I feel the need to mention that for someone who's critiquing style, and editing, it's easy to understand that's something you understand well, since you're videos are jam packed with style, attitude, and excellent editing. You really do an excellent job with these videos.
+NitroRad: Agreed. That's tough to do, I find. Simple enough to say "That's good" or "That's bad;" much more difficult to pinpoint why people think that way.
i'm kinda pissed I threw away all my pokemon cards because now some of them are going for 500 and I wasn't some fuck head who slobbered and grabbed my cards with my pizza greased grimer ass hands
+Chipy For them to be worth anything you need to go a couple of spets beyond not having greasy hands as in they permanently have to be in a hard plastic card protector to retain mint quality and even then only first edition and edition 1.5 charizard are basically the only cards worth a damn.
this video needs so many more views. Because this fucking video raises so many good points and it angers me, because on one hand I agree with it on so many levels and on the other hand I want it to be wrong on a lot of those points. Props to you man, this video could definitely be a conversation starter.
I seem to recall a Japanese drama film where the original dialogue for a rape scene had the rape victim saying "It is painful, but I will endure it." Some things need to be changed.
e.g. John e.g. Smith I'm not really offended because it's funny how SJW weaboos think Japan is a haven for political correctness. It's just fucking cringey to watch how backwards Japan is.
I never woulda thought about it that way, though that soundtrack is probably the only thing I'd consider a guilty pleasure, like it's kinda shitty music, but I still enjoy it sometimes. It's like eating totinos, except that actually kinda tastes alright. Prolly should listen to that again, I mean I ripped the FLAC the other month when I learned how to do that and it's been fiveever. I remember as a kid being disappointed cuz the movie started out great but then the ending was horrible like I expected some DBZ shit even tho I think I might have saw that once or twice on syndication since Toonami didn't happen yet, but aunno the fight between a clone and his mom just sounded more epic than what was shown. Also Pikachu's vacation was so uncomfortable. Also dad was confused why Mewtwo had woman hips.
I see a few people bringing up the crapshoot that was 4kids one-piece outta suck, which is ridiculous as that's the tale of icarus. Like seriously, that was when they took a not so child friendly show and tried to turn it into something it really wasn't.
And this is what I loved about the original dragon ball Z English dub. The shit now sucks without the style and vision funimation had originally marketed it as being. Yeah fuck me right?
Id say not for Gohan ssj2. It was different, and just going for something different. I love both hut overall, Z in english was a better version of the material
I do agree that A. The licensed soundtrack makes it feel more like a movie-going experience. B. The songs fit the background better, and it has this late 90's-early 2000's feel to it. C. Dubbing companies should be able to take some liberties. D. Weeaboos need to find better shit to complain about. But shit like the 4Kids dub of One Piece makes people paranoid about any and all changes, even if they're good. And even though I may not always understand or agree with their complaints, I can't blame them, you can't take a show like One Piece and make it _for kids_ (I'm sorry (I'm not sorry)).
@@Maxiom5 I'm not a fan myself but I know there's some gratuitous violence down the line. Changing riceballs into meatball subs is dumb, but harmless. Outright changing scenes just to accommodate children is just a little bit strange. But whatever. I guess it's nice to have a kids version.
Good shit Soulbro. Love your videos like this and the 50 Shades review where you analyze what most people dislike and find something great/revolutionary out of it.
I feel like this video raises a lot of good points and is an argument for better style and emotional proficiency in localization and editing, but on the other hand it shouldn't be a video to point to any time someone is upset about changes from an original japanese version as it's such a case by case basis that it's sort of wrong to classify any complaints about localization as "Japanese dub purists hating change". They did a great job with the pokemon movie localizations, improving upon the original in a few ways but ultimately I don't think it's fair to use this as an example of why changing a lot of things in a localization as a whole is okay.
long comment ahoy _but it's not a rant I promise_ alright, so yeah, the early Pokemon movie dubs are the ones I grew up on, I remember having Pokemon 2000 Tivo'd for ages (remember Tivo? it was some good shit), script-wise, there were some pretty good gags in them, certainly breathed a lot of life into there, but plot-wise, they did stray quite drastically from the original - which I get is the point of an adaptation, but the Fifty Shades of Gray movie trilogy is also an adaptation and y'know... but anyway, the first movie's dub did have this strange message of "it's not okay to fight" _for a series whose entire premise is based around fighting_ and then 2000 had the "you can't keep things captive" which in fairness the villain in that was like legit cattle-prodding the legendary birds, but again _this is a series where you capture monsters_ the dub of Spell of The Unown I think ticked all the right boxes, it had a great plot adaptation, great music, great acting (*Dan mothafucking Green*) and it certainly improved a whole lot of things I agree with some of your views on the whole Japan-to-English marketing/adapting stuff - however, if I were to do things differently, one of the few things I would do is keep the original songs, not to say the dub songs weren't good, they got fucking Donna Summer and Weird Al of all people beyond all the artists/bands you've probably heard of like once in the late 90s (excluding Westlife, Emma Bunton and Christina Aguilera _and_ a young Billie Piper) but I would've kept the original songs intact _and_ have had English singers do the vocals - and I know that's a big issue with licensing and all that, but this is a dream world where anything is possible, plus there actually is an English version of the original ending song for the Unown movie sung by the original artist, which should've been a no-brainer for the dubbing team but then again this is 4Kids _but then again_ they did give us the brilliant "Make A Wish" - hell, going on a few years later to the more recent movies, the Darkrai movie had UK artists Sarah Brightman and Chris Thompson do the ending theme, and both the Shaymin and Hoopa movies had Japanese artists who were born in the US then moved to Japan, and they can both speak English fluently, so... yeah, I think that should've been considered *tl;dr: good video if not an ounce detrimental to the Japanese side of things*
Bro every time you upload I just happen to be really inebriated so I have to wait until the next morning to fully appreciate the fucking awesome editing !
Nah. The idea that the changes somehow helped Pokemon is complete bullshit. Just ask Toei and how their deal with 4kids helped out One Piece. Pokemon was gonna be popular with or without the changes. That's what 4kids and all other "next Pokemon" properties soon had to learn. If a dubbing company wants to be creative or not be stifled by Japanese standards then they should make their own original properties. Also how the hell is Pokemon still not super Japanese? Pikachu is a japanese pun. The region is called Kanto. The way Brock looks. You get the idea.
+OMAClives +Bigtasty Ben Thanks for both of yours comprehension. My point wasn't that One Piece was anywhere near close to the popularity of Pokemon, But that it was an example of a property localized to hell and back by 4kids yet was still nowhere near as popular. I thought the point of the video was that it wasn't about how something's shot but how it's cut.
+Pepsi Man One Piece was unmarketable. It was shitty looking, overly comedic, and had a nonsensical main plot. It would have never caught on in the US even if it was localized faithfully. The market would have rejected it regardless of what 4kids did. That's not saying they did a perfect job, they clearly didn't. The rap was out of style when they came up with it, for example. Just because a process failed in one instance doesn't mean it is always detrimental to a product's success. Also, just because a product works in Japan (for its era), doesn't mean it will work as well at a slightly different time in America.
OMAClives So does the process work or not? Why didn't Tokyo Mew Mew work? What about Escaflowne? What about Cardcaptors? There are plenty of examples of the process not working. A property is gonna be popular because of the content itself not because some American executive thinks it'll be popular with the kids. Again, it's cause it was Pokemon that it got three theatrical movies not cause it changed onigiri to jelly donuts or cause it changed a Japanese pop song to an English one.
+Pepsi Man The point of the video wasn't Pokemon's general popularity. It was the concept of dubbing taking silly little movies and giving them an alternative purpose in the future.
It's one thing to say that you don't think the original script for Mewtwo Strikes Back was any good, but another to say that without having looked at the original script. I do agree with you that the changes made to the American soundtrack were for the best, just not the script changes, and I don't understand them.
This video rings especially true when there a remake in CGI released a few years ago with a more faithful American script to little fanfare and I just remember it existing searching for Paddington on Netflix.
4kids and WB did a great job over all not just with the films but with the show itself. ... not sure why the films were in full screen instead of wide screen though...
I love that the 4kids dubs if Pokémon and Yugioh got the Hollywood treatment and everyone loved it and are better than the DIC/Cloverway dub of Sailor Moon.
I dunno, it sounds like you just like it better because they added a different song that you prefer and had a bunch of good marketing for it, completely ignoring, I dunno, all of the stuff they cut out of the US release that actually makes Mewtwo a more interesting character. That's not to say there was anything wrong with the dub, it did make money, but it could have made even more.
And you do? I mean listen to yourself, your whole argument is that the dub is better because it has jokes and a song. Meanwhile you missed out on half of Mewtwo's backstory that makes him seem more like a real character. I don't mind what they added, I disagree with some of the musical changes, I'll grant you that I like some of the dub lines and the song you talked about. But I can't agree with what they took away.
"if you hate what Americans did to pokemon, understand they didn't do a bad job, you just disagree with the vision." You're missing the big picture NekoMMDGTS his point is that the Pokemon movie was successful in America because of what 4Kids and Warner Brothers did. I understand that you believe the changes made the story for the worse, but that isn't a counter to his point. "I'm 38 and my easy-bake oven is too small" it's a children's movie, so WB and 4Kids made it appeal to children (specifically, American children). You can argue day and night about how American mewtoo is only a shell of Japanese mewtoo, but that doesn't change the fact that American mewtoo worked for the western audience. when he compared the music, lines, and themes of both versions, he was showing how the Pokemon movie got the full Hollywood treatment instead of being handled like TV movie. Making something more Hollywood doesn't make it better, it just means it's stylistically more inline with American films. If the American children of the the 2000's didn't get into pokemon. Then many of the American man children of today wouldn't be into anime. I'm not saying Americans aren't capable of finding non-american things appealing. I'm saying shows like one-piece, DBZ, Pokemon and Macross were only ever marketed in the US because they got the WB and 4Kids treatment. The American treatment.
>"his point is that the Pokemon movie was successful in America because of what 4Kids and Warner Brothers did." And I fundamentally disagree with that point. Upon further thought, the real reason it succeeded was the sheer marketing machine behind it, this movie was going to sell gangbusters no matter what. Throwing out an arguably superior soundtrack and inserting a 'fighting is wrong' moral wasn't going to make it sell better. I don't think if you prefer the US version, you're wrong, but for me it's less about faithfulness and more that I think the original story stands better above the one they had in the dub. A dubber's job should be to translate over the story so the audience can understand it, making adjustments for stuff that doesn't translate over well, and that's it. Completely changing the story isn't necessary. At best, my feelings is the dub is -different-, not better. If you prefer it, fine, but it's not why it sold.
Honestly a majority of "classic" 90s anime is shit when you watch it in Japanese. DBZ is near unwatchable in Japanese mainly because Faulconer's soundtrack was that good and if you disagree then you're a lying weeaboo Back then stuff like DBZ and Pokemon weren't considered "anime" by kids. They were just cartoons. Now such a big emphasis is put on stuff being "Japanese" that some of the charm is gone
You don't need to be a weeaboo to know that the original Funimation dub for DBZ is shit. The Faulconer soundtrack has some great music but the Japanese version is still superior on all levels. The Funimation dub is filled with stilted voice acting and awkward dialogue, some of which even go against what the character is about. For example, the real Goku would never call himself "the hope of the universe". By saying the "majority" of 90s anime is shit in Japanese, just makes it sound like you're nostalgia blind to the titles you saw growing up. Now dubbing has gotten a lot better in recent years but it's no mystery as to why many despise dubbing during the mid to late 90s when anime had just become more marketable in the US. The censorship and localisation changes were rarely for the better.
Loved your detailed analysis of WB's transformation of the original movie from the Japanese to the Westernized version. Objective, specific, and practical. It's hard to point out technical differences in presentation, when feelings are generally easier indicators. Well done.
I come into this video expecting something interesting, but instead it's just five minutes of talking about stuff I already know, and feeling secondhand embarrassment whenever some imaginary badly defined strawman group of diehard wapanese fans are verbally attacked for being what they are. I mean I guess some quips were funny but somehow I expected more when I clicked on the video. Can't unsubscribe when it's your first time being exposed to a channel.
Pokemon Japan soon worked with America for episodes and releases to make them similar, mostly because american censorship was pulling episodes like the one where ash gets a gun put to his head. America will still take localization liberties though, like with spoken lines. I'd say now if you took a look at the recent pokemon series there is nothing left to censor, they are pretty violence free and japanese culturisms free ( I don't really see rice balls anymore. One movie just features donuts, everywhere, ironically ) homogenize the experience
Those Topps cards were such a scam. Ask Santa for Pokemon Trading cards and receive shitty jpegs of the movie. At least the tin it came in was nice, until my dumbass left it on the floor and totalled the lid.
On one hand, I think several things have been awkwardly damaged by being 'americanized'. The Phoenix Wright series got a little weird after the first game when they had to try to figure out how to convince american audiences that the game still took place in america, and not japan. Okami would have been ruined if the localization team had decided to rename everyone to common western names, instead of just shortening their japanese names to easily pronounced nicknames. I think a few animes have been kind of ruined by pop music sound tracks - the Digimon movie's sound track is like ear cancer if I remember right - but I think I definitely agree with you on the pokemon movie. I think. I've never watched the japanese one and I don't care to.
damaged? The original still exists dude, the fucj is with yoh and localization? You guys are so goddamn threatened by different cultures its amazing you can enjoy anything
I realized at some point that literally the only reasons I cared about Digimon as a kid was because of both the irreverent style of the dialogue and the ska punk. I recently checked out the first episode of tri and was left supremely bored by it. Matt's part of some shitty J-rock band instead of being the lead singer of the Barenaked Ladies. Remember how Matt became the lead singer of the Barenaked Ladies?
I can't find a clip, but I remember hearing two guys mention it on another channel. I think it had something to do with Team Rocket and some character asking what their policy on it was or something.
Your point of view on hardcore fandoms is interesting. It's not a very popular opinion, so I've never heard anyone lay it out the way you did. Radical change can be just as much a good thing as it can a bad thing. And some of these companies improve upon the original source material. Like how Dragon Ball Z's original japanese voice acting was complete garbage and how Chris Sabat's voice spits testosterone like a cobra's fuckin' venom.
I couldn't agree more with this, It's crazy how Some people think Americanizing or just tweaking stuff ruins the original product but if it makes the product better and more marketable ALWAYS go for it.
Attaching so many popular artists to movies has definitely gone to the wayside largely. It was so huge back in the day that you could get buy the score and a soundtrack labeled music from and inspired by the movie. WB took a similar approach to Space Jam. The movie was whatever but the music was fantastic.
I'm not really into Disney movies but I will say zootopia was not that bad at all, I went to see with my family, OK that's a lie, I saw a bootleg of it online and I got to say it was a pretty well-rounded movie. And with a 99% on rotten tomatoes for a straight week which by the way is a higher score then the revenant and other Oscar-winning movies i'd say the movie is Worth a soulbrotha review. And the revenant.
