R1 DVDs with Subtitles/Captions for the Hearing-Impaired

[eX-Driver]

Hi everyone,

Some of you may remember me mentioning I'm deaf.

When I started watching Battle Athletes OVA/Victory DVDs, my heart got big. Why? Pioneer put in extra effort by including English captions (subtitles with verbal/environmental sounds included like [ meowing ], [ both groaning ], [ door opening ], [ footsteps approaching ]). That really helps me enjoy the show much more...sometimes certain sounds do become important to the plot itself.

It's really unfortunate for me that most of the anime DVDs lack such added support so here I am...seeking your help to put together a list of anime DVDs that have any of the following: English Captions, Closed-Captioning (CC), Subtitles for Hearing-Impaired or Subtitles for Deaf and Hearing-Impaired (SDH). Yes, this list will be a short one but there's so much anime out there and oftentimes those particular features don't get mentioned online...so that makes it very difficult to find out. If you happen to watch something and notice such support, please post the title(s) and publisher here.

So far, I'm aware of Battle Athletes OVA/Victory and Studio Ghibli films...

What else? Any help will be eternally appreciated! I wanna watch more anime this way!

[DocWatson]

This isn't quite what you're looking for, but all of Pioneer's laserdiscs were closed captioned—the first form of "soft" subtitles.

[eX-Driver]

Originally Posted by DocWatson

This isn't quite what you're looking for, but all of Pioneer's laserdiscs were closed captioned—the first form of "soft" subtitles.

That's actually good info for me! I never did have a LD player but always wanted to get one just for fun. It wasn't high on my priority list...but now you've mentioned Pioneer LDs....that's good enough of a reason for me to get one soon.

Now I think about it...maybe most, if not all, of the early Pioneer DVDs might have them....carried over from their earlier LD counterparts? I'll have to look further into this. Is there a full list of anime LDs put out by Pioneer?

Thanks, DocW!

[EmperorBrandon]

I was pretty sure the early Tenchi Muyo OVA Ultimate Edition set had hearing-impaired subtitles, and that some of the other Pioneer Tenchi stuff did too, so I checked. The Ultimate Edition set does have them (have no idea if the newer OVA singles release had them - somebody who owns them could say), as do the second (Daughter of Darkness) and third (Tenchi Forever) movies, and Tenchi in Tokyo. Tenchi Universe and Tenchi Muyo in Love did not appear to have them.

[cyclograph]

Originally Posted by eX-Driver

Now I think about it...maybe most, if not all, of the early Pioneer DVDs might have them....carried over from their earlier LD counterparts? I'll have to look further into this. Is there a full list of anime LDs put out by Pioneer?

As to Laserdiscs: try LDDB .
e.g. a search for USA releases + Anime genre + CC results in 125 hits. (note: they just log the presence of a CC signal, not necessarily indicating that it's SDH.)

I still have a handful of the old Pioneer LDCA releases lurking about... I'll have to check. IIRC tho they mostly used the CC data as a means of soft-subtitles, and didn't have full SDH. But, I'll have to verify... maybe that's just the ones I had. (also I know Armitage III and Green Legend Ran did not reauthor the CC signal onto DVD from LD, but these could be exceptions.)

Others DVDs I recall having SDH:
Ghost in the Shell movies (both 1 & 2 - the latter for sure on the early release by DreamWorks - it caused quite a rukus at the time as it was the only subtitle option given, not sure of the new one by Bandai has SDH too)
Already mentioned, evidently all Buena Vista/Disney releases have CC w/SDH, e.g. the majority of Studio Ghibli titles.

These have CC, but need to verify SDH content:
Tokyo Godfathers
Metropolis

[halo]

Slayers: The Motion Picture. Sadly, this is the only one of the movies that have CCs.
Metropolis
The Thenchi Muyo movies. My copy of the OVA Ultimate Edition does not have and CC.
Armitage III Polymatrix

I'll go through other stuff later and try to find some more.

[ColoradoJim]

Although I'm also in the intended audience with close captioned tracks, I do think that adding sounds to the track is a bit distracting for me so I actually prefer a cleaner track that only has the dialogue.

Some of the earlier Funimation series have an option for subtitles vs dubtitles, YYH and Kiddy Grade follow this trend for example. I think newer Funimation series have dropped the choice of dubtitle. A big plus is that the dubtitles even include the dub song so you can read along word for word.

The aborted DVD release of Slam Dunk used subtitles based on the dub and added sounds and so on. Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust only has a closed captioned track, no subtitles. Moldiver has a dubtitle track. There is at least one single shot ADV DVD that had an closed caption option but I don't remember off hand which one it was.

Not quite what you are looking for but many of the earlier CPM shows had dubs that were VERY close to the subtitle track but are not true dubtitles. I almost always watch my anime with a subtitle track on and use the English dub so I do notice when they vary quite a bit.

One thing that you do need to watch out for is that an HDMI connection will drop the line 21 closed caption track so it is usually best to choose the subtitle track that corresponds with the closed caption if possible. You get nicer looking fonts and transparent backgrounds as well.

I will let you know if I come across any more in my large collection, I know that there are some that I missed.

[DocWatson]

Originally Posted by eX-Driver

That's actually good info for me! I never did have a LD player but always wanted to get one just for fun. It wasn't high on my priority list...but now you've mentioned Pioneer LDs....that's good enough of a reason for me to get one soon.

Now I think about it...maybe most, if not all, of the early Pioneer DVDs might have them....carried over from their earlier LD counterparts? I'll have to look further into this. Is there a full list of anime LDs put out by Pioneer?

See AnmeMania's list of "Anime Commercially Available In English" [in NTSC/North America], which is complete to November 2006.

Originally Posted by eX-Driver

Thanks, DocW!

You're welcome.

[eX-Driver]

Everybody....thank you very much! Keep 'em coming!

While I may be ignorant about the costs of producing anime DVDs, it just seems baffling to me that a publisher/studio couldn't just do the subtitles for the hearing-impaired first...then have someone simply remove/delete the sounds from that subtitle track thus creating a 2nd subtitle track for the majority. How hard can that be? I don't know...do the subtitlers tell them it'd cost much more to include the sounds or what?

[Legion]

Originally Posted by ColoradoJim

There is at least one single shot ADV DVD that had an closed caption option but I don't remember off hand which one it was.

Sin and Ghost Stories have SDHH (Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing*). At least one of the Legend of Crystania Essential Anime discs has closed captioning (the OVA disc, I think. The original non-EA version probably has 'em too), if not both. This would apply to the collection as well.

A lot of FUNimation's earlier releases had subtitles that transcribed the English dialog, however those did not contain any SFX or voice cues.

*I almost, almost entered my post with 'Deaf' typoed as 'Dead'.