ADV News

Yo yo Anime Vice! How ya been? Y'all must be doing pretty good since there have been so many good blogs and articles from new and old users. Not to be outdone, I am here to keep doing my best to provide interesting episodes of Dunce Cap covering exciting and controversial titles of manga and anime. So, today's episode is about Media Blasters' DVD release of ADV's dub of the 6 episode OVA of Golden Boy!! Enjoy duders!
 
WARNING! This video contains explicit language. Also, this video is not edited in any way.

     

Please feel free to provide suggestions for an anime or manga for me to talk about and I will do my best to oblige. Also, if you are curious about anything discussed in this-or previous-episode(s) don't hesitate to ask me for more information/opinions.

Last episode: Somebody's Been Doing the Fooly Cooly!

-Will McQuigg ( sotyfan16) is your everyday anime/manga enthusiast. You can also find him on Twitter ( bildo_88).

Sup Anime Vice? Hope y'all are doing good. I've gotten all moved into my new place but I won't have internet until Friday. Therefore, the next episode for the week may not get done until Saturday. Anyway, this week is dubbed "Mindfuck Week" for "Dunce Cap"! Today's episode cover's ADV's Neon Genesis Evangelion Complete Collection DVD release and FUNimation's 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone Blu-ray release! Let the brain-scrambling begin!
 
WARNING! This video contains explicit language. Also, this video is not edited in any way.

     

Please feel free to provide suggestions for an anime or manga for me to talk about and I will do my best to oblige. Also, if you are curious about anything discussed in this-or previous-episode(s) don't hesitate to ask me for more information/opinions.

Last episode: So.Much.Awesomeness!
 
-Will McQuigg ( sotyfan16) is your everyday anime/manga enthusiast. You can also find him on Twitter ( bildo_88).

Prescript: I am doing this because I have seen a lot of confusion around this issue, I am not an expert, but I do know a little bit about Video compression, DVDs, and other AV nerd things. I do not work for any Funimation or any other companies of their nature (I actually work as an office boy part time in a web business where I get to deal with things as complicated as cleaning up a dirty email list, to things as simple as getting the programmers their energy drinks. The other half of my time I am a college student studying Political Science and Japanese.) I hope you find the following information useful, informative, funny, and not so horrible written that it makes your eyes bleed like your a character from Elfien Lied.
 
There has been a lot of huff and anger floating around the internet (the internet from this point on shall be referred to as the tubes because I demand it) relating to Funimation cramming up to 7 EPs on one disk with some of their more recent releases.

People are going around saying this is killing both audio and video quality due to excess compression on Funimation's part, because they are putting 7 EPs into a disk that should only hold 4.

First off let me point one thing out. DVD's come in many forms, not only Readable, but Writeable, and Re-Writeable forms. On top of this they come in single layer and dual layer versions as well.

Remember way back when, you know when people still bought both VHS dub and sub tapes for a show, Bill Clinton having sex with yet another intern was news, and no one could point out Afghanistan on a map (not that many people now can sadly) DVDs where some times dual sided, with the wide screen on one side and the Letter Box version on another. Well now days we have something similar, a DVD which has two layers on the bottom side, doubling the space on the disk.

These are what Funimation is currently using. Now remember back in the day when most Anime DVDs had about 4 episodes on them. Well that was 4 episodes on a single layer DVDs, i.e. 4 episodes taking up around 4.7 GB. Well now we have 7 EP taking up 8.54 GB. Thinking about it that way the old school DVDs allowed for 1.175 GB per EP, while the new method allows for 1.22 GB per EP.

This doesn't mean that old school 4 EP per disks DVDs were, and are all printed only on single layer DVDs, but a lot of the time half or near half the space is left unused. For instance Full Metal Panic Fumoffu Disk 1 by ADV is dual side but only uses up 5.9 GB out of 8.54 GB, even with 4 EP, 5.1 Audio, and extras. With this in mind ADV could have easily printed the whole 12 EP series on two DVDs, with the extra's in tacked (The other disks aren't nearly as big about 5.3GB each). The reason they didn't though was to be able to spread the EP out over disk and be able to charge people more per EP, because that was the industries business model at the time.

That is ultimately the thing with the new Funimation discs they are done to make things cheaper, because the industries business model has changed with the drastic change in the economy. They are printing things on less disks, and not worrying as much with extras, so they can get more anime to you cheaper, so you can afford to buy their products in this tough recession. Its why the new ADV films is not dubbing as many things, and why Bandia has been canceling dubs as of late.

They are not killing the quality of your anime because they are an evil corporation, they are rebuilding their business model to lower prices, with minimal to no effect on quality, so you can afford their products, its the system working, not failing! Hell for all you greenies out there, its good for mother earth too! Thank you that is all..... well except....

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!
 
PS This is my first blog post for please forgive me if I did something that broke an unspoken rule of the site, or spoken one for that matter.

Why Does VIZ Insist on Removing Japan from Manga?

 
Recently, I've been trying to fill out as much information as I can about the series One Piece on AnimeVice. I've filled in information from episodes 1-132, creating profiles and filling them out. I'm only doing the animes and I wont even touch the manga section. Why? It's because VIZ publishes One Piece in the US. I know some of my blogs have been posted on the front page of this site, but this is my own opinion on VIZ and doesn't reflect the thoughts and opinions of the staff of AnimeVice.

In my search on some information I was browsing one one of the other manga/anime message board sites I frequented before I discovered AnimeVice. I was trying to gather some information about One Piece so I could add to this site. I had commented on how One Piece's release were anemic when compared to series like Naruto, also published by VIZ. A person replied with a link to the official One Piece VIZ website. On the front page it advertises that at the beginning of 2010 VIZ will be releasing five volumes of One Piece per month up to June and Volume 53.
 
This is superb news if you are a One Piece fan. Though I wonder if VIZ is even a good company for manga. This company is notorious for altering popular Japanese series dramatically. Not just the names, but the art work as well. Years back they had to republish the Dragon Ball series, because of fan pressure. VIZ had altered the artwork in the manga and the fans weren't happy. A petition was made and they changed the art back to what it should be.
 
I have seen myself that they have altered the art work in Naruto. Mostly when it came to any scene of nudity. Though the worst alteration VIZ has done with Naruto is rename all senseis with the title of "master"(i.e. Kakashi-sensei is changed to Master Kakashi). Do they think American readers are somehow too idiotic to understand the word "sensei". This alteration wasn't made for the dub of the anime and both and produced by VIZ. That makes the concept even more confusing that there anime and mangas aren't even aligned.
 
The dubs have altered scenes done on the original airing, removing most of the Tsunade breast jokes. Though in their defense they do release Director Cut versions of the animes. I haven't had the chance to see them myself, but I would imagine they would have less editing. Given the name Director Cut. Sadly, there are no options for Directors Cuts when it comes to manga.
 
The worst and most dramatic changes VIZ has ever made is to the series Detective Conan, another in the line of Shonen Jump series. The complete title was altered to Case Closed. In this series every reoccurring character's name is altered, save for Conan Edogawa; thought they change his real name of Shinichi to Jimmy. The villains in the series originally were all named after types of liquors, though I had scene that for the US VIZ altered the names to biblical characters. For some reason the name of Gin was replaced with Melkior. Yes, I'm sure the US audience will be much more familiar with the name of Melkior over Gin. They call the kids group "The Junior Detective League" though the badges the kids wear literally say "Detective Boys". You could argue that they did this alteration out of some act of political correctness, but that seems like a cop out. In the Japanese publication they say "shonentantei". While this does mean Detective Boys or Boy Detectives when translated. It can also mean Detective Kids. Why go through the trouble of creating a name like Junior Detective League when Detective Kids would work and be far closer to the actual intent of the source material? It's as if they went out of there way to use a name that was as far off the mark as possible.

You might not understand if you aren't a regular Detective Conan reader. So allow me to put this in perspective for you. Imagine if when VIZ published Naruto they changed the names of Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke into Nate, Sarah, and Steve, or in Bleach Ichigo and Inoue were altered to Charlie and Irene. How would you feel about that? Detective Conan is a series that takes place in real life Japan. Though you wouldn't know it from reading the VIZ version.

There is also the poor translations of the series. I tried to stomach the altered Japanese names. I bought a few of the US Detective Conan volumes, but repeatedly I saw translations errors. What does that say when people who do tanslations for free on the internet do a far better job then people a company pays. In Volume 15 the art shows Conan finding a rather odd hair on the victim's neck. This was the proof that the victim had been strangled to death by a wig. Yet later the translation says Conan found it on the victim's finger. The translator most likely mistook "kubi" meaning neck for "yubi" meaning finger. The kanjis look nothing alike and a paid translator should know better. Especially when the artwork shows Conan removing the hair from the neck. I find it ironic that in a series where little details are the most important, such as murder mysteries, VIZ makes it's most drastic changes. Some may think this is a silly issue, but in series like murder mysteries. Where the evidence is found is very important. Little details can mean a lot. Part of the fun in reading the series is trying to guess the criminal.

This company has shown dramatic disdain for Japanese culture throughout the years. Often removing as much of the culture as possible in their publications. When they could be used to help educate the reader. It's odd when their publication of Neon Genesis Evangelion has kept the Japanese honorifics, such as Misato referring to Shinji as Shin-chan; and keeping the original Japanese sound effects, explaining them in the back of each volume.  When a company does these alterations they basically cast aside what would be there strongest built in audience for people who probably would never even pick up a manga in the first place. It treats the American audience like idiots who can't understand simple things like honorifics and words like sensei. It's no wonder so many people would rather go to online translation websites rather then buy the mangas in the US. It's the only place we can find translations that stick to the real story.
 
On a personal level, I would never recommend VIZ mangas to anyone. After the complete butchering of my favorite series I boycott all VIZ mangas. It's irritating, because I really enjoy many of the series they publish and I would love to support them. In these times I am not going to waste my money on an inferior product. Not when there are companies out there that treat manga with respect. Such as DEL REY, TokyoPop, and ADV Manga. DEL REY is one of the best I have seen. Their publications of Negima! and Fair Tail are great. At the beginning of each volume it has an explanation of the Japanese honorifics and in the back they explain issues from the volume that might not be clear. ADV Manga's publication of Azumanga Daioh also included these notes in the back of the volumes.

For One Piece VIZ doesn't do many alterations. Their most dramatic would be renaming Zoro to Zolo, and calling the Marines the Navy or Naval Marines, despite the hats, shirts, and sails on their ships saying simply "MARINE" in the US versions. I really enjoy many of the series and would love to support them in the US and add them to my personal library, but not when they show such little respect for the Japanese source material, and there are companies in the US that will treat the series with the respect they deserve. What I plan to do is import the Japanese version of these mangas, such as One Piece and Detective Conan. It was partially because of my irritation with VIZ that I've been educating myself to learn to read Japanese. This is something I plan to keep up until they change the names back for Detective Conan. I don't mind the Case Closed title change, but altering the names of the lead characters is inexcusable and ignorant. It would be a simple simple change since it's just the text. For Dragon Ball they had to replace the artwork back to the original. They may say that they are too far into the series to change them to the proper names now. Isn't that a bit like saying, "We have already dug ourselves into a hole. We might as well keep on digging."?
 
Let's say for the sake of argument that they do put the names back eventually. There is a certain Volume that I know of that using the English names they have been given will make a translations impossible and have it make any sense. The company decides to republish the past issues with the corrected names and translations. Why should I pay for a manga volume twice for something they should be doing in the first place? Importing will most likely cost me more, but at least I'll be getting my money's worth.

I encourage manga lovers to support companies who treat the series with respect and avoid anything VIZ altogether. The evidence is there that they don't respect the books. Giving them your money will only encourage them to continue these practices. Support books and publishers that show the stories and culture the respect they deserve. I'm currently waiting to see what Yen Press does with Soul Eater, which is due out this month.

A.D.VISION, INC. CONCLUDES SERIES OFASSET TRANSACTIONS

HOUSTON, September 1, 2009 – A.D. VISION, INC. ("ADV" or the "Company") announced today that June 1, 2009, the Company concluded a series of transactions that are expected to result in seamless delivery of home video products and television programming to customers.

Through an asset purchase agreement, AEsir Holdings, LLC (“Aesir”) acquired a subordinated interest in selected programming from ADV’s film library together with other intellectual property subject to all liens and security interests of the Company’s senior secured lender. The transaction requires Aesir to assume specific obligations and scheduled liabilities of the Company under legacy license agreements associated with the acquired programming. 

Concurrently, the Company concluded an asset purchase agreement with SXION 23, LLC, doing business as “Section23 Films,” a home video distribution company, under which it assumes account servicing and distribution operations in connection with the library acquired by Aesir, subject to all liens and security interest of the Company's senior secured lender. 

John Ledford, ADV’s President and CEO, states “We believe the actions we initiated and completed provided the same or more value to the Company’s secured lender and its programming licensors while giving other key stakeholders such as employees and customers some potential value or the reasonable probability of realizing value.”

In a separate transaction, Valkyrie Media Partners, LLC (“Valkyrie”) acquired a 100% equity position in Anime Network, Inc. (“ANI”), formerly ADV’s television unit, pursuant to a stock purchase agreement between ADV and Valkyrie. That transaction includes an assumption by Valkyrie of specific liens and security interests of the Company's senior secured lender.

In another separate transaction, Seraphim Studios, LLC acquired Amusement Park Media, the production unit of A.D. Vision, Inc. 

Further announcements are expected from the respective acquiring entities over the coming days.

In honor of National Lazy Day, Anime Network is offering FREE Premium online viewing! Don’t miss one minute of this special offer beginning at midnight CDT Sunday and ending at 11:59 p.m. CDT Monday, Aug. 10!
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August is hot and muggy…you deserve a day as a couch potato. So, goof off, kick back and enjoy FREE top-notch anime entertainment!
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CROMARTIE HIGH SCHOOL, HUNDREDS OF NEW PROGRAMS AVAILABLE NOW AT THEANIMENETWORK.COM

 

Over 350 New Episodes Debut on Anime Network’s Online Player!

 

HOUSTON, TX — July 16, 2009 — Over 350 new anime episodes have just gone live at Anime Network Online!

 

WHAT: Cromartie High School comes to the web, along with 350+ brand new anime episodes at Anime Network Online.

 

This week marks the beginning of nonstop new shows debuting at Anime Network’s Online. Among the 350+ new episodes airing over the next two months is the premiere of Cromartie High School, the fan favorite series featuring the rough and tumble, mentally defective students of Japan’s most notorious reform school! 

 

Anime Network Online brings hundreds of anime, j-pop, and Asian live action programs to the web, including HD versions of hit series like Elfen Lied.

 

WHEN: New episodes available right now.

 

WHERE: Anime Network Online www.theanimenetwork.com  

 

HOW: Watch hundreds of hours of anime for FREE simply by registering! Or you can enjoy unlimited access to Anime Network’s entire online library with a 1, 3, or 12 month Premium Membership.

 

 

NOW PLAYING on Anime Network Online! 

 

Angelic layer

Appleseed *

Azumanga Daioh *

Bastof Syndrome

Bento Beat Box

Best Student Council

Chance Pop Session

Conduct Zero

Cool Dimension *

Cosmo Warrior Zero *

Cyberteam in Akihabara *

Diamond Daydreams

Divergence Eve

Elfin Lied *

Full Metal Panic *

GetBackers *

Ghost Stories *

Gilgamesh *

Guns and Talks *

Jail Breakers

Jungle Juice

Kino's Journey

Lady Death

Loki *

Magical Play

Mahoromatic

Marrying the Mafia

Metal Fighter Miku *

Mezzo

My Beautiful Girl Mari *

Nadesico POD

Nanaka 6/17 *

Neo Ranga *

New Fist of the North Star *

Nurse Witch Komugi

Orphen Revenge

Parasite Dolls

Pet Shop of Horrors *

Princess Tutu

Rahxephon

Revolutionary Girl Utena *

Rune Soldier *

Saiyuki

Sin

Soul Hunter *

Super Gals *

Super Milk

The Fuccons *

The Place Promised *

This Ugly Yet Beautiful World *

Tsukihime

Vermillion

Yesterday

Yugo The Negotiator *

Yumeria

 

* Available online exclusively at www.theanimenetwork.com