Who controls what Gundam shows get Dubs now?

[bhayes82]

Can someone with knowledge explain how the dubbing w/ gundam works now?

from my understanding Bandai America went out of business.

and now it seems like Sunrise is directly releasing stuff now via rightstuf.com?

and it also seems like the older Gundam shows from the 80s and 90s are being ignored and just getting 'subbed' releases.

the higher quality english dubs are given to the newer looking Gundam shows?

cause i still can't figure out why zeta gundam got such a sub-par dub. i mean i read it was a union issue? couldn't bandai have just waited a few more years til it got resolved?

they hired the A-team (ocean group) for SEED and F91 was dubbed by the team who have worked on the OAVs

and i hear they're re-dubbing SEED with new voice actors now?

who at the top is making these dubbing decision?s. is the policy to ignore compilation movies and older gundams and focus on the newer shiny stuff??

i understand at the end of the day its a business decision but crap! who is making these decisions.

any chance for atleast a new dub for the zeta compilation movies with better voice actors than the folks who worked on the series?

[Seto Kaiba]

Can someone with knowledge explain how the dubbing w/ gundam works now?

The same way dubbing any other series works... it might be the eight hundred pound gorilla in Japan, but outside Japan it really isn't given much in the way of special treatment.

and it also seems like the older Gundam shows from the 80s and 90s are being ignored and just getting 'subbed' releases.

the higher quality english dubs are given to the newer looking Gundam shows?

That's fairly straightforward... it's all about their age and how a show's age affects its appeal.

New or recent Gundam shows are the ones that have the most hype built up, and therefore are the ones the TV networks who carry anime are likely to license. They're given priority in the dubbing process because they are the franchise's ambassadors to non-fans. Older Gundam shows from the 80's or 90's are the ones that mainly interest the otaku crowd and the franchise's die-hard fans, the kind of viewers who are statistically likely to be in the "subs, not dubs" crowd anyway.

cause i still can't figure out why zeta gundam got such a sub-par dub. i mean i read it was a union issue? couldn't bandai have just waited a few more years til it got resolved?

It's because they cheaped out... Ocean Productions had the dub produced at their budget studio in Calgary, not at their flagship studio in Edmonton. Dubbing is expensive, and if you don't think the show will earn back what you'd have to spend to dub it right you cheap out.

they hired the A-team (ocean group) for SEED and F91 was dubbed by the team who have worked on the OAVs

and i hear they're re-dubbing SEED with new voice actors now?

At a different studio, yes. NYAV Post.

who at the top is making these dubbing decision?s. is the policy to ignore compilation movies and older gundams and focus on the newer shiny stuff??

The distributor is... it's their job to localize the show for distribution in their market, and naturally they'll choose to focus on the newer shows that are more likely to earn them more money in licensing revenue and home video and/or streaming. They're in business to make money, after all.

[bhayes82]

Valid and logical points. i guess their quality dub of Mobile Suit Gundam was a gamble that didn't pay off so they used their budget studio for Zeta.

i don't know about the rest of you guys but i need my gundam in english. Japanese w/ Subs is too hard on the ears for me.

[Seto Kaiba]

Valid and logical points. i guess their quality dub of Mobile Suit Gundam was a gamble that didn't pay off so they used their budget studio for Zeta.

Dubbing a very old series like Zeta Gundam is also a much bigger risk, financially, because you either have to go out and spend more money to build awareness of the title you're planning to release or keep your expenditures below what you think you'll be able to make on home video sales because it's almost certainly not getting picked up by a TV network.

Zeta might be an iconic and influential title in the Gundam franchise, but because anime is niche in most western markets and the series itself is so old they can't count on anywhere near the same level of brand awareness and industry status to sell it that a Japanese distributor working in the JDM could.

i don't know about the rest of you guys but i need my gundam in english. Japanese w/ Subs is too hard on the ears for me.

I know some folks are like that, but most of the die-hards and rabid otaku belong to the subs-only crowd.

I'll admit I have a hard time listening to dubs these days, simply because so many of them do such a poor job with the casting that they've kind of come full circle back to being crap. This isn't to say there aren't good dubs out there, just that I've found that a lot of dubs are still pretty bad.

[bhayes82]

yep i hear you. honestly. i was introduced to Gundam via Wing in toonami in the early 2000s.

i recall when toonami 1st aired MSG. i was really turned of by it because it was just so old looking and didn't understand it. when i started visiting video rental stores and looked at the anime section. i would see all these different Gundam titles and it was overwhelming because i didn't understand the relationship between all these diff. gundam shows. it was just intimidating...

it wasn't until i saw 0083 on adult swim did i go 'oh okay. all these movies and side stories are all the off-spring of this old 70-era mecha show MSG...ah hah this is brilliant. and then all these other shows are alternate timelines."

it was then that i went back to the old series and listened to the voice performances and i could then appreciate how deep and emtional the performances were by the Ocean Group VA's. the original series may be old and slightly clunky at times but it was cutting edge for its time and the voice cast really bring the characters to life and make them relatable.

but clearly this series didn't sell very well when they released it. hence its the poor treatment of zeta

but the U.C. timeline has the best stories and performances. the 2 movies (CCA and F91) and the OAV's (0080, 0083, 8th Team) have the best voice performances and the best animation and the best pacing.

its a shame really. they could've left ZETA the series alone completely and just dubbed the compilation movies only . it would've been less dubbing work and they could've got ocean group to do it. as opposed to 50 + episodes dubbed in sub-par quality.

atleaset they dubbing the new adaptations of the U.C. manga's

Unicorn, Thunderbolt, Orgin and now hatthaway's flash.

i'm praying they'll adapt the old 0079 series w/ new animation as a follow up to 'orgin'. i heard the character designer mentioned he'd love to try to do it.