Anime Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Why are Subtitled videos more expensive than the Dubbed videos?
For a brief history of anime go to The Right Stuf Int.
Ask five different people, and I'm sure you'll get five slightly different answers. Like anything, true explanation ends up, in one way or another, being part opinion, but I'll try my best.
The most basic definition of anime: moving "art". Anime is a form of entertainment where the normal laws of movie-making hold no bounds. Any character can be created, any stunt performed, and any story followed. Say an artist has a certain character in mind, s/he wants to make it as unique as possible. With live-action, they would be constrained to a single actor, and his or her limitations. In animation, a character can be created from the most basic elements, by changing voice, appearance and intent. There is a far deeper character study in animation than in live action, as the exact way a character is drawn determines a great deal about them.It's hard for some people in the US to truly understand the culture and attitude behind Anime. Many see it as cartoons with large-eyed girls who need to possess less guns and more clothes. The simplest way to explain them are by calling them 'Japanese cartoons.' The problem there, for many Americans, is the word 'cartoons', as it brings up thoughts of Scooby Doo and Bugs Bunny - animated silliness designed for young children.
For the most part, nearly every single instance of cartoons in the United States has been geared towards a younger audience. There have been those which held a higher level of maturity (Peanuts is a good example). But it wasn't until recently with shows such as the Simpsons, Aeon Flux, and Batman that cartoons were shown which really took on a mature theme and seriousness to them. More recently there has been even more adult themed "cartoons." One is South Park on the comedy channel with some very adult themes as well as Spawn on HBO. Both are available at your local cable company as far as I know.
Because of this, it's not hard to see why people would have trouble 'getting' what Anime is all about. Anime in Japan covers as wide of a spectrum as TV and cinema does here in the states - anything from children's classics, to fast-paced action, to explicit sexual themes. Anime isn't just for youth, it's for everyone, and as such there's something from every genre and style you could think of (this is similarly true about Manga-Japanese comics). The analogy to anime in Japan is US movies. There is a movie for every genre in existence. Anime is basically the "animated" version of movies in the US.
Anime in America is another prime example of a small cult hit catching on and growing larger than many would have expected. For those of us who have been around since the early days, ask yourself if you could have possibly imagined that Anime would get to such a point of popularity in the US? When I first got into it, a select few Manga titles were being translated and stuck at the bottom of comic shop shelves, and there was little of a video market to speak of (save horrendous butchering such as Warriors of the Wind). Back then, if you wanted a certain title, you got a copy of it from a friend, who normally had gotten their copy from a friend, and so on. This still goes on to a certain extent today since anime is more expensive than regular movies.
Video companies really didn't start taking off until the start of the 90's, but even then it was still a small-time hobby. Outside of local clubs and good comic shops, words like Anime and Manga were strange words uttered by people who had a passion for strange Japanese cartoons. The Manga side of US fandom was growing, however, with titles such as Nausicaa and Mai: the Psychic Girl paving the way for the invasion of Anime.
Nowadays, Anime's exposure is growing larger by day. We're still in the phase where people can say they're into Anime to sound cool (for liking such an exotic artform), but even that wobbles on the verge of being swallowed up anytime now. You can walk into your local Toys R Us and pick up Dragon Ball figurines or Sailor Moon on tape, or go down to Suncoast and browse their decently-sized 'Japanimation' section.
As with any cult phenomenon, seeing it enter the mainstream is both a blessing and a curse. It's now far easier to buy those tapes and LaserDiscs and soundtracks and dolls, and it helps give animation, on a whole, a good name when people see things like My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies. But, of course, the more fans you have, the more divided those fans can be. Anime used to be a secret code to a closely-nit club of people who shared a similar, scarcely-known interest. Now it's become another area of life to faction off and hold vicious debates about (sub versus dub anyone?).
No matter what Anime was, is now, or will be, one things for sure: it is a wonderful, beautiful, entertaining, and inspiring piece of life to help offset all of the bad things we can think of. If you're new to it all, or if you've been around since the days when Osamu Tezuka (the creator of Astro Boy) gave animation the push it needed, you are why we are here, and hopefully you'll join us in our journey into the vast and ever-expanding world of Japanese animation. Or else you wouldn't be at an "Anime" site would you? ^_^
Why are Subtitled videos more expensive than the Dubbed videos?
Although it is less expensive to subtitle, most of the companies feel that the Dubbed videos are more marketable. Their concept is that since they can sell more dubbed videos than the subtitled videos, they can sell the dubbed videos little cheaper. Another reason is, since the real fans (otaku) who buy the subtitled videos will buy them at just about any price, so they charge more (it used to be that you also got a plastic tape casing and maybe a little artwork at the end of the tape but this is rarely the case for the extra charge anymore). Dubbed titles are used to draw the new crowd who will not buy the videos if they are too expensive. Subtitled are generally $10 more than the dubbed. Laser Disc may come in either form or a Hybrid LD (both sub/dub). DVD discs (as far as I know) also have this feature where you can switch to either format.
More questions about anime? Did I just confuse
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