Naruto Preview Released for CN

[Psrdirector]

As long as the voice actors sound like the sex of there carictures its alright. Ive seen anima where a very male voice was doing a womans voice.

I don't get what everyone's worked up about.

You're gonna continue to download the fansubs and whatnot, right? You know, instead of waiting five years for the localized broadcast to catch up and all. Why would the English VO matter, then?

[Hatake Kakashi]

Originally Posted by TheInfernalStorm

I don't get what everyone's worked up about.

You're gonna continue to download the fansubs and whatnot, right? You know, instead of waiting five years for the localized broadcast to catch up and all. Why would the English VO matter, then?

Generally, the reasons the fansub-downloading "purists" get all worked up over things like these are multiple:

1] Fansubbers GOOD! Licensing company douchebags BAD! What happens frequently, and by sheer coincidence in this case, is that a decent (and possibly somewhat popular) anime gets spotted in Japan. Fansubbers begin to pick it up and pour countless hours of their time into translating the anime to be released on networks for those who are "in the know" to find and enjoy the way the show was meant to be. If this means that there is a kid who can transform into a ravishing, unclothed woman for nothing else than to incite the nosebleed gag common to such situations in anime, then that's the way it is meant to be seen. None of this editing in clothing where there was none. None of this replacing dialogue to suit the finicky and oversensitive American palette. Just the show as it was created, with the added benefit that now the populace can read what is being said.

Now the big Enema... err.. Anime company decides their current anime project has finally worn down, lived out it's life. It's time to release something new to generate more of that almighty green dollar. They check over in Japan, and lookie here! Seems the fansubbers are tapping into something that's becoming popular over on our shores! For FREE! Well, damn, we can't let that happen! So they "license" (read: Steal, then copyright) the anime, paying the creators far less than what the show is worth. Now of course, they'll make their buck off of all the moron little kids who will whine endlessly until their parents purchase every and any thing that has anything at all to do with this cool new show. This isn't the bad part, really... that's just American ingenuity. Making a buck off of someone else's toil. Way to go. The thing that I find reprehensible about it is the company immediately begins to threaten the fansub groups who are putting their own work into it for FREE and spreading it around for others to enjoy. Suddenly, the highest quality (and thus, most often well-known) fansub groups drop the project, and as nobody will pick it up again, we get to sit through the mediocrity (at best) that the licensing company will put us through just to see what will happen in the end. So there we have the greatest source of our guilty pleasures being cut from us.

2] Nine times out of ten, the licensing company couldn't give a rat's ass about the product they're passing out, which leads to sub-par translations at best. The voice actors in many animes are by far less convincing than a porn queen with a co-star that has a penis the size of a baby's pinky. Erect. Pieces of the story are edited or removed to suit the sensitive anally-retentive public, and with most basic animation and sequences aside, the product as a whole suffers.

We get worked up because it's something we enjoy as a hobby, but when it's castrated and sterilized and shredded, it just isn't the show we got addicted to.

[EVILNess]

I personally don't give a whit's ass what they sound like, but I'd still like to hear just to compare.

[Psrdirector]

If i watch it, if, it will be on cartoon netwrok only, thats about it

[Krylo]

I've not heard of licensing companies going after fansubbers before. In general it isn't done because the two products are so different that profit margins aren't hurt much, if at all. Not to mention that many fan subs are done over seas, meaning that they CAN'T threaten them from American soil. Then there's legal costs outweighing any returns they could conceivably get, cost comparison, the fact that stopping them now won't get rid of all the earlier episodes, etc. etc. In the end companies would lose money by bringing them to court, and wouldn't gain any appreciable amount by even threatening them. There's no point to it. Some companies will just because they're jack asses, but, again, in general they won't.

Sidenote: This is on Cartoon Network. A channel full of things like Ed Edd & Eddy, Kids Next Door, Hamtaro, Baby Looney Tunes, etc. This isn't for adult swim, even, it's for Toonami, alongside things like the edited version of DBZ, 4Kids One Piece, Zatch Bell, etc. If you thought, even for a second, that they'd have nudity on something that is going into a time slot directed toward young teens, you're insane. Of COURSE they edited in swim suits. The only way you'd see it without swim suits is if it was put on a premium channel, like Cinemax or HBO.

And, of course, the vast majority (if not all) anime that is licensed over here comes out on DVD, unedited with a subbed soundtrack.

[Hatake Kakashi]

Originally Posted by krylo

I've not heard of licensing companies going after fansubbers before. In general it isn't done because the two products are so different that profit margins aren't hurt much, if at all.... Some companies will just because they're jack asses, but, again, in general they won't.

It was done in this case. The fansub group ANBU was among the most popular of fansubbers (mainly because their translations were pretty dead-on, and amusing) until the anime was licensed. I'm not sure if it is Viz that still holds the license to the anime, or if they whored it out to someone else, but it was they who sent the unwelcome letter to ANBU, who quickly ceased distributing fansubs shortly thereafter.

Sidenote: This is on Cartoon Network. A channel full of things like Ed Edd & Eddy, Kids Next Door, Hamtaro, Baby Looney Tunes, etc. This isn't for adult swim, even, it's for Toonami, alongside things like the edited version of DBZ, 4Kids One Piece, Zatch Bell, etc. If you thought, even for a second, that they'd have nudity on something that is going into a time slot directed toward young teens, you're insane. Of COURSE they edited in swim suits. The only way you'd see it without swim suits is if it was put on a premium channel, like Cinemax or HBO.

Swimsuits are among the most minor of changes. What do they intend to do with a few of the more complex issues and characters in the show? Haku, for example, was a definite Bishounen , that is, a pretty boy. Animes typically define Bishounen as an effeminate male character, most often very attractive, who, regardless of the part he plays, is often homosexual or is thought to be by another character. Are they going to edit who Haku is merely to still their fears that an "unwholesome" character might be shown in a cartoon on television? What of Jiraiya's perverse obsessions? Tsunade's pronounced figure? The list goes on and on. I'm merely hoping that the people in charge will finally take a civil attitude towards the differences and variety present in the human race --and thus, in anime characters-- and show and tell the story as it was meant to be portrayed.

And, of course, the vast majority (if not all) anime that is licensed over here comes out on DVD, unedited with a subbed soundtrack.

I still think they'd be wiser, in this aspect, to give one of the better quality fansubbers a job for doing this. They've already got this coming out, little by little, for free, for no other reason than they love what they're working on.

[SanbaiShi]

Awwwwww! I was really hoping that Funimation (Full Metal Alchemist, Yu-Yu Hakusho, Fruits Basket) was going to get Naruto when it came to North America. *sigh* Hmmm...Stephen Blum is talented, but I dunno if he can pull of the wry Kakashi voice... And Johnny Bosch? He does the Vash laugh awesome, but can he cackle for Naruto the way his japanese counterpart does? And I did NOT hear someone say that Brock's voice actor from Pokemon was doing Gaara. No. I refuse. Sakura is just a side character, so I couldn't care less who does her voice.

On a more positive note, CN did have two separate showings of Gundam Wing - cut and uncut. I know there wasn't much of a difference between the two, but hell, I can dream, can't I? Maybe they'll do the same for Naruto. Let's just hope for the best...*wipes tears away*

[Palidin]

But! if we hear the opening in English It might just bomb.
all of the anime I've seen that has a engish (no offence to the languge cause this is what I type in) Bomb'd

[BlackMageGirl!]

Hey sis, it could be worse. Like...substitute Stephen Blum for Lex Lang as Kakashi and have Sandy Fox perform Sakura's voice. *shudder* I'll stop speaking of evil things now.

It really is a shame that Funimation didn't get Naruto. I'm not sure if I'm even going to watch it after watching the many fansubs I "borrowed". I really don't see any hope of it not being bad.