Re: About fansubs
The problem with the quick domestic licensing of anime series is that once the anime is licensed, most fansub groups pull the series off the torrents. However, a lot of studios don't realize that many, and I do mean **many**, people do not buy things blindly. Many like to know if the series is worth getting, and sometimes it takes up to the ending episode to determine it, because sometimes the ending can be worse than the beginning (e.g. Full Metal Panic, Noir, etc.). No one likes to buy a series they will eventually hate, and for them, it is money not-well-spent.
The thing with ADV is that they believe that most people who download fansubs only keep fansubs and do not buy legit videos/DVDs of the titled products. However, that margin tends to be small, and mostly are those in college with a lot of bandwidth at their disposal. However, ADV forgets that anime fandom, even though more and more younger generation are joining, has always been an "adult" market rather than a "kids" market. These adults, who have jobs and stuff, can purchase legit DVDs (albeit some of us adults are buying direct from the source from Japan **cough cough**) Still no one really purchases blindly on a multi-volume show without having watched it first or getting high recommendations and praise from others who have watched the whole show/series.
In addition, ADV is hypocritical since they themselves were originally a fansub group whose fansubs were just so-so back in the hey-days. Although the CEO was never an anime fan, he saw the potential for the industry could grow. That is why he is being an arse about fansubbing in general. Bandai, and Pioneer/Geneon doesn't speak up because most of the employees (besides the head CEO boss) came from fansub groups or anime clubs (albeit Bandai is now cracking down on fansubbers, probably due to pressure from Japanese studio).
As is said, the weirder the series, the harder it is to promote it without letting people watch the whole series. ADV is going to have a hard time promoting
Princess Tutu, even though most of all the fansubs were out before the licensing was leaked out by AnimeNation and all of it was out before ADV announced they had it, but the show is/was a sleeper series. Now that the fansubs are gone, people that want to know about the show can't. And since it is a sleeper hit, there is a very small fanbase, not enough to generate a good volume sale. And they will have a hard time selling/marketing it because the first 3 episodes are very Magical Girl-ish like which may appeal to the girls, but they can't really market it that way because when the dark drama hits, those that like the fluffy, sugary magical-girl stuff will get turned off by the serious, dark undertone of the rest of the show after episode 3. In a way, they just gutted themselves by not allowing fansubs to flourish to help promote the show until its domestic release. (I still highly recommend watching it even though ADV is stupidly changing names ><;
Re: English Dubbing
My stance on English dubbing has always been a big negative since it ruins the integrity of anime and turns it into an American cartoon (aka dumbing down of IQ for the masses).
However, I will agree there are a few relative great dubbing of English for anime, primarily from high profile companies, such as Disney, who can afford extraordinary talent (albeit some actors were iffy...yet some were spot on, like Billy Crudup as Ashitaka...he sounded just like the original Japanese VA).
But overall, I don't understand what people are saying when they say they want to concentrate on the action rather than on the subs. Ummm, you do know that Japanese anime framerate of cels is pretty low roughly and most of the so-called "action scenes" are a bunch of "panning camera motion" and hidden mouth scenes so they can save a whole lot of money on concentrating just one scene for like 30 seconds. Trust me, not much action takes place on screen to have you focus 100% on the so-called "action". You have enough time to read the subs in 5 seconds or less and still catch up to whatever action is animated that is within their tight budget per episode.
Also, the excuse of not hearing the subtleties and nuances and tonality and whatever in the foreign language is utter B.S.. Humans are able to hear the inflection in a person's speech perfectly, regardless what language is spoken. Unless you are deaf or hard of hearing (since HoH people cannot hear the high notes, which most inflections fall upon), no one has an excuse to justify not listening to the original language of the media.
[Edit : AFter uploading this message, I didn't see your post on this subject DaveGTP, so this argument is not geared towards you but was written way before yours was on the board.]
Andrew:
Japanese female VAs for pre-pubescent males is very common. They will normally switch to a male VA if the teen is past his "voice change" years. However, the choice for Rurouni Kenshin's voice to be a female VA is to showcase a softer contrast to Kenshin's hard edge. That is why Kenshin seemed like a female at first but we find out later he is male. However, they do have males with high-pitched voices do certain young male roles or effeminate male roles. For example, Sasaki Nozomu is a prime example of a male VA who does a lot of the great young male, yet slightly effeminate, voices for characters. Funny part is that that voice is his real voice and not altered.
Max:
kimi ga nozomu eien is based off a hentai PC game. That is why it is not a teen angst drama. It is the best adaptation from H-game ever in the history of anime!!!
JohnAD & RobG:
The reason why the Japanese studios dub after the animation is animated is in case of "script rewriting". Because of the tight budget since animation series is given an overall budget rather than a per episode budget like in America, the production has to budget what they are given from the overall budget down to each specific episode. That is why episode quality ranges from really good to really iffy. This is based on what they can do. If the episode needs to be sent to a 3rd party to do that can animate for cheap, then they will send out the key frames to them. So animation is done with lip flapping timing. Dubbing, which is called "After Recording" (or afureko in Japanese), is done in post-production and there, the scriptwriter does the script changing on the spot, if the director doesn't like how the line is done. Actors are first introduced to key frames storyboard so they can practice the lines, but the actual recording is done on finished animated product, as well as any additional script rewrites and subtractions and additions of lines, and words, etc..
ChrisDAC:
I do the same thing too, taking the subs and rearranging around the actor's vocal inflections, tonality, and other stuff.
So kudos to all who post here, as you all contribute to IMHO one of the finest anime threads/forums on the web. 
