Ask John: Why is the American Innocence DVD Subtitled Only?

Question:
Don’t you find it odd that the upcoming Region 1 DVD release of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence doesn’t have an English dub despite the rising popularity of the Ghost in the Shell franchise due to the TV series being released on DVD and also being aired on Adult Swim? How common is it for a Region 1 DVD release not to have an English dub and do you think this may detract from sales or popularity of the movie in North America?

Answer:
To be honest, what I actually finding odd is how frequently I encounter American consumers and anime fans that seem shocked and confused over the absence of an English language dialogue track on the upcoming Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence DVD. No offense intended to you or anyone, personally. While DreamWorks has never officially revealed its reason for releasing the film with Japanese language only, the only logical explanation is a concern over the artistic and cultural integrity of the film. Art films and respected foreign films are rarely ever dubbed when they’re released in America. It’s taken for granted that imported foreign films by directors such as Akira Kurosawa, Zhang Yimou, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Pedro Almodovar, Andrei Tarkovsky, Takeshi Kitano, Francois Trauffaut, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Wong Kar Wai, just to name a few, are not usually dubbed because altering the art of these masters would be considered artistic corruption. However, even though these directors make commercial art and anime creators also create commercial art, Americans commonly seem to believe that it’s perfectly acceptable, and even preferable to alter anime. Apparently because anime are “cartoons,” they don’t deserve the same consideration that other imported foreign films receive.

Regardless of how it’s justified or performed, dubbing does remove one facet of the original artistic creation. As soon as a translating company dubs a work, that work is no longer what its creator originally crafted and presented to its original audience. The only way to preserve the integrity of the artwork during its American release is to release it with all of its original constituent parts intact, which is exactly what Go Fish Pictures is doing with Innocence. Go Fish Pictures has so far acquired two anime films for American release: Ghost in the Shell 2 and Millennium Actress. Both films will be available on American DVD only in the way that their original creators intended them to be seen. In other words, Go Fish Pictures releases its anime DVDs subtitled only.

Go Fish Pictures, a subdivision of DreamWorks Pictures, is somewhat mirrored by Columbia’s subdivision Destination Films, which has released Metropolis and the Cowboy Bebop movie on multi-lingual domestic DVD and released Memories and Tokyo Godfathers on subtitled only DVD. Go Fish Pictures and Destination Films, as companies backed by powerful Hollywood studios, have the financial security to prioritize artistic integrity over commercial sales. Typically smaller anime industry distributors don’t have that comfort zone. Companies like AD Vision, Bandai, Central Park Media, Geneon, and so forth release their DVDs in bilingual editions because their distribution strategies are influenced by consumer demand more than abstract principles. The act of dubbing anime was introduced as a method of introducing Japanese language animation to native English speaking viewers. In a sense, dubbing was a form of training wheels intended to help English speaking viewers ease into watching foreign films that would be otherwise too daunting or foreign. But rather than gradually develop the knowledge necessary to watch authentic imported Japanese film, American anime fans instead evolved English dubbed anime into an expected standard. Ironically, instead of becoming more cultured and receptive to foreign cinema, many anime fans now expect all imported Japanese animation to be edited for their viewing convenience. As a fan of authentic Japanese animation, I applaud DreamWorks’ decision not to compromise the cinematic and artistic quality of its imported films through dubbing. DreamWorks has licensed brilliant, intelligent films for American release, and I’m personally thankful that they have the integrity to insist that viewers rise to the quality of the films.

Generally only two types of films get released on subtitled only domestic DVD: art films and anime that no one is expected to buy. I’ve already pointed out examples of internationally acclaimed anime films available domestically on subtitled only DVD. Other subtitled only domestic DVDs include the final volumes of St. Tail, Ariel, Iczer-Three, Sentimental Journey, and the upcoming Seraphim Call. All of these discs are ones that don’t sell well, thus they’re available subtitled only to minimize their localization costs. In the case of art house films such as Innocence, subtitled only releases are actually the typical standard. Foreign films have only a relatively small consumer market in America, and that market consists largely of refined connoisseurs that prefer their art unedited. Ghost in the Shell resides in a unique position that straddles the line between mainstream expectations and the art house crowd. On one hand, the Ghost in the Shell first movie DVD and the first DVD volume of Stand Alone Complex are among the 20 best selling anime DVDs in America in 2004, according to Nielsen Ratings’ Videoscan. On the other hand, the theatrical release of Innocence didn’t even reach 100 screens throughout America. So my suspicion is that Go Fish Pictures is targeting the DVD release of Innocence to the small market of discriminating critics and art film lovers rather than mainstream Cartoon Network fans, but the success of the first Ghost in the Shell movie and TV series are probably enough to drive sales of the Innocence DVD despite its subtitled only format.