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Sequential Tart chat with Bandai DVD producer Charles McCarter Summary by Neo-Era July 23, 2002 (Note: Since this chat was hosted by Sequential Tart, out of respect for them we will post Neo-Era's summary and not the original log.) As I managed to find
out about the chat session only 30 minutes before it was held, myself
and a number of other regulars from Mecha & Anime HQ's chatroom
managed to jump in and ask a lot of Gundam-related questions. =) -He states that nothing yet has been determined about which Gundam will be released in North America after G Gundam. -Regarding releases of older shows, an issue is the quality of the available source material. On the original Mobile Suit Gundam TV series, they had to go back and color-correct all the masters due to their age, which is costly and takes time. Other issues revolving around bringing Gundam over are Sunrise's protectiveness of the franchise, Yoshiyuki Tomino being given a lot of input in how shows he's created are handled, and Bandai America's toy line. -Regarding a release of the MSG TV series with the original Japanese language, he mentions he hopes it'll be released someday but that "politics" prevents it at the moment. And he has no idea if episode 15 ("Cucuruz Doan's Island ", cut from the dub release of the series in North America) would be included on any future re-release, as it was Tomino's wish to cut it to begin with. -It was, in fact, Sunrise themselves who dictated the names changes in the dub version of G Gundam as they were concerned about the names being stereotypical. As part of trying to address that concern, none of the characters will have accents. And there was the "God" and "Devil" issue as there was some backlash regarding the "Devilmon" in Digimon and things like the "Deathscythe" in Gundam Wing. And, as everyone should know by now, the G Gundam subs will have all the original names. -When it was pointed out that Gundam Wing had an "unedited" dub version as well as an edited one, McCarter said that Wing had been done before the Cartoon Network deal was put together. Because of that, they had to go back and redo lines anyway. But with G Gundam, everything was planned out beforehand so there'll only be one dub version of it. But aside from the name changes, there really isn't a difference. He likes to be as true to the originals as possible. -When asked if Gundam F91 would be released in North America given that is is a relatively standalone movie, the response was that it would probably depend on how well Char's Counterattack does. -The editing for G Gundam is done by Cartoon Network as Bandai doesn't want to guess what the people in charge of the broadcasting standards will say. They simply give the unedited version to CN and CN works with that. -As an example of how Chibodee Crockett's trademark shouts were handled for the dub, it was said that one of Chibodee's exclamations of "Oh, Jesus!" was changed to "Oh, jeez!" for the dub. -Finally, it can be known what the Tequila Gundam's name was changed to: in the dub, it is called the Spike Gundam. -Sunrise apparently wanted to remove the countries entirely but it was pointed out that that wouldn't work as you can see the Statue of Liberty in the 2nd episode and Neo Japan has a colony shaped like Japan and so forth. -The rationale behind dub name changes for seemingly harmless Mobile Fighters like the Haow Gundam wasn't explained beyond Sunrise simply wanting it that way. Sometimes Charles got his way with the names and sometimes Sunrise prevailed. When asked what the most ridiculous name change was, he mentioned the Nether Gundam (changed to Hurricane Gundam in the dub). Charles tried to explain that the word "Nether" was used as a reference to the Netherlands while Sunrise harped on "Nether" being connected somehow to the term "Netherworld." -When asked about reports about Cartoon Network shying away from older Gundam shows due to the performance of MSG TV, the answer was that only CN would know about that. A followup question was then asked about MSG's performance on video and DVD, to which the answer was that it did "moderately well" although it would've done better had the Japanese track been included. -As an aside to the Gundam on Cartoon Network question, Charles mentioned that they do love Gundam and are fans of anime and that they probably get frustrated after working to get shows like Cowboy Bebop on TV (something nobody would've believed would be on TV not long ago) only to hear complaints from people about the edits. -About Gundam SEED coming to North America, it was said that it would be considered though the show is still in pre-production in Japan. The way I interpreted this was that SEED would be considered the same way any other Gundam series would, not that it has a better chance of coming out sooner than any of the others, mind you. -On the term "cyber-Newtypes" used in Char's Counterattack (in place of the traditional "artificial Newtypes/strengthened humans"), Tomino himself chose the English phrase. So that explains that. -Charles McCarter has never seen the Doozybots video. =) -G-Saviour's release was brought up and it was revealed that Sunrise asked Bandai to release it and they simply said "All right." So that's how we got that so promptly. -Since Bandai's .hack is going to be bilingual, it was asked if the same would be true of the upcoming Gundam games. Federation vs. Zeon won't be because Capcom stated that it was too difficult to program it that way. No word on Lost War Chronicles. -As the Escaflowne movie and Jin-Roh were released in Special Editions, the question of Special Editions for anything Gundam was brought up. For newer productions, it's easier to get that sort of thing together. With an older release like Char's Counterattack, it's difficult to find extras like storyboards lying around for that. This was followed-up with a question about the possibility of Tomino doing commentary tracks but Tomino seems to be busy at the moment with Overman King Gainer. -Charles has no clue if Gihren's Greed/Ambition is in the works for North America as he doesn't tend to find out about video games until production has started. -He noted that Bandai was beginning to run out of Gundams to release. =) -When it was asked if Gundam series necessarily *have* to air on TV, the response was "no" but that it really increases their sales potential. Having the "as seen on TV" sticker on their products tends to make retailers want to carry it on their shelves. -He didn't have any first-hand knowledge of any Gundam publications (manga, novels, etc.) that might be picked up for release in the West since those are licensed separately from whomever holds the rights. Bandai has very little to do with Viz and TOKYOPOP, whom have released Gundam manga and books in the past. When asked if it was possible for Bandai to release their own publications as both Viz and TOKYOPOP do this as well, it was pointed out that both of those companies got their start as manga companies and then moved into anime. Doing it the other way around is apparently atypical. -Regarding toys & model sales, Gundam is the #3 line of action figures in the country right now. Someone asked how the UC toys were doing specifically, McCarter didn't have numbers on the separate toy lines but knew that the Gundam toys as a whole were doing well. -It was Sunrise's decision to release Char's Counterattack before Z and ZZ. They seemed to feel it could work without Z or ZZ beforehand and, anyhow, it comes with a 12 page booklet to help people along. On the possibility of releasing the remaining UC shows (Z, ZZ, V) out of order as well, Charles said he assumed they'd want to go chronologically. -The list of dub voice actors for G Gundam hasn't been publicized yet because they'd prefer to have people judge the dub on its own merits instead of simply looking at the names and prejudging the show beforehand. He didn't remember if it was the same cast used for the voices in the Gundam Battle Assault 2 PS game since it was done so long ago. -As for the age old question of why they use Ocean for some dubs and Animaze for others, it was said that if it's a Tomino show, Sunrise gets to decide where they dub the productions. -Charles McCarter's job at Bandai basically involves, with 2 other people, overseeing any & all aspects of DVD production (subtitle checking, auditions, menu designs, packaging, etc., etc., etc.) so he's pretty thoroughly involved with these releases. -On G Gundam's release being 12 DVD's instead of 10, that was something Marketing and Sales came up with. Blame them. =) Charles speculated it had to do with price points for the DVD's. -All the "finishing moves" in the G Gundam dub are pronounced in Japanese (if they were originally in Japanese, of course) because "if Dragon Ball can do it, so can G Gundam" and, besides, it adds to the flavor of the show. He said it was impressive how quickly the voice actors learned to say all those things. He also mentioned he was impressed with the performances of Domon, Rain, Master Asia, and Nastasha in particular. -The final question asked was regarding the potential for SD Gundam (G Generation videogames, OVA's, and/or merchandise) being brought over. Charles said that Bandai was currently in the process of "researching the viability" of SD Gundam in the USA. In non-Gundam news: -They are waiting on
masters for SPT Layzner and Giant Gorg before work
will begin on them. I asked what prompted Bandai to pick up older
shows like these up and he said that new anime tends to get snapped
up quickly and there's a lot of older anime worth seeing. Hey, I
agree. |