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Answerman - Are Old American TV Dubs Of Anime Lost Forever?

Though in all honesty I still think the Pokemon 90s dub was awesome. (I've tried watching the JP original but it's just not got that same goofy charm.) Those kinds of voices and lines probably wouldn't work for most other anime but somehow when applied to Pokemon, a 90s dub ended up improving the material and giving it more humour and energy than it originally had. Maybe it's because the Pokemon anime itself has enough corniness and over the top silliness that a 90s dub is a perfect match for it?

Thankfully, 95% of these old dubs have been preserved via the Internet. You can still get edited Sailor Moon on VHS for cheap as well. (Cardcaptors and Knights of the Zodiac's edited DVD volumes are a little steep, especially as you get into later volumes.)

The Cardcaptor Sakura Dub though I'd say butchered itself move than Sailor Moon with adjusting whole themes and situations, such as the dynamic between Sakura and Syaoran (this is the Nelvana dub I'm talking about). Things started off bad when they decided to name it Cardcaptors because "boys would never watch something about a girl".

Aiming to tap into that interest while it’s high, licensors with new anime series introducing their own kid and creature stars are wasting no time in getting licensing programs off the ground. Fox Kids’ fall entry Digimon: Digital Monsters and BKN’s newly launched Monster Rancher are unveiling products at retail this month, and Nelvana’s recent pickup, Cardcaptor, is opening its doors to broadcasters and licensees.

As it pursues a broadcast deal for Cardcaptor, Nelvana is confident that the property can afford a longer timeline in releasing licensing products since it not only involves anime, but is targeted squarely at a girl audience, while Pokemon, Digimon and Monster Rancher all skew more boy.

In Cardcaptor, the girl lead unleashes a host of mythical creatures when she inadvertently sets them free after unlocking a book that holds magical cards.

"The market is ripe for another girls’ Japanese animation entry," says Sid Kaufman, Nelvana’s executive VP of worldwide merchandising, pointing to the success of Sailor Moon on TV and video and Hello Kitty in promotions. So confident is Nelvana that it acquired the North American distribution, home video and merchandising rights for 70 half-hours late this summer.

The 2D, cel-animated series, produced by Japan’s Kodansha, with the concept from artist team Clamp, traces its origins to a Japanese comic first published by Kodansha in 1996.

Kaufman envisions the licensing program as fashion-driven, launching with fashion dolls, publishing, apparel, accessories, backpacks, school supplies, stationery, home video and multimedia. The 10-year-old girl’s sidekick, a teddy bear-like creature, will translate well to plush. Collectibility will be a smaller aspect.

Kaufman is considering such items as subtitled video or DVD versions of the original Japanese series to appeal to the property’s secondary target audience of hardcore anime fans. "This [property] takes us into an area that we’re not in – a bit more of an older girls, fashion-driven program," says Kaufman. He believes licensees in the first major categories will be on board by the end of the year.

Pokemon's dub worked so well when so many others didn't for a couple of reasons. For one, it was a very young-skewing show in the first place, so there was little in terms of actual controversial content to excise. You ditch someone waving a gun in Ash's face and James wearing huge fake tits, and you're pretty much set. (And "donuts," don't forget those!) For another, it was almost completely episodic, so the few things that were changed didn't have any significant lasting impact. You didn't have Sailor Moon's "cousins" that raised all sorts of awkward questions, or Cardcaptor's ham-fisted attempts to change its main character, or the absurd hatchet job of 4Piece that would have utterly screwed the editors an arc or two down the line. Besides that, Veronica Taylor and company were legitimately good actors who brought a lot of life to the characters they played. I will legitimately defend that dub to this day.

There's no need for this anymore because TV is so irrelevant for anime in the west nowadays. Let's be honest, without these bad TV dubs though, many of us wouldn't even know what anime is.

Divineking wrote:

I will still hold onto the sliver of hope that someday, Discotek will pick up Shaman King, with the 4Kids dub included

Same here with Ultimate Muscle.

When a show gets licensed rescued, the licensor often doesn't even have the rights to the adapted version (especially if the company doing the adaptation before was a big company like DIC or Nelvana). A new company rescuing a show like that would have to track down the rights to the adapted show separately.

I still have the Cardcaptors movie on DVD. Good stuff.

"That many people remember fondly"
lol I know I'm being snarky but Nelvana and DIC were considered to have ruined anime at the time and even for at least a decade afterwards by more hardcore fans. I know someone else mentioned that the old dub wasn't good and I agree. I can't stand having the super cut up anime and tbh I remember not liking the dub voices although I've become more accepting of dub voices lately so maybe that opinion has changed.

Puniyo wrote:

There's no need for this anymore because TV is so irrelevant for anime in the west nowadays. Let's be honest, without these bad TV dubs though, many of us wouldn't even know what anime is.

Depends on how you define "anime" to those back then. The western dubs deliberately played down or even eliminated the Japan angle in order to convince viewers that the show is an American made cartoon and those that knew would've gotten their sources through the grapevine or read special magazines that focused on the sub-medium. Plus, hardly anyone called anime "anime" back then. It was all referred to as "Japanimation". A term that stayed on strong through to the late 90s until Toonami and the Internet changed people's perception of the sub-medium.

Thankfully, 95% of these old dubs have been preserved via the Internet. You can still get edited Sailor Moon on VHS for cheap as well. (Cardcaptors and Knights of the Zodiac's edited DVD volumes are a little steep, especially as you get into later volumes.)

I would like to say there's still hope for the both of them, considering Monster Rancher managed to get separate broadcast dub and uncut subtitled releases. I also don't feel like anyone on the Japanese side of Shaman King or Ultimate Muscle would have hard feelings about either one of those dubs.

Funimation had that great idea of making that DBZ Rock The Dragon Set with the Canadian Dub.

I assume that you grew up in Canada; YTV showed a lot of anime and the hosts talked about it. Some dub companies were worse than others in the credits (Looking at you, Cinar; You even switched gears from one dub to the next) but I remember many credit sequences crediting the Japanese company and listing their own dub as the English version; It doesn't make the Anglicizing of the script, to make the show "palatable", any less dumb but there wasn't always some deep dark conspiracy to hide that it was a Japanese cartoon .

Don't forget Nevlana and DiC may be worst in anime dubs but they are also Best known for creating some good animated shows and films.