Dispute - Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo Vol. 1

(Just wanted to post something to get me started posting again.)

While I can't/won't complain about ADV (more then just childish whining)...

I can similarly draw attention to Illumitoon Entertainment's Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo Vol. 1
(I don't just go around finding things to complain about, but I happened to run into this while ADV Manga was on the mind.)

Lets start with a few relatively insignificant issues:

listing of "dual language" without saying what languages or subtitles.
incorrectly lists an 80 minute run time when it's actually 105 minutes.
...
outrageously loud menu audio
the subtitle track is a dubtitle track

Ok, thats not that bad, but it does get a bit 'better':

It is also a dubtitle track that goes for the extra offense of being one that has the Hearing Impaired sounds included in it. But wait, let's add more insult to injury with it. While the white subtitles with black font look good and are bigger than FUNimation's similar subtitles, they're left justified similar to how AnimEigo does it. But wait, it's worse, because they're not centered on the screen but actually kept to the very left. A six word sentence is split across two lines and kept to a corner of the screen. But wait, it's even worse! If multiple people are speaking at the same time, it's all strung together. Where you would normally have:

- Hello!
- Hi, how are you?

You instead get "Hello! Hi, How are you?" on one or two lines. And that's if you're lucky. Since sentences are generally longer, they're split so it would be "Hello! Hi, how" as the first subtitle and then it flashes off and the new one is "are you?" before continuing on. It's nearly impossible to differentiate dialogue. Not that any of it really matches up since it's dubtitled. But wait, it's even worse if you can imagine. The subtitles are onscreen for such a short amount of time that even fast reading subtitle folks like myself aren't able to read what's being said before it disappears from the screen. This is so poorly executed that it goes beyond incompetence and it goes beyond what you get from the old awful bootleg Chinese subtitles from years ago that I can’t imagine that someone signed off on this. The entire way the subtitles come across simply doesn't feel like they were an afterthought, they must never have been thought about at all. It's insult upon insult upon insult upon injury.

Illumitoon will focus on "acquiring exciting anime from Japan, with the emphasis on making them relatable for an American audience. ... Of course, we always want to include the original Japanese tracks with our shows, for the serious anime fan" :/

"Illumitoon is focused on acquiring kid friendly properties that are 'placeable' in the North American market." so less emphasis on the Japanese side is understandable, but those subtitles sound atrocious.

The severity of some of the DVD's 'issues' is lessened when you understand who their target audience is, yet others are genuine problems. Still, it is amusing to compare this DVD to releases by other companies.

The original Review can be found at Anime On DVD

(This post is not so much bashing, but providing information for your amusement)