Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 12: Red with anger

Again, Animax-Asia has lost their way.

I thought they’d get better after the premiere simulcast of Tears to Tiara and Fullmetal Alchemist back in spring, but then maybe they sit down pretty hoping that they can still get away with doing their usual old stuff. If you happen to wander in their website or tune in their channel, many things are dyed with red now. My sworn color enemy is out to consume everything lolz. Kidding aside, it’s red because of the massive campaign to promote their new anime Shakugan no Shana II. Yep you read that right, they’re airing the second season when they didn’t even show the first one at their channel at all. This and other little mishaps kept me annoyed with the channel again, but at the very least I have been really tuning in lately.

Well, there’s only one anime I’m regularly watching on Animax, and that is Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. This is a massive improvement actually… from “zero” these past few years. The weekly simulcast is still running pretty well. I’m projecting though that this seems to be only a one-time affair. It’s July, and they didn’t acquire any new anime with the simulcast thingy. I can only hope that after Tears to Tiara, there will be another simulcast anime. We’ll see when the fall season comes.

Meanwhile, the usual Animax-Asia culture prevails. Average-to-horrible English dubbing, pointless ad campaigns, and weird programming quirks. I hope this video of the first Shakugan no Shana II episode won’t disappear, because this is a testament to their dubbing ability. Your mileage may vary. If you like dubs, you may like this one. Don’t ask me, I am not a dub watcher anymore. If you had been watching dubbed anime on Animax for a while, you will definitely recognize these voices. They’re the same ones dubbing Animax-Asia anime for years. If we already complain about how Kugimiya Rie just voices every well known tsundere out there, imagine Shana’s dub voice being used in 90% of anime in the channel, even if the character weren’t tsundere. You can hear those same voices in the new premiers Hayate no Gotoku and Gurren Lagann. Again, excellent lineup of anime, only hampered by dubbing. I bet so many people won’t understand what’s going on with Hayate, the nature of that anime being the parody machine gun. Gurren Lagann similarly lost the GAR feeling with the dubbing. Mind you, this is Animax-Asia’s home-brewed dub, and not any official US dub of the anime. They used to acquire and show US dubs a few years back (I think some Gundam series they showed were based on the English R1 DVD), I wonder why they haven’t done this for a while now.

Their ridiculous ad campaign was already done before actually, remember the [Initial D Fourth Stage->animax-asia-dubbed-in-english-75] campaign? Fourth Stage premiered before any other season was   even shown in the channel, and it was coupled with weird advertising partnerships including FHM. Again, they employed FHM in various Southeast Asian countries to… hear this… make Shana cosplay photoshoots. I already complained that FHM and Animax-Asia’s audiences are widely different… and now they did it again eh? So for FHM fans, no semi-nekkid ladies for you next month… just some semi-hot girls dressed in school uniform. Cosplay has invaded the adult entertainment magazine space. A sight to see. I’m both sarcastic and serious.

My last complaint is somewhat local, because the channel feed we’re getting is really screwed up. For weeks now, the once-subbed Nodame Cantabile has been dubbed in English… but it STILL shows the subtitles! Skycable is the only major carrier of this channel in our country, and so we are helplessly stuck with this awesomely wrong programming. I realize that there are some regions where you can select the audio feed of your choice. That is quite great if you can select the Japanese dub feed. Our crappy cable provider doesn’t have that service. So many people have pleaded for this for years now, but I guess they are all deaf ears on the issue.

So there we have it. A few months of decency, then we’re back to the old ways. I still come back to Animax for the FMA, but as for the rest, I get reminded of that red logo. It used to be blue. Oh well, when they were blue the channel ain’t that great either.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 1: The end of Animax-Asia? Too sudden!?->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 2: Cardcaptured.->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 3: Trying to Adjust->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 4: Towards the 1st Anniversary->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 5: I gave up on Animax-Asia->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 6: One year since->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 7: Dubbed in Filipino?!?->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 7.5: Initial D Filipino Stage->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 8: More Pain->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 9: Now in blue->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 10: Fake Revival->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 11: Something New->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 12: Red with anger->]