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Many Popular 90s and 2000s series like Rurouni Kenshin Got Dub OPs and EDs. Why they no longer made?




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Samuknight



Joined: 25 Mar 2015
Posts: 35
PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2021 6:11 am Reply with quote
I remember the first time I saw Magic Knight Rayearth as an elementary school girl in the 90s I was absolutely blown away at how a cartoon could have an incredible opening thats real song and not something repeating "Spiderman stops crime". And then later on with Rurouni Kenshin on Toonami. By the time I got big into anime in the 2000s remember plenty of the major stuff being localized in the West such as Kiddy Grade all had their opening and ending songs dubbed.

I have to ask why this practise had practically stopped by the time Naruto was gaining a wide audience?
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23779
PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2021 7:11 am Reply with quote
It probably has something to do with cutting costs. It's an additional expense to translate the lyrics and record the dub voices and probably makes no difference in sales or viewership. I can live without dubbed OP & EDs (as nice as they are if available) but it really cheeses me when some shows don't even get their OPs and EDs subtitled. Which is fairly often.
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Alan45
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Joined: 25 Aug 2010
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2021 8:23 am Reply with quote
Cost is probably the main thing. Also dubbing songs is an order of magnitude more difficult than dubbing the content of the show. When localizing ordinary speech they have to convey the meaning and to the extent possible match the lip flaps. With songs, they have to match the music as well. This is especially hard with Japanese to English as the word order is vastly different. This usually results in changes to the lyrics which may or may not convey the original intent.

I agree with Blood- on the absence of subtitles. That is a major problem as sometimes the songs provide insight into the show.
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Shenl742



Joined: 11 Feb 2010
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2021 8:39 am Reply with quote
Probably the biggest reason is that the Japanese record labels that produced these theme songs don't want them covered up. They want them to have as much exposure as possible.
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2021 11:20 am Reply with quote
Shenl742 wrote:
Probably the biggest reason is that the Japanese record labels that produced these theme songs don't want them covered up. They want them to have as much exposure as possible.


That's an extremely good point...and one that I didn't even think of.

@Samuknight

I agree with you that MKR and Kenshin's dubbed songs were AWESOME. They are also sung by the same person, Sandi Fox and I got the chance to meet her. She's super-nice and has a good sense of humor about her "baby voice". xD She has voiced a few anime characters as well.

If you really like dubbed anime songs, I strongly suggest you check out Nerima Daikon Bros...if you haven't already. It's a little hard to find but you CAN still get the official DVDs off ebay. (I just bought the first two though I did see the whole show back in 2006 when Anime Network was on for free) The dub is phenomenal. All Grey Ayres, Luci Christian, and Chris Patton singing their hearts out. And BOY CAN THEY SING!!♥
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 6867
Location: Kazune City
PostPosted: Sun Aug 29, 2021 3:53 pm Reply with quote
This column may be of relevance, particularly the last few paragraphs:

https://animenewsnetwork.com/answerman/2016-05-13/.101630

Quote:
The last, and possibly the biggest factor, is the Japanese producers. Back in the 90s, when communication between Japan and the American publishers was pretty limited, the dub teams could get away with a lot of things, and simply went ahead with their work without any input or permission from the show's licensors. Nowadays, the licensors closely scrutinize pretty much every aspect of the show's release. Very very little slips through the cracks.

While there are exceptions, generally the show's original music team does not want a team of people they've never met from a foreign country mucking about with their songs. If the music is part of a strategy to promote real-life musicians (and it often is, especially with idol shows like Love Live!), then the dubbed version of the show is useless for that purpose. If the management company or agency of those musicians happens to be on the production committee, then forget it! That music is sacrosanct, and nobody is ever allowed to touch it, ever.


The lack of OP/ED subs on official streams has a similar explanation, i.e. that there often isn't enough time to get lyric translations approved by the relevant music artists and labels on a simulcast airing schedule. At least we usually get them on the later Blu-Ray release, and some sites will add them to the streams for later episodes.
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louis6578



Joined: 31 Jul 2013
Posts: 1862
PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2021 6:04 am Reply with quote
Honestly, it might be better this way. Back in the 90s and early 00s, they put a lot of effort into covering the songs. Now on the off chance Funimation does try, they'll sound wooden, lifeless, or worse, annoying. Compare DBS, Ouran, and One Piece's OP and EDs to the older ones like Rayearth, Tenchi, Yu Yu Hakusho, and even the original DragonBall. You'll hear a huge difference.

More often than not, it isn't really worth trying unless you have great talent on board. If you just want to dub an OP or ED just to say you did it, but you're not willing to rewrite the song to make it sound good in English, most would prefer you not try. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want them to pull off a miracle and dub the songs into a great English banger though.
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Alan45
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Joined: 25 Aug 2010
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2021 6:51 am Reply with quote
@louis6578

Have you heard the English version of the songs from the original Bubble Gum Crisis?? I think they were well done. They were integrated into the anime to the point that they almost had to be translated to do a dub version. Still prefer the Japanese version though.
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