Fanservice - It's not all about the jiggles.

Well, this is a pleasant surprise:

Sekirei The Complete Series, featuring voluptuous vixens, sold out at retail in its first week following its release on November 23. The title ranked #1 for new anime series releases for Nielsen VideoScan First Alert Week Ending Nov 28, 2010!

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Original article at Funimation Update Blog 

With the pitiful state that the anime industry is in, news like this is always welcome. One of Funimation's newest DVD releases, Sekirei, sold out at retail only a week after its release on November 23rd. This is great news, especially when it's a new title and not a remake of a series that already has a strong following, such as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. It just so happens that I was one of the few anime fans that were able to get their hands on this series before it sold out. I was, however, a bit skeptical as to whether or not the series would appeal to me.

Recently the anime industry has been marketing many of their licenses by focusing on how much nudity there is and how jiggly the breasts are. Now, while nudity and breast jiggle is all well and good, there is a point where it gets to be too much. I know several of my friends who didn't buy the series specifically because they didn't want to watch yet another anime that had its story completely squashed beneath the copious amounts of fanservice.

Luckily, despite Funimation's attempt to convince me otherwise, Sekirei was not all about the jiggles. While the series does contain a lot of fanservice, it does not detract from the plot. I'd go as far as to say that, at times, the fanservice even contributes to the plot. It's a lot like product placement, in that respect. When it pulls you out of the story, it's done wrong. When you don't notice it, or if it contributes to the story, then it is done right.

I'm glad Sekirei sold out, but I hope that the reason it sold out so fast was not because of the short skirt and large breasts on the box. I hope that it was because people who watched it told their friends that it was a great series. I want the industry to survive, but not if the series that get licensed are chosen because of the amount of T&A they contain. At that point, we might as forget about storyline and stick to licensing hentai.

Don't be a parasite....even if it is just for the breasts.

Media Blasters Dubs Previously Released Titles

When I logged onto my favorite anime news site today, I nearly jumped out of my seat in delight at one of the headlines. It is something I've been waiting for for a long time: Media Blasters Confirms Loveless, Kashimashi Dub Plans

The North American anime distributor Media Blasters confirmed on Thursday that it will release the Loveless and Kashimashi television anime series with both English subtitles and English dubbing in early 2011. Both titles were originally released with only Japanese dialogue and English subtitles.

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Original article at Anime News Network

By and large, the majority of anime fans are split between two groups: the sub fans, and the dub fans. I count myself among the latter. When anime companies, like Sentai Filmworks and Media Blasters started release mostly subbed DVDs, I was just a bit upset, since they tended to license shows I was looking forward to watching in English. However, aside from my personal preferences on watching anime, I was concerned that this move was going to hurt their sales.

Now, I'm not sure how much it costs to dub a single episode of anime, so I don't know how much money they are saving on production costs by not doing dubs, but the majority of US Anime fans that buy DVDs do so for the dubs. Although many sub fans do as well, because the DVDs contain the original Japanese audio as well as subtitles, sub fans are far more likely to illegally watch the series online. Dub fans generaly will not because they prefer the English audio, or at least the ability to watch the show without staring at the bottom of the screen the entire time.  It seems to me that your sales would decrease drastically if you only release subs without the option of a dub, which is unrevealing to the majority of people who buy the R1 release DVDs.

Recently many of the companies that were mostly releasing sub-only DVDs have started to re-dub their previously sub-only releases into English. Sentai has recently done this with Blue Drop, CANAAN, and Tears to Tiara, all of which were original released in a sub-only format. I'm really glad to see that Media Blasters has decided to start doing the same thing with their licenses.

I'm interested to know whether this is a result of their profits just being better, or because only releasing subs has been hurting them. Perhaps I'll get an interview with someone over there who can answer these questions...

As always, don't be a parasite.