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Answerman - What Determines Whether Songs In Anime Get Dubbed?


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DerekL1963
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PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2016 12:45 am Reply with quote
leafy sea dragon wrote:
For something like Love Live, isn't it clear it's a musical series and thus they would cast voices with singing in mind? I know that's what was done for Friendship Is Magic and Phineas and Ferb. Then again, maybe it's harder with the anime dubbing scene.


American companies tend to work with a pretty limited pool of talent, so casting for singing really isn't an option.
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BodaciousSpacePirate
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PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2016 1:18 am Reply with quote
SquadmemberRitsu wrote:
And a weird place in the middle is AKB0048 (Sentai Filmworks). I didn't watch much of the dub spoiler[cause it was bad] but they only dub songs in speaking scenes. But when I switched over from Japanese to English just to see how they dubbed a song in Season 2 which I assumed would full under that category... Japanese vocals! So maybe they just gave up at some point.


They didn't even subtitle most of the insert songs in that show.
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SquadmemberRitsu



Joined: 26 Jan 2012
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PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2016 2:05 am Reply with quote
BodaciousSpacePirate wrote:
They didn't even subtitle most of the insert songs in that show.
Yep. It might have been a legal issue (This is AKB48 we're talking about after all) but it could have just been laziness. Who knows really?

DerekL1963 wrote:
leafy sea dragon wrote:
For something like Love Live, isn't it clear it's a musical series and thus they would cast voices with singing in mind? I know that's what was done for Friendship Is Magic and Phineas and Ferb. Then again, maybe it's harder with the anime dubbing scene.


American companies tend to work with a pretty limited pool of talent, so casting for singing really isn't an option.
A bunch of the people working on the Love Live dub actually have some musical chops. Even the director Tony Oliver has a background in musical theater.

That being said, I don't think any of them were hired for their singing abilities. They want someone who can act first and foremost. And to be perfectly honest Caitlin Glass is a lot better at the acting part than Pile. As much I love Pile, it's blatantly obvious (Especially early on) that she was hired for her singing abilities.

Personally an approach I'd like to see more often is something like what Bandai did with K-On!. Keep the songs in the show in Japanese, but record a few English versions and put them in as extras. I thought it was a welcome inclusion considering the only other extras were crap interviews with the English voice actresses filled stupid questions that had nothing to do with acting.

Real shame that Sentai's schedule didn't allow for more of those. Would love to hear an official English cover of Pure Pure Heart, U&I, Curry Nochi Rice or Tenshi ni Fureta yo.
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belvadeer





PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2016 2:18 am Reply with quote
ninjamitsuki wrote:
Amazingly, Gaijinworks is still dubbing songs for their game localizations, and the Summon Night 5 song actually sounds pretty good.


Agreed, it was done quite well.
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switchgear1131



Joined: 14 Mar 2013
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PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2016 3:12 am Reply with quote
MadHi wrote:
I don't mind when they do dub the songs but what I hate is when they never release full versions of them. I'd kill to get all the dubbed songs from Bubblegum Crisis, especially Tonight, A Hurricane without the background action. The only dubbed song from that anime I can find in its entirety and uninterrupted is Mad Machine.

I'd also kill for full English versions of Water Evidence and In This Quiet Night from Gundam SEED, Vic Mignogna's Dragon Soul, Snow Storm from Rosario + Vampire, and Unbalanced Kiss from YuYu Hakusho.


I don't know how long I spent looking for a full version of the dubbed songs from Gundam SEED. To this day I still wish I could have them. I can still remember a good portion of In This Quiet Night even though I have not heard it in like 7 years.
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RANGIT



Joined: 22 Sep 2013
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PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2016 3:51 am Reply with quote
SpacemanHardy wrote:
I asked Brina about this when I met her at a con once, and she explained that they never do full versions because they're never provided with the full-length track. They can only dub the truncated version that they're given for the episode in question that they're dubbing. She mentioned specifically that she would have really liked to do a full version of Stones from The Rolling Girls, but unfortunately it wasn't possible.

STONES is probably my favorite dubbed song by Brina. Maybe if we buy her the single with the instrumental version... If we're lucky, Kagura4221973 might sing it. Laughing
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leafy sea dragon



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PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2016 3:55 am Reply with quote
DerekL1963 wrote:
leafy sea dragon wrote:
For something like Love Live, isn't it clear it's a musical series and thus they would cast voices with singing in mind? I know that's what was done for Friendship Is Magic and Phineas and Ferb. Then again, maybe it's harder with the anime dubbing scene.


American companies tend to work with a pretty limited pool of talent, so casting for singing really isn't an option.


Do you mean American anime dubbing companies or American voice acting in general? (I do remember one episode of Space Dandy had cast a bunch of actors who normally sing rather than act for its episode-specific characters though. And Chris Sabat playing the jocks.)
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Just-another-face



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PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2016 2:51 pm Reply with quote
DerekL1963 wrote:
American companies tend to work with a pretty limited pool of talent, so casting for singing really isn't an option.


Pretty limited? That's not true at all.
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Zalis116
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PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2016 3:09 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Bubblegum Crisis is the only dub I can think of that actually had a cover band produce completely new versions of the songs.
Of course, that whole dub was a brand new production, as the Music&Effects tracks were either lost or unavailable. So AnimEigo used music from CD soundtracks to score the series and did their own foley effects, along with dubbing the spoken dialogue and song vocals.

Music&Effects track issues have cropped up with songs in a few other places -- with noted Nabeshin musical Nerima Daikon Brothers, almost every song was dubbed, except for one in the last couple of episodes where the pop-up notes basically said, "this song was on the music&effects track, so we couldn't dub it."

SquadmemberRitsu wrote:
BodaciousSpacePirate wrote:
They didn't even subtitle most of the insert songs in that show.
Yep. It might have been a legal issue (This is AKB48 we're talking about after all) but it could have just been laziness. Who knows really
The truly puzzling thing is that CR's streaming subs translated the insert songs, but not the OP/ED, while Sentai's disc subs translated the OP/ED, but not the insert songs. And usually, Sentai's subs are copy&paste jobs of CR subs with OP/ED added and maybe a few minor changes. Hate to say it, but untranslated songs within a singing-focused idol anime = flawed release.
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wmderemer
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PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2016 3:44 pm Reply with quote
Mr. Oshawott wrote:
Covnam wrote:
I still enjoy most of those english dubbed songs that I heard back in the day. I'm sure it's primarily fueled by some nostalgia, but many imo were well done.

Kinda miss that they don't go through the effort to dub most songs any more. I probably wouldn't even notice nowadays since I just watch subs, but back in the day when I didn't, it was something I enjoyed, so I would imagine many dub fans today would.

I miss those days as well. I'll never forget how awesome the English versions of the OP and ED songs of Negima sounded, as well as the OP song of Suzuka.


And, not only was 1000% Sparking from Negima!? dubbed, but they did a full-version dub as well, not just the TV size (Feat. Luci Christain (Asuna), Brina Palencia (Yue), Leah Clark (Nodoka), and Jamie Marchi (Haruna)).

And I remember & love some of those Ranma 1/2 dub songs... and agree with whomever said it before me: (while we can't get full versions since they only recorded the length needed for the show) PLEASE release the English BubbleGum Crisis songs on CD... come on, Robert Woodhead...get Japan's blessing & do a Kickstarter if you have to!
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Mr. Oshawott



Joined: 12 Mar 2012
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PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2016 5:26 pm Reply with quote
wmderemer wrote:
And, not only was 1000% Sparking from Negima!? dubbed, but they did a full-version dub as well, not just the TV size (Feat. Luci Christain (Asuna), Brina Palencia (Yue), Leah Clark (Nodoka), and Jamie Marchi (Haruna)).

Had no idea that there was a full version of that song out. Very fantastic cover they did! Smile
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makoto99



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PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2016 6:48 pm Reply with quote
Even over a decade later, my favorite dubbed song has to be Lex Lang's version of the Rurouni Kenshin ending "Tactics". Nothing came close back then, and I haven't heard anything come close since.
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Aphasial
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PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2016 9:16 pm Reply with quote
Kind of hoping to have more information and background on the DiC broadcast of Sailor Moon... There were definitely a number of decisions that would have had to be made there, but there were several cases where they clearly were trying to dub a parallel/adapted version of the original work.

Infamously, the "Sailor Moon Theme" OP had all-new lyrics, but took the melody and structure from the original "Moonlight Densetsu". But there were also a few cases where entirely new song inserts were done ("Rainy Day Man"), or existing songs were replaced with unrelated new tracks. Jennifer Cihi's "Carry On" was probably an improvement over the title track being re-used in the finale, and "My Only Love" was another good original piece.

Perhaps most interesting was "Eien no Melody" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnFKt75l37A - Mars' in-character performed song that was re-dubbed as "Oh Starry Night" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx59zmfJFbc

The differences in production style could be something of an early-90's period artifact, but it's interesting how the differences in tone must have reflected some sort of intent by the ADR, etc.

I'd be interested in hearing any more info @Answerman has about Sailor Moon here...


Last edited by Aphasial on Mon May 16, 2016 8:05 pm; edited 1 time in total
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belvadeer





PostPosted: Sat May 14, 2016 9:36 pm Reply with quote
^The new songs (and new background music for that matter) for the DiC dub of Sailor Moon were some of the best things to come out of the 90s. Listening to the original stuff via the Viz dub, some of the original Japanese music is honestly dull and uninteresting in places.
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omiya



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PostPosted: Sun May 15, 2016 4:47 am Reply with quote
belvadeer wrote:
^The new songs (and new background music for that matter) for the DiC dub of Sailor Moon were some of the best things to come out of the 90s. Listening to the original stuff via the Viz dub, some of the original Japanese music is honestly dull and uninteresting in places.


Interesting, I'm trying to get a handle on when anime songs started getting treated more seriously by the Japanese, moving from the "children's section" of the record store racks to their own category.

Looking at Sailor Moon, "Golden Queen Galaxia" sung by Mitsuko Horie (voice actress of Sailor Galaxia) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXngR9v5uK8 is certainly not a weak song.

Singers like Isao Sasaki, Ichirou Mizuki and Mitsuko Horie gave dignity to the songs they sing for anime (all still singing now).

Incidentally, Isao Sasaki also sang a very competent English version of "Space Battleship Yamato" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3euoFyRq1w.

If the Japanese singer can sing an English version of their original songs it can be very effective.
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