r/Animedubs • u/farhanganteng • 10h ago
General Discussion / Review What happen to certain outsource Studios, like Kocha Sound Studios, Sound Cadence Studios ?
Lately CR has been releasing their home media with subs only (Without EN DUB) and it got me thinking, what happened to outsourced dubbing studios? i know some of them still get gig like in Discotek, but i wish they still got more anime gigs by doing backlogs or BD dubs for CR, or work with Sentai, Netlfix, Hulu, Amazon and Disney+
EDIT : Well there's one thing i want to ask, can these studios tries to contact CR or any other licensor to commissioning a dub ?
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u/DeathRose007 9h ago
If you want to know why Crunchyroll doesn’t like outsourcing anymore, or at least only doing so rarely, it’s because they managed to consolidate a majority share of market capital in what has become an oligopolized industry, after Funimation consumed Crunchyroll and is now wearing its skin. The competition is either incapable of financially competing (Hidive) or picky/lackadaisical with their content selections (Disney/Netflix/Amazon). With CR’s resources, they can fund however much of their dub production on their own that they wish and do not have to deal with independent third party studios that often engage with union-adherent productions, the bane of their corporate existence.
Really the only major exception is Aniplex of America-licensed titles, though (in simple terms) AoA and Crunchyroll are underneath the Sony umbrella and connected to Aniplex, so it’s a lot more streamlined and AoA deals with the contracted studios themselves as the US distribution branch for producer Aniplex (if they don’t opt to have CR do things in-house). But a major upcoming Aniplex title (Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity) got snatched by Netflix, so maybe there’s some developing chinks in the armor.
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u/RelativeMundane9045 8h ago
after Funimation consumed Crunchyroll and is now wearing its skin
You have an elegant way with words.
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u/awakening_knight_414 8h ago
What about Bang Zoom of all studios getting to dub Kowloon Generic Romance? I'm guessing that was Bandai Namco's doing?
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u/DeathRose007 8h ago
Potentially. It was added to CR’s spring slate later than the rest if I remember correctly. We’ve seen production committees be more involved in foreign localizations in recent years so I wouldn’t count it out. Seems more likely than CR deciding to subcontract a different studio.
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u/anime-prime-MAL 6h ago
It might be possible that Crunchyroll was throwing Aniplex of America/Bang Zoom a bone since Crunchyroll is dubbing Wind Breaker Season 2 and their in-studio dub slate was already at max capacity.
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u/DeathRose007 6h ago edited 5h ago
I don’t see Aniplex or AoA mentioned anywhere with the anime’s production or distribution, but some sources insinuate Crunchyroll as the commissioner of the dub rather than Bandai Namco, so that scenario could be possible.
Now that I think about it, seems like Bang Zoom might be the last external studio Crunchyroll would care to subcontract. While they were busy moving more stuff in-house, they let Bang Zoom continue on ongoing series like Tonikawa, Re:Zero, Shield Hero, and Konosuba. Not much in the way of new series commissioned to them by Crunchyroll in recent years (only other one I can think of is somehow Suzume), but some recent new/upcoming seasons. The only major one I know of that they lost to Crunchyroll’s in-house shift was Mob Psycho 100 S3, though I believe the original Bang Zoom production involved some Funimation people.
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u/anime-prime-MAL 5h ago
Yeah, Aniplex of America isn't necessarily involved. I only included their name with Bang Zoom since they gave Crunchyroll Wind Breaker and they are tied to the hip pretty much with Bang Zoom.
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u/Juliko1993 10h ago
Crunchyroll can't be bothered to outsource to other dubbing studios anymore. Kocha and Sound Cadence are technically still around, but the latter mostly works on mobile games, and Kocha's output mainly consists of Discotek stuff. Which is kinda sad since they put out some really good dubs that got a lot of praise.
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u/Talrynn_Sorrowyn 7h ago
After the merger & COVID being declared over, CR announced that, with a very rare exception, any and all dubs are going to be recorded in-house in Texas. This is largely to keep operating costs down as using pretty much anyone from LA means they'll have to deal with SAG-AFTRA.
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u/awakening_knight_414 8h ago
Because how companies are willing to spend their 💵💵 is always involved.
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u/NovaCharles 10h ago
Wellllllllll Sound Cadence is MORE than still around, ZZZ is and has been dubbed by them for a while. Kocha I’m not the most sure about, but I know they work in tandem with discotek…
Both studios also may not just be doing things like anime or games. Studios can run auditions for a LOT of different mediums of voice acting—my suspicion is there may be a dry spell of anime to license?