Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Does Anime Occasionally Use English Songs?
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13566 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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Sometimes an anime will use an English-language (rather, Engrish) song and the singer doesn't seem to speak to speak English well. We can sometimes correct that by having an English dub voice actor/actress speak proper English for that song.
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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"Scarborough Fair" is public domain? Like, as in the song by Simon and Garfunkel?
I don't know about other people, but questions I send over, I always put in "Answerman" in the subject, then a quick summary of what I'm asking. I don't send questions in very often though, and the only one I submitted in that needed a detailed answer was the one about Japanese businesspeople and alcohol. (I also submitted in a question about the difference between a "seiyuu" and a "voice actor," and it turns out the answer was simple enough that it didn't need a column: They're synonymous.)
Tell me about it...it wasn't until I turned the closed captions on when I was watching Dragon Ball Super that I found out the opening has English lyrics. The guy who sings it does it in such a thick accent I couldn't recognize it as English. (On a related note, Bumblebee Man in The Simpsons speaks in such poor Spanish that the Spanish dubs, both Latin American and European, just completely redo his dialogue. In most other languages, it's left untouched.) |
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TdFern 87
Posts: 248 |
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If English based songs are pretty mainstream in Japan, I wondered if Japanese songs could be used in American films and Television? You know if popular enough.
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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It CAN be done...but to date, I can't think of any songs from Japan that have caught on in the United States (or anywhere else where English is the most spoken language). I don't really see Japanese record labels reaching out internationally either at least outside of east Asia. They seem to always wait for an overseas company to partner up with them, then establish draconian rules on their partners. If you ask me, if the record labels want their music to be popular in other countries, they have to reach out and do it themselves, and if they insist on partnering up with another company, they need to trust this other company because odds are this other company knows their country's audience better. There was that brief fascination with kawaii culture Cartoon Network had in the late 90's through the mid 00's, however, which began with Puffy AmiYumi singing the credits theme for The Powerpuff Girls, which led to a few music videos for Cartoon Network shows from Shonen Knife and then Puffy AmiYumi both singing the opening theme for the original Teen Titans and getting their own TV show (albeit with barely any of their involvement for the latter). From what I hear, the band was culturally disowned from Japan when they decided to do stuff for American television, but it's probably part of a larger social issue where Japanese people who spend a long time in other countries become ostracized when they return to Japan. Overall, I'd say the reasons for Americans sticking with American music are the same with Japanese sticking to Japanese music: It's just a lot easier to get the rights domestically, and music will always be the most popular when sung in its country's dominant language. |
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Vizo
 Posts: 169 |
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Why are some lines in anime sub occasionally spoken in English? I'm not referring to characters from generally English speaking countries or bilinguals.
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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I can't find a source, but I think the one that selects the english songs in the Jojo anime adaptions is Akaki himself since he knows a lot of english music (even if he accepts he can't understand most of the lyrics). Of course he probably is the exception as not many mangaka have a say in their anime adaptions *cough* shirokuma cafe *cough* |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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I'm old enough to remember when Sukiyaki was a brief hit in 1963 and topped the Billboard "Hot 100" and "Adult Contemporary" charts.
(ANN's forum software cannot handle URLs with special characters so I had to wrap this in "code" tags.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC9LYpAclEM I can't think of any other Japanese song that had such success. One of my favorite examples of an English song used in an anime is "Be My Baby" by The Ronettes which appears in episode fifteen of Monster, also titled "Be My Baby." spoiler[Nina goes to a bar dressed as a hooker and carrying a gun. She wants to meet "The Baby" hoping he can lead her to Johan.] That is one of the most influential and successful songs of all time and still commands healthy licensing fees. When Viz licensed Monster for Western audiences, it couldn't afford the royalties and replaced this signature tune with elevator music. You can only hear "Be My Baby" in the original Japanese release and its fansub. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11405 |
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The song, being an old folk ballad, is, but S&G's recording of it is not. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarborough_Fair_(ballad) (c&p the whole thing - I guess the (ballad) part is messing up the link) |
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Polycell
 Posts: 4623 |
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jdnation
Posts: 2007 |
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English words find their way into regular Japanese vernacular conversations. Just like French words and phrases are adopted by English speakers. Since English is the most commonly spoken language in the world, it's not odd to find certain words and phrases adopted as part of regular or slang speech by other countries. Especially where basic English is part of school courses. Some also come from pop culture. And so saying something in English is either geeky or cool. Or it's just some regular word like 'Sorry' or 'Thank You' depending on context. |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Huh. Reading about that, I somehow missed hearing the song through my entire life. Well, so far. It's also odd because my father only listened to music from the 1960's (and parts of the early 70's especially concerning bands that were popular in the 1960's), but it might have been buried deep in his many CD albums.
Well then. I didn't know that. Count me in as the people who thought Simon & Garfunkell created the song. |
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Polycell
Posts: 4623 |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Yeah, I remember for Splatoon, Nintendo of America simply transliterated one of the phrases you can relay to your teammates mid-match as "Come on!" Apparently, in Japan, it's used to request to teammates to come over, but "Come on!" means something very different in English, and people were spamming it when they felt frustrated by their teammates. For Splatoon 2, they changed it to "Over here!," and now it IS being used for its intended purpose. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11405 |
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Have you seen the Ghibli movie From Up On Poppy Hill? If so, you've heard it. If not, go watch it. 
Btw, the Canticle portion at least of the S&G version of SF was original to Paul Simon I believe. |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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That's definitely been on my list for some time now. I've been pretty wary of getting Ghibli movies on home video though, ever since I found one that turned out to be a bootleg. Except for Castle of Cagliostro, it's the earliest Hayao Miyazaki movie I haven't seen, so it's next. The Ghibli movies have a lot of western music in them though, which I'd guess is a combination of many of them having western settings (or vaguely so) and their aim for global appeal rather than just Japan. Like there was that one that began with "Country Roads," though I forget which movie it was. |
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