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Answerman - Why Do Edited for TV Dubs Change An Anime's Music?

And for the record, now that anime isn't commonly hacked up for American TV very often anymore, this very seldom occurs these days. It's slowly dying out. For example, the English-language version of the most recent Pokémon film - Pokémon: The Power of Us - uses the complete original Japanese score.

I've also heard that, apparently, the FCC literally has a rule (or, at least, had a rule that might have since been taken out) that children's programming, which is what these "edited-for-TV-with-new-music" anime tend to be marketed as, literally cannot go for longer than 15-20 seconds (maybe half a minute) without music, regardless of the original artistic vision. Supposedly this was to keep children from getting bored, as they felt that children couldn't/wouldn't continue to pay attention to what's on TV if there wasn't some sort of music playing in the background.

Fox Kids' airing of Escaflowne is generally cited as a good example of this, as that show utilized little to no music often to help establish certain scenes, but the Fox Kids' version on the dub constantly added in music, often to the point of ruining the original intention of many scenes. As for whether this FFC rule is true or not is unknown to me, but it honestly sounds believable.

I would say the only argument for saying "the practice of replacing music in dubs is dying out" is that television anime aimed at children is dying out in general. Of the few edited-for-children anime on American TV that still exist now and in the recent past, they still change the music quite liberally.

If a licensor can’t make an anime work with the music it was intended to have, they never should have licensed the property to begin with.

modern Western children's entertainment is now basically wall-to-wall faux symphonic music with very over-the-top and obvious emotional cues. This is there to keep kids with short attention spans interested: it's as if there's a constant fear that the viewer will get bored and change the channel.

This is just inherent to the way American children's television has worked for decades. Most professionals who've worked in television, especially children's television, for a long time just do NOT understand the Japanese way of scoring a scene, and all of their years of experience screams out, "OH MY GOD, YOU HAVE NO MUSIC GOING ON!!" or "What's with that weird sad music box?? This is supposed to be a creepy scene!" And so on.

For example, the English-language version of the most recent Pokémon film - Pokémon: The Power of Us - uses the complete original Japanese score.

I would say the only argument for saying "the practice of replacing music in dubs is dying out" is that television anime aimed at children is dying out in general. Of the few edited-for-children anime on American TV that still exist now and in the recent past, they still change the music quite liberally.

Quote:

This is just inherent to the way American children's television has worked for decades. Most professionals who've worked in television, especially children's television, for a long time just do NOT understand the Japanese way of scoring a scene, and all of their years of experience screams out, "OH MY GOD, YOU HAVE NO MUSIC GOING ON!!" or "What's with that weird sad music box?? This is supposed to be a creepy scene!" And so on.

I wonder if those industry professionals understood that they were making the product less appealing to a lot of fans? A huge part of anime's appeal is that it totally shattered one's normal expectations built up with western "cartoons". To try and reverse those differences is counterproductive in the extreme.

If a licensor can’t make an anime work with the music it was intended to have, they never should have licensed the property to begin with.

Has this logic ever been focus tested? I don't really see how kids would get bored of a show if there's no music playing. Kids certainly don't get bored if there's no music playing when they're eating breakfast.