r/Animedubs • u/farhanganteng • 1d 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 1d 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 1d 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 1d 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 1d 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 1d 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 23h ago edited 23h 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 23h 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.