Forum - View topicNEWS: Crunchyroll Adds Ghost Stories Anime to Catalog
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Stuart Smith
 Posts: 1298 |
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That story doesn't really add up with what we know., though. Gakkou no Kaidan was a 2-cour show that aired in 2000. The American dub wouldn't be made until 5 years later, well after the show was over and done with. It also seems bizarre that a Japanese company would beg an American company to do something, and only the American company because the dubs which aired everywhere else in the world were normal dubs. There's also the fact Ghost Stories is a kids show, which are not expected to move DVDs like late night anime. Are we really sure that's what happened and do we have more evidence beyond a voice actor making a comment? -Stuart Smith |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18214 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Yes, there are those that do, and they are very vocal whenever the series comes up. (I remember them complaining a lot in the response threads to my original singles reviews.) The show did have a following in the West even before being dubbed, but it was a pretty small one; IIRC, the number of ratings for it on our site was minuscule before the dub came along, and even now 500-odd ratings isn't a big number for a series that old which has been formally released in the States for a full decade. While I can see where the complainants are coming from, this show would not have sold adequately with a straight-up dub. I have watched several episodes subtitled, and with one exception it's a bland kiddie show. (The episode which deals with the lead girl's mother is only one I found interesting taken straight, and that's the one place where I thought the English dub could have toned down the riffs.) It wouldn't sell on technical merits, either. Hence a normal dub would have been unrealistic because not enough people were interested in it for it to be salable. If it were released for the first time these days, it probably wouldn't get more than a streaming subtitled-only release. Now, considering the dubbed version an entirely separate series isn't without merit, although the dub does at least basically retain the essence of the original stories. And it's certainly fair for more purist fans to complain about it. However, comparing this series to other more recent series which might be "deserving" of a joke dub is also unfair. The circumstances are very different. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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Exactly: There may possibly be some comedy shows in Japan that might gag dub over news footage or old sentai shows (I don't know, I've only ever seen a bit of Japanese late-nite sketch-comedy, and that was parodying Thunderbirds), but it's not as common an idea when applied to anime, especially for a series that was shown during regular hours. We don't see smarmy Japanese gag-redubs of GeGeGe no Kitaro or Doraemon just because they're "old and annoying", as CN might have done with Scooby-Doo or Yogi Bear back in the 00's. In '05, the licensors wanted to sell their property, probably in a bulk package of other studio licenses (like many were in those days), and--like most Japanese, considering that only kids would ever watch kid-targeted anime and having NO trans-Pacific idea how anime is packaged, sold and marketed to US fans--likely thought their "kids show" would catch on like Pokemon, DBZ or Cardcaptors if it was "Americanized" the right way. The message was more likely "Americanize it all you want, just so long as it finally turns a profit!" If they were "begging", they were begging for money, not ridicule. Something they literally may not have even been envisioning in the first place. |
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NJ_
 Posts: 3021 Location: Wallington, NJ |
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Never seen that one before but Monica Rial pretty much said the same thing he did when talking about that dub a few years later. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulKN8CAVw5k |
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TomasHA-SK
Posts: 6 Location: Slovakia |
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I am one of those few who like this show subbed. I like it a lot, because it was one of first anime shows I have ever seen.
English dub was OK, but many jokes went too far... |
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biganimefan84
Posts: 1 |
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This was the very first Anime I ever saw. In my community college back in '02 I signed up for a Japanese History course and there was a Japan Club I was introduced to. Sure, I only saw the first 2 episodes at the time but it started a love for Anime(and eventually for Far Eastern culture) and have seen well over 100 by now. Tried out the dub when the DVD's came out and hated it and so did my wife when I first showed it to her. We've seen the whole series and both really like it. Sure, it's by no means the best but it is a good quality show.
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5120 |
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Japanese History?! What community college is this?! (see here for what my local Community College currently offers.....) |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18214 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I would also add here that this dub was really popular with general fandom at the time it came out. I was at a 'con shortly before the second singles volume was due, and ADV hosted a debut of dubbed episodes 5 and 6 (I think; might be slightly off on the ep numbers here) hosted by some of the English VAs. It was held in the 'con's biggest meeting room, and that room was packed; I wouldn't doubt that there were close to 200 in the room, and given that this wasn't one of the mega-'cons, that probably made it the 'con's biggest single event. Laughter at, and appreciation for, the dub was virtually universal from what I could see.
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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I just realized that I have never seen a serious discussion about Ghost Stories. People talk about the dub but never about the show itself.
There is no discussion thread for it in the Anime forum, and I do not remember seeing any posts about it in the general discussion threads, such as "What are you watching right now?" Now that Crunchyroll is streaming it maybe some of the people who like the show, and not just for the dub, will be inspired to give it some attention here. As I said in a previous post I have tried watching the show subtitled, without much success. But I would be willing to try it again if anybody did start a serious discussion. |
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Guile
Posts: 595 |
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This topic interested me so I did some digging around in Japanese websites and other sources to see what I could find. What I found was Ghost Stories was one of the most popular anime of the 2000s. I found a list of the Top 20 anime based on their average TV ratings from that decade.
1. Sazae-san (19.4%) 2. Kindaichi Case Files (13.7%) 3. Kochikame (13.7%) 4. Chibi Maruko-chan (13.3%) 5. Detective Conan (12.8%) 6. Inuyasha (12.7%) 7. Ghost Stories (12.2%) 8. Atashin'chi (11.4%) 9. Doraemon (11.3%) 10. Ojamajo Doremi# (11.3%) 11. One Piece (11.2%) 12. Digimon Adventure 02 (11.2%) 13. Crayon Shin-chan (11.0%) 14. Great Teacher Onizuka (10.8%) 15. Mo~tto! Ojamajo Doremi (10.7%) 16. Pocket Monsters (10.6%) 17. Digimon Tamers (10.0%) 18. Black Jack (9.9%) 19. Dragon Ball Kai (9.4%) 20. Hikaru no Go (9.2%) Source: http://www.geocities.jp/animesityouritu/ a handy website that archives all data that Video Research put out. Another neat fact is GTO and Ghost Stories had the same timeslot. Ghost Stories was the show that took GTO's Sunday 7:30 golden time slot on FujiTV. Interesting to see what the most popular anime was back then, and even more surprising is Ghost Stories was more popular than Pokemon, Digimon, Naruto, One Piece, FMA, and all those other shows. I guess we can say it's one of those shows that work in Japan but not here, like Doraemon, Shin-chan, and Sazae-san. Also apparently a Japanese disability rights group complained and got one episode of Ghost Stories banned that featured a Kuchisake-onna which they felt was offensive to people with cleft lips. |
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Saku-dono
Posts: 801 |
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A lot here had totally gone out of the focal point. Okay, you lot love that hilarious and horrible dub, but the Westeners is only borrowing the title, you do not make your own lines because the Japanese made it as such. You're just gonna put your damn english words and that's it, but in this case, it felt like, "This is a mediocre title" and "If not for the dub etc..."
Hello? You should've make your own anime and don't borrow from the japanese stash if you're gonna revise it on your own selfish accord. Mediocre or not, you should respect the Japanese who made it with flesh and blood. |
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Actar
 Posts: 1074 Location: Singapore |
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Pretty much this. It was never given a fair shot to shine (or fail) by itself when put up against the dub that was deliberately made to appeal to adult American sensibilities.
Precisely. You can easily turn any anime that would only be a popular with a limited audience into a hit with a gag dub if money's the main concern. Which brings me to my biggest question. Could this anime not have been marketed towards kids? Did the licensing deals prevent that?
Wow, thanks for that link! It will definitely help me out in my course of study. |
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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Again, "Why would they pay for it if they had to Shin-chan it up just to sell it?" The only plausible theories are: 1) 00's ADV was looking into breaking out into the syndication market, get at least one generically Americanized "kids" toon on Nick, and wanted a backup kids' option in case their main plans to sell Sgt. Frog as a Nick cable series didn't go through, or 2) They were stuck with the series as part of a package of two or three other series they were trying to license. 1's possible, but 2 is the more plausible theory if Vic & Greg keep convention-mythologizing us that "They begged us to do it!" While that's a nice story-embellished image, it's more likely that if there was any note of desperation in the licensor's sale, it would have been more along the lines of "Look, we'll give you a better deal on these two other shows you want if you take this one off our hands, too--It's a kids' show about solving ghost mysteries, and you can Americanize it all you want for kids who don't know our strange yokai, just as long as you can sell it to American audiences." That sounds a little less like a buck-passing alibi than "They begged us 'Look, we're embarrassed by this! Drag it through the mud so we can all laugh at how ashamed we are of it!'" Just like when CN was stuck with Hamtaro as a rider when they wanted Inuyasha, but if they decided to "cut their losses" by turning it into an edgy Adult Swim show about cute racist foulmouthed hamsters, even the US Viz might have something to say about that creative decision. |
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