• molave@reddthat.com
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    4 days ago

    On one hand: It’s impossible to dub every single anime at a reasonable time.

    On the other: I totally see the big companies refusing to hire real actors for dubbing because ‘muh profits’

    • ReluctantZen@feddit.nl
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      2 days ago

      It’s impossible to dub every single anime at a reasonable time.

      I mean, not really. For all already existing ones, maybe, but for new ones? No reason for it to be impossible. The Japanese dub doesn’t appear out of thin air. The Western streaming services companies just aren’t willing to pay up.

    • ramble81@ani.social
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      2 days ago

      I mean if you think about it, Japan solved that problem given that every series is already dubbed in one language.

      • molave@reddthat.com
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        4 days ago

        There are ~25K anime in MyAnimeList. If we assume that there are 250K episodes with a total average length of 25 minutes, each, we are talking about dubbing 6.25 million minutes overall.

        Let’s say 80% of them is not yet dubbed, that’ll be 5M minutes. Netflix delayed KaoruHana for at least two months to dub 8 episodes * 25 minutes, so they likely took three months to complete 200 minutes of footage i.e. a rate of 0.3 anime minutes/VA minute. Let’s say there are 100 organizations with three teams of dubbers each, so the rate can be expanded to 90 anime minutes/VA minute overall.

        Clearing the backlog will require 55K minutes. That’s 925 hours/115 business days, or almost a year. I guess it is possible if we wait this long. And this calculation ignores time to select the right VA for the job, paying the amount the VAs request to accept the job, plus a whole lot of other factors I failed to mention or I don’t even know exist.

        And this is for just one language (English), and I’m still waiting for the Italian dub of JoJo Part 5.

        • _‌_反いじめ戦隊@ani.social
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          4 days ago

          If we assume

          bruv every anime listed in MAL has runtimes, lengths, and additional metadata. Your overestimation is simply wrong, with the fact there are few N1 localizers willing to work at the 硬貨 on the دينار for whatever AMZN is valued at. If you don’t pay what we are worth, continue waiting on Italians to localize Jojo for you at N5 levels of knowledge.

          • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            4 days ago

            How is “every anime has one season of 10 episodes running 25 minutes each” an overestimation? I’d call that an underestimation. Yeah, there are anime with much shorter runtimes, but there are also many anime with well over 100 episodes.

            Not to mention, are you really expecting this random person to write an interface for their API to get exact numbers for an off the cuff online discussion?

            • _‌_反いじめ戦隊@ani.social
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              4 days ago

              Because dub time doesn’t equate to run time. Most anime has PLENTY of no voice work, and openings and endings can be copy and pasted.

              are you really expecting this random person to write an interface for their API to get exact numbers for an off the cuff online discussion?

              I fear more you are not aware where in the internet you are. This is basic 101 scripting work that happens every second your application notifies you your new anime got updated. Basic scripting is what our /c/ and threadiverse do for most of us who actually moved on from fashit.

          • molave@reddthat.com
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            4 days ago

            I prefer proper VA dubbing versus AI dubbing. This is more of a question if the viewership prefers AI dub vs. no dub if proper dubs are not yet available.

            bruv every anime listed in MAL has runtimes, lengths, and additional metadata.

            Fair, I don’t have the time right now to be 100% accurate at my figures, so I went with a rough estimate. I tried to be as clear as I can on that point.

            there are few N1 localizers willing to work at the 硬貨 on the دينار for whatever AMZN is valued at

            If it’s only easy for fandubs to be readily available. Like there are few N1 localizers willing to work at Amazon’s assessed rates, few IP holders are willing to say yes to dubbing their shows at the money fandubbers can afford. There’s also hiring the proper voice actors for the characters, and the ones who do the anime justice/will not have the fans crucifying the anime for doing a craptastic job at dubbing deservedly ask a premium.

            • _‌_反いじめ戦隊@ani.social
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              4 days ago

              viewership prefers AI dub vs. no dub

              According to the beta testers, and the Internet, listeners abhorred the LLM localization & actual tone-deaf Speech audio dubbing. Keeping the original dubbings is simply what folks want, esp. if it’s labeled abridged.

              [components of dubbing]

              At the least you are aware why this /c/ prefers subs, because it is that much cheaper and errorless to output.

              • molave@reddthat.com
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                4 days ago

                According to the beta testers, and the Internet, listeners abhorred the LLM localization & actual tone-deaf Speech audio dubbing. Keeping the original dubbings is simply what folks want, esp. if it’s labeled abridged.

                Yes, at its current state. Will it stay that way? The tech companies are burning cash in attempts to make it not so. My hunch says even Vocaloid-tier AI dubbing will be enough for a large sector of the audience. Then the human vs. AI dubbing debate could be analogous to debates between lossy (more accessible) vs. lossless (higher quality) audio.

                Now, LLM localization is the greater challenge. I highly doubt those, including the classic machine-learning models, can reach N1-level localization quality.

                • _‌_反いじめ戦隊@ani.social
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                  4 days ago

                  The only thing funny about mentioning Vocaloid is the fact that Vocaloid synthesis has to be manually pitched, tempod, and toned🤣. Glad you honestly believe capitalists want to invest more on disqualifying tone deafening pitchless speech waveforms.

                  But please, never stop supporting espeak!

                • Unboxious@ani.social
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                  3 days ago

                  Now, LLM localization is the greater challenge. I highly doubt those, including the classic machine-learning models, can reach N1-level localization quality.

                  There’s no chance it’s happening any time soon. Many manga and anime lean heavily on visual context as well as the context of the story in general to clear up situations where the language would otherwise be ambiguous, so until the translation software can also use all of that context it’s basically impossible.

                • Susaga@sh.itjust.works
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                  4 days ago

                  It’s amusing to me how long people have been saying “yes, AI is crap, but it might not be crap some day, so just you wait!” Despite all the money tech companies have thrown at AI, it’s still as crap as it ever was, and I don’t see any reason to think it’ll get better.

                  Meanwhile, Crunchyroll doesn’t care if it’s crap, so long as they can get around the cost of paying humans (which is another can of worms). If they’re willing to buy this level of quality, what incentive is there for quality to improve?

                  • molave@reddthat.com
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                    3 days ago

                    yes, AI is crap, but it might not be crap some day, so just you wait!”

                    I mean, there’s a gap between the capabilities of Cleverbot and ChatGPT, as referenced in this very comments section. As much as one wishes it not be so, it would be foolish to ignore past technological leaps—and how people back then laugh them off as impossible.