How to Do Dubs the Right Way

There are many anime licensing companies in the United States and Canada who bring animated goodies from the Land of the Rising Sun to the underprivileged masses of the English language. Some are sub-par by anime snob standards such as mine, but some have risen to the challenge of adapting their anime to the best it can be. A company who has shown they can make good dubs is FUNimation, who has brought us gems like Ouran High School Host Club, Baccano!, Fullmetal Alchemist, the Dragon Ball franchise, and the recently salvaged conglomerate, One Piece, among many others.

FUNimation has a history of taking anime and turning it into something anime fans can enjoy without destroying the product in the process, like many other companies have done in the name of 'localization'. In my opinion, which I assume is shared by most anime fans that like to keep the Japanese aspect to their anime, there are ways to dub an anime without taking too much away from the original concept. Here is a few ways in which to do that:

1. Keep The Name! When speaking about anime, especially with a purist like I am, the name of an anime that has been licensed for English language can say a lot. Now, to the layman, Japanese can be a tough language to speak, so sometimes having an appropriately translated title in English is about as effective as keeping the name Japanese. A good example of this is The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (original title: Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu). This is a direct translation of the Japanese title and easily understood. Some anime have Romanized titles in the first place like Lucky*Star (Rakki*Suta), One Piece (Wan Piisu), Dragon Ball (Doragan Booru), etc. so it's very easy to translate these into English as most of the time they're already written in English, Romanji (Japanese spelled out in English letters). A nit-picky thing could come up like why Case Closed was called as such, instead of Detective Conan (Meitantei Konan) which would be a direct translation of the original title. Case Closed is appropriate enough of a title, but was it really necessary?

2. Keep the Characters! Certain licensing companies (4KIDS) feel the need to change the names of the characters completely to properly 'localize' or 'Americanize' their anime. This, in my opinion, is completely inappropriate and a slap in the face to the creators and lovers of the series prior to the licensing. A great example of this is Sailor Moon, one of my guilty favorites and my 'Gateway Drug' series that got me into anime in the first place when I was young. Usagi became Serena (I would have even accepted 'Bunny' as that was what she was called in the manga), Makoto became Lita, Michiru became Michelle, Chibiusa became Rini, and so forth until the characters ceased to resemble what they were originally meant to be. This is especially prominent in the case of Sailor Moon, as creator Naoko Takeuchi named the characters to specifically to deal with their elemental bonds. For example, Sailor Moon's Japanese name 'Usagi Tsukino' translates into English as 'Rabbit of the Moon', Sailor Mercury's 'Ami Mizuno' translates to 'Friend of Water', and so forth. They all have a meaning in Japanese, however in DiC's translation, they just slapped on some American name seemingly without really giving them a meaning. To make a great dub, keep the names of the characters the way the creators intended. Most anime fans are not children (at least not under the age of 12 or so, some younger watch it but don't really know or care about these types of things), and most fans I know are in their twenties and looking for a bit of Japanese culture with a good story, great characters, and maybe some awesome battles in space with giant robots.

3. Get Good Voice Actors! An absolute KEY role in licensing anime is getting good voice actors. The voice actors are what is going to propel the story and keep the audience engaged (aside from the translation/writing). There is an art to voice acting, which several have mastered, where emotions, motivations, and situational elements are portrayed to the best of the actor's ability. Some greats are Chris Sabat (Vegeta in Dragon Ball Z, Zoro in One Piece, Giroro in Sergeant Frog, Kuwabara in Yu Yu Hakusho), Crispin Freeman (Kyon in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Itachi in Naruto, Zelgadis in Slayers, Hideki in Chobits), Cherami Leigh (Natsumi in Sergeant Frog, Primula in Shuffle!, Tamaki in Bamboo Blade), Vic Mignogna (Ed in Fullmetal Alchemist, Kurz in Fullmetal Panic!, King of Demons in Shuffle!, and Fay in Tsubasa) and many, many others. The key to great voice actors is, of course the acting and properly portraying the character's emotions, but also being able to pronounce some Japanese if the license company decides to keep the Japanese names as they should. 'Kagura' should be pronounced 'Kah-grah' not 'Kah-GOO-rah', 'Haruhi' should be pronounced 'HAH-roo-hee', and so forth. Another good example is in Miyazaki's most recent film, Ponyo. There are some actors like Tina Fey who have no problem pronouncing the Japanese, but most of the time it was 'PAWN-yo' instead of 'POHN-yo' like it should have been and the main boy's name was Sasuke through half of the movie instead of Sosuke which it should have been. Compared to English, Japanese is a very easy language to pronounce. The vowels only have one sound and there aren't any weird consonant dipthongs like in 'enough' or 'thought' or 'phenomenon'. If you are going to be pronouncing Japanese, it would really benefit to know how to stress the right syllables and how the word should sound. I know this is nit-picky but it really irks me to hear a character be called 'Kululu' when his name is 'Kururu'. There are no 'L's in Japanese, so just learn to pronounce the 'R's right, dangit!

4. Keep Censorship to a Minimum! Anime fans want to see what the creators intended them to see, not a chopped up and Frankenstein-ly pieced together Americanized rap-theme songed monster. (Here's looking at you, 4KIDS version of One Piece!). If the series is targeted to young children (6-10 years of age) it will come to you like that. Series that are meant for an older viewing audience (14+ years of age) will come to you like that. Don't try to edit out tattoos, cigars, guns, or blood to make an anime not meant for kids into one meant for kids. Nothing is threatening about a finger pointed at you with a cropped out gun. (Unless that finger belongs to Szilard Quates from Baccano!, in that case, run as fast as you can!) Don't flip the cars around to the 'American way'; Japanese cars have the driver's side on the right side of the car, and if anyone asks, just tell them that. Children probably won't care if the show isn't localized to American standards and play enough bloody video games to desensitize them to such things. In my opinion, it's the parents' decisions to let the child watch the show, not the duty of the licensing company to try and make it '4KIDS'. Kids nowadays probably know some lesbian couples so Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus really didn't have to become inbred cousin lovers. If you keep true to the content, I assure you someone will watch it.

5. Keep the Music! The opening and ending themes are put there by the original creators for a reason. Keep them there and subtitle them. There is really no need to re-dub them (unless the company does an outstanding job on them), or replace them with a completely different English song (or rap, please, dear gods, no more anime rap songs!). The fans will appreciate hearing the opening and ending (and BGMs, etc.) in their original format. There are few cases in which an English song has been as good as or greater than the Japanese song, like in Pokemon (one thing 4KIDS got right on a fluke), Dragon Ball Z, Yu Yu Hakusho, among others. For a great list of dubbed anime songs, check out JesuOtaku's list on her blip.tv page.

All in all, most dub companies these days follow these guidelines and make really great dubbed anime that makes me both relieved and hopeful for future generations of anime fans. I am a self-proclaimed 'Anime Snob', especially when it comes to dubs, but even I know when there is a good dub floating about. So if you're looking to check out some great dubs, head over to FUNimation's websites and watch their anime streaming for free. Sayonara and thanks for reading!