#Crunchyroll exclusives

[checkpoint-diaries]

Ghost of Tsushima: Legends – A Deep Dive Into the Upcoming Anime Adaptation

Explore the captivating world of Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, the highly anticipated anime inspired by the iconic game. Dive into themes, production insights, and future possibilities. A must-read for anime fans!

If you’ve ever been enthralled by the sweeping landscapes and poignant storytelling of Ghost of Tsushima, then you’re in for a treat. With its rich narrative and unforgettable characters, the game has left a lasting impact on players worldwide. Now, its legacy expands into a new medium with Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, an anime adaptation set to explore the supernatural side of feudal Japan. Could…

[rikaklassen]

Crunchyroll released three episodes of A Sign of Affection on YouTube, an anime about a deaf girl, without any closed captioning.

Ironic.

Hearing people love our visibility, but they don't accommodate.

[masthecles]

It's kinda wild to me that Rooster Teeth appears to be prepping RWBY to outlive it.

[redsnerdden]

RWBY Volume 9 Gets a Brand New Trailer, Set to Debut On February 18th

RWBY Volume 9 Gets a Brand New Trailer, Set to Debut On February 18th #RWBY #RoosterTeeth #Crunchyroll #anime

After a chaotic way to end Volume 8, our heroines find themselves in a new world, The Ever After! Crunchyroll and Rooster Teeth have announced the one-year exclusive release of RWBY Volume 9 on all Crunchyroll platforms. Also, Rooster Teeth released a statement thanking the fans for their support over the years and discussing their excitement for a new adventure featuring Crunchyroll as the new…

[onenettvchannel]

BREAKING OVERNIGHT: RTX 2024 cancelled, financial struggles and uncertain future of the Rooster Teeth Animation [#K5NewsFMExclusive]

AUSTIN, TEXAS -- The much-awaited RTX 2024, organized by the well-known entertainment company Rooster Teeth, has unfortunately been abruptly canceled overnight (Texas local time), leaving fans in shock and the absolute failure to none. The announcement was made by a General Manager, delivering localized newsletters of their paid subscribers of Rooster Teeth FIRST.

The decision to cancel RTX 2024 has sent ripples through the community, as fans and attendees express their disappointment on various online platforms. The event, known for its unique blend of internet culture and entertainment, was scheduled to take place in Texas next year in 2024.

Mr. Jordan Levin, who assumed the role of General Manager at the aforesaid entertainment and convention company, has been a key figure in the company's strategic decisions. Levin's involvement in the cancellation raises questions about the challenges, and the reasons behind this sudden development.

In the stated e-mail newsletter, obtained exclusively by DWFH-FM 97.7mhz's K5 News FM: Dumaguete (formerly Radyo Bandera: Sweet FM Network in the Visayas and most parts of Mindanao), Rooster Teeth cited multiple reasons for its cancellation: "I’m sorry to inform you that we will not be hosting RTX in 2024. We have every intention of resuming RTX in the future and bringing everyone back together", Levin said.

Among them were significant cost-cutting measures and a notable decline in revenue, suggesting financial challenges that the company is currently grappling with.

The cancellation of the RTX 2024 raises concerns about the future of Rooster Teeth's animation division. Speculations abound that the company may be forced to make drastic decisions, potentially affecting the production and distribution of its popular animated series, including the critically acclaimed "RWBY" (a fictional acronym name of Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna & Yang Xiao Long).

Given the financial constraints mentioned in the said newsletter, there is a growing theory that Rooster Teeth may opt for a shift in distribution strategy. The speculation suggests that future volumes like Volume 10 of RWBY may no longer be exclusively announced on the Rooster Teeth website but could find a new home on popular streaming platforms like Crunchyroll. Furthermore, there are ominous whispers about the possible permanent closure of Rooster Teeth Animation (RTA). The animation studio, responsible for creating beloved content for the Rooster Teeth community, may face an uncertain fate in light of the company's financial struggles.

(FILE PHOTO COURTESY: RTXEvent via The X Network)

As the news of RTX 2024's cancellation reverberates throughout the entertainment community, fans are left to wonder about the future trajectory of Rooster Teeth and the fate of their favorite animated series.

The unfolding events will undoubtedly shape the landscape of online entertainment within a few more years to come.

FILE BANNER PHOTO COURTESY: RTXEvent via The X Network BACKGROUND PROVIDED BY: Tegna

SOURCE: *https://old.reddit.com/r/roosterteeth/comments/18madrg/important_updates_from_rooster_teeths_general/ [Referenced Relay Post #1 via Reddit] *https://old.reddit.com/r/RWBYcritics/comments/18mbyi7/a_roosterteeth_community_update_email_was_just/ [Referenced Relay Post #2f via Reddit] *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Levin and *https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/screens/2023-12-20/rooster-teeth-cancels-rtx-2024/ [Referenced News Article via The Austin Chronicle]

-- OneNETnews Team

[animefeminist]

Crunchyroll fails to meet industry standards for Closed Captioning

In 2017, Sony Pictures Entertainment bought a 95% majority share of Funimation Entertainment for $143 million. Four years later, Sony completed its acquisition of Crunchyroll for $1.175 billion, bringing the two companies back together after their partnership break in 2018. The decision cements Crunchyroll-qua-Sony’s place as the largest monopoly in the English-language anime streaming space.

The merger has included the gradual sunsetting of Funimation’s streaming site; all titles that aired after Spring 2022 will be uploaded exclusively to Crunchyroll; while any Funimation-exclusive titles have either been transferred over to Crunchyroll or will leave streaming, and dubbing projects are now carried out under the Crunchyroll umbrella. All of this makes one of the biggest issues with the site even more glaring: with a few exceptions, Crunchyroll does not offer closed captioning for its English dubs.

Read it at Anime Feminist!

[hetalianhistorian]

Do you have a Funimation subscription? If so, I need YOUR help!

For the past two weeks or so, there has been news going around that Funimation will be merging with Crunchyroll on April 2nd.

What does this have to do with Hetalia? The entirety of Hetalia is already available through Crunchyroll (albeit, with the episodes are out of order) EXCEPT for the Paint It White! movie and the extras for Hetalia. The Paint It White movie is at least still available for physical purchase, however it is the extras I have the most concern about.

The Funimation dub can be considered important to Hetalian history and culture due to how much influence it had over the western fanbase. These extras serves as a time capsule for when Hetalia was at its peak within the west and provides behind-the-scenes insight to the dub voice actors.

I am not sure if it will be 100% guaranteed that these extras will be transferred to Crunchyroll. Especially since I have sent Funimation an email (left) and this is what they've responded with (right):

So, that information is not too helpful. Aren't the extras provided within the DVDs? As someone who owns the physical copies of seasons 1-6: Yes! But do they have all of the extras? No.

The DVDs do include the commentaries, outtakes, and interviews, but it seems that the Funimation page has exclusive stuff like World Buffet, panel footage, fan appreciation cards, and more.

I cannot do this on my own because while I do have a Funimation account, unfortunately nowadays, when you attempt to purchase a subscription, it will only redirect to the Crunchyroll website. Hence, I am asking the fanbase to please contact me if you are someone or know somebody with an ongoing Funimation subscription. The goal is that we can work together to guarantee the preservation of ALL of these extras! You can reach out to me through the following methods: Email: hetalianhistorian@gmail.com Discord: hetalianhistorian Twitter: @HetaHistorian Reddit: u/HetalianHistorian And of course through here, on Tumblr. If you can, please reblog and share to spread the word! I'll be open for any questions or clarifications! Thanks so much! Hetalian Historian

[a-forbidden-detective]

‘It’s between lovers’

RonToto shippers, we have our own version of Gojo-Geto off JJK0 or the Whisper scene from “Lost in Translation.”

I admit that plot-based voice cancellation is the least favorite trope of mine. But, what is it exactly?

Sometimes, one line can change everything — for the characters as well as the audience. So, often, if that line has to come up early on, it will be cancelled out by some other noise, such as a truck passing or a plane taking off, or, in the case of dream worlds and other special cases, for no obvious reason whatsoever.

After being annoyed trying to find out from the mouth of Sofia Coppola what actually could Bob mean when he whispered something to Charlotte , she had this to say on the film’s 15th anniversary,

Just acknowledging that week meant something to both of them and it affects them going back to their lives. People always ask me what’s said. I always like Bill’s answer: that it’s between lovers – so I’ll leave it at that.”

Or Gojo’s words that made Geto say “You should at least curse me at the end.”

The only thing that was definite and official is that Ron says“thank you” to Toto, courtesy of Crunchyroll.

But Ron’s speech was long and if you look at Toto’s reaction it would be a life-altering moment. This isn’t the simple declaration of comradeship. This is something more intimate thinking that the anime crew knows the implications of these scenes to the viewers. They understand what are we going to say after we watch the scenes unfold. The effects, the way the story will evolve after this arc.

Toto’s pupils are dilated for one. His mouth is a complete O. These appearances are not part of the manga. These are anime exclusive.

What did Sherlock say about dilated pupils?

Irene Adler: Oh, dear God. Look at the poor man. You don't actually think I was interested in you? Why? Because you're the great Sherlock Holmes, the clever detective in the funny hat?

Sherlock Holmes: No... because I took your pulse: elevated; your pupils: dilated. I imagine John Watson thinks love's a mystery to me, but the chemistry is incredibly simple and very destructive. When we first met, you told me that disguise is always a self-portrait; how true of you. The combination to your safe: your measurements - but this… [taking her cell phone] ... this is far more intimate. This is your heart, and you should never let it rule your head.

How about the scientific side of it :

Why Eyes Dilate: Increased Oxytocin

Oxytocin is the warm and fuzzy love hormone released after intimate connection. In empathic, healthy people (i.e. not psychopaths), oxytocin gets released after a hug, a sweet conversation, seeing a baby, or connecting strongly with someone. When oxytocin releases, pupils often dilate too.

The censored dialogue might irritate me along with the non-announcement of season 3. But, I still keep optimistic bc for the meantime we have these chapters animated. It is in our power to reinterpret it through fan fiction and fan arts. I just hope that this is not the end of interpreting Akira Amano’s work to our TV or handy screens.

[mikyapixie]

🌸🌸🌸

The Pizza Hut franchise announced a delicious and magical collaboration with Cardcaptor Sakura. It is a special pizza to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the anime, and the future sequel to Clear Card. The special edition of Pizza Hut "Key of Dreams" will be available from June 4 for diners in Taiwan. In a promotional video, other delicious products are announced, such as a bun filled with matcha and red beans, but with the appearance of Kero-chan.

In addition, for the purchase, fans of the CLAMP series will be able to take a special edition pizza box, which is shown in the advertising video. There are also four collectible keychains as exclusive gifts for purchases. Pizza Hut revealed on its official blog that an activation will be organized on a Sakura bus. The 48 winners of this promotion will be able to travel on this bus decorated with the illustrations of the anime. Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card began on Nakayoshi's pages in July 2016 as a sequel to Cardcaptor Sakura. The series follows Sakura in new magical adventures during high school. The anime adaptation aired from January 7 to June 10, 2018, under the direction of the director of the original series Morio Asaka for MADHOUSE.

This is the synopsis of the anime that is available on Crunchyroll:

Guided by the Key to Dreams, Sakura embarks on a new adventure. Sakura managed to capture all the Clow Cards that could have caused a cataclysm in the world and turned them into her Sakura Cards. Now spring has arrived, the cherry trees are in bloom and Sakura is about to start a new stage in high school. His beloved Syaoran has returned from Hong Kong and Sakura is very excited to be able to go to class with him again. That's when one night something strange happens to your letters...

[illdothehotvoice]

Bro I just wanted to see that hologram in person so fucking bad literally a childhood dream of mine and I finally get the chance to and I get lucky and get my tickets way cheap and it's a small LCD screen that I'm gonna see like 2 pixels of.

My goal is to not be sad and constantly checking the Miku Expo tag all day. There's a whole ass eclipse tomorrow and I am lucky enough to see that and that's so fucking cool

[haru-dipthong]

Why are anime translations so bad?

Disclaimer: I have never done any professional translation, and I don’t watch dubbed/subbed anime very often. But recently I watched a few episodes of subbed Demon Slayer at a friend’s place, and I noticed how bad some of the translations were. It reminded me of my childhood, watching subbed Ghibli movies and thinking “that english sounds weird”. As a kid I thought it was an unavoidable part of translation, but now that I can speak Japanese, I realise that we can do so much better with translations!

This post is my attempt to identify what a “bad” translation is, and hazard some guesses at what mistakes translators make that lead to these bad translations.

Examples are from Ranking of Kings, episodes 10 and 11. Screenshots taken from Crunchyroll.

What do I mean by bad?

Reason 1: They don’t sound like natural English.

If a character in an english cartoon said some of the stuff that characters in anime say in translations, it would sound very unnatural. Anime-translation english is unnatural and awkward sounding.

ダイダ様、久しぶりに街に出てみますか？ Price Daida, it’s been a while, so why don’t we go down into town?

This example sounds awkward. What’s with the random “so” in the middle of the sentence? No one in English media talks like that. If you just remove the “so” and replace it with a full stop, we get a much more natural sounding sentence.

Price Daida, it’s been a while. Why don’t we go down into town?

Or even something like this:

Price Daida, why don’t we go into town? It’s been a while since you’ve been down there.

Reason 2: They don’t fit the character.

This screenshot shows the character Kage speaking (the black blob). He has a character trait of being kind of immature and almost never using polite Japanese, even to royalty, which is very disrespectful. The original translation makes him sound so formal! Kage is supposed to sound like a 15 year old who tries way too hard to be rough and intimidating. Can you imagine someone like that saying “You may say those things”?

いやいやいや、なんかいい感じなこと言ってるけど、違うからね！ No, no, no! You may say those feel-good things, but reality is different!

It doesn’t preserve his characterisation at all. Way too formal and not juvenile enough! A better translation would be:

No, no, no! Nice motivational speech, but they’re just words!

The devil’s advocate & descriptivism

Now, I’ll preface this by saying I am a hardcore descriptivist. I’m not saying that these translations are wrong, or that the resulting English is incorrect English. What I’m saying is that they do not achieve the goals of a good translation, those goals being preserving what is being said and how it’s being said.

It could be argued that by now, anime translations have become a new dialect of English. Anime fans have come to expect the awkward-sounding phrasing, and instead might see natural English as unexpected. This is a fine rebuttal of my first point (it sounds awkward) but not of my second point (speech-pattern-based characterisation is often lost). Even then, anime translations are not exclusively for established anime fans. First time viewers may be put off by the unnatural language choices and strange turns of phrase. “Anime is cringe” they might say, and they wouldn’t be wrong. A good translation should be understandable to the entire target audience, and first time or casual viewers certainly make up a large portion of that target audience.

Why do the translations end up so bad?

They err on the side of direct translation over meaning-based translation

Often, it seems like the main nouns and verbs in the sentence get translated verbatim, and the rest of the translation is forced to bend around those. In addition, they do not consider how a similar sentiment might be phrased in english. Even if it’s a japanese way of saying something, they preserve the individual words instead of changing the whole sentence. Let’s look at the Kage example from before:

いやいやいや、なんかいい感じなこと言ってるけど、違うからね！ No, no, no! You may say those feel-good things, but reality is different!

I’ve coloured the text so you can see which pieces got translated separately. In this example, basically every word is being translated separately. Now let’s look at my example:

いやいやいや、なんかいい感じなこと言ってるけど、違うからね！ No, no, no! Nice motivational speech, but they’re just words!

I’m translating the entire middle verb phrase as one atomic piece of meaning. It’s not individually important that, for example, the specific word 言ってる was used, so it’s not important that I translate it directly to the word “say”. What is important is that Kage is saying that Despa is saying some nice stuff, but it doesn’t change the facts. I have a feeling that the more you can group words together and translate them as a whole phrase, the more natural the translation ends up sounding (and the more characterisation you can preserve).

They use weird words, due to dictionary translation

Let’s look at another example:

兄上は弱者だと、どこか甘えていないか？ Aren’t they sort of spoiling Brother, just because he’s a weakling?

In this example, the word 弱者 is translated as “weakling”. “Weakling” is a pretty rare word to hear outside of anime. That’s probably the best direct translation if we’re looking at the word 弱者 out of context. However, words always appear in context. Both times the word 弱者 is used to refer to a person in this episode, it’s used to refer to disabled people (Bojji, who is deaf, and a citizen, who is both blind and deaf). The citizen is actually not physically weak, in fact he looks pretty chunky and strong, so 弱者 is not being used to refer to his physical strength, only his disability. The English word “weakling” strongly suggests physical weakness, so I don’t feel like it’s appropriate here. Instead, I feel like a more appropriate translation would be:

Do you think Brother gets special treatment, just because he’s so pathetic?

Daida is immature and heartless at this point in his character. He has contempt for both Bojji and the citizen, and sees them as weak, but he also feels pity for them. I think the word “pathetic” sums up his emotions for them much better than the word “weakling”, as well as not coming loaded with the incorrect “physical weakness” connotation.

As a side note, you may have noticed I translated the first part of the sentence differently too. That’s another example of how (in my opinion) grouping words together to translate a phrase as a whole results in a much more natural phrasing.

They try to preserve the original grammar

An important skill to have when translating is knowing which aspects of the phrase are important to preserve in translation, and which parts are not important. Word order and grammar are almost never important enough to preserve.

ダイダ様こそ、選ばれた人間。 Prince Daida, you are one who is chosen.

In this example, the past tense verb 「選ばれた/chosen」modifying the noun 「人間/person」 seems to have been determined to be important to preserve by the translator, which leads to the awkward phrasing “one who is chosen”. In reality, the minutia of the original grammar is not important to preserve - we can translate 選ばれた人間 as a set phrase rather than translating the words individually:

Prince Daida, you are one of the chosen few.

Again, we can see that the translation is improved by grouping words together and translating the phrase as a piece of atomic meaning!

Anime translation is a naturally restrictive medium

For dubs, the characters’ mouth movements need to match up. This really narrows down the possibilities of translation options. It means that sub-optimal word choices may be used, and the rhythm of speech may be forced into an odd speed in places.

For subs, although the syllables and mouth movements don’t need to match up as perfectly as they do in dubs, the subtitles still end up needing to be applied over the same moments of speech. However, often, if the given situation in the anime was to be completely reframed in English, maybe no one would have said anything at that moment. There are times when someone would say something in Japanese that you would expect someone to not say anything in english.

デスパー：弟子の悪口は許しますけど、私の悪口は許しませんよ！！ カゲ：逆でしょ！！！！ Despa: You can insult my apprentice, but I won’t let you insult me! Kage: You’ve got it backwards!

In Japanese comedy, the role of ツッコミ (best translation is “the straight man”) is ubiquitous and plays the part of a laugh track - telling audiences when to laugh. In this case, Kage is playing the part of ツッコミ by pointing out that what Despa has said is the opposite of what you’d expect him to say. In this example, I feel like if this was an English cartoon, Kage wouldn’t have said anything. English speaking comedies generally expect/trust audiences to get the jokes without them being explicitly pointed out. I feel like this shows how attempting to fit subtitles to every spoken phrase can lead to slightly unnatural turns of phrase, since the translator is attempting to fit some speech into a place where there wouldn’t have been any in the first place. In my opinion, the best “translation” for the above would have been to cut the 1 second clip where Kage butts in with his line altogether.

———

Again, I should reiterate that I’m not a translator. I’m very keen to hear counter-arguments if you disagree with what I’ve said! Translations have got me really interested recently and I’m hungry for more opinions.

[thirstyforlulu]

He’s finally home! Now to wait on the Crunchyroll exclusive 🥹

[arkus-rhapsode]

Sony wants to buy Kadokawa, what does this mean?

So this is a post I didn't think I'd ever have to make, but I guess I will because it concerns two things I'm invested in: anime and video games. And it concerns how we may potentially be seeing those industries get even more consolidated.

Yesterday on November 19th Reuters reported that Sony was in talks to acquire the massive Japanese media conglomerate Kadokawa. As of November 20th, we see that Sony has indeed sent a letter of intent for an acquisition.

Now look, I know we all tend to see Sony as a video game and technology company first and foremost, and I think that has led to a tendency for reports on this story to frame this story as "Sony wants to buy the parent company of FromSoft, what does this mean for Armor Core and Souls games going forward?" Now I don't necessarily blame gamers from focusing on the game aspect of this purchase, but its massively underselling that Sony is a multimedia entertainment company with plans outside of video games and Kadokawa's holding on other forms of media. For just a taste, here is just what Wikipedia lists as some of the subsidiaries of the Kadokawa Corporation.

As you can see, numerous light novel and manga magazine publishers, anime studios, and even news sites like Anime News Network fall under the umbrella of Kadokawa owned operations. And Sony themselves have been no slouches in the anime industry either. Having bought Aniplex, Funimation, Crunchyroll, RightStuff and more Sony has had a foothold on the distribution of anime outside Japan for quite a while. If this acquisition goes through there is no doubt that this will make their grip even tighter on the anime industry. Basically now controlling all the means of taking a work from the page to the screen to overseas to the merch to follow.

Obviously, I don't necessarily blame video game journalists and personalities for not going this deep into it, video games and anime fans may have overlap, but it's pretty clear there's a level of separation between the two in the same space. However, this focus on FromSoft honestly reminds me of the Microsoft-Bethesda purchase where most people talked about it like Microsoft only bought Bethesda. No, they bought Bethesda's parent company, Zenimax Media, which owns Bethesda and also numerous other studios like Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin, Obsidian, Roundhouse Studios, and Alpha Dog Games. Note that all those studios except Obsidian saw a closer this year. When dealing with a massive merger/acquisition like this its important to keep in mind the full scope of it.

Kadokawa and its video game sector which includes FromSoft, Spike Chunsoft and recent acquisition of Acquire being purchased by Sony would be pretty rough. Particularly Spike who have made a reputation for themselves as one of the still AA studios that are into developing and publishing niche games like Ai The Somnium Files, Master Detective Raincode, and Mystery Dungeon. So having Sony, who have spent basically the last decade and a half moving towards huge blockbuster AAA games and who have just incurred a massive loss and shuttered a studio like Firewalk after one disastrous game, makes me fear for a lot of the safety of any new company being brought on.

And of course, there's the very real possibility that one acquired Sony will make many of these games these studios make exclusive to their Playstation platform. Or at the very least require a PSN account to access these titles on things like the PC. I know there's a lot of people who like to turn stories of Sony and Microsoft acquiring companies into pissing matches for whoever's team is "winning" by buying up more, but setting aside the console wars nonsense, the adverse effects of the major third party publishers on the industry would be bad for all platform users.

However, even more worrisome is what will happen on the print entertainment side of things. Kadokawa isn't a small time publisher of works. When it comes to their Light Novel prints they include series like Sword Art Online, Haruhi Suzumiya, Irregular at Magic High School, Classroom of the Elite, Re:Zero, No Game No Life, and even Slayers

There's also Enterbrain, a much smaller publisher known for its cult fanbase and publishing of niche series like Delicious in Dungeon!

Now, all of these series in Japan are typically protected by much stronger creators rights laws in Japan. With the series creators owning their work and not the publishers. But it doesn't change that now Sony will essentially have ownership of their publishing outlets and a seat at everyone of their production committees I regards to adaptations of their work. And then we get into how those products might leave Japan. Yen Press and Book Walker aren't small outlets, they are a big deal in making several of these series legally accessible to non-Japanese readers. Yen Press has even taken it upon themselves to bring over series from other magazines like Oshi no Ko, which Viz Media had failed to bring over for years.

And speaking of Oshi no Ko, this acquisition would mean Sony would now own the studio that makes it, Doga Kobo. Along with Cinema Citrus, the studio behind Made in Abyss, Rise of the Shield Hero, and as I was writing this, just was announced for Star Wars Visions Vol 3. Now lets add onto the fact Sony currently owns Crunchyroll which is one of the three main players in the North American anime streaming and distribution game along with Netflix and Hi-Dive. Sony could in theory now cut out the need to bid for airing certain anime overseas and instead just have a pipeline that leads directly from Kinema Citrus all the way to Crunchyroll's servers.

And speaking of Crunchyroll, we haven't even talked about how Sony has been acting in regards to this one streaming platform. Initially, Sony had acquired Funimation and infamously we had a neck and neck streaming war with Crunchy and Funi, but eventually Crunchyroll would be sold off to Sony where they proceeded to fold Funimation into Crunchyroll's brand. Erasing years of Funimation's own identity and most egregious of all, shuttering the Funimation website which deleted loads of digital content. Especially annoying when one of the perks of purchasing a Funimation Blu-Ray was offering a free digital copy that could be used on their website. So all those purchases? Gone. Hope you saved the physical media.

Crunchyroll themselves have also been no shortage of controversies lately, from the implementations of AI subtitles that are not only inaccurate, but also a pretty transparent attempt to eventually phase out subtitle writers. Then there's the allegations by actors as recently as a few weeks ago that Crunchyroll Studios has acted unprofessionally and illegally with their treatment of staff. But I think the most controversial of all was what happened to RightStuf. RIghtStuf was an anime merchandise outlet that would be shut down after purchase by Sony and then redirected users to go to the Crunchyroll merch store. If that doesn't sound like an attempt to monopolize a hobby, I don't what does.

I know this post has been very alarmist sounding, I legit was shaken when I heard the news, but there is some small silver lining to this dark cloud. Kadokawa hasn't made any decision either which way to go with this intention to acquire. They are capable of doing they're due diligence and seeing if this acquisition is opportune for them or not. Do I think they are going to reject it? I don't know. I'd prefer to not have this go through, but its out of my hands.

Once again, we must unfortunately watch more consolidation in the animanga and video game spaces. Which in the year 2024, we've seen full display of what has happened with the shrinking AA space of developers and publishers as they've been eaten up by guys like Tencent, Embracer Group, Microsoft, and Sony. We've had so many lay-offs and shut downs in this year alone its disheartening. Combine that with how this will effect how many people outside of Japan's accessibility to the pass time that they are passionate about and how this will inch us closer to only a few big players making all the choices for the anime industry is also disheartening.

There's a very tangible future where corporations like Sony own so much of our art and entertainment.

[animenostalgia]

The Anime Nostalgia Podcast - Ep 133: ReView: Appleseed

This episode is sponsored in part by Tokyo Treat! To get $5 your first box of delicious snacks & treats delivered from Japan straight to your door, AND to help support my little podcast, use code "NOSTALGIA" at my link here!

This month’s episode is another short ReView! What is a “ReView” episode, you might ask? Well, it’s my highly-clever (ok not really) name for episodes where I go back and revisit an older title I haven’t seen in a long time, and see if what I remember (and what my opinions on it) are still the same now that some time’s gone by. It's Summertime, so why not kick back with an 80s cyberpunk action buddy-cop movie? That's right, this month, I'm revisiting the Gainax-made 1988 OVA based off of Masamune Shirow's Appleseed! Is this a great Summer popcorn flick, or does it belong at the bottom of the bargain bin? Let's find out together!

Stream the episode above or [Direct Download]

Subscribe on apple podcasts | Spotify

Relevant links:

Buy the Appleseed bluray with my affiliate link on Amazon or at The Crunchyroll Store

Buy the original Appleseed manga digitally on Amazon

Stream Appleseed (dubbed) in North America (free with ads) on Pluto TV or Tubi!

Stream Appleseed with your paid RetroCrush subscription (dubbed or subbed)

Video by Zimmerit: When Gainax Made Appleseed

My theme song music was done by Kerobit! You can find more about them on their website!

See how you can get access to behind-the-scenes stuff, early access to the podcast, and a BRAND NEW subscriber exclusive podcast with my new Ko-fi Subscriptions!

As always, feel free to leave me your thoughts on this episode or ideas for future episodes here—or email me directly at AnimeNostalgiaPodcast@gmail.com.

Thanks for listening!

[tetrix-anime]

Seiyuu Radio no Uraomote (The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio) - Exclusive Visual from Crunchyroll. Premiere: 10 April 2024

[strqyr]

ftr it isn't rooster teeth that decides if rwby gets greenlit or not. it's hbo, their parent company, which is worse given how they love to fuck shows over mid-run.

last i checked, rwby is fully funded by rooster teeth, and gets no additional funding from warner bros discovery:

"Many folks assume that, given that RT is wholly owned by Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), that we have an endless pool of cash just laying around. You could not be further from the truth. While we are indeed owned by WBD and love being a part of the family, we typically tend to run RT as an independent business within the larger framework of the organization. Contrary to popular belief, we do not receive an annual bucket of money to fund the show." [source]

now, i'm not going to pretend i know exactly how all of this works so i could very well be wrong here, but i'm assuming that the entity that actually funds the show gets to decide whether more is made or not. if rooster teeth doesn't have the money to continue making rwby—let alone keep all the people who worked on it hired even during the interim—then they're obviously not going to force it and drive the whole company down while at it.

in the above source link they also talk about the exclusivity deal with crunchyroll and the reasons for it: that is, wanting to find a long-term home for rwby where it can continue to thrive and expand, implying that it cannot do it any longer on rooster teeth's own site.

in doing that, rooster teeth decided that instead of driving fans to watch it on their own site and using their subscription to watch the show legally, they sent fans to crunchyroll—which isn't to say they didn't get any money out of it, you don't give away exclusivity for free, but rooster teeth quite literally had a "i'm here just for rwby" option when prompted to give a reason why you won't continue with your first subscription; they know how important rwby was for first. they willingly tanked their own subscription in an attempt to ensure rwby would continue.

i mean. from what i've heard and understood (again, could be wrong here, or misremembering), the production during V9 went like: work on majority of V9 (funded by RT) -> work on jl x rwby movies (funded by WB, not RT, kept people employed) -> back working on the last couple episodes of V9 (funded by RT). and, like. i don't really see any reason to suddenly, mid-V9 production, to swerve to the crossover movies if they weren't having problems with funding V9 on their own—in the commentary they were literally talking about how they considered making the summer, tai, & raven scene in 2D instead of 3D as a money saving measure—, hence the exclusivity deal with crunchyroll.

and last i checked, crunchyroll isn't owned by WBD, it's owned by sony. yet, when it came to greenlighting V10, crwby were directing people towards crunchyroll, not WBD, and certainly not HBO, which as far as i know doesn't even have rwby on its streaming service and is also owned by WBD.

which doesn't sound like WBD or anyone else is holding rooster teeth back from greenlighting V10; if anything, RT is looking for someone to partner with them to cover some of the cost—in this case, most likely crunchyroll—and whatever discussions and negotiations they may or may not be having at the moment haven't bore fruit yet.

obviously most of this is speculation—i'm just a person on the internet with no inside knowledge, only able to make assumptions based on information that has been given by those actually in the know—so don't take it as a gospel. however, i don't think creating boogeymen out of other companies who have nothing to do with funding rwby is a way to go either; focus on the company actually making rwby, first.