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 Tiff's response to Essay on dubbed anime by Zro

Uh, hello I'm Z-ro, it's 12:30 in the morning and I am surfing the web with Sobe in hand, and just happened to stumble onto your site, (yes I do that quite often) and found my way to the editorial section.

ah yes, i miss doing that...damn work and school..

I since then went through the rest of your sight, enjoying everything that I saw, and grumbled to my self what to write you guys and trying to avoid the feat of making my self sound like a rambling idiot..too late. Anyway.

^^;;

I thought to touch base with what we could call the sub-dub problem. I think that most people fail to see what an owners see when they dub an "English Version of an Anime". And when I say English Version, I mean an American version. When an Anime is first looked at to be dubbed, it is because of the popularity IN Japan. Most of you are looking at me and thinking Duh. But what many who haven't noticed or just ignored is that many dubbed anime are changed so dramatically, they are targeted for the wrong audience. Children.

Well, a lot of people DO recognize that. but does it make it right? Why ARE dragon ball Z and Sailor Moon constantly trying to be targeted to children when there are clearly adult situations in them? I'm not talking about raunchy sex, but i AM talking about homosexuals, violence, and *GASP* death!!! *dun dun dun* ^^;; but not to say that children can't watch these animes...they just weren't CREATED for 5 and 6 year olds. Ok, now i'm rambling. moving on.

And it is not surprising when you look at all the other cartoons out there. Think Cartoon Network. I am not flaming cartoon Network, I happen to devotedly watch Johnny Bravo whenever it's on, just pointing out the kinds of shows they air.

johnny bravo rules. but isn't that kind of a contradiction to say that dubbed anime is targeted to children as are most cartoons, and then to turn around and say "look at cartoon network"? have you SEEN cartoon network recently? If jokes about cow udders, naked red butts, men thinking women are nothing but objects (sorry, johnny), and little girls beating the snot (literally, i love the powerpuff girls but I hate those damn snot shots) out of a monkey are for children, then why change sailor moon? it's no worse than any of the cartoons i just made references to. that's why people are so angry about the changes in sailor moon to be made "better for children". bugs bunny ismore violent than sailor moon.

And the general mind set of the people who buy the licensing to an Anime is cartoon : children. And in General many of the popular Anime were originally targeted for a more mature audience. That?s why we have cuts and changes in dialogue. Mostly.

yes, but what gets me is 99% of the time the change is unneeded. a good example is when Makochan says to Usagi "I live alone, so i can't afford a cat"in the original, but in the dub they changed that to "my mother is allergic to cats". why!??! her mother is DEAD! are people not allowed to have deaths in the family? Why must that line be changed? I understand the changing of curse words and such, but whysomething as innocent as that?

For example, Sailor Moon, there will be a fight and the scouts, god I hate that, the Senshi would suddenly and mysteriously get injured in the dubbed version and it would never be shown how they got that way.

gods i hate that too

Another example would be Early dubbed Dragon Ball Z someone would say, "I'll send you to the next Dimension!" Instead of "I shall send you to the depths of Hell!" ok no one actually says that but still this leads to the other point I wanted to make.

*cracks up* it's really funny how half of these "concerned parents"who don't want their children seeing the evils of anime are all religious and believe in heaven and hell, but yet vegeta isn't allowed to say the word hell. it really makes you wonder.

On the other side. I have seen some excellent dub versions of Anime.

as have I. Trigun is a good example.

The Pokemon movie, for one.

o___O;

please don't click off this page yet, let meexplain.

^^; I hate pokemon, but feel free

I have had the opportunity to see the original Japanese release as well as the American version. Though there is a blatant message shoveddown your throat at the end, the music and the voice actors made the moviehave a completely different effect than that of the original Japanese release. Another is when Sailor Moon in the first series finds out she is the Princess. The song in the background is much more emotional than that of its Japanese counter part. And I think that should be the goal of every Anime dub. To make that show better than the original. Many fans are trying to tell the owners that what they are doing is just not cuttingit.

personally, I believe that if a dubbed anime cannot be equal or surpass the original, then it should be left alone completely. Judging from what you just said, it sounds like you agree

Finally some of those owners are getting a clue. I just don't see how Anime will grow in American Culture when it is sliced and butchered to meet what is expected of an American cartoon aimed for children who don't understand what is going on.

indeed.

o.k. that?s enough from the rambling idiot,

^_^;;

Z-ro

P.S. Thanks for stomaching my crap, love the sight and enjoy the time I go reading your editorials. And no I am not a freak. p.p.s. this is supposed to be sent to you right?

^^ thank you for the compliments. And we at SMU are all freaks ^.~ you should feel welcome in our freakish community. And yes, it was sent to the right person. thank you for your essay! Ja!

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