they are dubbing ai Tenchi

[WarOmnimon]

Yes, according to her besties at TF. They broke out a new podcast episode for the occasion. :roll:

Yup, that's the best news that could have come out of this whole thing.  Bring on the OVA 4 dub!

P.S.- not planning on watching it.

Likewise in the case of the Ai dub.  Not going near that one with a nine and a half foot pole.  After hearing that Burchard is back where she should be, though, I'm definitely watching the OVA 4 dub.

[Harls]

Naturally, I meant the podcast.

[Eff Efferson]

 :nThey need to redub ova 3 first they made it make no sense

[WarOmnimon]

Naturally, I meant the podcast.

As soon as I saw that it was TF, I was also like "yeah, not even gonna bother watching this podcast".  They were probably their usual selves and hating on OVA 4 and so forth while singing all the praises in the world for Ai (Which is the opposite of what the situation actually is - we folks are civilized individuals that sing the praises for the OVAs and Kajishima's own work while giving Ai the SNK final boss tier constructive criticism that it absolutely deserves around here).

They need to redub ova 3 fiest th3y made it make no sense

^ This.  And also to make sure that Burchard is voicing Ryoko as it should be while they're at it, so that way it's consistent to the voice cast of OVA 4.  Marshall just doesn't work as Ryoko and that's the bottom line, cause WarOmni (And a bunch of other people) said so.  *Place sound of glass breaking followed by Stone Cold Steve Austin's theme song here*

Real talk though, I expect them to do the Ai and OVA 4 dubs before redubbing OVA 3.  IF they redub OVA 3.  You never know lately, because we didn't expect them to EVER go near Ai... and guess what, they did.

[Monster Man]

I wonder if they could recut the show so it plays for a seamless 30-minute run instead of that awkward five.

[Dr.Soviet]

I wonder if they could recut the show so it plays for a seamless 30-minute run instead of that awkward five.

that would be nice

[WarOmnimon]

I wonder if they could recut the show so it plays for a seamless 30-minute run instead of that awkward five.

that would be nice

I was thinking the same thing... but then I did the math and was like FUUUUUUUU- when I saw the total number of episodes that would be.  WARNING: Number crunching up ahead. 

First.  We know there are 50 episodes, and each episode is 5 minutes long.  That's a total of 250 minutes.  If you divide that by 30, you get 8.333333333333333... so yeah, about 7 or 8 episodes.

BUT... then you also have to consider that with the sole exception of the finale (Episode 50), every 5th episode is a recap.  That's 9 episodes right down the tube, so when not counting the recaps, that's 41 episodes.  A total of 205 minutes.  Divide that by 30... 6.833333333333333, which is about 6 or 7 episodes.

And that's the biggest problem.  6 to 8 episodes is only about half of a usual seasonal anime.  Those tend to be between 12 to 15 episodes, most frequently 12 (Examples - Kantai Collection and High School DxD Season 1 were both 12 episodes during their TV runs), but there are those rare cases where a seasonal anime will run for longer (Examples - Utawarerumono: The False Faces had 25 episodes, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Arc will have 26).  And that of course isn't considering constantly running shows such as Dragon Ball Super, One Piece, and Naruto / Boruto, or year long shows such as the seasons of Digimon, Precure, Super Sentai, and Kamen Rider (The latter two aren't anime but I'm using them as points of reference).

Conclusion - It's a good idea on paper... but then you'd only get 6 to 8 episodes, depending on how they handle the accursed recaps.  Basically, selling Ai traditionally like they do other seasonal TV anime just won't work, even if they do bunch episodes together.  Not enough material.

[WaitoKon]

You guys haven't seen the supercut on YouTube? Check the now-defunct Tenchiforum TV channel.

[Harls]

It's not defunct, just hibernating.

[Ryo-Okay]

Conclusion - It's a good idea on paper... but then you'd only get 6 to 8 episodes, depending on how they handle the accursed recaps.  Basically, selling Ai traditionally like they do other seasonal TV anime just won't work, even if they do bunch episodes together.  Not enough material.

OVA 3 is sold on its own and it's 7 episodes. Photon was just rereleased in December and it's 6 episodes. You guys are overthinking this.

[WaitoKon]

I wonder why they didn't make Ai Tenchi a printed First Edition Live Action Roleplay sourcebook, with the videos just providing sample player actions.

[WarOmnimon]

Okay, now that I've had time to think about how I'm gonna word this a bit, I'll give you all a quick analysis as to why I think Ai won't sell over here.  Let's look at Tenchi in Tokyo and Ai's general receptions.

Tenchi in Tokyo - From what I noticed, it's at least semi-tolerated in Japan for the most part, but fans over here hate it for the most part, mostly given the monster of the week setup and Sakuya worfing the main girls... at least the mains are still relevant here and still do stuff.

Ai Tenchi Muyo! - But in Ai?  NOPE.  The worfing is worse than in Tokyo.  The new girls (I'll refer to them as "Momo and Friends" just because) worf the main girls completely into the ground.  And then there's elements missing from the series altogether that are usually there (Ryo-Ohki being relegated to nothing more than a cameo at the end of final episode for example).  If Sakuya's worfing in Tokyo was pooped on over here, what do you think is gonna happen with Ai?  SPOILER ALERT - We're gonna have fans ragequitting on the entire franchise and that might kill the chances of OVAs 4 and 5 getting a dub.  Especially if Funi pulls a "we'll dub OVA 4, yes, but only if Ai sells" stunt.

Short version, they shouldn't have even bothered with Ai and should have gone straight to OVA 4 and eventually OVA 5, and redubbed OVA 3 while they were at it.  This is effectively the same thing as committing franchise suicide (At least as far as the western audience is concerned) given that Ai is after all worse than Tenchi in Tokyo, which gets hated on over here so hard.

Okay... replies.

OVA 3 is sold on its own and it's 7 episodes. Photon was just rereleased in December and it's 6 episodes. You guys are overthinking this.

Good point, but in a way, that's like comparing apples to oranges.  Both OVA 3 and Photon's episodes are 30 minutes in length.  Ai's episodes, unless wrapped together in the way that I described, are 5 minutes in length.  There's also the fact that Photon's re-release was NOT handled by Funimation, and then the fact that every 5th episode of Ai is a recap save for the finale... yeah, it might not even BE 6 episodes depending on how Funi tackles those accursed recaps.

Yes, your point is valid.  It can sell this way, but the question in the big picture is, would Funi be willing to take such a huge risk and chance killing the chances of OVA 4 getting dubbed (Which coupled with a redub of OVA 3 clearly would have been the MUCH better option here), especially now that Burchard is back (And yeah, Ryoko doesn't do much in Ai given that Momo and Friends effectively worfed her and the other main girls, so it's kind of a waste)?  Most of Funi's releases lately are all seasonal anime with 10 to 15 episodes a pop, and as I noted, Photon's re-release was NOT Funi.  So yeah, apples and oranges I'm afraid... and my point still stands, they should have skipped Ai and just gone right to OVA 4.

I wonder why they didn't make Ai Tenchi a printed First Edition Live Action Roleplay sourcebook, with the videos just providing sample player actions.

^ OHOHO.  Craziest super awesome random idea ever... and you know, I didn't even think I'd want something like this until now.  Put Ai's story in the hands of the fans rather than an incompetent director like Negishi.  Yeah, that would have been a better idea, actually.  I would have been for this. 

[Ryo-Okay]

You're acting like the girls play a significant role in OVA 4. Ryoko and the rest are just as insignificant in OVA 4 as they seem to be in Ai (I've never actually watched Ai past the first few episodes so I can't say for sure.) One thing Ai benefits from is not relying so heavily on novels with no English translation. And from the few episodes of Ai I did watch it seemed like an okay place for people new to the series to jump in. OVA 4 certainly isn't a good place for new people to start watching.

From what I've seen Universe seems to be more popular in the west than the OVA's. OVA 3 seems to have really burned a lot of people over here. So if Universe is more popular it would make more sense for them to license Ai because it was also directed by Negishi.

I know Photon wasn't released by Funimation, but you were acting as if releasing an anime with less than 12 episodes is impossible. If length was really a factor than anime movies would sell like shit.

[Eff Efferson]

You're acting like the girls play a significant role in OVA 4. Ryoko and the rest are just as insignificant in OVA 4 as they seem to be in Ai (I've never actually watched Ai past the first few episodes so I can't say for sure.) One thing Ai benefits from is not relying so heavily on novels with no English translation. And from the few episodes of Ai I did watch it seemed like an okay place for people new to the series to jump in. OVA 4 certainly isn't a good place for new people to start watching.

there are actualy like 3 ai tenchi novels... i refuse to even buy them, or translate them, or google translate them, or create a section on my website acknowledging their existence.   the section for them just says WHY GOD WHY over and over

[Ryo-Okay]

I'm aware of the Ai novels, but they don't have a lot of significance to the anime's plot, do they?