Monday, August 17, 2009

Some Announcements from Moon Chase

Hi everyone: we are nearing the end of the first phase of our campaign and we feel that we need to make a few announcements.

#1 – Were you our 100,000th visitor? We never heard back and unless we do, we’ll have to hold over the prize to lucky #200,000. However, our stats tell us that #100K was someone from Mississauga who visits the site regularly. If this sounds like you please contact us either by email (at the bottom) or commenting here! We’re giving you until midnight, Sunday, August 29th to contact us. Please claim your prize! It is okay if you didn’t get a screenshot – we can compare some other things the stats told us to verify it was you. If we don’t hear back from the lucky winner, we will save the prize for number 200,000.

#2 – We on staff are startled with the surveys. Close to 30 surveys are incomplete, and while we can’t delete those (because fans should have their opinions heard), it also skews our numbers to the point where many questions have no clear winner. For a choice to be taken seriously by the companies, we need to see wins between 70-90%. About half of the questions have winners with these kinds of wins, but many (even for major roles) do not. They have standout winners, but they are just not strong enough.

Moreover, when we put together the results for Funimation they are going to see these strange numbers with strange totals. It could say to them “hey the fans are apathetic about most aspects of the dub”, or “hey the fans just want Sailor Moon back, but nothing else. We can do what we want!” Now 30 may not seem like a big number, but considering the number of surveys we have, it could be between 5 and 10% of whatever gets finished, which is a lot. So now we have to adjust our goal to make sure that we have at least 500 surveys that are completed. We will be watching the results of the very last question. Once that reaches 500, we will keep this survey open for at least one more week for any last minute people who have not taken it yet. On Twitter, we may also consider posting a total survey count, and a total complete survey count, for those who don’t think that skipping everything after the first or second page isn’t affecting it.

We don’t know why people aren’t finishing it. We could understand a few here and there, but this many just doesn’t make any sense to us. Unless the fans aren’t willing to really fight for this series beyond FUNImation’s survey, Sailor Moon could be stuck in the same sort of limbo again for more years to come. With the comeback in Japan and Italy, our chances are looking very good right now.

So for those of you, (we hope you know who you are) who did NOT finish the survey, please consider restarting it and finishing it in entirety. Answer every question. You may think that the demographic ones are annoying, but if FUNImation can see exactly who their audience is (an older one versus a younger one), then this puts a better case towards getting Sailor Stars if teenagers, kids, and tweens aren’t making up a significant portion of our sample. We are sorry if it seems long, but there was just no other way to keep everything together as simple as possible.

For the post about the survey , complete with streaming video links for voice refreshers, and other quirks about the crew, click here.

To go directly to the survey, click here (and please finish it all. You will see a button at the very end that says “Finish Survey”).

10 comments:

ochibawolf said...

I believe I finished the survey, but It was difficult in a few ways.

First, I do NOT remember any of the english voice actor's names(haha, what does that tell ya?). In fact, I didn't care too much for any of them and if I remember correctly, I don't believe there was a answer "Do not care/ or none of the above"

I'd really just like a uncut,re-mastered, properly(correct) translation of all 200 episodes. I believe America has already ruined Sailor Moon, and unless they are going to start completely over with BSSM, then I do not wish to see any more english adaptations of BSSM.

Anyways, that's just my two cents. It just seems like you have to remember far to much of the english version to complete your survey. I mean, once I saw that first page I almost clicked out of it.

Misa said...

Aww man, I was so close to being the 100,000th visitor, I was visitor 100,003. Darn..

esahC said...

ochibawolf got a point. I really just rushed though mine becuase I just wanted to say "Just do it right", not say "I better get this!" Surveys aren't meant to be hard.

But then again, surveys. There's a reason no one really take one seriously...

Moon Chase said...

Ochibawolf we had hoped that people would have taken a few minutes to go through the post and watch the clips, and then decide (or have the survey open in another window side by side). It's not so much remembering when you hear the voice and remember if you like them or not. But we will be including any and all relevant comments posted to this site in the report.

A petition wouldn't have worked esahC. The FUNImation survey was essentially just a number of how many people wanted it back and not much else :( that's why we did a survey.

Lauren said...

I didn't really care about choosing voice actors. As long as they replace the old lady (Not 'old lady', but you should know what I mean) sounding Sailor Moon.

I don't want another ruined dub.

esahC said...

I know. Petitions NEVER/very rarely work. But I don't think Surveys isn't a very noticeable replacement.

And don't take this wrong way staff, but if you folks really wanted the survey to "just [be] a number of how many people wanted it back and not much else", then how come the survey didn't really show it? All I saw in that survey was "tell us what and want. BE SPECIFIC!"

But again guys, don't take it the wrong way. After all, every blog needs a straight man...

lady dicey said...

To be COMPLETELY honest, I'm not a fan of dubs in general. I LOVE Sailor Moon. I grew up with her.. but I would much rather watch the original Japanese version with English subtitles. However, I will admit that it would be nice for my 1-year-old daughter to watch Sailor Moon when she's a little older, and the only way that would happen would be with a dub (she definitely wouldn't sit through the subtitles)... On the other hand, she's also the reason why I don't have time to finish the survey ^.^'
It's already long to begin with, and then there are some clips where you have to wait 'til a certain point to hear the voice sample... I'm perfectly aware that it would be very difficult to get straight-forward audio clips for each VA, but I just figured I'd put it out there =P

Going back to what I said about not liking dubs.. I agree with ochibawolf: America has already ruined Sailor Moon.
I was watching the footage from Otakon and I saw that a redub was not the only thing being discussed for the future of the anime. They mentioned something about a live-action adaptation in English, if I can remember correctly.. and they also talked about how PGSM doesn't get enough love from North American fans xD
I watched Act 1 and I couldn't stop laughing.. and anyone who has seen the American live-action Dragon Ball movie here certainly would not want the same to happen to our beloved odango atama...
..but here's my out-of-nowhere suggestion that I really wish someone would consider: a live-action adaptation of Codename Sailor V..? I loved the manga and Sailor Moon is, after all, the spin-off. Watching the origins of Sailor Moon would prolly revive the Sailor Senshi craze just as much as a redub.. <3

esahC said...

But we have learned lady dicey. WE HAVE LEARNED!!!!!

planethalia said...

I do plan on going back, when I'm not at work, and looking up all the actors to try to remember my favorite voices, and researching some new suggestions; but it has been 15 years. A lot of those voices have probably really changed. A lot of them wouldn't be willing to move to Texas from Vancouver for who knows how many months. Really I just want a direct translation, respect for the story themes and source material, no more bowdlerization of the sexual themes, and for a new generation of Sailor Moon Fans to be Born. When I have kids, I want to show them this show! It was as much a formative piece of literature to me as Catcher in the Rye, Jane Eyre, Posession.... I want my more american girls to see what the Sailor Senshi were all about.

Lauren said...

Agreed.
DiC just threw off the whole storyline. Although they might want to change a touch of the storyline to make it a bit more appropriate, they should keep character genders and do direct translations WITH EXCEPTIONS (As in, replacing cuss words and such),do direct translations of songs and not making transformation music sound like a ballerina tune. Using the original unedited footage is the only way to get a good dub, in my opinion.