Forum - View topicHey, Answerman! [2010-02-12]
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Ryo Hazuki
Posts: 366 Location: Finland |
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Maybe L'Arc~en~Ciel or other bands just don't want English covers of their songs. Why is its such big deal or does hearing Japanese every now and then cause you seizures? |
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fuuma_monou
 Posts: 1826 Location: Quezon City, Philippines |
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The Tagalog dubbed OPs for Magic Knight Rayearth and Sailor Moon were pretty good. The lyrics for SM's were written by one of our top songwriters, Vehnee A. Saturno. Back in those days they could show anime one episode a week, instead of five, so localizing the theme songs has fallen by the wayside. Older examples would be the local English dubs of Voltes V and Macross (this one predated Robotech). Weird thing with a lot of older dubs was changing names and such, but leaving in all of the Japanese songs and on-screen text. |
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Kidnicky
Posts: 79 |
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To answer Leafy Sea Dragon,from what I've seen and heard most Japanese entertainment execs either sincerely believe,or force themselves to believe that LeArcEnCiel is one big break away from beating Lady Gaga in record sales,and once American kids get a glimpse of Ultraman they'll prefer it to Star Wars the Clone Wars.
You can see it in video games,too. They're all too eager to throw money at Super Stat Management Androgyny Brothers 2:The Menu-ing,because they feel once some websites give it a positive review it will beat Halo in America,despite the fact that Joe SixPack NFL country NASCAR fan has shown time and time again he prefers Halo. I'm not sure why this is,but I think it might be because Cowboy Bebop was the most popular show on U.S. basic cable at 1 AM weeknights 7 years ago. You and I know anime fandom is never going to hit the levels it did when Saturday night Adult Swim was the big fad,but these guys have to belive it will,because they've sunk their careers into it. As far as Puffy,maybe they didn't hit the charts,I seem to remember them being briefly popular,though. I did like the dubbed songs in Bubble Gum Crisis (the original OVAs) but not as much as the original language. |
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3492 Location: Back stateside |
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But how would it work in English? "Anime" is "animation," people don't usually say "I watch animations." You say "I watch animated movies," or "animated TV shows," and you could definitely say "anime movies" or "anime TV shows" to make it plural that way. I can't think of a single situation where "animes" would make any sense whatsoever. "Mangas" might seem like a better parallel to "comic books," as in "I read a manga/comic book yesterday" or "I read mangas/comic books every day." But it doesn't really sit right with me, because here you're really forcing Japanese words to fit into a grammatical context that is (if you'll pardon the pun) foreign to it. You don't have the indefinite particle in Japanese (or the definite one, for that matter), so saying "a manga" is just as wierd as "mangas." I know that people take shortcuts tacking an "s" onto foreign words rather than using their own plural (I've studied enough religion in college to see how we do it with Arabic and Sanskrit terms), but when the language itself doesn't have separate plural forms for something, there's no reason to change them. Just leave it as is. Heck, that way involves less thought too! Also, Urban Dictionary is the wikipedia of vocabulary; you can make a word mean anything you want. Case in point: what Stephen Colbert wants, Stephen Colbert gets. |
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SalarymanJoe
 Posts: 468 Location: Atlanta, GA, USA |
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Single most liked question this week is the first question about career advice. I think a lot of us, especially those of us who get involved in anime fandom obsessively as teenagers get the wild idea of making anime transition from hobby to career. I know I thought of it when I was in high school (translator) but eventually fell away from that idea. Brian gives out some good foundation for getting a career (well, the core of his anecdote can be applied to nearly every career) but DaisakuKusama also had some great advice.
Indeed. One thing I learned early on is that there is a piece of the adage of "it's not what you know but who you know" that is often left off - it's who knows you.
Definitely. In the questioner's case, don't just hit up contacts at other anime publications but also professional writer's societies and the like. Particular publishers - while there aren't a ton of anime-specific or anime-focused publications out there, going into small-house publishing might be something you could look into. While you're at college/university, write there in some capacity and build that portfolio. I can't necessarily speak for anything in the arts-related industries (as opposed to the science/tech sector) but I would imagine that just as they are in the tech sector that if you could tailor a portfolio/writing submission to match a position posting rather than trying to shop the same bunch of submissions to different employers. In short, network. Network network network. University is a great place to do it, too. Students are typically given cheap, if not ridiculously free, access to professional development resources and not just for your resume/CV. And, to add my own recommendation, a page stolen from a career development book sitting here in my office: Gather Intelligence. Read or become familiar with numerous anime publications - past and present - don't just read them but learn about them. Find a few that not just you could work or write for but that you want to work or write for. I mentioned earlier that I thought about going into translation and I had a company in mind that I wanted to work for and I sent them an e-mail introducing myself and asked them what they were looking for in a prospective new translator (since they weren't openly soliciting). That was an eye-opener to me that as much as I enjoyed anime, I still wasn't sure it was something I really wanted to do professionally. Also - the questioner gets bonus kudos points from me (not that it probably matters much) for wanting to do something professionally with Japanese animation that's not "I wanna be a voiceactor/animator/mangaka!1!one!! eleven".
Did you irony sensor go off like mine did when I read that this was a music student imparting this knowledge? Snarkiness aside - It is a very important question to weigh and not just from a financial perspective. The whole idea behind "do what you love" is to never "work a day in your life" and it's important to see if you can stand doing professional level work with it moreso than just being a hobbyist. I enjoy professional IT-type work, which came from my computer hobby, more than I do translating stuff, even Japanese cartoons. And as you admit - a comfortable, middle class life comes from more than just writing in and of itself but also comes from editing and management. It's important for the questioner to know because it is a step or a career progression that (s/)he may not be willing to take. Not to mention, like a lot of careers, for every one that is successful or even super-successful there are many more that are probably freelancing at best or scraping by at worst.
Except that it doesn't sound right, really. |
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DuelLadyS
 Posts: 1705 Location: WA state |
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I think you answered this one with your anime example... 'manga' is parallel to 'comic', not 'comic book'. After all, you can have a comic book, a comic strip, or a comic panel. Therefore, you have 'manga books'. This really only comes up with the purals- most people wouldn't say 'I watched an anime TV show yesterday', in favor of the shorter 'I watched an anime yesterday'. So, I read a manga yesterday, but I own over 100 manga books. (Plus 3 manga anthology issues.) 
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vashfanatic
Posts: 3492 Location: Back stateside |
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Yeah, but I'd never say "I watched an anime yesterday," because I'd never say "I watched an animation yesterday." I might say "I watched some anime" or "I watched an anime series/show/episode." Ditto on manga: "I read a volume/book of manga" or "I read some manga" but not "I read a manga." If there's a native speaker here, you can correct me, but I don't think the term refers to an individual volume the way comic book can in English; you'd say tankouban, right? But I can see more leeway on the manga issue because it has a parallel convention in English where comic book allows a plural. Personally, though using indefinite articles here just sounds really weird to me. |
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merr
Posts: 476 |
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It's not about avoiding Japanese; it's about getting to hear a new variation of a song alongside the Japanese version. Honestly, I've never understood the argument against song dubs. Sure, there have been tons of bad ones, but there have also been plenty of good ones. Take, for example, the English version of 1000 Words from Final Fantasy X-2. Say what you will about the song itself, but the English lyrics were amazingly well written. They captured every nuance of the Japanese, but they never once sounded wordy or unnatural. Moreover, on a technical level, the singing itself was equal to (if not better than) Koda Kumi's original work. If I'd never heard the Japanese version, I'd swear that song was written in English it sounds so natural. But hey, if you don't like song dubs, that's perfectly fine. That's why god invented the audio button on your remote. I just get sick of people who constantly say stuff like "God, I hope they don't dub the songs! I hate when they do that!" No one's forcing you to listen to the songs in English. The Japanese track is right there! Let those of us who enjoy song dubs have our fun. |
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jjwitdaheydiddydiddy
 Posts: 45 |
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(a little off-topic...) But actually, I've had several English teachers tell me that both versions are correct. I just can't seem to find that same reasoning in writing textbooks. |
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sevenbark
 Posts: 3 |
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FYI:
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The Xenos
 Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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Really, the anime song dub is more a business and production decision than anything. Like Brian said, it costs too much and most of the time the Japanese companies won't allow it. It's a financial and legal quagmire. Why should they allow some actors who are maybe amateurs in singing and not even in a band cover their song? It's really just not worth it for the minor novelty of hearing a different version.
Really, it's big business in Japan. People act like American distributions companies and the small dub studios the work with are some big evil controlling anime. If anything Japan has the 'big evil corporations' making most of these choices fans decry. Yet somehow Japanese companies are seen as saints. Now I don't think they're evil, I'm just contrasting with all the hate that fans give US distributors. The Japanese companies do make dumb decisions, but ten to one I hear fans blame the American companies for the result as if they're the genesis of most of the decisions. They're mostly not. Speaking of re-dubbing, anyone else remember TokyoPop's abortion of a dub version in their release of Intial D? They decided to redo all the music in the dub, which was a major selling point of the anime. I'm pretty sure it was that whole master issue of getting master tracks to dub around and all those legal loopholes, but.. geez. I remember hearing the music, I think produced by their own Dj Milky. (Psst. It's actually company chief Stu Levy. Also, the Sovereign is David Bowie.) It was awful. A friend of mine mentioned watching the DVDs recently and how hilariously bad it was. As for the "animu and mango", yeah, I guess it got started on the board that shall not be named. they renamed the anime and manga section to it. Guess it did start making fun of rabid fans insisting on Japanese pronunciations, you know the Arucard over Alucard crowd. Personally, I enjoy saying it just to mix people up. I also sometimes do a name of 'Japano-mang-errr' with a drawl which I came up as a joke hicksville pronunciation when people corrected me to say 'mahnga' with a longer 'ah' sound instead of just manga. Bah. Screw it. I'm just gonna call them Japanese comics. Last edited by The Xenos on Sat Feb 13, 2010 2:46 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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jgreen
 Posts: 1325 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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They are both correct, and it depends on which writing style manual you follow as to whether an Oxford comma is recommended. If you head over to this Wikipedia page, you can find the pertinent sections of several different writing style handbooks on both sides of the issue....it's actually a pretty hotly contested issue among grammarians (or, well, as hot a contest as a grammar argument can get, anyway). I always use it personally, as I think it makes your sentences less ambiguous. |
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The Xenos
Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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Oh lordy... my ears... I just dug out the couple of Intial D dvds to check out the dub music. I guess DJ Milky mostly only did the theme and most of the rest was farmed out to no name local groups. Hell, one of them sounds like a lame Sum 41 wanna be. One of them even had their AOL members page as their website. Though really the theme itself is mind and ear rippingly bad. There's some sing song "eeeeahh aaaawh" and they try to make meaning to the title by talking about 'initial drive' over and over and over in a bad rap. I need a Q tip.... to gouge out my audio nerves. They have been teh tainted..
And.. wow.. just tried switch audio between the original Japanese with original music and the English track with the new music tracks. Wow. It's just laughable. No comparison. Hell, they didn't even match the tone or tempo of the songs. They deflated the action of the scenes as the original songs added so much and carried a good deal of the scene. Hell, some scenes just dropped music entirely and had engine sounds and dialog alone. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6883 Location: Kazune City |
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4477 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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I'm not even a dub fan but I somehow enjoy the English dubs of songs as being alternative takes on the Japanese originals.
Also, being someone who still buys the occasional soundtrack CD, anything that'll make it more likely (as unlikely as it is these days) that there'd be a low-priced licensed domestic soundtrack which includes the original Japanese versions of the songs as well as the English dub versions (as was the case for the various US Pioneer Tenchi Muyo soundtracks), I would fully encourage. |
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