Remember the bad old days of the sub/dub wars, before the dual-language DVD became ubiquitous?  When there was actually a need to pick one over the other, because you couldn't have both on VHS? If you remember, you will probably be pretty steamed about the fact that the forthcoming Blu-Ray release of Kurokami will be missing the Japanese track; if you're too young to remember, you're a lucky little otaku. Darn chibi whippersnappers. 

The standard DVD release will be dual-language, but that's not going to be of much use to the quality-conscious fan who would vastly prefer the Blu-Ray version. Gia Manry of Anime Vice speculates that the strange omission of the Japanese track is motivated by the desire to stop Japanese fans from importing the US version, since the Japanese Blu-Ray will be much more expensive. I guess the idea is that the Japanese will have to fork over the extra cash for the domestic version if they want to be able to understand what the hell is going on.

My solution would be to encourage Japanese fans to buy the domestic release by just making it less stupidly expensive, but I know that's just playing Captain Obvious, and it's really not that simple. Still, whatever financial pressures Bandai may be feeling, I can't let them off the hook for this one. Maybe I'm still feeling the sting of what happened to my beloved Card Captor Sakura years ago, but I do not want subs and dubs to be split up on separate releases ever again. Forcing people to choose one over the other again may revive the dead-as-a-doornail sub/dub wars that sullied the internet throughout the entirety of the 1990's, and that is truly unforgivable.

[via Anime Vice]