#answerman

ANN’s latest Answerman column is a look at the era of The Fansubbed VHS Days, for those of you who’re too young to have experienced it first hand. Read on and educate yourself!

"Voice actors get paid one time for the hours they spend in the recording booth. Their casting was a decision driven by the producers of the dub, and signed off on by the licensor. The decision is usually because they think the actor fit the part really well, and occasionally things like fan popularity and the actor's ability to participate in marketing events at conventions play a part, but by the time the disc is ready for you to buy, the decision is made, the actor has gotten paid, and it's irreversible. The dub voice actor does not get royalties, but the show's producers and directors and writers do. And the American distributor REALLY needs to recoup what they paid for the show, otherwise they'll consider it a failure and never license anything like it again. They will never connect one individual purchase that never happened to your personal dislike of one particular voice actor. That will literally never come up. After all, an episode of anime is the product of the work of HUNDREDS of people, not just one guy that spent a few hours in a recording booth. Basing your entire purchasing decision on your third-hand perceptions of a single person is pretty unfair."

Now, the reason I wrote the question in the first place was mainly because I myself fall on the spectrum and wondered why many series get close to using it as a main topic and never do, like Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo and Haganai, the latter featuring characters I feel like I can relate to, since during high school I ended up becoming friends with the "social outcasts," with our own sorta "Neighbor's Club."