K-ON! Has Been Licensed, All's Right With the World
Seriously, who could hate something so adorable?
The day has finally arrived. After years of wondering “When’s K-ON! gonna get licensed?”, “Who would license it?”, and “Will it ever get licensed?”, Bandai has finally saved our minds from perpetually pondering these questions. At Anime Expo, they announced that they have licensed K-ON!, and there was much rejoicing (and hating too, of course).
Is this a good move for Bandai? Many are skeptical that this show won’t sell since it appeals to the “otaku” crowd, many of which have already seen the show fansubbed and have no intention of buying it.
I think the key is in the marketing. If Bandai pulls off a decent viral marketing stunt, I have a feeling that will move more sales. At least it seemed to work with Haruhi and Kannagi (which sold fairly well, so I’m told). The extras (assuming there are extras) will also be key. Haruhi had some excellent extras – pencil boards, CDs, and tons of other free stuff. On the other hand, Lucky Star‘s extras, which consisted of shirts with pictures of sailor uniforms printed on them (to this date I still wonder whose brilliant idea that was), didn’t do so hot.
Will K-ON! help Bandai get back on their feet? Or will this be a repeat of Lucky Star, thus dooming Bandai into the fiery pits of US anime company hell? Only time will tell, but post your thoughts if you have ‘em.
Posted on 2010-07-02, in News and tagged bandai entertainment, k-on!, kakifly, keion, kyoani, kyoto animation. Bookmark the permalink. 15 Comments.
Janai
Antz
OtakuAnthony
jaysteevee
vtine
matty
machineslife
Nyanman
K-ON! will save the U.S. anime industry. Really, this won’t save Bandai Ent. inb4 Lucky Star sales numbers.
Heh, I just finished the first season a few days ago.
If Bandai dubs K-on! we should start a campaign to get it on an American TV network. I think it would do very well in America.
Some may call me crazy, but I’ve theorized for a while that if K-ON! airs on TV here and is marketed towards young girls, it might actually do quite well. In fact, I know several girls my age who already enjoy the show.
K-ON! on TV in the US will never happen though, unless we magically get Animax or something.
“Who could hate something so adorable?”
Well, when “adorable” becomes a commodity, it’s always going to be an opinionated judgment, especially when it comes to the difference between “cute” and “cutesy.” Also see: Nanoha.
I’m sorry, but I’ve been present for screenings of…I think most of season 1, and I can’t bring myself to be interested. Not sure why exactly I like Azumanga Daioh (and CLANNAD and Asatte no Houkou, for that matter, if we’re talking about shows that get mileage out of “cute”) but am apathetic to K-ON!, but I am. Hope you guys enjoy the dub.
D’oh. Forgot to mention Yotsuba&! with CLANNAD and AnH.
Bandai licensing K-ON. What could possibly go wrong?
The fact that Bandai has it guarantees that Murphy’s Law will be in full effect with this acquisition. However, I’ll remain delusionally optimistic for now.
Lucky Star flopped because people expected it to be funny.
Nobody had high expectations for K-On!, so it just might work…
I know what I want in the box set…
I’ll take some heavy nylon guitar picks with the Houkago Tea Time logo, and a Hirasawa Yui signature Les Paul!!
Is this the “secret title” that Eric P. Sherman has mentioned? If not, I’m guessing the others would either be Hayate the Combat Butler!, Kannagi, sola, Durarara!! (Aniplex did announce the dub for the series), or To Aru Majutsu no Index.
I very much hope K-ON gets a dub, and that Bang Zoom does it. They’re the only ones capable of doing this show right, in my opinion.
If it’s really the Bang Zoom! that Eric P. Sherman has mentioned, this is what I predict the dub cast would be like:
Yui Hirasawa- Michelle Ruff
Ritsu Tainaka- Kari Wahlgren
Tsumugi Kotobuki- Wendee Lee
Mio Akiyama- Stephanie Sheh (or Cristina Valenzuela since it is announced that she is playing the live-action version of Mio)
Azusa Nakano- Laura Bailey
Ui Hirasawa- Hynden Walch
Sawako Yamanaka- Kate Higgins
Nodoka Manabe- Karen Strassman
Of course, there is a small chance that it isn’t. Other possibilities include Kannagi, sola, and Hayate the Combat Butler! (all of which are Bandai titles that they didn’t dub).
Michelle Ruff as Yui? I don’t know… Ruff is much better as the tsundere/badass type characters.
Cristina Vee would do awesome as anyone. I haven’t seen a bad dub of hers. =D
Michelle Ruff did voiced cutesy characters before, although not often (Tsukasa Hiiragi from Lucky Star is your best example).
But I think Cristina Vee fits more into the tsundere-loli type characters similar to Rie Kugimiya. Judging by her performance with Louise from Familiar of Zero, I’d say she’d fit best for three other Rie Kugimiya’s roles (Taiga from Toradora!, Nagi from Hayate the Combat Butler!, and Yuuki Kataoka from Saki). Bear in note that the last one is Kugimiya playing against the type.
I hope that K-ON! gets a nice dub along with Hayate and Toradora.
True, Vee is the only person who’s done a decent dub of a Rie Kugimiya character imo. Would be great is FUNi dubs Shana II using her instead of whoever did her voice in the first season; that was god awful.
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