Are Vancouver dubs going to go extinct?

[Domayv]

With the departures of Trevor Devall and Matt Hill to LA in 2013, the possible loss of their flagship Gundam series to NYAV Post due to Right Stuf's (the company that has made a deal with Sunrise to be the future distributor for the Gundam series) close ties with that company, and Viz and AoA not bothering to use Vancouver as an alternative to LA union-contracted dubs (which actually are more expensive than Vancouver dubs and it's getting increasingly hard to hire Union-only VAs to appear in dubs ever since the recession), are Vancouver dubs going to go by the way of the dinosaur?

[Pokejedservo]

Sadly one could only wonder, its been said that the reason why Canadian VA talent has been used a lot less recently is because that due to our current economy the Canadian Looney is worth more than the American Dollar. (After all back in the 90's one of the known reasons why Canadian Voice Talent was used so often was because due to the currency exchange rates in various cases its cheaper to use Canadian VA studios then. Nowadays though it seems to be the other way around though.) But to be fair Vancouver still at least has the likes of Inuyasha Final Act and Black Lagoon Roberta's Blood Trail.

[Domayv]

Originally Posted by Pokejedservo

But to be fair Vancouver still at least has the likes of Inuyasha Final Act and Black Lagoon Roberta's Blood Trail.

Sadly, though, the most recent "Entirely New" (i.e. an entirely new series and not one continuing from a pre-existing series) dub from Vancouver is Nana, which was from 2009. On the bright side, though, the USD/CAD ratio is slowly but surely starting to recover to pre-recession levels (so far, 1 USD=1.158 CAD), so there may be a silver lining in this situation. Maybe we could see something like the next King of Fighters game and Persona 5 dubbed there (it would provide a breath of fresh air for the latter from the usual LA-based PCB Productions fare, especially considering that Atlus is now backed by Sega and thus they should have a sufficient enough budget to outsource to Canada, given the sizable-enough fanbase of the Persona series).

[Pokejedservo]

So the Currency Exchange rage between American and Canadian curency is starting to get a bit more equal huh? Interesting... Who knows maybe Canadian Voice Talent might have a chance in making a comeback sometime this decade. Though I am not sure if the Persona franchise might want to use Canadian VA talent but King of Fighters is a slight possibility (after all there is at least some history there what with Viz's dubs of the Fatal Fury Anime back in the 90s.)

[Domayv]

Originally Posted by Pokejedservo

So the Currency Exchange rage between American and Canadian curency is starting to get a bit more equal huh? Interesting... Who knows maybe Canadian Voice Talent might have a chance in making a comeback sometime this decade.

It depends on whether Aniplex and Viz would reconsider having their dubs outsourced to LA unions (given the expensiveness and difficulty of having a dub union-contracted nowadays since the recession) and have their dubs done at Ocean as an alternative, given that it would be cheaper and has less hassles to deal with than LA unions though more expensive than LA non-union (it probably most likely work for shows that would get the Toonami treatment or virtually any dub that would be directed by either Kristi Reed or Alex Von David due to their casting patterns paralleling what you would see in a union dub).

Originally Posted by Pokejedservo

Though I am not sure if the Persona franchise might want to use Canadian VA talent but King of Fighters is a slight possibility (after all there is at least some history there what with Viz's dubs of the Fatal Fury Anime back in the 90s.)

Well, the Persona series has always been dubbed by PCB Productions, but with Atlus starting anew since April, I always thought they could introduce some variety into the series' cast by having Ocean dub Persona 5. Also, if Atlus is going to dub Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker, it's probably best that they use the Devil Survivor 2: The Animation cast (which is Houston-based) for consistency's sake (it's not impossible for any dub other than from Sentai to be done at Seraphim Digital since Warner Bros and Sony have used the studio before, and during the ADV days, some J-games were dubbed over there, such as Unlimited Saga).

For King of Fighters and, by extent, the SNK fighting games, whilst its possible to reprise the Fatal Fury characters from the anime dub casts since a good portion of them are still active to this day (such as Matt Hill, Janyse Jaud, Paul Dobson, Mark Hildreth and Lisa Ann Beley), several of them need to be recast due to their English VAs either being no longer active in the voiceover business or dead (such as Terry Bogard since his Vancouver English VA, Peter Wilds is now an interior designer). Personally, I could see Brad Swaile voice Kyo Kusanagi (and his clones) if KOF gets dubbed in Vancouver.

[Skullgrin140]

Somehow in all this I'm sure with DBZ Kai's Ocean dub they might be making something of a comeback, however when you look at how they have been doing recently things are looking kind of slim for them what with the whole Currency issue they have had. This is weird since back a couple of years ago Ocean were on top of the world in the dubbing of Anime, now it's Funimation who is taking their share which is a shame.

I hope some how Vancouver have some way of getting back ontop of things because it feels kind of unfair for them to be left behind in dubbing Anime.

[Domayv]

Originally Posted by Skullgrin140

Somehow in all this I'm sure with DBZ Kai's Ocean dub they might be making something of a comeback, however when you look at how they have been doing recently things are looking kind of slim for them what with the whole Currency issue they have had.

The currency issue is starting to improve; just look at the chart and compare its current state to the pre-recession years and you'll notice how things are starting to look for the better.

Originally Posted by Skullgrin140

This is weird since back a couple of years ago Ocean were on top of the world in the dubbing of Anime, now it's Funimation who is taking their share which is a shame.

Actually, it's ADV that supplanted Ocean in terms of having the Lion's share of dubbing since the early to mid 2000s (and later Funimation would supplant ADV following that company's closure by 2009), and LA came to take most of the scraps ever since the advent of Bang Zoom! Entertainment (at that time, Animaze was the premiere LA dubbing studio for anime, but it was too expensive compared to having it done in by Ocean in Vancouver. Once Bang Zoom! debuted its first dub with Rurouni Kenshin in 2000, many anime companies began to go to that company since it was substantially cheaper to have dubs done there than at Animaze).

[Skullgrin140]

If the Canadian dollar has some how managed to star improving then I'm sure somehow after the Ocean dub of DBZ Kai then Vancouver will get back into the dubbing scene of Anime again. Somehow that way they can have more money to produce better top quality dubs again.

[Domayv]

Originally Posted by Skullgrin140

If the Canadian dollar has some how managed to star improving then I'm sure somehow after the Ocean dub of DBZ Kai then Vancouver will get back into the dubbing scene of Anime again. Somehow that way they can have more money to produce better top quality dubs again.

For the DBZ Kai Ocean dub to succeed, it has to air on a Canadian channel. The only channel that ever aired DBZ was YTV, though if their going to succeed by airing it unedited and uncut like what US Toonami is doing with Funimation's dub, then that channel won't be the choice due to the absence of the Bionix block since 2010. Maybe CN Canada could launch a Toonami block to air DBZ Kai Ocean dub unedited and uncut, given that they have Adult Swim Canada.

[Gaddes]

I've often wondered this myself. It's a shame. Ocean produced some solid dubs back in the day. I'm totally ok with NYAV taking over as the Gundam dub studio though.