|
In the past, I've been a true-blooded anime purist. In the not-so-distant past, my blood hasn't been quite so true. Today, I look across the internet and I see all these "[Something] Uncensored" pages, and it makes me think about the various nooks and crannies of the dubbing process.
What, really, is essential when an anime is dubbed?
History really bears no straight answers. Most of the anime from the 1960s--including Astro Boy, Speed Racer, Gigantor, etc--were pretty true to their originals; Edits were made only to comply with FCC standards (basically if the show got too violent, they would trim it down). Show titles changed either to make sense to Americans or--in the case of Tetsuwan Atomu and Tetsujin-28--to avoid copyright issues. The worst thing that happened is that episodes were skipped, often because of subject matter (we never got the first thirteen episodes of Gigantor, for example, because they contained World War II themes and Anti-American sentiments. Obviously that would not go over well with American audiences).
Yet in the 1970s, Battle of the Planets was a huge and popular show, and it was hacked to bits. The 1980s contained a show called Tekkaman: the Space Knight, which was faithful to the original and was in fact popular, dying out only because the company behind the adaption was an independent firm that had no major toy companies backing it. The 1980s also gave us the biggest mixed-bag of all anime adaptions: Robotech. Story-wise, Robotech is actually a faithful adaption of Macross and Mospeada (not so much Southern Cross, I'm told), minus the whole "three unrelated stories being tied together" thing, but there are many content edits and the music is completely changed.
Today the battlefield is no less uncertain. Many shows that are hackjob dubs nevertheless remain commercially successful, such as Yu-Gi-Oh and One Piece, and yet they stand alongside shows such as Naruto and YuYu Hakusho which are fairly faithful dubs and are just as successful.
So far, history seems to give the impression that you can do whatever you want when adapting an anime and it will probably be just as likely to succeed either way. But that's not exactly true--in my studies I have noticed a rather decisive factor.
Faithful or not, a successful show is a show that stands well on its own feet. A show that you can watch, without even being aware of its origins, and enjoy.
This is why Cardcaptors failed: The show wound up so gutted that it simply didn't make any sense, and it couldn't stand on its own. The same goes for Fox's Escaflowne and, reaching back into the 1980s, Saban's Macron-1.
Macron-1 is particularly interesting, partly because everyone already knows about Cardcaptors and Escaflowne, and I would rather discuss something new. And partly because Macron-1 was another example of a new show created by combining existing shows--a common method in the 1980s. Only, Macron-1 didn't do the usual "Show B takes place after Show A" timeline thing, like Voltron and Robotech did. Rather, Macron-1 used this bizarre parellel universes story where the plotlines of the two shows were happening simultaneously and often connected (mostly by having the characters tele-communicate with each other). The result was a mess that not even a fully loaded pot-head would be able to make heads or tails of. Naturally, this show is virtually unknown today.
Bad as the Yu-Gi-Oh dub was (in the eyes of true fans), it could be enjoyed and understood on its own.
Now, let's take a look at specific aspects of dubbing:
OPENING/ENDING THEMES: I can honestly understand changing this. It is almost verified that people prefer English-language songs (even though half the time English lyrics are so inaudible that they might as well be Japanese, but let us not digress). Nowadays, foreign music is almost more popular than domestic music, so the need is lessening.
BACKGROUND MUSIC: Now, this is a double-edged sword. I'll be the first to admit that sometimes, the American BGMs are actually superior to the Japanese BGMs. But the big question is though, why replace it in the first place? One reason I've heard is that sometimes the BGM is considered a seperate license, though I have my doubts about this. Most licensors simply say that they think their music would appeal more to American audiences; though as mentioned, history has not bourn that out.
ADDING MUSIC OR DIALOGUE TO SILENT MOMENTS: Almost invariably, this ruins the mood or impact of certain scenes. Unfortunately, it probably DOES actually make the show in question more acceptable to US audiences. I mean seriously, I've almost never seen a US-produced live-action film meant for adults that had moments of complete silence, so there isn't much reason to expect it in a cartoon. Most of us Americans are too stupid to feel emotion--in fact most people I know just get impatient with silent, contemplative moments, and are like "Come on, when's something gonna happen?"
TONING DOWN/EDITING OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT: Honestly, I'm not so concerned about this. Most of the time, objectionable content doesn't impact the show much (though I find it adds a welcome sense of reality, but that is purely subjective). Also, you can't really blame dubbers for this one, as these are enforced by the television stations. Admittedly some companies, such as 4Kids, go much further than they really need to.
SKIPPING EPISODES: Now, unless the episodes in question have some FCC-regulated objectionable content that is so important to the plot that you can't find a workaround for it, or the episode is a clip show, I do not see the point in skipping episodes. Maybe the companies know something I don't, but if I payed a licensing fee to adapt a series I would want to adapt as much of it as possible to get my money's worth.
CULTURAL CHANGES: These are the most pointless changes ever.
Actually, I want to end this article by talking about culture, as it applies to cartoons. That is, it doesn't. Culture really affects just jack-be-diddly regarding the original show or the fan's reaction--in fact my experience is that people, especially children, LOVE foreign cultures, or at the very least they don't mind them.
And really, most of the anime we get in America is what you call "Shonen" anime. That means anime aimed at young boys. Such anime usually involves good guys overcoming bad guys and heroes discovering their inner worth--themes which are pretty gosh-darn universal. Even if you don't get all the mythological references or understand what the characters are eating, you'll still get the important part. No one is going to turn off a show because it features a rice ball.
I would argue that it is beneficial NOT to make cultural changes, because the cultural differences are one of the things that makes anime so appealing in the first place. We see American culture every day, and those of us who are watching anime are probably tired of the American way of things, which is why we choose to watch imports. Take out the culture and you've just eliminated half the point. You might as well create your own knock-off show.
And so ends my ramble.
|