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Answerman - What Determines Whether Songs In Anime Get Dubbed?


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PurpleWarrior13



Joined: 05 Sep 2009
Posts: 2024
PostPosted: Sun May 15, 2016 11:40 am Reply with quote
The English songs in Bubblegum Crisis are the best part of that whole terrible dub. Most of them, while not as good as the Japanese versions, still sounded at least professional. Though their version of "Hey Mr. Dandy" completely missed the dramatic irony of the original song.

FUNimation also did complete covers for their early dubbed songs for Dragon Ball, Yu Yu Hakusho, Case Closed, Fruits Basket, Blue Gender, Kiddy Grade, Tenchi Muyo GXP, etc. Those all sounded amazing. They worked with Carl Finch for those. When they broke off with him, they did covers for One Piece, Ouran High School Host Club, Dragon Ball GT, Dragon Ball Z Kai, etc, and none of those sounded as good as the Finch-produced ones, and they stopped covering the music. Though I will say Caitlin Glass' version of "Compass" from the 8th One Piece movie sounded very pretty.

I think it still makes sense for songs to be covered if it's a character singing. It made a lot of sense for Rei in Sailor Moon, especially since Cristina Vee is a really talented singer. For that Ranma cover, it made some sense for the characters to sing badly, and it added some extra humor to the scene, even if it was unintentional.
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TsukasaElkKite



Joined: 22 Nov 2005
Posts: 3945
PostPosted: Sun May 15, 2016 10:30 pm Reply with quote
IMHO there have been very few examples of English dubbed songs that are actually well done. Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad is the best I've ever heard.
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
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PostPosted: Sun May 15, 2016 11:52 pm Reply with quote
PurpleWarrior13 wrote:
For that Ranma cover, it made some sense for the characters to sing badly, and it added some extra humor to the scene, even if it was unintentional.


As we see in the episode, girl-Ranma is supposed to be brassily off-key, because she fails in all attempts to be girl-cute.
(A non-dubbed sampling of her "cute" musical talents: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKSAKAJcvhQ , from the Top Ten Song Battle OVA that Viz won't touch because they can't dub it.)

The other members of DoCo are supposed to be good singers (even Akane), which is why the scene was put in, to plug a few more song sales.
This is one of the particular differences between Japanese and US voice work, where being a Japanese seiyuu pretty well assumes being a singing idol right from the start. I doubt they would ask Kikuko-chan to make Kasumi a bad singer.
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Herald Of JOJO



Joined: 16 Oct 2015
Posts: 144
Location: Malaysia
PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2016 1:56 am Reply with quote
Hey, everyone. I'm sorry if this question is actually off-topic, but I just want your opinions, should I watch Love Live? I'm tempted to watch an idol show and I don't know if this show would be a good first pick.
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omiya



Joined: 21 Sep 2011
Posts: 1823
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2016 2:51 am Reply with quote
EricJ2 wrote:
This is one of the particular differences between Japanese and US voice work, where being a Japanese seiyuu pretty well assumes being a singing idol right from the start. I doubt they would ask Kikuko-chan to make Kasumi a bad singer.


Seiyuu like Nana Mizuki and Minori Chihara were singers first, and have written their own songs and are more in control of their own careers than the term 'idol' would imply.

Other names that might be worth checking out as seiyuu that are more than what the term 'idol' would imply include:

Male:
Takanori Nishikawa (aka TM Revolution)
Kishō Taniyama (Granrodeo)
Kenichi Suzumura
Mamoru Miyano
Daisuke Ono

Female:
Yui Makino
Yuuka Nanri
Maaya Sakamoto
Yui Horie
Haruko Momoi
Minami Kuribayashi
Iori Nomizu
Eri Kitamura
Marina Inoue
Rie Tanaka
Megumi Nakajima
Mikako Komatsu
Nagi Yanagi
Yoshino Nanjō
Yoko Hikasa

(I can't think of any songs that the above artists have sung entirely in English though, only English phrases interspersed between Japanese).

EDIT - Yuuka Nanri did sing "My Favorite Things" in English in "Kids on the Slope".

and more in the one-person 'idol' category, Yukari Tamura.

Longer lasting Idol units related to anime are a more recent phenomena, like IdolM@ster, Sphere, i☆Ris, μ's from Love Live!

Herald Of JOJO wrote:
Hey, everyone. I'm sorry if this question is actually off-topic, but I just want your opinions, should I watch Love Live? I'm tempted to watch an idol show and I don't know if this show would be a good first pick.


Love Live is a very well done show and easy to get hold of via DVD or streaming. IdolM@ster also has a big following in Japan, and it was good to see the two franchises appear on stage together at Animelo Summer Live 2015. You might like to read some reviews and gauge what might appeal to you more.


Last edited by omiya on Tue May 17, 2016 1:22 pm; edited 4 times in total
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NearEasternerJ1





PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2016 5:59 am Reply with quote
Myth: The Japanese give a crap about random dubs and licenses.

Fact: They just want your money. Very few creators care if their work is dubbed or not. Only Kon, Miyazaki and Tomino care. The former (may he RIP) didn't take too kindly to dubbing. The second one rightfully got angry about the botched Warriors of the Wind dub, though the fact that he was somewhat involved in the other dubs meant little. The MSG dub was Ocean's best work, but that had little to do with Tomino.
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 25 Oct 2003
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PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2016 8:02 am Reply with quote
NearEasternerJ1 wrote:
Myth: The Japanese give a crap about random dubs and licenses.

So how about the times they have a say in the casting (generally regarded to be A Bad Idea)? How about when they include the dub on local re-releases as with Full Metal Panic etc? How about when they themselves commission a dub like 5cm/s? How about when they help fund the dub to help with international sales as with Welcome to the Space Show?
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SquadmemberRitsu



Joined: 26 Jan 2012
Posts: 1391
PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2016 9:54 am Reply with quote
Shiroi Hane wrote:
NearEasternerJ1 wrote:
Myth: The Japanese give a crap about random dubs and licenses.

So how about the times they have a say in the casting (generally regarded to be A Bad Idea)? How about when they include the dub on local re-releases as with Full Metal Panic etc? How about when they themselves commission a dub like 5cm/s? How about when they help fund the dub to help with international sales as with Welcome to the Space Show?
Though the show did have surprisingly good sales, I have reason to believe that Sunrise might have influenced NISA to create the Love Live dub.

Also if the Skip Beat kickstarter taught us anything it's that some producers explicitly ask that if their show gets released in the west it must be dubbed. That's the only logical explanation I have for a situation like Kingdom's where the dub was obviously very cheaply made and only included as a secondary audio track to the Japanese version.
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Darkabomination



Joined: 17 Mar 2015
Posts: 89
PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2016 9:55 am Reply with quote
Speaking of Japanese doing English versions, the English version of Red Moon from Disgaea Hour Of Darkness was great. Just wish the song in general was longer than 45 seconds, but I agree with the assessment that it helps with context.
If you saw that cutscene in Japanese, you'd miss half the impact as the prinnies and Laharl's mother reincarnate was a very touching moment in what had been a mostly lighthearted game before then.

Regardless of the dub quality which imho I thought if they kept the first two seasons cast with their replacement va for Chibi-Usa, they could've done a good job and improved. It's hard to blame the original staff who were clearly being rushed and had no control over the watered down scripts they were given.

But the songs themselves were pretty great. They put legit effort into them, and although SM's soundtrack is great, it can get repetitive, so it was nice to see unique songs for certain scenes. Rainy Day Man fit the scene perfectly, and My Only Love just tops the original bgm in every way.

A New Day was a wonderful upbeat closer for the first season, Carry On was short but sweet, and then there's the utterly epic She's Got the Power, which is full 80s hard rock with a singer who was really [expletive] into it.

Point is, as cheesey as the soundtrack could be and it is very early 90s pop, it still represented a massive effort to deliver musically when many dubs at the time didn't try half as hard when creating new compositions.
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Shiroi Hane
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Joined: 25 Oct 2003
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Location: Wales
PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2016 12:28 pm Reply with quote
It is shame when there are bilingual artists like Rie Fu, SNoW, BoA and Bonnie Pink (and I think the late Origa was trilingual) etc. that more songs aren't recorded in multiple languages from the get-go.
At least one of SNoW's songs has been recorded in both Japanese and English (although not her songs for Jigoku Shoujo), the first Bleach OP was sung in both English and Japanese, and BoA's theme song for Tales of Graces was performed in both English and Japanese (although it seems to be impossible to obtain the English version without importing the Japanese single).
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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2016 6:49 pm Reply with quote
I do remember "Simple and Clean" was sung in both Japanese and English as Hikaru Utada is bilingual, and I'm sure it was done because Squaresoft knew Kingdom Hearts had to be sold in the Anglosphere. Not sure why it isn't done more often when the opportunity is available. Maybe those singers' agents or record companies forbade it.

Speaking of Japanese singers singing in English in video games, "Chant This Charm," made for Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, was sung in English from the start, but the lyrics are Engrishy and the singer has an accent too thick to understand at some points. (I don't know who sung it; the singer was uncredited in the soundtrack and in the game credits, to my knowledge.)
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Aphasial
Exempt from Grammar Rules


Joined: 08 Aug 2010
Posts: 122
Location: San Diego, CA
PostPosted: Mon May 16, 2016 8:04 pm Reply with quote
SquadmemberRitsu wrote:
Hate to say it, but untranslated songs within a singing-focused idol anime = flawed release.

Speaking of important songs in anime, at least the duel songs in Revolutionary Girl Utena weren't dubbed... Shocked
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