That's the kind of stuff the article should have mentioned. Even better would have been him telling us that when he worked at those companies he was directly involved with license acquisitions. I don't expect him to drop names of people, but I would like his credentials to be mentioned and his hypothetical example to be better. I'm thinking that he picked an absurd topic, but anime outdid him. Japan, the world's leader on weirdness lol.

There's some cursory info about his industry experience on his ANN encyclopedia page, but that's as much as I've found. Somehow he doesn't even seem to have a Wikipedia page.

I do agree that the article doesn't present anything that isn't already old news. I've learned more about the article's author from the article than I have about the article's topic.

I think it wasn't mentioned because it's pretty common knowledge on ANN. Also, here he is, along with other former CPM employees, discussing the old days there.

www.theanimenetwork.com/component/option...imitstart,20/#117813

So who is this article for? I ask because I believe that anyone who knows the history and potential credibility of Justin Sevakis already knows at least as much about anime licensing as was in his article.

Anyone who doesn't know as much about licensing as does the article would, I believe, not know of the author's credibility and finish reading the article thinking something like : "That's cool, but wtf should I trust this guy?"

It was for whoever wanted to read it. It really doesn't matter too much though. The majority of the people who could benefit from reading it will never do so anyway.

I got a chuckle out of the drinking binge part of negotiations, been there - had to clean up in the aftermath. ( I've talked to US Oil Businessmen that regarded Sake as "Watery Stuff". )

You do get a rush from working out a successful contract and seeing the paperwork signed, money change hands. So, there is a "meta" component to the process.

Mark Gosdin

Part II is now added to the first post.

Makes it all the more remarkable that anything gets done with Anime licensing when you consider the language barriers that exist between Japan and the U.S. The potential for miscommunication, even after vetting by attorneys and translators, is frightening.

Whoever said "The Devil is in the Details" forgot to mention that once he's stuck there he is usually in a Very Bad Mood.

Mark Gosdin

mgosdin wrote:


I think that the cheap "hot sake" that is common fare at Asian restaurants here does sake a great disservice. That stuff is crap, and should be outlawed. Until I hit up some sake tasting panels at cons, I too was under the impression that the stuff was watered-down vinegar with a hint of booze. I've since learned more, though from a hard liquor perspective, I guess I'd still have to call sake weak as it does come out to wine-like proofs. Anyhow...


Yeah, I don't think the Japanese commentary track is worth too much. I've seen many J-extras, and very few were worth anything. Wasn't spice and wolf 2 delayed for the (lame and undubbed) Japanese extras? What a waste that was, if so.



In what way is this a good thing? Let alone usually a "good thing"? Someone who has no grasp of a language attempting to fine-tune a translation into it is a disaster no matter how you shake it. The quote seems to negate itself. Though I suppose I shouldn't expect much from a web site which maintains that the mark of a "good dub" is when the spoken dub matches the subtitles, verbatim, should I? Again, there are excellent real examples of this stuff happening in US releases; would it kill ANN to include them (Since Sevakis mentions that he has specific knowledge of such incidents in the article)? This article reads like a generic math textbook and a "For Dummies..." release combined together: easily read, half-joking language with the vaguest of vague hypothetical examples. I'd say that isn't a good thing.

There was also no new information presented in this article. The Japanese companies have a tendency to mis-micromanage the crap out of US releases and generally obfuscate them...news at 11.

Part III is now added to the first post.

The Coffee God wrote:


Does it contain real world examples or radically new insight into the licensing process?