Space Battleship Yamato 2202
- Thread starter Lynn Minmay
- Start date
Hopefully so. Ostensibly cutting off a huge language demographic of the fan base with arguably one of the most popular titles in anime history is a noodle-scratcher to say the least. Must be one hell of a plan.
Could it potentially suggest they plan on a American release hence no subtitles? Just a thought.
Over the years I thought BANDI thought that a waste as they are dumbfounded that in general, most U.S. consumers wouldn't pay $70+ a disc? Of course that's when they started including English subtitles on a lot of their GUNDAM titles and were happy to see English speaking fans outside of Japan buy directly.
That said, given that BANDI themselves just did a U.S. dub of GUNDAM OO96 Unicorn (airing on the Cartoon Network Saturday 'TOONAMI' block) - maybe BANDI has again swung back thinking they can make more on some sort of U.S. direct distribution. That said, I thought 'Voyager Entertainment' still held distro rights to anything 'Yamato' in the U.S. and given how Voyager did with 2199, I have to wonder just what the status of SBY2202 being released in the U.S. would ultimately be.
After that, still unexplained, fiasco with Voyager's incomplete 2199 BD release and disappearing store, I find that highly doubtful.
The plan for the Yamato 2199 model was very old fashioned and it fell back on Voyager releasing it themselves because of their outdated model. It apparently stopped after Chapter 4 due to a deal made to produce an American live action Star Blazers movie which starts filming this year. Why they didn't just finish the run probably has something to do with ill conceived timing and other marketing problems that are best understood in-house rather than by the public.
Voyager Entertainment basically owns all new Space Battleship Yamato. They released it themselves in North America when they didn't find anyone willing to take their show on their terms using an outdated model that doesn't work for American television anymore due to how the commercial blocks are designed today.....basically each Yamato episode is several minutes too long for a typical 30 minute cartoon block and its act structure is totally wrong for the usual two to four commercial blocks set up for a cartoon of that length. Yamato as spots for at most three commercials, and a few episodes really only has the space for one. Those with the typical opening and closing have a space for a commercial there, and there is a spot in the middle of the episode where there is a natural break point for a commercial. American cartoons have at least two break points, maybe even three to break up the 18 to 22 minute long shows, while Yamato episodes were 24 to 27 minutes long. Thus no one would take it for TV because it would require heavy editing to make it fit.
It could work on streaming, but they didn't even try that for Yamato 2199. Maybe they are working on it for Yamato 2202, but have to figure out how or who to do that with outside Japan, as there are streaming services in Japan showing the two Yamato 2202 episodes right now.
Voyager Entertainment basically owns all new Space Battleship Yamato. They released it themselves in North America when they didn't find anyone willing to take their show on their terms using an outdated model that doesn't work for American television anymore due to how the commercial blocks are designed today.....basically each Yamato episode is several minutes too long for a typical 30 minute cartoon block and its act structure is totally wrong for the usual two to four commercial blocks set up for a cartoon of that length. Yamato as spots for at most three commercials, and a few episodes really only has the space for one. Those with the typical opening and closing have a space for a commercial there, and there is a spot in the middle of the episode where there is a natural break point for a commercial. American cartoons have at least two break points, maybe even three to break up the 18 to 22 minute long shows, while Yamato episodes were 24 to 27 minutes long. Thus no one would take it for TV because it would require heavy editing to make it fit.
It could work on streaming, but they didn't even try that for Yamato 2199. Maybe they are working on it for Yamato 2202, but have to figure out how or who to do that with outside Japan, as there are streaming services in Japan showing the two Yamato 2202 episodes right now.
IIRC the Japanese airings cut the episode lengths down to the 22ish minute market for TV - although to be fair, I only watched the last four TV broadcast episodes because they actually aired on TV before they were available on Blu-ray because of the production delay, so maybe the other episodes were longer.
It's do-able. The intro could be cut to its shortest possible length to "get the job done". Then, the way many shows are done now, the closing credits can be sped up 3x or 4x to crunch it down to just several seconds. Another thing that broadcasters do now to make older movies and TV shows (before the advertising timing glut from the last decade) "fit" into arbitrarily-defined advert slots is removing every 10th or 15th frame from the stream. After a while, the frame cuts add up to chopping off several seconds up to a minute or two without being terribly noticeable to the human brain. The question is, does anyone here in the 'States feel that the property is worth all the trouble to do that to get it to work?
A low-maintenance alternative (which I think is more probable) is to get some streaming service to host it uncut. Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, CrunchyRoll or the like, that damn near everyone has. Those services have business models that would very easily lend themselves to the Yamato property. Bugger the old legacy network and cable crap. Their days are about done unless they significantly change the way they do business.
If it succeeds and makes an ass-ton of money in the Western markets, someone might pony up the coin to have a decent over-dubbing, akin to Akira or Spirited Away. It's not like Anime is an untested and unproven concept to us silly gaijin.
A low-maintenance alternative (which I think is more probable) is to get some streaming service to host it uncut. Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, CrunchyRoll or the like, that damn near everyone has. Those services have business models that would very easily lend themselves to the Yamato property. Bugger the old legacy network and cable crap. Their days are about done unless they significantly change the way they do business.
If it succeeds and makes an ass-ton of money in the Western markets, someone might pony up the coin to have a decent over-dubbing, akin to Akira or Spirited Away. It's not like Anime is an untested and unproven concept to us silly gaijin.
Part of the problem is that there were a few episodes that didn't have separate credits (opening or closing) and were 22 to 24 or more minutes long. The first two episodes have no opening at all really and were longer than normal because of it (22 and a half minutes long roughly without credits). Most episodes are exactly 21 minutes long without any credits.
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One could make the argument that that assumption can easily be made now as a part of their business model, which is why not including English subs in the first run is all the more puzzling. In short, none of this makes any good business sense on their part.
I'm looking forward to this.
Well, the fact that this new release doesn't include them, could also indicate that what money they got from foreign imports was so negligible to them that they just don't care about us.
With only a day or so left until the BD release of the first Chapter of Yamato 2202, there is confirmation that the UNCF Dreadnaught will be released as a 1/1000th scale model kit in June. So it is likely we will see that ship in same way in Chapter 2 of Yamato 2202.
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10457024
Also the Andromeda 1/1000th scale model kit came out (As did the Yuunagi Earth fleet set)
The About section has more details (in Japanese of course) about the ship:
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10444057/50/1
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10444057/50/2
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10457024
Also the Andromeda 1/1000th scale model kit came out (As did the Yuunagi Earth fleet set)
The About section has more details (in Japanese of course) about the ship:
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10444057/50/1
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10444057/50/2
I think it's closer to this case. Not the money aspect but the foreign market isn't what they are interested in.Well, the fact that this new release doesn't include them, could also indicate that what money they got from foreign imports was so negligible to them that they just don't care about us.
Not sure if that is it, or they are just using an archaic marketing model. We know they are trying to get a foreign deal together, but we don't know what it is, or how it is going. It is known they tried to get a foreign deal for Yamato 2199, but by the time they did (about a year after the series started) they had subtitles on the episode BD already. That might have hindered them a bit in getting a sales pitch going. They tried to market a dub, but that didn't go down either. In the end they marketed the show themselves in house (Voyager Entertainment is the parent company for Space Battleship Yamato presently). It also didn't go as planned since it seems they cut sales right after Chapter 4 was released in North America due to them making a deal for a Star Blazers live action film which should start filming this year.
So for Yamato 2202, they've not put any subtitles (that also mean there are no Japanese subtitles on the discs either). And are working on some sort of deal. They are aware of their foreign market. They are just not sure how to go about it because in the past Voyager Entertainment did it themselves, as the company was setup exactly to do that...market anime to the world, with one of its first releases being Space Cruiser Yamato back in 1977 (horribly, horrible dub, but the release made the first series into a theatrical film which got a Japanese domestic release in the original language which got them a huge amount of popularity and money to make Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato and the Yamato 2 series, which sparked Yamato Fever in Japan to equal that of Star Wars fever in the United States), followed by Star Blazers after that, which had a better dub. Whatever one might think of Star Blazers, at least the voice actors were trying to act. Union or no union, they tried. The Space Cruiser Yamato dubbing though? Two of the actors were acting, the rest were wooden as all get out. It is terrible. Terrible.
When the third series of Star Blazers come out it was dubbed by another company as it had been years since the first two series were dubbed, and the first group was non-union. They did a reasonable job with the acting, it is just different. Different in style, sound, and even names (the first two series the characters use last names for the most part, the third uses mostly first names). But they acting was still there and even though their Desslok wasn't like the first two series, when he got to the big scene were he is royally pissed off at his subordinates, he gets the tone more or less correct verses the Japanese dub, which has a slow built to royally pissed Dessler Soto.
(The scene is basically the head general of one of the far off battle fronts reporting it. He's managed a great success against a troublesome ship that's blown up a few of their task forces in the far reaches of the Empire. He's captured it as a present of their glorious leader's birthday. Dessler is pleased by this news. Success warrants rewards and all that. (not exact quotes, but the jest of the scene):
A drink get poured for Dessler, "So what is the name of this ship that you are giving me as a present?"
"Yamato, my lord."
Twitch. "What did you say it was called?"
"Space Battleship Yamato. Its the ship from the troublesome planet I intend to bring to you as a present that I was telling you about my lord."
Twitch. "General, you never mentioned the ship's name.."
"Sir?"
"Why do you not mentioned the name of this ship before? When did I ever GIVE YOU AN ORDER TO TAKE THAT SHIP?!!" glass gets tossed to the ground. "AND DIDN'T I GIVE YOU ORDER TO NEVER GO NEAR EARTH!!?"
"I'm sorry my lord, the Yamato got in our way when we were fighting the Bolar"
"Sorry indeed. Put me through to the Yamato, I wish to speak to her commander!"
"Yes...yes sir."
My BD of Chapter One of Yamato 2202 will arrive on Monday.
So for Yamato 2202, they've not put any subtitles (that also mean there are no Japanese subtitles on the discs either). And are working on some sort of deal. They are aware of their foreign market. They are just not sure how to go about it because in the past Voyager Entertainment did it themselves, as the company was setup exactly to do that...market anime to the world, with one of its first releases being Space Cruiser Yamato back in 1977 (horribly, horrible dub, but the release made the first series into a theatrical film which got a Japanese domestic release in the original language which got them a huge amount of popularity and money to make Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato and the Yamato 2 series, which sparked Yamato Fever in Japan to equal that of Star Wars fever in the United States), followed by Star Blazers after that, which had a better dub. Whatever one might think of Star Blazers, at least the voice actors were trying to act. Union or no union, they tried. The Space Cruiser Yamato dubbing though? Two of the actors were acting, the rest were wooden as all get out. It is terrible. Terrible.
When the third series of Star Blazers come out it was dubbed by another company as it had been years since the first two series were dubbed, and the first group was non-union. They did a reasonable job with the acting, it is just different. Different in style, sound, and even names (the first two series the characters use last names for the most part, the third uses mostly first names). But they acting was still there and even though their Desslok wasn't like the first two series, when he got to the big scene were he is royally pissed off at his subordinates, he gets the tone more or less correct verses the Japanese dub, which has a slow built to royally pissed Dessler Soto.
(The scene is basically the head general of one of the far off battle fronts reporting it. He's managed a great success against a troublesome ship that's blown up a few of their task forces in the far reaches of the Empire. He's captured it as a present of their glorious leader's birthday. Dessler is pleased by this news. Success warrants rewards and all that. (not exact quotes, but the jest of the scene):
A drink get poured for Dessler, "So what is the name of this ship that you are giving me as a present?"
"Yamato, my lord."
Twitch. "What did you say it was called?"
"Space Battleship Yamato. Its the ship from the troublesome planet I intend to bring to you as a present that I was telling you about my lord."
Twitch. "General, you never mentioned the ship's name.."
"Sir?"
"Why do you not mentioned the name of this ship before? When did I ever GIVE YOU AN ORDER TO TAKE THAT SHIP?!!" glass gets tossed to the ground. "AND DIDN'T I GIVE YOU ORDER TO NEVER GO NEAR EARTH!!?"
"I'm sorry my lord, the Yamato got in our way when we were fighting the Bolar"
"Sorry indeed. Put me through to the Yamato, I wish to speak to her commander!"
"Yes...yes sir."
My BD of Chapter One of Yamato 2202 will arrive on Monday.
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Blu-ray for Chapter One arrived. Episode One is glorious. Episode Two is plot related, and while I don't understand Japanese, I sort of understand what is happening. The Andromedas look awesome. Andromeda herself is quite awesome, though we'll still need to see the ship in a proper battle to highlight its other weapons. Diffusion Wave Motion Gun is OP (in games terms, it has to be nerfed. You can't play a game were you are Earth and all you need to do is charge up the wave motion guns and then fire from the other side of the table to kill all the enemy ships). Though I as of yet do not know the motives of the Earth government, nor the Gamilas ambassador's reasoning for wanting to speak to Kodai, on the Moon, in secret (I don't think we'll know the answer to that one until Chapter Two). The rest can be pieced together from reactions, and prior knowledge of the series (Yamato 2 helps with some points, while Yamato 2199 helps with others).
I am still waiting for an older style Earth ship to use its bow shock cannon. Not even sure why it wasn't used in Episode One. There were at least two good moments were it could have been highlighted for great effect, and a third were it could have been used as an opener to counter the enemy fleet's advance.
I am still waiting for an older style Earth ship to use its bow shock cannon. Not even sure why it wasn't used in Episode One. There were at least two good moments were it could have been highlighted for great effect, and a third were it could have been used as an opener to counter the enemy fleet's advance.
Definitive size chart for 2199 (with some 2202 ships). Warning: big.
Scale is 2 pixels = 1 meter.
Scale is 2 pixels = 1 meter.
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