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YMMV / Bang Zoom! Entertainment

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  • Broken Base:
    • As of 2011 many Bang Zoom! dubs have been non-union and use newcomer voice actors over established veterans. As such many well established voice actors like Steve Blum, Yuri Lowenthal, Crispin Freeman, and Kari Wahlgren have had less presence in the studio's talent pool. Union projects have been becoming increasingly rare with very few anime dubs done by Bang Zoom! (ex. Fate/Zero, Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works], Durarara!!, God Eater and Doraemon) getting the union treatment. Some fans don't really mind this because the usage of new talent allows Bang Zoom! dubs to bring in fresh new faces while long time dub fans are disappointed that many of their favorite voice actors don't get the same work that they used to.
    • Compared to Funimation and Sentai Filmworks Bang Zoom! is often criticized by anime fans for using many of the same voice actors in their English dubs. On top of that a lot of Bang Zoom! regulars often tend to be typecast into the same kinds of characters to the point where it almost feels like they are constantly voicing the same character. Some fans don't mind this since all that matters to them is the quality of performance the actor gives regardless of how many anime roles they voice. In fact many people who don't mind this often bring up the fact that Japanese dubs are also known to reuse and typecast voice actors as well. Others feel however that it greatly detracts from the quality of Bang Zoom! dubs since it shows a lack of versatility in the range of the voice actors, it gets tiring seeing the same voice actors in every dub, and even the possibility that there are other actors out there who could have been a good fit for the role as well.
    • Similar to the example above Bang Zoom! dubs often have a tendency to cast the same voice actor into multiple roles in a single dub. Usually a voice actor in the secondary cast (or sometimes the lead cast) can often be found voicing minor episodic characters in a dub. Similar to the example above some don't mind it since usually the characters that get this treatment are very minor and ultimately meaningless to the viewer. For others this is very bothersome since like the typecasting it doesn't take into consideration the possibility of other voice actors out there who could have been chosen for the role. Many detractors of this policy also bring up how in Japanese dubs characters very rarely share voice actors, minor episodic and background characters included.
    • The fact that they were used for the dub of the Lupin III short film Gravestone of Daisuke Jigen instead of the Geneon or Funimation voice casts caused some fans to be unhappy, while some others didn't mind.
  • Fandom Rivalry:
    • Fans of Studiopolis and Bang Zoom! often find themselves at odds with each other. They're both the biggest dubbing outlets in Los Angeles and even use the same voice actors from time to time. However fans of Studiopolis are often harsh on Bang Zoom! as Studiopolis is known to occasionally use voice actors from outside the anime voice acting talent pool (as seen with the dubs of Naruto and Tiger & Bunny) while Bang Zoom! mostly sticks to anime voice actors.
    • Also with fans of New Generation Pictures especially since both it and Bang Zoom! were the biggest clienteles for Geneon in the early and mid 2000's. Unlike Bang Zoom!, New Generation Pictures is known to use in-house voice actors who appear exclusively in those dubs but also voice actors from New York, Dallas, San Francisco, and even the United Kingdom. Many fans of New Generation Pictures often praise dubs such as Texhnolyze, Paranoia Agent and Hellsing Ultimate for the diverse casts compared to the casts that Bang Zoom! usually employs which has mad them less favorable towards Bang Zoom.
  • Growing the Beard: The English dub for Haruhi Suzumiya is what put the studio on the radar for English dub followers due to the high quality of the dub and how it would eventually establish the Bang Zoom! talent pool in the coming years.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: in 2010, CEO Eric P. Sherman stated that Bang Zoom! that the studio will stop dubbing anime due to internet piracy. Fans either 1.) had a good scoff at Sherman's complete nonsense, 2.) outright yelled at him for dare speaking down to the fans as if they don't have any respect, or both. Two years later, Bandai Entertainment, Bang Zoom!'s last largest client for their dubs, shuts down DVD/BD distribution. Because of this, there would be no more anime dubs coming from Bang Zoom!... at least, under Bandai.
  • Older Than They Think: The 2011 Hunter × Hunter anime adaptation isn't the first long runner that Bang Zoom themselves has dubbed. While it is true most anime titles they have dubbed throughout their history are either one-cour (12-13 episodes) or two-cour (24-26 episodes) series, Magic Knight Rayearth and Eureka Seven were around 50 episodes long and Rurouni Kenshin had 90 episodes. And if you consider the ongoing Doraemon note  anime being dubbed, you may consider Doraemon to be an even longer runner than Hunter × Hunter.
    • The company itself falls into this, as it's very easy to forget that they've been dubbing anime since 1998 given the obscurity of some of their earlier titles.
  • So Bad, It's Good: Heat Guy J cost as much to dub as Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), but it ended as a big flop to the point that it helped cause Geneon to bankrupt themselves.
  • Woolseyism: A good portion of their dubs.

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