In the Name of The Pharaoh – Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Episodes – Raw and Subbed

The recent removal of all Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters episodes from 4Kids’ YouTube channel was the result of an unrenewed contract between Shunsuke Kazama, the voice actor for Yuugi Mutou, and Asatsu-DK Inc. (ADK), a member of the consortium behind the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime property.

While 4Kids has distribution rights of the Japanese version of the show (outside of Asia), the original Japanese rights nevertheless rest on the shoulders of ADK. When the clearances to Kazama’s voice work expired, ADK opted not to renew them. Being the massive, decentralized corporation that they are, ADK only recently became aware of this on their end (perhaps because of administrative issues), which led to a realization that suddenly, they no longer had full rights to the show. Oops! 4Kids obtained distribution rights from the owners, and yet the owners themselves can no longer round out the deal!

This latest news was brought to light by a few comments quietly left by an individual who wishes only to be known as an “insider.” According to the insider, ADK has completely moved on from the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters show, focusing almost exclusively on their currently-airing property Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s. The insider hypothesizes that ADK underestimated the value of the original YGO DM series, which led to the nonrenewal of the rights.

So who exactly is ADK? According to Plunkett’s Advertising and Branding Industry Almanac (2008 edition), ADK is an advertising agency headquartered in Tokyo that deals with television advertising, sales promotions, and various publishing media. Included in their advertising segment is a content division that’s responsible for producing anime. ADK operates through its 49 subsidiaries, one of which happens to be Nihon Ad Systems Inc. (NAS). Where have we seen that name before?

NAS is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ADK.

Oh, that’s right. ADK is the parent company of NAS, a producer of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters show.

One question still looming overhead involves what will happen to Kazama’s voice work in the Japanese version of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX. As fans of that series know, Yuugi makes an appearance in the first episode, and returns many episodes later as well. Since 4Kids will be offering the subtitled episodes of GX on YouTube in the near future, what will happen to Yuugi’s lines in those specific episodes?

The insider suggests that since the rights to Kazama’s voice work extend from the time of production, the rights may perhaps still be intact, since GX was produced and completed a few years after DM. If not, 4Kids might have to drop the audio for all of Yuugi’s lines. Yikes.

At this point, I’m sure 4Kids is going over all the paperwork with the Japanese companies using a fine-toothed comb. Only time will tell if the outcome will be positive. I know that we’re all disappointed to hear that ADK has more or less given up on YGO DM, but let’s keep our fingers crossed anyway and hope for the best for GX!

The project has failed. All of the raw and subtitled Japanese episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters were removed from 4Kids’ YouTube channel earlier this afternoon. The issue, says 4Kids’ Nameless Cubicle Office Guy, stems from a matter involving one of the Japanese voice actors.

In the “all good things must come to an end category” – unfortunately this afternoon we have had to make all Japanese language Yu-Gi-Oh! videos private on YouTube. A rights issue in Japan with one of the original voice actors raised it’s head as a result of the success – you the fans – delivered online. These Japanese language episodes will not be seen in any format (online, DVDs, VOD, etc.) moving forward.

What a disappointment. If ever there was a fresh example about the difficulties of rights management in licensing anime properties, this would have to be it.

While 4Kids has always called this uploading project an “experiment” since its early days, I don’t think anybody suspected that it would end in such an abrupt manner. It’s especially distressing because good progress was being made, with the official release of five subtitled Japanese episodes occurring just three days ago.

It’s not all bad news though, as 4Kids’ push for providing original Japanese episodes is far from over. Uncut subtitled episodes of Sonic X will be making their way to the popular American video-streaming website Hulu in the coming weeks. Episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s will be added to YouTube in HD in both English-dubbed and uncut subbed formats. Subbed episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX will be appearing on YouTube as well. Additionally, English-dubbed versions of 4Kids’ other properties will continue to be added to YouTube. More information can be found on the NCOG’s blog. If you’re a fan of any of these shows, lend 4Kids your support! Spread the word and show 4Kids that offering original, uncut, subtitled anime can be a successful and viable operation and isn’t a mistake!

For the people out there whose greatest love is Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, sadly it looks like the adventure is over. Official uncut, unedited, subbed Japanese episodes? Maybe one day… Let’s hope for some kind of a business miracle…

Update: The NCOG’s blog entry has since been modified. The original statement, “A rights issue in Japan with one of the original voice actors raised it’s head as a result of the success,” now simply reads “A rights issue in Japan raised it’s head as a result of the success.” What’s that supposed to mean?

Update (August 24, 2009): Thanks to the insider’s comments below, we now have a few answers as to why this happened. I reiterate and expand upon the insider’s comments here.

Officially-subtitled Japanese episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters have begun to trickle out of the vaults of 4Kids Entertainment! Earlier today, previously-uploaded raw episodes 1, 2, 3, 13, and 14 saw the addition of English subtitles using YouTube’s captioning/subtitling system. The videos are now ready to be streamed and enjoyed by all Japanese- and non-Japanese-speaking fans! You can find them in 4Kids’ playlist for Japanese episodes or via YouTube’s Shows section.

If the subtitles don’t automatically appear for you, click the “up” arrow on the bottom-right corner of the video player and press the “CC” button.

The subtitles of episodes 1 through 3 are newly added, while those of episodes 13 and 14 first saw some testing during a trial run with the YouTube soft-subs system a few days ago.

Is this really happening? 4Kids’ Nameless Cubicle Office Guy warns of flying pigs outside our windows. Even Kaiba seems somewhat surprised, but tries to stay composed…

“This is my serious face.”
I think I still like Yuugi’s face better. :D

While I haven’t yet watched these videos in their entirety, a quick flip-through shows that the subtitles in episode 1 are mistimed beginning at the episode title card, and a few of the <i> and </i> HTML tags are still leftover in episode 14 from the subtitles test. Notice any other glitches with the subtitles? As a whole, what do you think about these subbed episodes? Let the NCOG know by leaving a comment on his blog or on the 4Kids YouTube channel!

These five episodes are only the beginning! There’s more coming soon, says the NCOG, so spread the good word!

In this week’s Q&A With NCOG, the Nameless Cubicle Office Guy reveals some new tidbits about the upcoming subtitled episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters.

First, it’s been decided that the episodes will be using YouTube’s captioning system to display the English subtitles, at least for now.

We’re going to do closed captioning on YouTube for now. It’s way less time intensive – meaning we can get stuff out quicker to you. It could change down the road depending on the media platform. We’ll keep asking your opinions on stuff as we roll it out.

Great! Saving time is good. Getting the episodes out quickly is good. Plus, there are definite benefits to using soft subtitles that I’ve previously talked about.

If you’ve been watching the subbed test episodes released so far, you may have noticed that the next-episode previews at the end of each video don’t have subtitles. The NCOG has revealed that this is actually not a mistake.

FROM cohenmarioman:

It would have been nice to sub the preview, but this is a TEST, so I assume it is alpha, and beta will come later
NCOG: Previews won’t be subbed for now – sorry.

This is, in my opinion, a strange thing to do and will probably irk the sticklers and completionists out there. Come to think of it, the episodes from the Yu-Gi-Oh! Uncut Edition DVDs completely left out the previews as well. Who’s making these odd editing choices? Luckily, while annoying, it’s not like a lack of subs in the previews is so tragic that it’ll destroy the integrity of the show. :P

Finally, on an different note, the NCOG has shared his thoughts about the legality of Little Kuriboh’s Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series.

FROM Mattwo:

[...]

another question… The DMRA protects parody, but Abridged Serieses still use (c) footage. Does this make them illegal?

NOCG: Nope, it’s parody

When it was revealed that some folks working for 4Kids enjoy watching YGO: TAS, I think fans were all pretty happy (and surprised!). I just hope that this most recent statement by the NCOG doesn’t jinx LK or his series! With the demise of Dragon Ball Z parodist TeamFourStar’s YouTube channel earlier this week, one can never be too sure what might happen to our beloved internet parody videos. :\

Hard at work.

4Kids has begun tweaking the subtitles in their test episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters. The YouTube-captioned version of test episode 13 has had its subtitles fine-tuned, addressing the issues of missing line breaks and visible HTML tags that I had previously mentioned. The subtitles in test episode 14 also look like they have begun to be adjusted, though as of this writing, there are still a few lines that need to be tweaked.

This latest tidbit comes by way of a comment on the NCOG’s blog, as well as a comment left here by a certain “Guy in cube next to NCOG.” XD

As a whole, the test episodes seem to be pretty well received. What do you think of them? Let the NCOG know!

Hot on the heels of the release of two test versions of episode 13 comes… yet another test episode! Woohoo!

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters episode 14 subbed is available in its entirety for your perusal. Once again, 4Kids has added subtitles to their raw upload of the episode using YouTube’s captioning system. This time though, there’s no hardsubbed counterpart available (yet?).

Check it out, and share your thoughts with the NCOG on his blog!

Using YouTube’s captioning and subtitling option, 4Kids has added subtitles to their previously-uploaded raw version of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters episode 13. This soft-subbed test version of the episode is available alongside the hard-subbed test version released yesterday evening.

After a quick viewing of the videos, it’s clear that both videos have their own positive and negative aspects:

• Advantages of the hard-subbed video:
  • There’s no need to turn on the captions manually. Sadly, in some other videos, I’ve seen more than a few YouTube users cry out in the video’s comments for subtitles without realizing that clicking on the “CC” button turns them on. Sometimes, even a notice in the description box with such a reminder isn’t enough for these illiterate users. Hardsubs would simplify their lives.
• Disadvantages of the hard-subbed video:
  • Hard-subbing is a lossy process, and artifacts from the video compression are very noticeable around the subtitle text, especially when the video is viewed beyond its normal size or at fullscreen.
  • If an error in content or timing is found, hard-subs cannot be edited without re-encoding and re-uploading the entire video.
• Advantages of the soft-subbed video:
  • Soft-subs maintain their quality regardless of what size the video is played at. Additionally, the actions or events occurring in the picture (e.g. fast movements, flashing colors) won’t affect the quality of the subtitles.
  • Any error found in the subtitles can be quickly and easily corrected and requires re-uploading only the subtitle file.
  • Soft-subs can be turned off, if desired.
• Disadvantages of the soft-subbed video:
  • Several of the lines lack line breaks, causing them to look awkward or extend outside the margins of the video.
  • YouTube doesn’t seem to like the <i> and </i> tags for italicized text.
  • Here is an example of a line afflicted with both of the above issues, along with the same hard-subbed line for comparison.

Thank goodness for test episodes, right? Personally, I’m leaning in favor of the YouTube-captioned video at this moment (provided, of course, that 4Kids is able to fix the two aforementioned issues, which can be done easily enough).

What positive and negative aspects do you notice in the two test videos? Which version do you prefer? Leave a comment on 4Kids’ Nameless Cubicle Office Guy’s blog and let him know!