Forum - View topicHow do you feel about translated songs?
|
Goto page 1, 2 Next |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
motaku96
 Posts: 237 Location: New York |
|
|||
|
I personally don't mind it at all. They usually do a pretty good job of keeping the rhythm and the meaning of the original song. I liked the english versions of the op/ed for Kiddy grade and Rayearth.
Well while I'm at it, how about songs that are sung by the characters during the show. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya dubbed the culture festival concert. For that I prefered the original sung by Aya Hirano but it wasn't too bad I guess. Hmmm....I wonder why they didn't dub the theme song for Mikuru's movie since it's supposed to be Mikuru singing it. Well anyway, in Slayers Next, Lina kinda sung a song in English then sang it in original Japanese. Kodocha dubbed Sana's raps which I thought were well done in either case. In Martian Successor Nadesico, they kept the original song in japanese during the beauty contest. I haven't watched Beck yet but I hear the english dub was really good for using english songs. Ummm...yeah so how do you feel about it. Like it? Hate it? Should they have just kept it in japanese or translated it so it matches the voice actresses voice(I say actresses cause I haven't seen any guys sing yet)? You can bring up any other anime that fit the criteria. |
||||
|
||||
Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11447 Location: Frisco, TX |
|
|||
|
We have a Music forum (with the exact same topic, but I forget where it went), so I'll be moving this there.
|
||||
|
||||
Kruszer
 Posts: 7994 Location: Minnesota, USA |
|
|||
|
As far as translated insert and opening and ending songs go, I can't really say that I like them or dislike them. It all really depends on:
A.) Whether the song (in either language) appeals to me musically. A "good song" is good no matter what language it's in. I not only listen to music in my own language but also others like German, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese. B.) Whether the song appeals to me vocally and If the singer or voice actor for the character can sing with a reasonable amount of skill or not. I'm a trained singer so I tend to be quite critical of singing. If a song has singing it has to be good singing or else I won't listen to it. If the answer to those is both yes then I have no problem with the song. Those are the standards I judge all forms of music by. |
||||
|
||||
Top Gun
 Posts: 4809 |
|
|||
|
Can't say I really mind them at all, from the samples I've heard. If there was a dubbed OP or ED I found to be particularly heinous, I'd just flip the audio over to Japanese for the time it was on (inset songs would be a bit more of an issue, obviously). One of the best examples off the top of my head was Vic Mignogna's rendition of "Hikari E," the third OP of One Piece. He utterly nailed the sound of the song, and the translation was dead-on too. It was a great way to lead off the initial broadcast of the new FUNi dub.
|
||||
|
||||
|
Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6902 Location: Kazune City |
|
|||
|
There's often technical reasons behind the decision to dub or not dub songs. It has to do with the dubbing process...when the licensees get the materials for dubbing from the production companies, they get at least 2 (maybe more) audio tracks. One being the vocal track with the Japanese VA performances, and the other being the "Music and Effects" track with the anime's soundtrack and sound effects. Sometimes in-episode songs will be on the vocal track, other times they'll be on the M&E track. The way I understand it, if a song is on the M&E track, it makes it very hard if not impossible to create an English version. I know in Nerima Daikon Brothers, which dubbed a ton of songs, there was one song in the last episode that was still in Japanese. The vid-notes said that song was on the M&E track, so I'm guessing that's why it wasn't dubbed. I can recall some instance where VAs or a director were talking either on a commentary or at a convention about a song they wanted to dub, but couldn't because it was on the M&E track. So that might shed some light on why some in-episode songs get dubbed and others don't.
|
||||
|
||||
Mistypearl
 Posts: 517 |
|
|||
|
It depends on whether or not the person redubbing it into another language is well, going to do a good job
In anime, I was a bit peeved when the dubbed the openings and ending songs of Ouran, because I didn't like the feel the songs got after being redubbed. The ending song became folky sounding to me for some reason O__o; |
||||
|
||||
|
Kruszer
Posts: 7994 Location: Minnesota, USA |
|
|||
|
One particular series in which I really liked the dubbed songs was Beck. An anime based on music should have excellent music and Funi did not disappoint.
As far as openings go I usually skip openings to begin with and don't notice. However, I didn't mind the English versions of the Blue Gender or Kiddy Grade openings. |
||||
|
||||
penguintruth
 Posts: 8503 Location: Penguinopolis |
|
|||
|
My theory is, the worse the song is originally, the better the English version will be. If it's a good song, the English version will be awful.
Look at the Yu Yu Hakusho songs. Unremarkable. But the dubbed versions are remarkable for being not bad renditions of them. The expectation is low so the result is okay. There are, of course, exceptions, but generally, anime songs aren't all that great to begin with, and English versions just point that out. I have a large number of anime songs on my hard drive, but it's usually because they conjure up images of the show in my head, not because they're good songs. |
||||
|
||||
|
Top Gun
Posts: 4809 |
|
|||
I would guess that the other main issue is whether or not a dubbing studio has access to people with sufficient musical talent to re-write and/or sing the songs. FUNi seems to have an ample supply of musically-inclined actors, which would explain the numerous dubbed songs they've included with their projects. |
||||
|
||||
Sarii Seiichirou Haydn
 Posts: 18 Location: Indonesia (English is my 2nd language) |
|
|||
|
Actually its depends to the person... but for me, i more lyk to listen to it in the real words... even i cant understand the language but i think the real version is more good n if i wanna kno the meaning of the songs huumm.... i can translate it by own self
|
||||
|
||||
Luna Loving
 Posts: 76 Location: Norwich, United Kingdom |
|
|||
|
Well, that all depends. I generally dislike them, as it can (as a guess) be quite difficult to keep the original meaning/ lyrics, so I think it just hinders the dubbed show, rather than helping it at all. (Though not always.)
motaku96 wrote:
I have to agree with you on the concert bit, Aya' s in much better in opinion. However, I think that the dubbers did a really good job at keeping the meaning of the songs, whilst also keeping to the rhythm. To be honest, I don't think that they could have done better without actually keeping it in Japanese. However, with the English dubbed Haruhi Concert in Lucky Star, they still keep with the Japanese lyrics (Maybe because it that, it' s supposed to be Aya singing it, and not Haruhi?) which is interesting. What about Japanese songs in the middle of an English Dub, how do they effect people? As for Mikuru' s song, maybe it was just kept in Japanese due to difficulty in translating the lyrics to keep with the song, or it' s as Zalis116 says, with the soundtracks. Perhaps Mikuru' s English Voice Actor can' t sing very well. (Even if the song is already out of tune.) I think that this particular song just sounds more fitting in Japanese, but that' s just my opinion. motaku96 wrote:
Harima from School Rumble sings a little song for Tenma in the English Dub, in English. To be frank, he' s a really bad singer, but maybe that' s how it' s supposed to be. (it is after all, part of the comedy.) |
||||
|
||||
anime advocate
 Posts: 46 |
|
|||
If you can translate any anime song, like you say you can. Then will you please do me a favor and translate Full Metal Panic (the opening). Also I think Translating songs is great. I like to hear how dinfrent the voices sounds from the orginal japan to american. This field likly requires alot of work for most animes due to the simple fact that even if you are an expierenced vocalist you must still have a good amount of training for any type of Dubed song. You have to some times use words that your not always familiar with in the english language, in wich case that puts alot of pressure on some vocalist. |
||||
|
||||
jetz
 Posts: 2148 Location: Manila, Philippines |
|
|||
|
I can't say I hate the English dub version of songs, cause I actually find most of them decent. The ones I like the most are the English translations of the Fruits Basket songs. I just thought that they're easier to sing and to remember.
|
||||
|
||||
Ushee
 Posts: 11 Location: New York |
|
|||
|
I usually have absolutely no problem with translated songs in anime, however, when the translated version of 'God Knows...' in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya didn't synch up with the characters lip movements as she sang kind of bothered me.
|
||||
|
||||
|
Top Gun
Posts: 4809 |
|
|||
From what I understand, this was because that sequence was originally animated to almost perfectly sync up with the Japanese audio (which is a very rare occurrence in anime). I'd imagine it would be nearly impossible to create a coherent translation of the song while simultaneously matching with those lip movements. |
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group