My involvement with the dual-music petitions was this....
It was sometime back in the summer of 2002/2003. I was speaking to someone who was once a figure from the Dbz community (I don't want to say who since the person asked to remain anonymous but I will say that he was a "real" nice guy- some oldtimers may get that reference, please keep it to yourself if you do) asking for advice on how to get Funimation to go with the original soundtrack for the dub instead of replacing all the music.
He gave me the advice of a dual-music petition. He said it'd be the perfect compromise to Funimation with the dub soundtrack, instead of just outright demanding that they eliminate using dub music and go straight for the original soundtrack. So, I went with the petition idea and wrote something up.
http://www.petitiononline.com/7878hgfh/petition.html
However- at the time I didn't take credit for writing the petition. The reason why of course- was because my site bashed Funimation heavily and I was very insulting to the company years ago. I had the good sense to be anonymous about writing it and instead I allowed a friend from back then I trusted to take credit. (he went by Nephalim I think?)
That friend then called up Funimation and spoke to Evan Jones, who was then the main music guy at the company. They had a good long discussion over the phone... turns out Evan was a pretty cool guy overall. Evan was also extremely interested in the petition. He thanked my friend and called the idea something like, "a seed that I'd like to see grow." After that, it was time to get people to sign the petition.
Only 3 sites bothered to publicly support it. (mine being one of them) Ultimately it only got about 500 signatures. My friend became pretty disillusioned over the whole thing- "people would rather spend several hours insulting you and flaming you and calling you stupid rather then spending 5 minutes signing a petition"- and he kind of just dropped off the face of the earth. Last I remember he told Evan how disillusioned he was with the petition getting little to no support then I never really heard from the guy again. Both of us gave up on the petition and considered it to have been a dud.
But then years later I found out about Funimation including a dual-soundtrack option- and I was very happy and excited. I felt like all my hard work had made a difference.... and you know what? I was very proud and happy about that and about my work because that all led up to the petition.
Maybe it would happened anyway without any of my work back in the day- then again, maybe it wouldn't have. One thing IS for certain- Funimation's idea to include dual-soundtrack options (both dub and original) was a pretty original idea that HAD never been done before by ANY anime company before. I certainly know who originally gave Funimation the idea- yours truly.
And THAT is why I take credit for the dual-soundtrack coming back and why I feel I had a hand in that. If anyone wishes to believe my actions had no bearing on the dual-soundtrack options happening and that it would happened anyway, go ahead. I, however, believe that efforts did bear fruit (and that the seed did indeed "grow"), and I certainly don't consider myself mentally "delusional" for believing that and certainly not arrogant. Rather, I consider myself proud for something very special that I was able to accomplish through all my hard work. Whereas others adopted the "we don't care" attitude I chose not to, and my caring actually did lead to something. I did make an impact there and I am happy to take credit for what I accomplished.
As for the cursing in Movie 9- yeah, I do take credit for that as well, though obviously that's much more minor than the music issue. But back in the day my site was pretty popular- and I had tons of followers that I often "sic'd" on Funimation's e-mails issue complaints about stuff, the cursing issue being one of them.
Aside from those two things I did help introduce many new fans to the original while converting them away from the dub. All the grateful e-mails I got from back when my site was most active attest to that.
Do I think everything I did was completely perfect and awesome? No I don't- most of my movie reviews I don't like (tv specials to 5 I thought were atrocious- something I actually have commented on before, Ex, regardless of whether you forgot me saying that or simply didn't remember) and I'm not as gung-ho fanatical- or overly insulting- as I used to be.
People have a right to criticize me, I never said I'm completely above that despite what Ex believes. However, on the same hand I don't accept a complete and -utter- rejection of every single thing I ever said or did on that site is purified shit. To say that I find unfair and if anyone says that then I'll stand up for myself in that regard.
If you can spend time explaining why my interview with Fournier (the Toei Employee who posts here) or my editorial on how to play the European edition of DBZ Budokai on an American console suck and reek horribly, maybe then you can say that "everything" I ever said or did completely sucked and was wrong. But if you can't and until you do... well, then I'm going to defend myself in that regard.
And Ex, are you really surprised that reading blistering attacks would cause someone to become overly-defensive? How exactly would you expect someone to react in such a situation- "right on, everything I did f'ng sucked back then! I hate all of my work, it was all terrible, everybody join in in flaming it!"?
Like you said you've pretty much been around the community since forever and you haven't stopped except for one short break. I was only around back then for a few years.
So when someone does a complete dismissal of everything from back then that does sting me because that's all I did, I haven't just been pumping out content nonstop like you and giving people nonstop updates on how every single one of my views regarding Funimation and life in general have evolved and changed over the years. Just because I have not been here nonstop repeatedly telling people everything about me and every single time a belief or view of mine has changed does not mean that I should automatically have to accept fully any blanket-criticism of my entire character and everything I've ever said or done.
(also, here's the editorial in question in response to Seashore Angel that you wrote.... again.
http://web.archive.org/web/200106250737
+
20/vegex.pokeball.net/thoughts/
+ thought_21.shtml
I showed this to you months ago on this board and you didn't bother to read it then! How can I expect to have a proper debate with you on anything when you don't even bother to read everything said in response to your remarks? Not bothering to read everything said in response by someone before attacking that person shows a certain level of... hmm... well, I wouldn't use the word maturity. I'd appreciate it if you actually bother reading it this time instead of ignoring it and then flaming me in confusion if I ever mention Seashore Angel and your editorial again. Ah screw it, I'm just going to post your editorial defense of yourself here after my post is done so you won't have an excuse for not reading it once again.)
For that matter this past year or so I've been I have not been the least been insulting to you on this board but you have been very rude to me before and I've repeatedly borne your insults without insulting you back. To me that seemed before like the mature way to deal with you, instead of simply responding back to your insults and rude treatment with similar insults and rude treatment- while to me your behavior to me has seemed to me.... oh yeah, immature, the exact same thing which you're accusing me of. You act like you're a paragon of all things maturity and humility and then you flame the crap out of me and treat me in an extremely condescending and rude fashion with no provocation towards you on my part.
You're quick to label my behavior in a certain way but you should look to your own behavior as well and try to understand your own flaws and how others might view you and feel about you based on the way you treat them. I often find that those who are the quickest to praise themselves as being mature while excessively attacking others for not being so are often times being anything but mature themselves in behaving in this manner.
No matter how strongly you disagree with someone there is no need to resort to excessively insulting, rude and overly personal attacks. If you're searching for ways in which I've matured and evolved over the years then that's certainly area I've done so- or at least I try to do so. You should try to do the same in that area.
(Here's the your editorial in question, EX. I'm only posting it here because you didn't bother reading this editorial- and then you insulted me for mentioning something within it that you didn't remember it all- even though I linked you to it months ago.)
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First 'Response to an E-mail' Since 1998!
by Mike LaBrie (VegettoEX)
Originally Posted: 4 May 2001
This is something I haven't done in about two years, now.. x_X;;. It's very rare that I get a very in-depth and thought-provoking e-mail, and when I do, I love to share it, to just show the varying sides of the e-mail world. This is a special e-mail, though; it's not because it concerns my last "Staff Thought," but because it brings up a lot of points that I bet a lot of other people are thinking about myself and the way I write. Hopefully, I can clear everything up, since I obviously didn't do so in my last editorial.
This e-mail was written to me back on 25 March 2001 by Ryan Ringer (who goes by the name of "DBZOA Android 17," or simply "Android 17" on various message boards, in case you might have come across him in your travels). I wanted to give the e-mail a little bit of time to sink in; I don't like responding to things immediately, because I think there needs to be an absorption and thinking time in-between. Also, I spent the course of about four days writing, revising, and going back to add more things in as they came up, so don't give me that, "Oh, he spent all that time writing that, he's got no life" bullshit.
I feel that it sometimes helps to read the e-mail as a whole before I start responding to particular parts of it, so if you'd like to do that, click here to read just the e-mail. From here on out, I will put Ryan's word in red, and my own in this standard black.
I used to be a big fan of you site until you started preaching FUNimation as the messiah in every update. But this isn't about that.
Well, I'm not quite sure when I ever said that FUNimation is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but whatever... there's much more to what you have to say.
People have labeled you as a sellout, kiss-ass, traitor, hypocrite and arrogant. They are certainly justified in this (except for the sell-out part, even I'm almost certain you're not receiving money from FUNimation. I agree those people need to give that a rest.) Ever since you "stopped caring" (which I still don't believe, considering you run a Dragon Ball website) about Dragon Ball, you have grown increasingly supportive of FUNimation, completely ignoring the fact that you lead the fight against the dub at one point. It's okay to be indifferent, but when you start defending a company you spoke out against for so many years, how can you not expect to be bombarded with flames?
It appears that my "Not Caring" editorial was completely misunderstood by this individual. It's not that I don't care about "DragonBall" anymore (I always have, and always will; it's somehow become a part of my life over the last.. what.. six, seven years.. ?); it's that I just don't care enough about the treatment of the dub to make it a daily part of my routine to go out of my way to bash it and everything it stands for. I've been running this website for over three years now; I'm sorry, but it's gotten VERY OLD for not just me, but for the majority of the visitors, for me to say "the dub sucks" in each and every single update. I think the majority of people have gotten the hint over the course of this time. In fact, I've gotten quite a few e-mails from people that have been into everything for as long as I, wondering how much longer I was going to keep up the daily "the dub sucks" ordeal. The dub isn't on-par with any other dub (OK, so maybe the "Cardcaptor Sakura" dub.. I wouldn't even call it a dub.. is just as bad, if not worse), but I don't think it's natural for me to keep taking the time to CONTINUE to talk trash about it. It's just gotten stale for me, that's all.
Now, "defending" the company isn't something I like to think I did in the last editorial; I was merely explaining the technical specifics of DVDs, and applying these specifics to their own (FUNimation's) productions.
The arrogance and hypocrisy is a big thing too. Quite frankly, you treat the readers of your site like worthless peons, and people who don't share your exact opinions like garbage. If someone downloads full episodes or buys fansubs, they're bootlegging scum because they're not buying DVD's because a) they can't afford them or b) they simply don't want to support the company who's destroyed one of their favorite shows. And yet, do you not own fansubs? Have you gone through your fansub collection and burned them all because FUNimation is now releasing DVD's? I doubt it. And hey, doesn't your site contain FREE MP3's? There was a word for that, but I just can't think of it... was it bootlegging? Yeah, that's the term. So someone who distributes bootlegged copies of music is just okay, but someone who distributes bootlegged copies of a TV show is bootlegging scum. Where is the logic there? Exactly, there is none.
For someone who's criticizing my supposed arrogance and hypocrisy, it kinda irked me as to what the tone of the e-mail seemed to be. It's one thing to send an e-mail questioning my actions, but to come across as arrogant and then attack my own supposed arrogancy.. well, it's just bothersome to me. Also, for someone who's said, "Personally, I don't visit the site at all (hardly ever anyway)," it's funny to find you accusing me of being like such on my site.
I don't remember any time when I've ever treated one of my visitors like garbage over differing views. I've kindly asked every single person who's stated this over the last three years to come up with a specific example that they've seen (verbatim; not just your own skewed views) to show me and prove to me... not a single one has been able to come up with any kind of evidence to support this.
The only kind of "visitors" I've treated badly are the ones who came TO ME acting like a little dickwad, in an attempt to bother me (ya' know the type.. the ones that just I'm you out of nowhere with the whole, "You're gay" thing). These have been the ones showcased in the "Mailbag" section over the course of my site's time. I think it's perfectly justified to show this off; if you'd have actually paid attention to the real contents of the mailbag, you'd also notice that I've posted dozens of positive e-mail, and none of these have gotten crude replies. Also, questions that are asked over and over have been posted in the mailbag, and never received an ill response.
Isn't the cliché something like, "Treat others as you want to be treated?"
Next comes the monetary debates. You're assuming that each and every single person who downloads full episodes is someone who can't afford DVDs; I find this to be an utterly gross assumption. Someone who's downloading full episodes is probably on a fast connection, and people with fast connections probably have some kind of stable income. If this is the case, I don't see what's wrong with purchasing a legal copy of an anime...
Which brings up the subject of downloading episodes, again. You seem to express interest in doing such, or at least not going out of your way to say that it's wrong to download episodes. One would assume that you... don't have a problem with the bootlegging of episodes? I'm not entirely sure; I'm simply going from what I'm able to read.
I'm a little confused at this, because it somewhat contradicts a post you've made, which states that you, quote, "... want it to be back in the days where the only people who knew about it were people who spend [sic] money on it."
It's not just me that feels that you should actually *purchase* your anime; every single anime fandom group outside of the "DragonBall" one seems to have some kind of ethical code. The "DragonBall" community is looked down upon by every single other faction of the anime world. One reason is because of the gross bootlegging that occurs. So what if you don't like what FUNimation does to "your show"? This doesn't give you an immediate legal right to begin infringing upon their legally purchased copyright laws. Sure, I don't like the dub either.... I don't watch it, and don't support it with my money. Is it killing me? Of course not. I like some things... that's OK, right? I mean, you HAVE said, "As far as I'm concerned, EX is entitled to his opinions, just as we all are."
There *are* alternatives. If you get Telemundo or the International Channel, watch the programs on there. The Spanish dub is relatively uncensored, and the International Channel airs the show in its original Japanese glory.
If you don't have access to either of these, your other options include the DVDs. Sure there are no eye-catches or Japanese previews, but good god... does this actually change the show? It sickens me to see people actually *boycott* the DVDs over these two sole fact. Sure, the DVDs aren't the best ones in the anime market, but they do include the original Japanese version of the show, exactly as it was shown on TV... just missing two little things. Big deal. As I said before.. did Vegeta still go Super Saiya-jin against Jinzoningen 19 Gou in the episode, even though there's no eye-catches and no Japanese preview at the end?
Of course he did.
Next come the continuing feeble attempts to destroy my credibility by bringing up the topic of me owning fansubs. Again, as I've clearly shown over the years, I publicly share my list of anime, both fansubbed and commercially purchased.
I BUY THE COMMERCIAL RELEASE OF NEARLY EVERY SINGLE FANSUB I OWN, WHETHER I LIKE IT OR NOT.
For a complete listing of all anime I own (VHS fansub, VHS commercial, DVD commercial), please click here.
Notice any similarities? You should. Please note that I don't own as many dubbed DBZ videos as I should, simply because I'm waiting for the DVDs to be released. I've had my "Frieza: The Summoning" disc on pre-order for months! ^^.
Fansubs are NOT meant to replace a legit copy of your anime. They never were, and never will be. Any actual fansubber will tell you this; most fansub distros take commercial anime off their distribution list THE VERY DAY a press release is issued with the announcement of a title.
This is how it all worked before the majority of "DragonBall" fanboys of today came along, and decided it wasn't worth it to have any kind of morality to their fandom (so to speak, in regards to fansubs). Again, just because you may not like what FUNimation does to your show, it doesn't give you any kind of legal right to rip them off.
Theeeeeeen.... comes the issues of MP3s. There's one difference here, between mp3s and fansubs of DBZ stuff... the CDs have no commercial license, nor is there is absolutely any intention of any company to release them.
I've said time and time again... once a company announces that they're releasing the CDs here, you'll see those respective CDs disappear for download.
Let's look at your latest staff thought. You go through with a fine tooth comb all of the most idiotic and small arguements about the DVD's and act like everyone is making a huge deal of them, and defend them with everything you have. It's pretty much been established at this point that sound quality can't get better and the video quality is good considering the source. And the main complaint about the menus is that they contain that awful dub music. You conviniently forgot to mention this.
This actually bothered me more than anything else in the entire e-mail.
Since when was it wrong for me to actually provide a detailed argument?
I spent weeks going through message boards, websites, personal e-mails, and the like, trying to come up with an extremely detailed list of things people have issues with in the DVDs. I wanted to get around to each and every single one of them, to have the most complete editorial I could. I'm a perfectionist; I strive for my absolute best.
Because I did thorough research, you're telling me that I'm defending them with everything I had?
YES, I think we've beaten the sound issue into the dust, and YES, I think we've beaten the video issue into the dust... but they're still there, and I still wanted to bring them up.
I think it's horribly unfair of you to criticize me simply because I wanted to have the most detailed editorial I could. It's not just unfair, it's disgusting.
As for the menus containing the dub music... I never saw this come up on anything I looked it, and honestly, it never occurred to me, since I'm not on menus for very long. Load, click, change language, click, play. BOOM, it's done.
To further go with this problem, with the release of the "Frieza: The Summoning" discs, it appears that all menu music is newly composed for the DVD menus, themselves. It might not be the Japanese music, but you can no longer complain about it being music from the TV dub.
As for extras, let's not forget this is a DVD. DVD's have extras. Period. I've never watched a DVD without extras. Why should it just be overlooked that FUNimation puts no effort into making extras? (The commercials don't count as extras, because they aren't, they're commercials to sell products disguised as extras. And that World of Dragon Ball was taken from Pioneer's "Arrival" VHS and put on the "Z Warriors Prepare" tape, and then onto the DVD's.)
I've seen plenty of DVDs without extras. The "Flint the Time Detective" DVDs not only don't have extras, they don't even include the original Japanese audio track on them. The very same thing goes for "Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie" (no Japanese audio track). If commercials don't count as extras, then I guess it's time to start attacking other companies for putting commercials as part of the "Extras" on their DVDs (Pioneer, Bandai, ADV).
BTW... "World of DragonBall" was done by FUNimation for the "Z Warriors Prepare" video.. it's narrated by Chris Sabat.. it includes scenes from season three... Pioneer doesn't own the rights to season three, nor is Chris Sabat a voice actor they hire, and there's no way they could release it on their "Arrival" DVD. Yes, it combines footage from seasons one through three, but it's still a FUNimation production.
Also, the way you insult fans who don't like FUNimation is quite stereotypical. You make us all out to be a bunch of blabbering idiots, and you should know from your years of being in the Dragon Ball community that we are not. You used to be anti-FUNimation, is that correct? So by your logic I could assume that you were a blabbering moron who repeated the same "I hate FUNimation because they suck" gibberish over and over again. And you also group 2 groups of fans as one. Some say "We'd like interviews with dub voice actors". The same people do not then say "But we don't like the dub voice actors". That is a completely different group of people, which I am a part of. (You will never find a bigger anti-fan of Sean Schemmel and his unprofessional and anti-Japanese comments, and by unprofessional, I mean this:
http://dbzoa.terrashare.com/Android17/sean.html html Tell me you can still kiss his ass him after that.) You do this once again when you mention the rate of release. Some people want faster, others want slower, and others like me want more episodes per disc, released at a reasonable rate, so that people can afford them AND the series can be released this decade. We are not all in the same group of people. If person A and person B have differing opinions, person A is not a hypocrite for being unhappy when person B's views take form. You were a lot better at presenting arguements having to do with fans when you actually kept in touch with the fan base. You know, when they weren't out to lynch you because you turned on them and sided with the one you were leading the fight against. Now you treat the same fans who once looked up to you the way you once treated FUNimation, it's really quite intriguing. But anyway, the affordable thing brings me to my, or rather your next arguement.
Geeze, since when did I start treating fans who don't like FUNimation like "blabbering idiots"? I don't ever recall this. It seems to be an example of playing into the persona you label me with, without ever doing any kind of research on the matter what-so-ever. Again, as I've stated a few paragraphs before, I've asked every person who's ever tried to use this as an argument with me to actually come up with an example of me treating someone who doesn't like FUNimation like such... and not one of them has been able to.
I'm actually very interested if you can come up with something. I don't recall getting into a drunken stupor and insulting fans, anytime lately x_X;;.
As my Expository Writing II professor says, I should "make the connection explicitly clear"; I don't like the dub, but I like the DVDs, therefore it would be impossible for me to be anti-FUNimation. I both dislike and like some of the things they do.
Not once have I ever been "anti-FUNimation." You've never seen me taking the tacky side of things and putting up "I HATE FUNIMATION" banners up all over my site, or by putting up a picture of Gotenks with his middle finger up, with anti-FUNimation text over it (and then running off to write for a dubbie-magazine). I've always taken a stand against things I think FUNimation has done wrong, but I've done the same thing for tons of other companies. I think the horrible video transfer Pioneer did with the first few discs of "Trigun" was horrible, but I wouldn't say I'm "anti-Pioneer." I think the first couple discs of "Rurouni Kenshin" were very horribly done (from a technical standpoint), and disc five's opening animation had an encoded bitrate of that of a low quality RealVideo file... but I hardly think I'm "anti-Media Blasters."
From what I gather (from reading your e-mail and the majority of your message board posts), YOU seem to be very anti-FUNimation. Let me ask you this (not necessarily you, personally, but a collective"you," referring to any anti-FUNimation person)... have you purchased an official "DragonBall Z" T-shirt? Do you know how much FUNimation is making off of you with that one purchase? A single T-shirt costs approximately five dollars to make, if not less. FIVE DOLLARS. Shirts cost about $15 in the mall, so figure there are two portions in there: profit of the retailer, and profit of FUNimation. Figure out the math for yourself. Are you truly being "anti" FUNimation, now? You're supporting the very people you seem to "hate" so much.
I always try to point out the good and bad things about FUNimation. Sure, there's a lot of bad things, and sure there's a lot of good things. In fact, in the sixth editorial I ever wrote for my website (this is way back in 1998.. god, it seems so long ago), I come right out and say, "There are some thing I do like about the dub (although there are a lot more things I dislike about it)." It's both sickening and amusing to me that whenever I happen to say something GOOD about them, the entire anti-FUNi group jumps all over me, proclaiming that I'm a sellout (yet they fail to mention my daily routine of saying how much the music sucked during season three and four).
The whole Sean Schemmel thing is something I'm not associated with, so don't like to go into too much detail with it. I've never met him, and I've never spoken with himI think Sean's done some both good and bad voice acting, and not all of it is his fault, and some of it is.
If anyone's been to the page mentioned by Ryan about Sean Schemmel, the very bottom has a quote with Sean saying he's watched EVA; the person who's logged this then goes on to explain that this *obviously* means that Sean thinks the DBZ dub is as good as EVA's, which means he's an idiot, since the EVA dub is better than DBZs' dub... anyone else see something wrong here? And so what if Sean wants to use the word "fuck" in a chat room. I think it's unfair to use this as an example, when your signature on (at least) the Planet Namek messgae board contains, "PS: Join the DBZOA or your dick will shrink three sizes."
"Keeping in touch with the fan base"... just because I don't post on the Planet Namek board, anymore, doesn't mean I don't keep in touch with the fan base. On many occasions you'll see me hanging out in the same chatrooms on AOL that I helped "found," in a sense, so long ago. Sure, it's not the same group of people, but I love chilling in there every once in a while to see what all the new guys have to say. I go into quite a few IRC rooms almost daily. I lurk throughout a ton of message boards. I've been a regular poster on alt.fan.dragonball for years, now.
What? I'm not in touch with the fanbase? I'm PART of the fanbase x_X;;.
Look, you're really not getting it. At prices like $18, after S&H, you're still paying something in the area of $23. At 2 DVD's a month, that's $44. And Suncoast is raising prices, just like several other online stores, and the discs are now $19 each there so after S&H, it's like actually the same as MSRP. Hell, some of Suncoast's DBZ DVD's are $23 now! That's MORE than MSRP! "Why are we complaining again?" Well, basically because $50 a month for about 3 years is a little steap for ONE frigging anime series. Plus, I live in Canada, as do several others, so it's more like $80 a month. Oh, but I know you don't give a crap about anyone but yourself, and hey you want others to get screwed over, considering that you want Yu Yu Hakusho released on VHS as edited version only. Who cares about the people who don't have DVD players. Why should THEY get the unedited version? They're inferior beings. Does it hurt you to have an unedited version on 2 different formats? To this day, I can't think of your reasoning behind that. Do you get what the complaints here are? If FUNimation would just listen to fans and put the content of 2 tapes on one disc, and bring the price up to $29.99 and release 1 DVD every 1-2 months everyone would be happy (and anyone complaining about a $5 price increase I would personally tell to suck it, because, truly, nothing pleases that kind of fan.) I'm sure you've seen the math done
before, so I'll just say that owning the entire series (DB, DBZ and DBGT) will take about 4-6 years and cost about $3000. This for an ANIME SERIES! Come on, can't you understand why there are those of us who want a break? You slam us for expecting FUNimation to be like an actual anime company and listen to its fans? (Though I lose the term loosely, considering FUNimation's only fans are dubbies and you.) Some of us, simply put, do not want to shell out $3000 for an anime series, ($5000+ for Canadians) it's natural to want a break. And that comment about being like an actual anime company moves us on.
Price, price, price. Always the tricky issue. Look, no-one's saying you have to purchase every single last episode of "DragonBall" that's ever released; I know I don't plan on it. FUNi's DVDs are generally $5 less than most anime releases, which is a good first-step, right there. Yes, it's a huge series, and yes, if you want all of it, you're going to pay a nice amount. Look a "Cardcaptor Sakura." That's a nearly-100 episode series, 4 episodes per disc, but they're $30 a piece, and there's been a four month delay between volumes two and three.
Then again, why are we arguing about release dates? It's good to have plenty offered up quickly. No-one's saying you have to buy each and every single disc on its release date. The discs are going to still be around for years to come. They're not going anywhere. A quicker release schedule simply means there's a larger selection for later on.
Of course, you've gotta be legally insane if you aim to own an entire 500 episode anime series O_O;;.
I don't care what anyone labels me with... I think that edited-only VHS release and uncut-only DVD releases should be the way of the future for anime companies. Some are already hopping on the bandwagon. Bandai has announced that many of their upcoming series will have DVD-only releases, and ADV is shifting their "ADV Fansubs" portion over into the DVD area. AnimEigo is moving into DVD-only, as well. It's not that hard to see.
The eyecatchers. They put the recaps in, so why not the eyecatchers? It's been proven they have them at DBZOA (a nice little screenshot in the Truth section), so why don't they use them? How can you forgive them for actually consciously deciding that the fans deserve to be screwed, and to actually lie about not having them? And the previews are not just previews. They are an enjoyable part of the show. I really, really enjoy the little banter between Goku, Gohan and the other cast members. It seems almost like improv. Others agree with me, including Chris Psaros, as of yet the only webmaster of a big DBZ website NOT to kiss FUNimation's ass. (On the topic of ass-kissing, the dub voice actors are certainly not deserving of the term actor, let alone seiyuu.) And Kenshin never had eyecatchers in the first place. Well then, I guess if the eyecatchers don't exist, no one can complain about them not being on the DVD huh?
Who's the dope that said that FUNimation *doesn't* own the eye-catches? Furthermore, when has *FUNimation themselves* ever said they don't own the eye-catches? This is another example of me wanting you to actually come up with some substance to support your argument, because I'm not quite sure what you're trying to accomplish.
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Interesting piece there you wrote. For some reason it reminds me of something else... can't quite think of what though.
You know, you went to a lot of length in that editorial to defend yourself and your work- you didn't just ignore his insults and complaints or simply get off the internet.
Also, I notice that nowhere in your extremely lengthy defense of yourself that you ever really agreed with anything he said about you, although certain people like yourself seem to believe that unless you act that way in response to attacks that you're not at all humble. Hmm.... wonder why? And I wonder why you seem to make certain exceptions depending on who the person is?
