So I just finished watching Baka and Test today and it's a awesome show. I loved the concept behind the show and the characters are all very loveable and well cast and acted.
However something that kinda annoyed me. No something that really annoyed me was that extras were not dubbed. There are quite a very extras for this series something I was very pleased about but they don't seem to be dubbed. Considering all these extras are little shorts of the characters doing funny little things it was very annoying not having them dubbed. I am a fan of dubs and having just watched the series dubbed I didn't really wanna watch the extras subbed as they don't sound the way I now know the characters to sound. I found this very odd as these are normally the kind of things that are dubbed and even Funi has dubbed things like this in the past.
So I was wondering. Am I the only one who was disappointed by the lack of dub on the extras? Is there is a reason for it? Will they release a new set in the future that has them dubbed(as I would gladly rebuy the show for that).
No, they won't release set later with them dubbed. Nor is any release after the first one, guaranteed to have them. It isn't uncommon for them not to dub extras, unless they are full-length. It sure would be nice if they did, but I have grown to expect otherwise. Would have been nice to have a commentary too, but alas there was none.
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I believe they didnt need to. they were so short.
so to me it didnt matter. I still enjoyed them.
especially the Mission Impossible.
to be honest length doesn't matter. If you watch the entire show in English you get used to hearing the characters that way and then being forced to watch something no matter how short in Japanese makes it odd. It kinda makes it seem as if it's different characters as they don't sound like you are used to them sounding.
Length hasn't been a issue in the past to dub things like this and even more recently Sekirei had it's little extra dubbed. They called it a OVA but really it was more of a omake bit because it was only about 10 mins long.
In the height of the anime bubble every company dubbed these kinds of little extra no matter the length or importance. It was only towards the end of that time that this started to change.
Funi constantly talks about how many of their consumers prefer the dubs(like me) and to me that makes this that much more confusing. Why go through the trouble of putting these extras on their if they are not dubbed(most of the time these extras are not free and the company neeeds to pay for them). It's no stretch to think that there are plenty of folks like myself who were put off or did not enjoy the little extra bits because of the lack of a dub on them.
If I was in charge, I would have just lumped all the shorts into an "episode" and did a straight through recording session for each one in one sitting. (That isn't to say combine them all into one feature, I just mean to have the actors record for each short in one straight sitting as if they were doing an episode of the series).
But that's also assuming that the schedule would allow more recording sessions and there were enough funds to cover the extra expenses.
Obviously FUNi wasn't able to do it or else they would have. If they did it anyway, I'm sure we'd all be paying at least $5-10 more for the set.
Anywho, I've been told before that some of these shorts lack a separate audio track for dialogue. Normally there are at least two audio tracks used to make the audio for a series: one with music and sound FX and one with dialogue. When there is only one track with both already mixed, making an English dub requires a lot more work and sometimes the creation of a completely new from scratch track for the sound FX and music plus the English dub dialogue.
It would be a lot of work for an extra. Plus the people who hold the rights to a series and those who hold the rights to extras can actually differ. So there's also the possibility that those rights holders didn't want it dubbed. (Not logical but possible.)
It's a pain but it's also sadly typical of all players in this industry.
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Got an email from Funi saying they're releasing the dubbed OVA's on the 14th in their elite video subscriber thing. So, it looks like they'll release the dubbed OVA's sometime after the 14th. And it's a safe bet that if they're finally dubbing them now, the second season is on the way too.
@Todd_Jensen
Nice to know but I assume they are referring to the 2 episode OVA that was released between season 1 and 2 and not about the little minute or two long extra's we were discussing here. I would be shocked if they released those OVA's without dubs as they are a stand alone OVA and full length episodes(although I would bet they will be released as part of the 2nd season set similar to what they are doing with the Black Butler OVA's)
Any who I have basically come to accept what Richard said at this point that there is a decent chance there was not 2 audio tracks for those little extras and it would have been more trouble to dub them then it was worth. Even if it's not the case it makes me feel better to have a logically reason as to why they were never dubbed. It would be nice if they had those little extra's released dubbed on the elite service at one point but I'm not expecting it.
Still can't wait for the OVA's and season 2. Loved the show and it's always nice to see more.
I would've liked to have the extras dubbed, too. IMO, the voice characters in English are funnier and more enjoyable to me. The whole first season was dubbed, why not the extras? Kinda weird, but oh well.
My two favorites in the extras are: Mizuki Himeji Girls' Meal and The King Game in Fumizuki Academy.
-Michael.
Richard J wrote:
That may not be true, and if you said, "lack a separate audio track for dialogue", that would only mean just the track with music & sound FX (which means no dialogue, therefore, a dub is possible without changing the music). Back to topic, now for season 2, hope Funimation decides to dub the extras from season 1 for season 2's release.
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No, what I meant was the shorts may have had only one audio track: a music, SFX, and dialogue track. Meaning, in order to do an English dub version, a new track would have to be produced entirely from scratch: new music, SFX, and the dub audio. That's more expensive (and possibly legally difficult) than just switching the Japanese dub track for a new English dub track, like with the actual series.
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