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Ghost Stories and the legacy of Steven Foster.

I keep hearing that name associated with terrible dubs. If they're so bad all the time, how does he keep finding work?

Akane the Catgirl wrote:

Seeing as Sentai is being brought up, let me contribute by saying I have never ever seen any of their dubs. I've never seen a sub either, but that's beside the point. Hopefully, Sentai can pull their act together now that Steven Foster is gone. Hopefully is the key word here.

I keep hearing that name associated with terrible dubs. If they're so bad all the time, how does he keep finding work?

I don't listen to English dubs anymore, but when I did, the overriding impression I got of Foster was that he got on tremendously well with voice actors, and the team in general.

I've never listened to a Sentai dub, but from my past experience, Foster was pretty decent at getting good performances out of the actors, he just liked to be a bit free with the localisation shall we say.

And I guess I do have to check Penguindrum in dubbed.

I always found Steven Foster to be the most talented ADR Director working in Houston dubbing. Now that he's left Sentai's dubs have gone from being noteworthy at times to uninteresting average fare. Its difficult for me to care anymore about their current dubs or licensed shows. There are a vast amount of talented actors/actresses from the Houston talent pool but they continue to work on mediocre shows all year long. It would be a nice change of pace to see them license some good shows for once.

Basically, I'm talking about stuff like Cromartie High and Ghost Stories. (Yes, I know he wrote the script for that one, but it's general consensus that the sub was already awful).

By assuming Sentai Filmworks is still living in 2010?.........
Pls, Samurai Girls and Loups;Garus are the only ones meeting beyond that year criteria [being mediocre, rushed subtitle script readthroughs].

The original Gakkou no Kaidan was a fairly popular anime. The dub just turned it into a joke, but for some reason there's this subsection of people who praise it despite bashing companies such as 4Kids for doing the exact same thing. Perhaps people who like it just don't like Japanese mythology or culture and appreciate all kinds of Japanese youkai and legends being turned into more American-appropiate Family Guy jokes. Either way, it's an odd choice for someone to use to prove Steven Foster doesn't make terrible dubs.

ADV Foster had a "bad" reputation for altering lines/intent. I think the reaction was a bit overblown. Sentai Foster had a bad reputation for his sloppy work, which was likely the result of the clearly insane schedule he was keeping. His name was on so many projects in such a short amount of time that I can only imagine he was kept on for his impressive speed and let go for his failure to temper that speed with quality.

I personally don't think those issues were exclusive to him during the time, but I think he was the biggest offender and I'm glad that Sentai seems to be improving their quality overall.

That's another thing I've noticed; if the anime is long enough, Foster will get taken off and replaced with another director. Look what happened with Kids on the Slope and Penguindrum. It makes me wonder if he would have been fired earlier if Sentai had the money and talent.

The original Gakkou no Kaidan was a fairly popular anime. The dub just turned it into a joke, but for some reason there's this subsection of people who praise it despite bashing companies such as 4Kids for doing the exact same thing. Perhaps people who like it just don't like Japanese mythology or culture and appreciate all kinds of Japanese youkai and legends being turned into more American-appropiate Family Guy jokes. Either way, it's an odd choice for someone to use to prove Steven Foster doesn't make terrible dubs.

-Stuart Smith

Stuart Smith wrote:

The original Gakkou no Kaidan was a fairly popular anime. The dub just turned it into a joke, but for some reason there's this subsection of people who praise it despite bashing companies such as 4Kids for doing the exact same thing. Perhaps people who like it just don't like Japanese mythology or culture and appreciate all kinds of Japanese youkai and legends being turned into more American-appropiate Family Guy jokes. Either way, it's an odd choice for someone to use to prove Steven Foster doesn't make terrible dubs.

I've never seen it, but I had the impression it was an intentional joke dub, like Duel Masters or What's Up, Tiger Lily?

Ghost Stories caught my interest because I love joke dubs. Kung Pow! Enter the Fist is one of my favorite movies (and was my absolute favorite through most of my high school years).

I've never seen it, but I had the impression it was an intentional joke dub, ...
Ghost Stories caught my interest because I love joke dubs.

Yes, it was so popular that it was almost halfway fansubbed 3 years after it aired. And the dub maintains the essential framework of the plot, the names of the ghosts, the basic character relationships, and the methods of dispatching the ghosts. Hardly a Shin-chan hackjob or even a 4Kids job -- I sure don't know of any 4Kids dubs that added swearing, racist/ethnic stereotype humor, and political jabs. If anything, it's analogous to Manga UK's "Fifteening" of random schlocky OVAs from the 80s and 90s. Having seen both language tracks, I don't think the original/subbed version was a bad show per se; it was merely average, like Japanese Scooby-Doo but with real and slightly more threatening ghosts. If not for the dub, pretty much nobody would remember it today, and we might not even have a completely translated version at all.

Comparing a gag dub to a 4Kids dub is ridiculous because they are totally different concepts with different intentions.

They both disrespect the original material, though. And if that's all you watch and even like, you can not truly say you are a fan of the show itself. Gag dubs are the the lazy way out of marketing or selling a show... it gives off the impression those in charge couldn't care to bother, which is a good sign to avoid that company if they care so little.

-Stuart Smith

As per fansubs, considering how old the show it it's no surprise. The fansubbing scene back in 2000 was a lot different than today. A lot of shows went unsubbed, especially a lot of ones aimed at kids. I suppose it's similar to Shin-chan then. In Shin-chan's case I suppose Funi felt it's the only way to sell a long running series to the west. I don't see why Ghost Stories had to suffer the same style of dubbing, though. The market scene has changed I supposed, because a similar anime called Occult Academy got no dub at all when it was released here, which I suppose is a step up in respectful treatment. I fear what will happen to Youkai Watch when it gets released here, though.

Touma wrote:

Comparing a gag dub to a 4Kids dub is ridiculous because they are totally different concepts with different intentions.

They both disrespect the original material, though. And if that's all you watch and even like, you can not truly say you are a fan of the show itself. Gag dubs are the the lazy way out of marketing or selling a show... it gives off the impression those in charge couldn't care to bother, which is a good sign to avoid that company if they care so little.

-Stuart Smith