You Know what Really Grinds My Gears?

[TheGameNinja]

In this thread, rant on something. Anything that gets your blood boiling or your panties in a bunch or whatever.

You know what really grinds my gears?

Gintama is one of my favorite manga. It's hilarious, the characters are all likable for different reasons, and it doesn't take itself seriously at all... even when it is. I would LOVE to be able to own the anime of Gintama on Region 1 DVD or Blu-ray. The problem? Sentai Filmworks licensed it and they AREN'T GIVING IT A DUB. I have never watched more than a few episodes of an anime sub'd. I prefer dubs. If you like subs more, that's fine, but I don't. Almost all the time nowadays, an anime gets a high quality dub (not the horrible crap that created the stigma placed on dubs from more than 15 years ago or the "4Kids" treatment) AND still contains the original Japanese audio with English subtitles. It's a good system; everyone gets what they want. Occasionally, a less well known anime, such as Clanaad, comes around that has just enough of a fanbase to get a US release, but not enough to cover the costs of a dub. I understand this and I'm not speaking ill of those circumstances.

HOWEVER, Gintama is not one of those cases. Gintama already has an American fanbase that has been rooted by Viz's US release of the manga. Gintama is an action comedy, one of the few genres of anime that tend to sell very well in North America, not a short harem series based on a Japan only video game. It could have easily made enough revenue to cover the costs of the dub had it been marketed correctly, or AT ALL for that matter! As far as I know Sentai hasn't even put a banner ad on Anime News Network for Gintama's release, AND IT'S ALREADY IN STORES!!

Sentai Filmworks is going back and releasing Clanaad a second time now, this time with a dub. I can only hope that they decide to do the same for Gintama, but I haven't seen any indication that they will. Especially seeing as Gintama is a still running series, even having a movie due out soon, whereas Clanaad was a single boxed release.