Against the Gantz dubbing? Round Two: Our hopes for Part 2!

[topazera.livejournal.com]

E-MAIL/LETTER WRITING IN SUPPORT OF A SUBBED GANTZ IN THE AMERICAN THEATERS

Okay, I hope all of you who were fortunate enough to see the screenings in America have had a good weekend luxuriating in the bliss of all that Nino on a 30-foot screen. Nino is always a lot of handle, so it probably took a while to recover. But are you ready to talk dubbing once more?

FIRST OF ALL, I obviously think we should be writing to say "Please release Gantz: Part 2 as well! If you release it, I will be there!" I don't at all mean this as an totally negative post, this entire roll-out of Gantz in the United States has been shockingly amazing. ♥

But again I've seen a lot of people (in addition to myself), dissatisfied with the dubbing of the film. Whether in the theater as a fan of the actors, the manga/anime, or just Japanese cinema, I've heard a lot of complaints about it. However this time we have another vocal supporter and that would be one Ninomiya Kazunari during the follow-up Q & A after the film. As yuminami translated, "So. . . in those areas/parts. . . we'd like you to hear our voices next time." In the L.A. only section he stated even more strongly (as translated by his interpreter so not 100% accurate), "If there's interest from you guys, of course I'd like to do it. The people who did it already did a great job but I feel like we put a lot of passion, a lot of heat into our acting and I'd love to see that come through with our own voices. So yeah, one way or another, again if there's interest, I'll do my best." So yeah, I feel like I have to give my best to make that happen! Even if the effort is unsuccessful, I at least want to show my support for that wish. If you'd like to try to get his voice heard here and have the film presented in its intended format, here are the addresses of the companies responsible for shepherding Gantz's release in the United States:

There are addresses for both letters and e-mails. I'm not sure what's most effective so you can do one or both or whatever suits you. :)

This should probably be the primary place to contact, as they are actually in charge of the dubbing process:
VIZ Pictures, Inc.
c/o NEW PEOPLE unit
1746 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94115

AND E-MAIL:
info@viz-pictures.com
(Taken from the contact page here.)

However this is the place distributing the movie in theaters so it's good to let them know you'd support a subbed film:
NCM Fathom
A division of National CineMedia
9110 East Nichols Ave, Suite 200
Centennial, CO 80112-3405

AND E-MAIL:
info@FathomEvents.com
(Ot just use this contact form here to send an e-mail.)

EDIT: Thanks to captain_snen, we have more detailed information:

Here is contact info for real people:

NCM Fathom

Michelle Portillo, 303-792-8651
michelle.portillo@ncm.com

Goodman Media for NCM Fathom

Heath Fradkoff, 212-576-2700
hfradkoff@goodmanmedia.com

Nicole Summer, 212-576-2700
nsummer@goodmanmedia.com

MediaLab for NEW PEOPLE

Erik Jansen, 714-620-5017
erik@medialab-pr.com

Dark Horse Comics

Jeremy Atkins, 503-905-2315
jeremya@darkhorse.com

buyme_arashi posted these here. I've worked in customer service a lot (including a film company, but it's all pretty much the same), and a lot of times those general info emails don't get checked a lot, so it's more effective to send it to real employees' addresses.

IN ADDITION: I think that captain_snen is totally right, a great place to show both your support for the movie, your hopes that Part 2 is also released and to register that you're against dubbing would be the the review page on Fandango. The majority of people there already seem to mention that the dub detracted from the film but it would be nice if there were even greater numbers saying they want to see it subbed vs dubbed. I think that's a very legitimate space that people from Viz might pay attention to. You can also just 'like' the reviews that you agree with. :)

Another thing we might want to draw attention to is any critical resources that mention they didn't like the dub. It looks better when a wide variety of people are all saying the same thing. So far I know the review at comicbookmovie.com spoke against the dub, if you know any other examples I'd love to link them here.

As in all letter writing, we want to come off well so be polite! In mine, it's about a paragraph of honest thanks for both the opportunity they've given the film and for the really awesome event they put together for it. It's exceedingly rare that a Japanese film gets this kind of backing in the U.S. upon release and I'm honored that Gantz got that opportunity. My theater had no technical difficulties, the Q&A ran smoothly and I definitely think they deserve a lot of praise for putting this together. It's only then that I mention that I think the dubbing failed and did more to alienate the audience than to pull them in. I think it's still key to be honest: whether you are writing after seeing the film or if you haven't seen the film yet, what your personal reaction was (and maybe your perceived reaction of the theater you saw it in). Your message doesn't have to be more than a paragraph.

Here's the letter I've written them, although a still needs a round of editing (definitely for length and probably for my own politeness, I might not have emphasized my love enough XD) before I send it. Feel free to steal whatever you want and I'm sorry I'm not better at writing form letters!

One last thing, as hanasanai_yo pointed out, there are probably a number of people that either aren't comfortable or inclined to write their own letter but would be happy to sign something. Would there be interest in a form letter you could just sign your name to and then it could be sent all at once? Or a online petition site that you think is a good place to drum up support? (I was thinking of maybe petitionspot.com.) Would anyone like to collaborate with me on writing a form letter and setting up a page there? It would be nice to have a non-Arashi related page to pimp out. Please feel free to share in the comments, I'd love more input and help!

Any further discussion will probably be moved to separate lj comm so we don't have to spam people with the issue. :) Obviously, also feel free to ignore this post! You may disagree, you might think dubbing isn't a big deal or even is beneficial or that this isn't worth complaining about and I respect that. For those of you who do want to see a change, feel free to use this space to brainstorm and please don't take anything I said as "right" or even necessarily "well-informed". :D Happy Gantz watching, whenever you get a chance to see the film!

Comments

[cool1412.livejournal.com]

Should we send an email to all of those addresses? The same email, but personalized per person, I suppose should be sufficient.

Also, I think a petition is good. I think many may be too busy or lazy to write a letter (I know I'm going to have to do my homework first... been procrastinating enough (-_-')>). The same people who send an email can sign the petition and many of those who are lazy, and so it'd perhaps give a greater punch of unionized support. However, I don't know of any petitions that have actually worked, especially since it says that online petitions further lose their lack of authority due to anonymous name signing, etc. But anything is worth a try.

There's a lot of petition sites, but I wonder which ones have had, well, any success. Petitiononline.com has a page that lists its success stories, maybe there? I'm just kinda afraid that they already dubbed it and won't give us a chance. :(

[familytables.livejournal.com]

I'm just kinda afraid that they already dubbed it and won't give us a chance.

From what I'm guessing this is more or less true. I mean if it wasn't the case they most likely wouldn't be able to get part 2 out so soon after.

[ohmiya-luv14.livejournal.com]

A petition sounds amazing :D but its the effort people are willing to put into this and whether or not Viz Studios will listen to our arguments! I'm not really the type of person to write a letter too because im not very positive about the formality or the structure of a letter as i do have poor comprehension even though english is my mother tounge.
Also i have no right to complain about the dubbed version, as much as i want to, because i did not see the premiere in America (TT______TT) (lives in Canada) but a petititon would be amazing cause anybody could sign whether you see the movie or not :D

[ida-lawliet.livejournal.com]

Even if they already dubbed the second movie, shouldn't it be possible to show both? Dubbed some places, and subbed at some places? I, personally, have a really hard time with dubs, and I won't watch the films unless they're subbed.

I was hoping it would premier here, because we never dub movies. Unless it's for children. And movies like Toy Story 3 was showing with both sub and dub.

If Gantz showed here, I am 99% sure it would be with the original Japanese, and swedish subs. But it's not showing here. ;_____;

[abtomat.livejournal.com]

wow thanks for compiling the addresses! I'll definitely write. I don't understand, the movie and event is geared so much towards fans which are the kind of people who don't care if it's subbed, rather would want it to be subbed.

[yuui1010.livejournal.com]

Agree with hanasanai yo's ^^

[spiraledmarks.livejournal.com]

I'm writing a letter to all of the above places. The theater I went to was filled with just manga fans and they all made comments on the dubbing. The release date for the second movie is really soon though isn't it? At the very least it will tell viz media who handles a lot of the incoming Japanese products that the fans wanna see films whole.