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Inspiration and information for this article were provided by my contact in Belgium, Emanuel Van Melkebebe, and fan letters that have appeared in ANIMERICA and ANIME UK magazines. This article is intended primarily for American fans.
Okay, American fan: you've just bought the very newest, latest video release by an American company, and you are extremely upset at how poorly it has been dubbed or subtitled. You complain... very loudly!... about what a lousy job American companies are doing translating anime. And you think it couldn't be done much worse.
But you're wrong! It IS being done much worse! And that is the topic of this paper.
In Europe, anime is starting to achieve the popularity that it has already achieved in the United States. Television shows such as ORANGE ROAD, URUSEI YATSURA, CITY HUNTER, and DRAGON BALL are being broadcast by TV stations, while video companies are releasing the OVAs and movies to video stores (exactly the same as American companies).
And it is horribly butchered! In France, a lot of anime is shown on television. The French have a law (very unpopular) that limits how many hours of foreign programming can be shown on French TV. The law says programs made in France must get more air time than foreign (non-French) programs. As a result of this law, RANMA 1/2 episodes shown in France are often cut down to 14 minutes each! And the nudity that is so much a part of RANMA... forget it! And furthermore, in an effort to circumvent the law about non-french programming, many shows get new opening and closing credits drawn in France which are poorly animated and feature songs written in french which may or may not have anything at all to do with the show it's being run with! Imagine that happening on American TV?! Censorship is happening not just with editing, but changes to the story, with France once again seeming to be the big offender. In the French version of RANMA and CITY HUNTER, Happosai collects not girls' panties, but handerchiefs, while Ryo tries to pick up girls not at love hotels but vegetarian restaurants! And incidentally, CITY HUNTER has been changed to "Nicky Larson" [which is Ryo's name in this version].
In Germany, the situation is much the same. Programs are given German names, and are of course, BADLY DUBBED in German. In a rather surprising twist, anime is handled fairly decently in Italy and Spain, which seem to have the greatest respect for the original material, altough here too problems exist. Nobody, it seems, can escape the "Bad Dub"!! Many names are changed to make them more pronunciable. Italy changed Kei and Yuri [from DIRTY PAIR] to Kate and Julie. France (again!) changed Kyoko to Juliette [in MAISON IKKOKU translated JULIETTE JE T'AIME].
In the United Kingdom (aka "England"), they have the exact same problem we Americans have with bad voice casting and voice acting. They are also saddled with a government agency for censorship, the BBFC, which unfairly rated 3 X 3 EYES as being "Over 18", while DOOMED MEGALOPOLIS, a film far more violent and gory, got only a "15", roughly equal to the American PG-13 rating. And who can forget the music change made to DOMINION, where a really nice soundtrack was replace by a dull, boring bad one? So just remember this, American fan. We are not the only country doing poor dubs. Some things are universal (unfortunately).
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Since I wrote this article, I have received further information. I also wish to add some comments. The following is an excerpt from a letter to me from Emmanuel [Van Melkebebe]:
"Long ago (let's say more than five years ago) nobody really minded anime on French TV. One day, one or other stupid fake psychologist, whose career was more dead than alive, decided to write an article about how dangerous anime could be for young children due to their violence. This article was immediately published by many important magazines. All parents started to panic and the result was the installation of the CSA (ComitŽ de Surveillance Audiovisuel), who started censoring some of the most violent scenes (especially HOKUTO NO KEN suffered!). That was still bearable. But some time later came a new law that prohibited any advertisement during cartoons. Suddenly the TV stations started to panic as they were afraid to lose much money (all cartoons Ñ and thus anime Ñ had a break of a couple of minutes filled with advertisements up till the moment the law had been voted). So they figured: "Hey, if those stupid cartoons would be shorter, then we could put more advertisement before and after cartoons!" And from that moment on the CSA became a device of the TV stations to cut as much in the anime as possible. The result is that they don't only censor violence, but also nude scenes (remark that a girl in bikini is also censored!), quit scenes (for example: 2 characters that are watching a sunset)... The result is that you get butchered anime, with constantly interrupted background music and very hard to follow stories! Money makes the world turn round, I guess!"
Don't you think parts of his letter sound depressingly familiar, especially the part about choping up the shows to add more commercials!?
As to my point, and the reason for writing this essay... The purpose of this article is to make American fans realize JUST HOW WELL OFF WE ARE!!
After writing this article, I have come to realize just how fortunate American fans are when compared to our European counterparts. Yea sure, we still have our problems with bad casting and lazy actors, but for the most part the shows are kept intact with no significant alterations to the story or contents, including the music. And we need to be grateful for that!
We should not end criticism of companies that do unacceptable work, but we do need to stop to think and to realize for a moment just how lucky we are to have companies that give us anime either subtitled or dubbed (meaning dual releases together at the same time) that has not been butchered, hacked, censored, or altered in any way. When was the last time you wrote a letter praising a company for the work they've done?
Be grateful my fellow fans, FOR THE GOOD THINGS we have. It could be much worse!
James "Kitsune Kun" Staley
P.O. Box 268
Jones, OK 73049, USA
(405) 399-2679
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Here, I must comment that the situation in Europe and in the USA are quite different. In Europe (mainly France and Italy), the anime are at first aimed at TV audience and then released on tapes. This situation dictate an attitude related to some political (need to reduce foreign-produced air time) and economical (advertisements) contigencies. In USA, there is almost no anime that are shown on TV. They are all directly release on the video market, mostly by companies that have strong links with the anime fandom and that will then respect fan's expectations. In Europe, anime reach, via television, a greater audience than in America, so I would say that anime is more popular in Europe than here. You also said that anime were treated fairly decently in Italy, but I heard a lot of complaints from Italian fans which let me believe in the contrary.
In North America, we have nevertheless a growing concern: the anti-violence lobby from the parents who think that TV will do a better job than themselves to educate their kids and consequently want a "clean" TV. This is becoming a big problem, particularly in Canada, and we will have an article on that subject soon.
Claude J. Pelletier