Thread 281401232

Why does the entire Western anime community ignore Drama CDs? It's not like they were a niche market, hundreds if not thousands of these things exist and it's like the entire medium has been forgotten.

>>281401232 (OP)
Because they're EOPs and Drama CDs are in untranslated Japanese.

>>281401232 (OP)
Are you really unable to figure out why?

>>281401232 (OP)
The only way for western fans to enjoy Audio Dramas is for someone to translate them, and then post the translations for the western user to read along with as they listen. And tons of those drama CDs just never get any translation or attention outside of japan

Drama CDs are a purely auditory experience.
With anime and manga, the visual element makes the work work for someone who doesn't know Japanese.
For an LN, the entire work is taken into English. You are not missing anything by just reading it.

For a Drama CD you have a purely auditory experience. If you don't know Japanese you CAN read along, but that is not the same, in addition to the fact that a lot of people watching with subs aren't discerning enough to tell whose who on audio alone.

>>281401232 (OP)
Without moving pictures it's not an anime
But yeah they often hide the best conclusions to the story in audio drama cd

>>281401465
>addition to the fact that a lot of people watching with subs aren't discerning enough to tell whose who on audio alone.
There's zero percent chance this is true. What kind of people are you interacting with.

>>281401531
Unless characters are really distinct in their voices a lot of people just can't tell is what I've found.
These people are more focused on subtitles rather than actually experiencing all aspects of the performance.
(They're also a majority of /a/ now)

>>281401232 (OP)
Most of them are un tl'd. The only experience with them that I have is the Ninku one which was fucking awesome.

>>281401232 (OP)
Hunter x Hunter (1999) had some really good Drama CDs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxe1_WJGFnM

>>281401561
this is my turn to ignoremost of what you said and call you a dub shill right?

>>281401619
If you're retarded, yeah.
My point is just that most people don't actually pay attention to what they're watching. Generally though, it's also a part of not knowing a language. A lot of people watching subbed aren't actually distinguishing Japanese into syllables and just take it as a lot of noise, and so they don't appreciate the voice acting.

>>281401531
There are plenty of people whining about having a hard time differentiating the characters in the Boogiepop Phantom anime since they all have realistic hair colors so you end up with a bunch of characters all with similar skin tones and hair color. And that is when they had different voices and hair styles

>>281401675
Not that anon but this take is retarded, i specifically avoid English dub because it is particularly bad, even worse than other languages dubs. It is not even about the language as Anglos definitely are capable of producing decent voice acting, they just tend to not put the necessary work for Japanese media.

>>281401747
This has nothing to do with what I said at all.

>>281401768
People not caring enough to identify characters by the voice have nothing to do with it being in Japanese, most people consuming media does so mindlessly and wouldn’t recognize a voice actor unless pointed out otherwise there wouldn’t be so many videos showing how different cartoon characters are voiced by the same person when that person in English doesn’t even sound that different.

>>281401880
>People not caring enough to identify characters by the voice have nothing to do with it being in Japanese,
Part of it does actually.
Distinguishing another language from just being random noise into distinguishable, intentional words and syllables is a part of early language learning, and not having that ability already does make it harder for someone to grow to appreciate voice acting.
And again, all this shit about dubs has nothing to do with what I'm saying, which is just that many people just don't even begin to distinguish between voices in an anime. Part of that is lack of effort, and a more innate part blocking that is lacking recognition of Japanese. You don't even need to know Japanese, has nothing to do with what I'm saying either.

>>281401948
>Distinguishing another language from just being random noise into distinguishable, intentional words and syllables is a part of early language learning
That is a separate issue from identifying character from the voice. People who have a mental issue that makes it harder to do that still can recognize people by their voices despite having a hard time understanding what they say. One thing is speech, another is recognizing sounds. A person can be great at recognizing sound variation and musical notes and still be terrible at processing speech.

>>281402597
>That is a separate issue from identifying character from the voice.
Not entirely, as when watching an anime with more reserved performances, someone with less discerning ears could easily become more reliant on the visual aspect to distinguish between characters. Obviously a Lucky Star wouldn't be like that, but there are anime with such performances.

>>281402631
Again, people have the same issue with cartoon characters voiced in English. If the average joe could identify voices easily the fact the same actor voiced different characters wouldn’t be a surprise besides the actors with a wide range and those are a minority.

>>281401232 (OP)
Anime largely gets translated because there exist distribution networks for it. Distributors primarily only focus on anime because the medium is easily digestible and easy to work with. There's a video channel where you can put your translations right in front of someone, the timing is already corrected, with visual cues to assist in that. Licensing is also a sorted out issue now.
Working with drama CDs is a pain in the ass by comparison. For starters, Drama CDs are often released and licensed by a record label separate from the production firm. There are also fewer avenues for distributing audio - especially before streaming platforms, printing a line of CDs was a lot more expensive than dubbing a VHS tape, and while video rental was extremely popular, there weren't nearly as many places you could just rent a CD. This was before any secondary merchandise outlets had really reached the US. And even if it did get licensed, translated, and put to market, as anons ITT have mentioned there's the trouble of actually consuming it. You just read a script insert and listen to voices in a language you don't understand without any visual cues. It was never really a simple or desirable thing to try and push overseas.

>Why does the entire Western anime community

as opposed to what besides japan? european eastern?

>>281401232 (OP)
cd a shit

>>281401232 (OP)
Because they don't matter and can safely be ignored without missing anything of value

>>281401232 (OP)
ironic weebs pay for a crunchyroll subscription so they're too retarded to learn how to find drama CD's online