I think it is wonderful to have a dub expert start up a dub thread for Yurikuma.
For one thing, most series go by without any MAL discussion about an English
dub. I even recall one time when somebody started a thread about dubs and
one of the moderators rudely told him to stop talking about dubs since nobody
on MAL was interested. It might be fair to say that MAL is not such a dub-friendly
place. However, Yurikuma is the perfect series to have a deep discussion about
dubs and let us all get a bit more educated about this very important part of
the anime business. Also, I appreciate the effort that SeibaaHomu is putting
into keeping this thread going.
SeibaaHomu said:
Of course I do want more central element yuri in the future.
Well, me too. It would be sad to see it die. Regrettably, it may be inevitable.
After all, think of all of the genres of Hollywood movies that have completely
disappeared. Think of the types of North American TV shows that have come and
gone. Art always evolves. People who love "Cinéma Noire" from the late 1940s
have to watch those old grainy movies and can't expect new ones to be made.
SeibaaHomu said:
And despite what a few silly people will tell you with their limited
knowledge of how anime production works, we do matter to Japan.
Well, I will step forward and cheerfully admit my ignorance of this topic. I have
not a clue of what fraction of income derives from overseas licensing including
dubs into various languages. As well, I don't know whether there is any publicly-
accessible information about the dollar amounts for specific series.
"Amazon Stalker points" are a useful tool for gauging the popularity of a series
within Japan.
SeibaaHomu said:
So if this does have some success here, then it would give some
incentive to make more central element yuri anime.
Indeed. But I would really love to know whether the English dub will ultimately
account for 0.1%, 1% or 10% of the ultimate gross income for Yurikuma. I can't
even guess. Is it negligible? Is it predominant?
SeibaaHomu said:
Of course shows like Yuruyuri becoming popular in Japan is a trend
I don't want to see keep going.
"YuruYuri" (2011,2012) is in a competely different category. It's genre is best
described as "Cute Girls Doing Cute Things". In fact, YuruYuri was the first
anime series to be purely CGDCT as opposed to including non-CGDCT elements
such as male characters and non-cute female characters. Some people might
argue that "Ichigo Mashimaro" (2005) was the first pure CGDCT, but it depends
on whether you think Nobue is cute or not. Apart from the dominant CGDCT,
everybody knows that there is a lot of Yuri in YuruYuri. But it is very superficial
and involves a lot of nosebleeds and gags. Yuri as a comic relief element in an
anime series is one kind of "Secondary-element Yuri". So that is what YuruYuri
is. Moe fans would correctly mention Moe as well.
I totally respect that SeibaaHomu is not hoping for more series combining CGDCT
and varying fractions of Secondary-element Yuri. But in fact there is a very big
market for it among Japanese fans which has been growing exponentially for
over a decade.
SeibaaHomu said:
Maybe it could gain a decent niche following in the LGBT community
similar to what Utena has.
That would be great. However, a much larger potential market might well be the
"Straight Ally" community. See here for an explanation of the term "Straight Ally":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_ally
The "Straight Ally Symbol" is a light pink triangle enclosed in a dark green ring.
Very early in the series, fans of Yurikuma in Japan noticed that this kind of motif
appears in many places.
Here is a very good example of a webpage created by Japanese fans:
http://purisoku.com/archives/7756686.html
Here is an explanation of the title of the article:
ユリ熊嵐 means "Yuri Kuma Arashi"
美術背景 means "background art"
ストレート・アライ means "straight ally"
ピンク・トライアングル means "pink triangle"
On that page, scroll down to see the pink circle surrounded by the green ring.
Certainly, I don't know what is in the mind of Ikuhara. But it seems to me that
Yuri genre fiction would greatly benefit from support from the Straight Ally
community, specifically if they all go out and buy the Blu-rays of the dub. |