U.S. Anime Companies?

Discotek: 9 of 10

Discotek gets almost a perfect score because when it comes to older titles, they are the mecca. They’ve grabbed shows that the larger companies (Who am I kidding, FUNimation is pretty much the only one) wouldn’t dare go near because regardless of the how niche the market, is a risk. Fist of the North Star, Galaxy Express 9999, Samurai Pizza Cats, even the most seemingly impossible license they somehow can get. Their boxsets are about as bare standard as it comes, and it sucks sometimes being a dub fan knowing you probably won’t ever hear english to them, but the magnitude of the licenses carry these 2 minor gripes fully.

Sentai Filmworks: 9 of 10

ADV has been through a lot in the last decade, and for them to come back as strong as they have is nothing short of a miracle (or good business, oh snap). Neo-ADV lives on through 5 companies, each consisting of one particular segment of the business, Sentai aquires new licenses, Seraphim studios is where the shows are dubbed, Switchblade handles the live action portion, and Section 23 is kind of like the Back catalog / producer and they are doing it right. What a lot of people don’t realize is even though Sentai is doing so well, they are considerably smaller then FUNimation, significantly even, and yet they can stand almost toe to toe with them, why? Good Business. They don’t announce a license on the way to the damn meeting, they announce it most of the time after the show is done, and pre-orders are up so they can grab the wave of initial knee-jerk MUST BUYS. They don’t dub every show, which means shows come out quicker, and lets face it, not every show needs dubbed nor should they be, it’s a waste of capital, I mean really did Sekirei NEED dubbed? Did Queens Blade NEED dubbed? But you know what? If the demand is there, they will dub it later, look at Clannad, started sub only, and the pre-orders and buys showed them “Hey, it’s worth the extra capital”. On top of good business practices, they understand how to dub fucking shows, excuse the vulgarity. When they grabbed K-On after Bandai put in their 2 weeks notice, everyone was afraid they wouldn’t get the old cast back (Because FUNimation has destroyed dub continuity credibility in the R1 market) and boop “Hey guys we’re using bang zoom, it’ all good everyone’s coming back, HOW HARD IS THAT HUH? and everyone was floored, even more so because Sentai IS IN THE SAME STATE AS FUNIMATION, it’s not hard, it’s called being a good business and giving a shit about the people who pay you, simple as that. Set wise they are pretty decent, nothing is really too spectacular as they don’t do limited editions, and they are a little high on price. But you know what? That high price means I’m getting quality, it means I’m going to get my goddamn dub cast back, it means my Blu-ray isn’t going to be an upscaled DVD/Bluray combo piece of garbage, and for that you get a 9 in my book

MANGA: 8 of 10:

If I were to judge merely on Manga’s performance today? I’d give them a 7, but since they are the same MANGA they were all the way back in the early 90’s. They get the highest 8. MANGA is the company who kind of perpetuated the “Spicing” up of English dubbing (generally adding in swearing where in the Japanese script there was none) and to that I say, Bravo. Creating the best dub for something isn’t about following the Japanese script word for word, because figuratively and literally, you really can’t. Cyber City, one of my favorite shows of all time, is a testament to a dub that said “We’re going to kick it up a notch” and they did (and even created a superior soundtrack, beat that, lol) Recently Manga has been slow, when they grabbed Redline I was shocked because Redline is the best anime movie I’ve seen in a decade, and for them, of all people, to grab it was shocking, but they can still dub great, so they may have slowed down but their quality hasn’t suffered. Sets again are your standard fair.

Nozomi/Rightstuff: 8 of 10:

Right Stuf I put in the same caliber as Discotek, the only reason I knocked off the extra point is, unlike Discotek who literally gets hit after classic, Right Stuf is about every other series, I mean, of all the El-Hazard series to grab, why wanderers? lol, however on the flip side, grabbing cult classics like the original dirty pair and the OVA series are more then fantastic (and even better they get ALL available dubs, the DP OVA set has both the Streamline and ADV dub) which gives me hope if they ever grabbed Outlanders or Cyber City, we’d be seeing the “Perfect” versions.

NIS America: 8 of 10:

What NISA lacks in dubs or pricing, they make very much up for in the quality of their releases. Now as far as being an actual company, they are fresh out of the womb in comparison to the rest, lol What really carries them are their premium sets, You think just an Artbox and maybe a coin or keychain constitutes being a “Limted Edition”? Try Huge boxsets with fantastic artwork, artbooks, sometimes a CD, The Natsume’s Book of Friend set has a production book in the shape of the book of friends itself, I mean you really feel like you’re getting bang for your buck. Their prices are a smidgen high for generally Sub only releases but with how awesome there sets are, it’s ok by me. Before I get off that, their PR is GREAT aswell, the Toradora early run sets had a weird ghosting effect on them (I mean it’s their first release, we cut them some slack) but they were quick, prompt, identified the problem as their own, apologized and replaced every set free of charge. Now that’ how it should be done.

Aniplex USA: 7 of 10:

Aniplex in Japan is the producer of a large of ammount of contemporary anime these days, so when they decided to cut out the middle-man on a lot of stuff, I thought, shoot why not? They are in the perfect position too. However, they get a 7 out of 10 because of all the shows to start with, no matter how awesome the LE’s for them are (which I own) why did the Gurren Lagann movies have to be them and sub only? blowitallupplz The sets that AUSA releases are all top tier, but that’s mainly because they are almost all merely Japanese Imports. Which is why I knocked the extra point off because even though they are dubbing now, and release some amazing series, the price points hit you REALLY where it hurts, and don’t get me wrong, I paid like 800 bucks for both Tenchi Blu-ray sets, but the fact of the matter is, the R1 market just hasn’t gotten to the “Collector’s Only” mindset yet with anime (nor do I think it will anytime soon) so even though they are translating the books and such are giving some series amazing releases, the price is a heavy one.

VIZ Media: 7 of 10:

Now I’m being generous with that 7, and really the only reason I am is because Viz actually keeps voice actors in New York and Vancouver employed. A far as sets go, the bar is kinda low, they don’t release very often, of all the shows NOT to get finished, it was Monster, lol and Inuyasha Final Act from the packaging looks as though it was thrown together in 5 minutes. Overall quality isn’t terrible, but I certainly don’t get excited when I see a Viz license (though, the Berserk movies getting grabbed surprised the hell out of me) not much more to say there.

Media Blasters: 5 of 10:

If ever an example to the “Cockroach surviving the Nuclear Holocaust” then Media Blasters would be it. Having been around a long time, I would have called time of death almost a decade ago, lol but they keep chugging on, sadly not for the better largely. MB gets the rating of 5 because even when they grab a gem or two (like Squid Girl) it’s always followed by terrible news like the license hell that is Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei, or they just straight give up on licenses (I kinda cried when they said the Lodoss Re-release was pretty much never going to happen recently) or Bakuman, and the list will probably go on. Don’t license a title if you can barely push the ones you have out the door first. MB’s Dubs are here and there, sometimes you get some great and funny shows (like Dokuro-Chan) other times you get Kanokan, packaging is standard, but the fact when you hear MB has picked up something, that you immediately say “License Hell / Fornever Released” in the same vein as Duke Forever, is NEVER a good sign.

and of course, the best for last :Cheeks:

Funimation: 5 of 10

Story time kids! I’ve been a fan of anime for well over 2 decades, I’ve seen the good, the bad, the ugly (and even Apocalypse Zero). Anime has helped me get through the worst of times, and put the icing on the cake during the best of times, and quite a ride it’ been, but here we are at FUNimation. When some hear FUNimation, they hear it synonymous with Anime itself, FUNimation has the most PR, and right now they are sitting on the most licenses, but when I hear FUNimation, I see that same old runt on the playground who no one gave 2 flips for because all he had was Dragonball (and he couldn’t even do that himself). FUNimation gets a 5 out of 10 because they are at complete odds with the very fandom they release content for. During the last half of the last decade, starting with Geneon’s very sudden and sad leaving the North American territory, the R1 market felt like it got shot in the chest. Geneon leaves, ADV’s parent companies behind the scenes BS catches up to them, Central Park disappears, and Media Blasters goes into hiding like the cockroach to the nuclear fallout it’s always been lol, and Manga at this point has all but Retired. So who’s left? That’s right, the runt. Now I don’t hate FUNimation (and it is hate at this point) because I’m a blind zealot, I do because they literally had, the BEST opportunity in the world, everybody folded in the poker game and FUNi was the only one left with the chips. So what do they do? Waste it in every way possible and bring down the expectations of both the industry as a whole and it’s fans and god forbid you have a series THEY didn’t dub originally, because not only will you not be getting the majority of your voice actors back (The Badlands Rumble incident, enough said) but the voice actors they get are treated almost literally, like slaves. Having talked to many voice actors who have worked for them, both FUNimation in house, free-lance and otherwise, NONE of them, not a single one has a nice thing to say about them, and it breaks my heart because the talent these fantastic people have, does not mean a goddamn thing to FUNimation. I will give credit where credit is due, they’ve picked up and dubbed some great shows, Fullmetal Alchemist, Black Butler, Spice & Wolf, there is no denying that these shows were great, they’ve even picked up licenses that otherwise may have been out of print, but quantity over quality is never good in the entertainment industry, and if you put enough monkeys in a room with typewriters, they’ll eventually produce Shakespeare. To top it all off, they don’t even understand the thing they put the most merit into, the business. At the end of the day, they are a business, but they can’t budget to save a life. They blame pirates, they blame scalpers, they blame the small market, yet they can’t understand why releasing a show no one cared about with a set that should have been sub only 4 times with misleading titles and announced 2 years ago before they even had the freaking license, is a bad idea.

Bottom line, the biggest anime company in the R1 market should not be making the ludicrous business, rookie, and flat out terrible dub decisions that they make, and no amount of Vic Mignogna fangirls can change that.

Actually, that’s the first I’ve heard of Discotek! Anyway, out of all the other companies listed, they all seem to be pretty solid. Sure they’ve all got their different strengths and weaknesses, but hey, so does every company!