Well, sometimes yes, sometimes no.
Naturally, all anime is commercialized... if it wasn't making people money, it would never have been brought over in the first place. I've never bought into the whole "So and so is selling out" arguement... any entertainer is trying to make money, whether they be a basketball player, a really crappy band (like Metallica), or a starving painter. Anime is a business, so you can't expect the people involved to be saints, and if you do, I am sorry in advance for the crushing dissappointment you will someday face. Lord knows that the fact that Tenchi Masaki has yet to make up his mind is the single biggest proof of this fact.
Any time an anime I get has a commentary, I listen to it. Some of these have been really dissappointing. For example, the commentary on Abenobashi Magical Shopping Arcade was a real dissappointment. The two voice actors they had commenting on it had obviously never watched an full episode of the series, had no idea what the story was, and were barely aware that there was such a thing called anime.
Animeigo's commentaries really shine. Firstly, they are one of the smallest, and oldest, ADR houses out there. They've been at this a long time. Although, like any business, they are commercial, you can also tell they are doing it because they love anime. In the commentary to the OVA, they discuss the manga repeatedly, talk about having seen the movie (which hadn't even been released in the US yet), and basically have a pretty good time. That, and they seem to forget they are doing a commentary, so it is like being with friends who are talking over a movie (kinda like my friends do when we watch Ghostbusters - we just have a conversation, stopping occasionally for our favorite scenes).
It's worth watching in my opinion.... give it a try...
Larry
"Mother-puss-bucket! Nobody steps on a church in my town!"
19-Feb-2005