Discussion Forums > Anime Discussions

North American Anime DVDs

(1/2) > >>

Yui-senpai:
I've been looking into purchasing anime DVDs, but I've always been leery of anime released in the states. I remember dubs "Americanizing" (namely 4Kids, but I'm not sure if Funimation does it or not) anime, changing all of the cultural stuff around so that it would make more sense to the average American. I also remember Azumanga Daioh's dub being butchered in a similar manner.

That being said, if I were to purchase a typical anime DVD that had the dub on it (but also Japanese audio with subtitles) would the changes made carry over into the subs? I hope this makes sense. xD

Basically, if I were to buy a DVD of a butchered dub, would the subs on the DVD be butchered as well?

Triltaison:
Not necessarily. It depends entirely on when the DVD was released (the year) and the companies involved. -Not just the publisher with the license, either... Many publishers contract outside studios to do the dubbing/subbing for a series, like Bang Zoom! Entertainment.

A lot of Pioneer's and Bandai's older releases tend to be dubtitles, for example. It doesn't mean they're automatically butchered but it doesn't always mean exactly what's being said is shown, and the timing might be off a little. Generally, I don't think dubtitles happen nearly as much as they used to. Many series are even released sub-only nowadays. The Americanization problem does keep happening to kodomo shows like Beyblade and Pokemon (which are usually only available dubbed anyway because of editing), but is mostly a thing of the past for the average show. There are always exceptions, however.

If you're really that concerned, look up product reviews for whatever DVDs you're hoping to buy because the internet is always pretty vocal when it doesn't like something.

Zalis116:

--- Quote from: Yui-senpai ---I remember dubs "Americanizing" anime, changing all of the cultural stuff around so that it would make more sense to the average American. I also remember Azumanga Daioh's dub being butchered in a similar manner.
--- End quote ---

"Making sense" = "butchered"? Really? I don't think Azumanga's dub rewriting jokes about "bean knowledge" as "grains of truth" is quite the same as (or even "similar" to) calling riceballs doughnuts, changing character names, digitally editing the video to erase "Japaneseness", or pretending the show takes place in America. And if you think ADV didn't care about educating people on cultural aspects of the original material, check out the liner notes I scanned.

Triltaison's already made many of the relevant points -- straight-out cultural whitewashing is limited to kiddie/mass-broadcast products, and dubtitles are rare. (In fact, I'd say these days the bigger problem is dub scripts that are rushed, poorly-adapted readings of the subtitle scripts, but that's another issue.) Generally speaking, you can expect official subs to be more localized than the average fansub, but less localized than the dubs they sometimes accompany. In most cases, this means:

* Honorifics dropped or adapted
* Sibling terms translated or changed to <name>
* Sensei and the like translated to forms of address English speakers might use
* Western name order used for full names, though the use of "family-name-only" address is almost always kept
* Depending on the company, food terms and fan-culture loanwords (like moe, otaku, anime, manga, tsundere, etc.) can be left in Japanese.

So in a way, they're not unlike fansubbers like gg and Commie, except that official subs don't have all the "herp a derp u mad cool story bro" stuff or other blatant joke rewrites. But again, these are generalities -- some official subs, especially by Viz, are more localized. Others, such as many from everyone's favorite whipping boy Funimation, are less localized and use things like honorifics, untranslated sibling terms, and Eastern name order.

donald1:
really? if yu have the money to dump into it, then go for it. i used to collect anime by buying the DVDs. i got sick of paying ~$25 for 4 eps. a 25-50 ep series could cost u a lot. let me know if the price went down since i last bought dvds, but it was one of the main reasons i went to the internet and eventually found BakaBT. that and the fact that the anime i wanted to watch was never going to see an American release.

i encourage supporting anime, but i'm not sure lining Funi's pockets is the best way to do it. VIZ sucks, and dubbing into english ruins the anime for me.

Bob2004:

--- Quote from: donald1 on March 01, 2013, 10:02:14 AM ---really? if yu have the money to dump into it, then go for it. i used to collect anime by buying the DVDs. i got sick of paying ~$25 for 4 eps. a 25-50 ep series could cost u a lot. let me know if the price went down since i last bought dvds, but it was one of the main reasons i went to the internet and eventually found BakaBT. that and the fact that the anime i wanted to watch was never going to see an American release.

i encourage supporting anime, but i'm not sure lining Funi's pockets is the best way to do it. VIZ sucks, and dubbing into english ruins the anime for me.

--- End quote ---

In all fairness, western anime releases are a hell of a lot cheaper than Japanese anime releases. $25 for a four-episode DVD feels like a rip-off, but in Japan they regularly cost the equivalent of $60-70. And that's when they even sell DVDs - looking at Amazon it seems most new releases are blu-ray only, which of course cost even more.

So Funimation are actually giving you a pretty huge discount compared to the originals. Though I agree it's still too expensive to justify buying too many discs, unless you're a really hardcore fan.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page