Dub changes

[cyal8erloser]

I'm very interested in hearing what other people think, and how they view the world. so, I'll start this thread to see how it goes.

When anime is dubbed in another language, or simply sent raw somewhere else. There are bound to be some changes from the original. notably the voice acting and wording is changed a lot.

To some like Tokyo Mew Mew where the whole plot took a slight hit. I'll provide some examples to show what I mean.

Inuyasha: More often than not you'll notice in that dub a lot of the swearing Inuyasha did was cut. As with most other animes that were translated, even on adult swim, which was ment for adult content. He'll say the D word from time to time but will exchange darn for it a lot. There was a few instances where he said the A word, yet it was so rare that you would hardly notice it, or it would come off as awkward. Inuyaha's content rating also changed from, G-MA though even the mature episodes rarely had much more blood than the TV-14 rating.

Bleach: Cursing in this show was hit, but not as badly as Inuyasha. This dub was edited for blood and a decent number of times when people were cut was edited out of the show. The english dub of the second fight between Renji and Ichigo is a good example, or the fight with Kenpachi.

Sailor Moon: well that show was ecchi to a high extent. So while that was on Toonami that show had to be edited to go on air. Seeing as Toonami was also aimed towards younger kids at that time, major steps had to be taken with that dub. Dragon ball Z was also popular at the time, so a lot of kids waiting for that show would have saw Sailor Moon.

Tokyo Mew Mew(Mew Mew Power): Here the characters names were changed by 4kids entertainment and tv. as I suppose Zoey works better than Ichigo as far as english understanding goes. The first and second episode were combined to make the first episode of Mew Mew Power. then you can see that scenes from later episodes were added to earlier ones. as this was a kids dub, the plot was worked to have a much younger and cute appeal to it. counting the friendship speeches and adding in a style that younger girls would be interested in.

yu-gi-oh: Well, all the cursing here was taken out as well. It was a kids dub, so editing was made to the show and plot. It took the same hit as Tokyo Mew Mew did in that regard. Certain scenes, such as when Kaiba had two guns pointed at him was edited. So that all you see were two guards pointing at him in a weird fashion. More friendship dialogues were added, ssomething that most adults would want for thier kids to see. Which would back up my point it was aimed at a kids audience, or at the least was trying to limit any legality issues.

Death Note: some deaths were taken out and made a little softer.
Cowboy Bebop: You'll notice some blood missing.
Naruto: Same thing as Cowboy Bebop and Bleach.


I think you all get my point by now. Yet, I'll add more if you need more examples or shows. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
Thank you for your time if you could make it through all that text
-L

[ardor]

I can understand what your saying, i have a friend who use to always say he hates watching dubbed anime because there its not the real thing, just an interpretation. I didnt notice it so much back in the day, but recently (like this year recently) im starting to notice it more and more. i think its just the price of having something translated from one language to another. even with a lot of subs, some of the translated script may be a bit off, but you can generally feel it out as to what they were really trying to say. (sometimes its just completely off though lol). but with dubs, since they gotta change the script a bit according to how many times the mouth flaps n such, they often just change phrases all together, and kinda hope there saying something similar to what was originally said. the problem is, they often miss the mark altogether lol. all the same, if i missed the subbed, then ill watch the dub. and if i really like the anime in general, i buy the series when its dubbed.

[cyal8erloser]

As a rule of thumb for me. i end up liking dub versions of shows even if they aren't 100% true to the original work.

If I like the anime, the dubs might bother me at times, but I'll still watch it. I'm not very into the idea that just because of some word changes and errors that I will curse the companies making a dubbed version. Or say I won't watch it.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. I actualy aprove of them trying to make dubs work.

Though, some are in question of course of how in the hell they thought certain instances would work out.

[ardor]

i think the biggest obstacle for me would be the character voices.. it doesnt bother me so much on anime that are more comedy oriented, but when a character has a voice that seems that just rings true to the character (like orochimaru from naruto, or lelouch from code geass) the dubbed voices generally dont do these characters justice. i wonder who they are gonna get to do the voice of raul from sword of the stranger (an EXCELLENT anime movie, if you havent seen it.. download it now. do it... do it)

[Dynasty Warrior]

I know for a fact that the final episode of Witchblade when it was dubbed had a swear word (the "S-bomb") as opposed to the subtitle. I think even Tenjho Tenge had a little bit of vulgar language in the english dub. I'm not too sure about Black Lagoon though since I only watched it dubbed (except maybe for a few moments subbed to compare).

I would agree though that some (if not, most) of the mainstream anime that's dubbed into English cut down on the mature stuff and it just isn't the same (sometimes it ruins a scene where the swearing made it funny).

[ssam]

In most cases, I prefer the subs over dubs. To be honest, a good number of English voice actors are quite good at their craft. Not ALL dubs are bad, however, its quite hard to find good dubs. IMO, the good dubs that I've come across so far are:

1. Samurai Champloo
2. Hellsing
3. Hellsing Ultimate OVA
4. Full Metal Alchemist
5. Cowboy Bebop

[Zalis_]

How about I list some shows that weren't changed in the English dub? These shows had no major changes to the characters or plot, no censorship, and no editing.

Stellvia
Haibane Renmei
Wolf's Rain
DN Angel
My-Hime
My-Otome
Infinite Ryvius
Someday's Dreamers
Nanaka 6/17
Please Teacher
Please Twins
Full Metal Panic/Fumoffu/TSR
Utawarerumono
Air
Kanon (2006)
Sakura Diaries (2005 dub)
Mahoromatic
Rumbling Hearts
Kino's Journey
Gantz (if anything, they added even MORE swearing to the English dub)
Yumeria
Avenger
Noir
Chrono Crusade
Texhnolyze
Boys Be
Angelic Layer
His & Her Circumstances
Ultra Maniac

Sure, most of these have some minor alterations to fit lip flaps or to make things sound more natural in English or to adapt certain jokes or language issues. But saying "changing the joke to something in English ruins the effect" is missing the point. The point of jokes is to make viewers laugh at certain points in the show -- good adaptations will make viewers laugh at the same point, rather than literally translating some Japanese pun that doesn't work in English and throwing a note on a screen. Jokes aren't funny if they have to be explained.

To expand on what ardor said, any translation will lose something in the interpretation, and that applies to English dubs, professionally-translated subtitles, and fansubs alike. For instance, the line "Uwasa wo sureba..." appears in dozens of anime when 2 characters are talking about someone else and that someone else appears in the scene. It roughly means "If you speak rumors..." This line is nearly always translated as "Speak of the devil..." (part of the English proverb "Speak of the devil, and he will appear") by fansub and pro translators alike. Is it literally correct? No, because there's no "devil" in the Japanese line. But does it communicate the feeling, the intent of the line? Yes. The purpose of translations is to translate meaning into a different language, not to merely translate words.

And even if you do know Japanese, there are certain non-verbal cues, gestures, and mannerisms that you just won't get if you haven't experienced the culture.

For more on the topic, I suggest watching otaking's documentary on "The Rise and Fall of Anime Fansubs," which can be found on Youtube.