Have you tried hitting the “audio” button to see if the Japanese audio was only made the default by mistake?
Knowing FUNi, it’s probably a mistake/glitch for the same reason they are missing episode 13.5 for Shakugan no Shana (despite it being on Geneon’s release in both English and Japanese), and forgetting to dub Hellsing: The Dawn. They also forgot shorts on the recent Black Lagoon release. On a recent ANN Cast, Lance (a FUNi representative) didn’t really have much of an explanation for the first two. If the English dub is not on there, they probably simply had no idea the short was dubbed. Someone REALLY needs to bring this to FUNi’s attention. It has one of my favorite moments of the series (Ryoko crying MOMMY!!!!), plus it’s really important to the plot. Maybe it’ll turn up on a future release of the Mihoshi special (something FUNi also desperately needs to release).
Trust me they know, the problem almost always comes down to money, while Funimation is currently the largest anime licensor in the US, they are completely cut and dry when it comes to any instance where they have to pay ANY extra for anything (IE too bad, so sad) According to what JG said when he talked to the Rep with FUNi at Ohayocon, they apparently have to pay extra licensing fees per extra, meaning the original Geneon licenses which were chalked full of them, were probably way out of Funimation’s price range, so in order to get what they have now, they had to negotiate a new license for the products, which is probably why it took so long to get them A. and B. why all extras are non-existant in the new releases.
Now that you mention it, a lot of these glitches are on the Geneon-rescues. It makes me fear that Media Blasters’ reissue of Fushigi Yugi will only have that show’s omake short in Japanese as well.
It’s weird that the Jirai short wasn’t just attached to episode 13 (as it was when I viewed it), and even weirder that they did get it, but not the dub. I suppose it’s no huge deal though overall.
For whatever reason, it was intentional & the packaging reflects that. There’s a ‘bluray special features’ box with this written under it – Runtime: 8 minutes, Audio: Japanese 2.0, Subtitles: English.
I figured as much. Does this also mean the Jirai short is exclusive to the Blu-ray?
