Was music scandal cause of lost steam for Funimation?

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coola
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Was music scandal cause of lost steam for Funimation?

Post by coola » Tue Apr 12, 2016 8:58 am

I remember when Kai was first released in USA, and how cast seemed very excited and happy they can work on it, but, after Part 4 came, it kinda lost its steam, i know they were some production problems, Chris Sabat had throat problems, still, could main cause of it, was that after music scandal, Kai didn't fell as fresh anymore?
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Theophrastus
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Re: Was music scandal cause of lost steam for Funimation?

Post by Theophrastus » Tue Apr 12, 2016 12:04 pm

As I understand it, voice actors usually don't even get to hear the BGM while they're recording, so I doubt the music change had any appreciable effect on the cast's enthusiasm.

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Re: Was music scandal cause of lost steam for Funimation?

Post by TheBlackPaladin » Tue Apr 12, 2016 3:41 pm

Theophrastus wrote:As I understand it, voice actors usually don't even get to hear the BGM while they're recording, so I doubt the music change had any appreciable effect on the cast's enthusiasm.
A dubbing actor usually does hear the original audio, music and all, before they do a take, but that's not likely what could have resulted in a lack of enthusiasm. Rather, I could see the Music Scandal affecting the enthusiasm on the production side of things.

So, I don't know that it necessarily took some steam out of Chris Sabat, who was the director, but I'd understand if it did. He had to not only direct the dub, but supervise it and keep track of all the different takes they had to do for its Nicktoons and CW4Kids airing. So, with just the Yamamoto score, that technically means three different dubs (uncut, Nicktoons, CW4Kids). Then Toei presented them with a different Yamamoto music mix when they suspected Yamamoto of plagiarizing some of his tracks, of which he had to supervise three different versions of. Then Toei presented him with a different Kikuchi mix because of the Music Scandal, causing him to supervise yet another three different audio mixes.

Then there's the fact that his voice was blown out, and he had to go back to work earlier than his doctor cleared him to so they could make TV network deadlines.

While we're on the subject, TV network deadlines can be rather stressful. I've spoken with some people behind the dub of Hunter X Hunter that's going to be airing on Toonami soon, and while they are sincerely excited and happy to be doing it, they also did admit that it became a pretty high-pressure job because of the high number of episodes, all of which had to be done by certain deadlines so Toonami could approve them. They like the show and said that it has been a fun job, but a high-pressure fun job.

Speaking of which...kinda off-topic, but I know some people found it rather odd that Linda Young was replaced by Chris Ayres because of Sabat's explanation that she "couldn't keep up" with the faster dialogue. Well, that's a perfectly valid reason to let someone go. A take is not usable until it matches the lip movements, and if they were taking too long to get usable takes--with TV network deadlines pending, no less--then their hands were forced. A voice actor once told me that typically a dubbing company (any dubbing company) will do three or more takes if it's a particularly difficult scene to sync, but that for the most part, if you you're consistently taking more than 1-2 takes to get a line out, that's considered too slow to be hired as a dubbing actor.

Anyway. Back to the topic. As icing on the cake, there's the fact that his first child was born during the dub's production.

So, the Music Scandal may not have directly impacted the cast...but I could see it stressing the hell out of people involved in the behind-the-scenes stuff.
A "rather haggard" translation of a line from Future Gohan in DBZ, provided to FUNimation by Toei:
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