June 5, 2006
As you can see, Animax-Asia has just done a reformat of both their website and the channel’s presentation graphics. The once green/blue logo has now become all-blue, and the website now sports anime mascots unique to Animax-Asia (Battle Girl and Spiky Kid). The channel now has a new, cooler presentation style for their advertisements and stuff. Does this signify anything? Not exactly, because nothing much has changed. Excellent anime lineup, but in English dubbing. Oh, and there is supposed to be a forum available, but it’s still the good old AXN-Asia forum back when AXN still showed tons of anime.
Ah, I can faintly remember those good old days of AXN anime. Japanese dubs, English subtitles, and a whole lot of fun. I can say that AXN anime played a big role in my fandom, plus it was technically the ‘only’ available channel brave enough to cater to a very small audience (sub lovers like us). But hey, it was monumentally successful I guess, with a handful of AXN anime conventions jampacked with people, and rousing support from anime fans from all across Asia and even the web. AXN anime used to be dubbed in English too, but the reformat to Japanese dubs gave them higher ratings not only from the anime side, but also the rest of the channel lineup.
Unfortunately, that golden age of cable TV anime was over, and with Animax-Asia’s English dubbing, there’s nowhere else to go but down. Even they (the channel) themselves seem to be admitting their defeat, through the advertisements of Fullmetal Alchemist. In the FMA advertisements, they were highlighting the fact that they’ll be showing the original English dub from the U.S. of A. It is as if they’re promoting that this time, they’ll have decent dubs ‘just because’ they have a US dub. This is a showing of desparation. I don’t know if ratings are going up or down, but in terms of mindshare, they’re getting burned. Such a shame, Fullmetal Alchemist is such an influential anime after all. While it seems that it really has good English dubbing (don’t coin me on that, I only saw a few episodes), but heck, where has the support for the sub-lovers gone?
On the local front, support for our very own Hero TV is only getting better… weirdly enough. Maybe it’s a bias thing of course, since Hero TV has anime dubbed in Filipino, our national language. It has a decent lineup too, and has its own share of bad and good dubbing. Still no Japanese dubs though.
Oh, and by the way, the Animax-Asia website seems to have some kind of Anime News section, where some news irrelevant to even Animax-Asia is being published. Some examples include something about Keroro Gunsou, the just-announced Death Note anime, etc. Trying to cater to the audience you abandoned? Sorry.
Your blue theme won’t convince me 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->]
Huh? I have Animax and it’s dual sound isn’t it? If I hear English, I just press the sound button and it switches to Japanese.
I was one of those AXN junkies as well. Ahh the sweet old days of Flame of Recca dubs. Adamantium blade my ass haha.
I don’t know about the great history of AXN’s anime showing before I subscribed to Animax. But of course, the last of their “new shows” before Animax took over, was NieA7, which was fantastic.
That said, I’m really prospecting to remove the channel from my cable subscription. It’s tad horrible, even my brother wouldn’t want to watch from it. I was thinking of writing a letter to my local newspaper and “coerce” them to reverting back to the old-AXN-style JDES (Japan dubs English subs).
So now, what? I’m not a Chinese-speaking person (Singapore has predominantly anime products that are catered to Mandarin-speaking audiences), the next best things are the ones from Malaysia, which I never have a liking for their dubs either.
Gosh, I’ve never felt fustrated before. (maybe because Animax treated non-Philippine viewers as 2nd class when it comes to better anime shows.)
Aye, I feel your pain.
AXN-Asia was part of the reason why I got drawn into Anime in the first place.
Didn’t know you were a filipino.
Anyway, to be honest, when it comes to dubbing, I do prefer the filipino dubs over the english ones (though I have to admit that this is more from watching old animes like Zenki and Ghost Fighter, or Yu Yu Hakuhsho to everyone else rather than Hero TV’s current lineup)
It also doesn’t help that with animax asia’s show, I keep hearing the voice from of sakura (from card captor) in multiple shows, with no changes whatsoever
@tj han:
The Philippine (exclusive) feed of Animax-Asia has no dual-sound setup. We’re stuck on English dubs.
Animax was better way back when they just placed subs in their shows. Actually, I’d take GMA7’s (or ABS’s) dubs anyday.
I also share the sentiment of the others about the… Sakura voice… *shudders*
I don’t know much about Animax since I left the country before it was released. However, I agree with the whole AXN-Asia thing. That’s one of the cable channels that I used to watch when I was still boarding in Diliman. 😉
Too bad that animax is sticking with their english dubs too since I thought that the old axn subs we’re really good. Full Metal Alchemist has a really good dub though even if they cut the ending themes Especially the quotes in Boys Be, nevermind that they called Rukawa from Slam Dunk, Lukawa and a few idiots actually thought that’s how his name is spoken
Animax is in the state of being desparate these days they said in thier PR hype that they now cater the channel to the youths ages 15 to 24,heck if they’re doing that maybe its high time to totally inplement/ return the subs block in the Philippine feed instead of going english dubs cause those english dubs are for kids who can’t appreciate good animes.Animax can’t fool us Filipinos cause we know they’re outpaced by Hero TV beacuse of thier stupidity.Bluemist long live the subs!
I think Animax is now blaming the cable operators here right now cause they don’t want to offer that Dual Sound thing but majority of cable operators here don’t want that cause its only available in Digital form and the biggest market/viewers here of Animax is the lower and mid end market and they don’t want to be blamed or being unfair to those who can’t afford that Dual Sound which can be only used with set top box/digital which isn’t cheap.So its Animax fault cause Sky and majority of cable operators in the Philippines knew that Animax can accomodate both dubs and subs in one single feed which is more cheaper and fair solution.Too bad Animax is so desparate to beat Hero TV that’s why they can’t do that.
It doesn`t matter if they would dub it in English or Japanese, as long as it`s cool anime and it rocks! Hehehehehehehehehehehe… (This is not an insult, just commenting on the forum thread…^_^) Boogiecat: I think you watch Hero TV a bit too much, than Animax. That`s why you see it that way. And maybe you`re used to watching Filipino-dubbed animes. English is giving good influences to young people cuz it helps them in english communication. Animax is better than Hero cuz hearing english is better than Filipino. Filipino dubs are much noisier to hear than english and everytime my dad hears Filipino-dubbed anime, he`d ask me to make the volume a bit lower cuz it would sometimes get irritating…especially when they shout…or merely express their feelings(sad, angry, happy, in agony, pain, sorrow, grief, anxiety, madness, sentimentality and hundreds more feelings that characters show,blahblahblah…)
Well, Japanese dubs are cool, too(we don`t argue about that)but if they would continue dubbing in english, it would be fine.
Well, I personally think that it`s ok that Animax dubbed the Japanese animes in English. I mean, it would make english more useful & you could learn a lot from watching animes with english dubs. They`d make you better speakers in the future. (If you`re old, I`m not insulting, okay?) If you ever reply to this, don`t make it regretful…-_-
I also want the whole world to know that My man would point his gun at you if you hurt or touch me. I think you would be familiar with him. (Mew…) (If you`re jealous, don`t be, or else I would perturb your mind & cause you mishap for the rest of your miserable life, & there`s no one to give you solace)
Animax is so much more popular than Hero TV because it`s been here & on all over the world already & Hero is new. And many more people would understand english, I mean, I haven`t heard this Hero you speak of, & I don`t know the language of the Filipinos yet. (Though, I did meet some friends in the Philippines.) So I did some required searches to back-up this thread. So stop dreaming about Animax being overtaken by Hero TV. (You have creativity, my friend, but I think it`s too much to think Animax would crash down so easily, no, not by Hero TV.) It`s a wild fantasy to be dreaming of beating Animax just like that. And if it were to be beaten, I would like the competitor to be known worldwide, not only in one country, but in a dozen.
So what have I got to say about those who say Animax is desperate to be number one? I say you`re all dreaming of the wrong fantasies. They`re all so childish & stupid. I think you would hit a wall if you`re keeping that attitude up. Learn English, folks! (OR ELSE…) ^_^
ladies, ladies, pls lets not fight over this ok? I do love english subs better than filipino subs and AM A FILIPINO. Although sometimes, filipino dubs ARE a bit over acting at times.
Anyhow, english subs are good DEPENDING on he dubber. Example, by far the BEST ENGLISH DUB ever is “gundam seed” and “gundam seed destiny” from CARTOON network. it really depends i guess… but if i were on animax’s place, i’d Pirate CARTOON NETWORK’s dubbers of gundam seed and use them to dub my anime. jejeje
To I just, damned. There are fans who prefer the Japanese language with subs and for the record I am Filipino.
Just for the record, Fullmetal Alchemist has, like, the best dub ever, except for one character. Don’t judge all dubs as bad just because its a dub. Even though I admit that I have the bias that animax has horrible dubs (cuz they do, they are the worst I have ever heard. Anyone heard the Fairy-Tail dub?) doesn’t mean we should condemn ALL dubs. For all we know japanese people love dubs just cuz they can’t understand the voices so it’s less annoying :/