State of American Dub Licensors

Saw an article on ANN mentioning that Viz and Funimation have tighter budgets than they used to for licensing, and that got me thinking, how well are the remaining dub houses doing? I was under the impression that after the floor fell out around 2006-2008, they've begun to pick up the pieces and recover, though I may be wrong.

I'm fairly sure that the only companies left aside from those two are Sentai and Aniplex.

It's not so much how many there are; was wondering how well those that do exist are doing.

Owait, NIS America is also in, but they're sub-only.

Sentai is growing fast, with lots of license pickups, so people are worried they may be biting off more than they can chew. That said, they only dub shows that they give a blu-ray release, so it's not too much of an issue.

Aniplex only grabs series that they can get a lot of mileage off of from otaku, and they must have worked on them. They seem to be making quite a tidy profit from their short-print $500 sub-only boxsets of certain series, and their other series cost as much as three times what another licensor would charge in many cases. Very few of their releases are dubbed, even if the series sells well - only Madoka in recent memory.

NIS America doesn't dub because they can't afford it.

edited 9th Jul '12 12:41:55 AM by burnpsy

Whereas Sentai's Dub pool? I remember hearing they're from Texas, but I thought Funi had pretty much a monopoly on that area.

I don't know where they're getting their voices from.

Sentai's pool is in Houston, whereas Funi's is in Fort Worth.

Aniplex is dubbing Blue Exorcist for Viz' Neon Alley thing. Aniplex also dubbed Durarara, but that got a TV deal.

Media Blasters is in horrible shape, but it's kind of hard to tell how they're doing as there are conflicting reports.

edited 9th Jul '12 3:22:19 PM by Zendervai

Sentai dubbed Infinite Stratos, and picked up the K-On dub when Bandai didn't feel like doing season 2. Those were both pretty recent.

edited 9th Jul '12 3:24:37 PM by Parable

Sentai managed to pick up over 15 titles during Anime Expo weekend and they weren't even at the con.

sentai's situation is a bit of an odd one to honest. no one is really sure where they actually stand.sure they licensed a bunch of titles up to wazoo,but that does not mean stable company.

i think we can all agree that funi and viz are definitely the most stable and prosperous ones. although viz is mainly a manga company so they don't really count IMO.

As for MB,well they haven't been considered a company for awhile now. anyone else really isn't worth mentioning,if any,as they don't come out of the woodwork's as much.

What I see it with Sentai constantly licensing stuff is that they're aiming to monopolize On Demand services. Companies like Netflix tend to like it when publishers have large libraries.

I think Viz and Funi both wanna be on board with stuff like Hulu too.

Viz seems to be trying their own thing with Neon Alley, and Funimation has an absolutely massive back catalogue. Yeah, I can see their licensing sprees being a result of trying to build up a library. Sentai's dub percentage is going up pretty quickly though.

When it comes to Hulu though, Viz needs an on-demand alternative for those who don't have, want, or can't access it.

edited 9th Jul '12 9:15:48 PM by Zendervai

Yea, Hulu can only be use in the U.S. and Canada. If the Neon Alley picks up, they can add it to most xbox filled countries.

Canada cannot access Hulu.

When did that change?

It was always like that. ._.

Weird I remember that Canada had access when it began, but I could be wrong.

I think it mostly has to do with the fact that none of the American TV providers are present in Canada. TV is pretty much the only place where Canada and the States are treated separately, and Canada almost always gets the short end of the stick.

Hulu would have to make a deal with two separate channels for streaming the same show. It's why the Canadian Netflix has a much smaller library than the American Netflix, but the Anime libraries are exactly the same.

edited 9th Jul '12 10:00:26 PM by Zendervai

What a pain for Canada.

I'm really surprised they are even still around to be honest.

Who are? A lot of people like dubbed animes you know.

He didnt put any disdain or agresiveness in that post.

Did I miss something between the last two posts?