Pokemon Anime's Dialogue

[Pinkie-Dawn]

One of the pros the current dub has from the original 4Kids dub was that the script/dialogue is a lot faithful to the original Japanese dialogue, though there are time where it's not necessarily a good thing. Japanese language has an entirely different structure, and when translating it into another language, the structure would sound unprofessional because to out-of-place or missing word choices. Official dub companies such as Funimation and ViZ Media are fully aware of this, so they've made changes to the original dialogue such as adding more complex words or metaphors to make it sound more professional for the American audience. Unfortunately, TPCi didn't get this memo, so they left most of the dialogue in the Pokémon anime the way they were structured, in English, and you end up with strangely awkward sentence structures like "When people cry, Pokémon also cry" and very simplified word choices like "bad people" rather than "criminals". For crying out loud, we don't want something like this to happen in the dub:

Spoiler:

Share your thoughts on the anime's dialogue.

 

[shadowmoon522]

well, first the top two fate/stay night ones are obviously gonna sound stupid considering thats not the full quote on either.
and 4kids didn't really stay true to the original dialog all the time. they completely removed the part where mew wanted to kill mewtwo & the rest of the clones for being unnatural.

 

[Garchomp]

Tbh, I think the two quotes you listed aren't really that terrible or cringeworthy. This is an anime aimed towards kids, so it doesn't bother me that they dumb it down for that reason.

And no, 4kids was not more faithful to the original. The most recognizable instance is definitely when they embellished pokeshipping. If you look at the English-subbed episodes and compare it with the dub, they pushed it a lot more.

 

[Pinkie-Dawn]

And no, 4kids was not more faithful to the original.

One of the pros the current dub has from the original 4Kids dub was that the script/dialogue is a lot faithful to the original Japanese dialogue,

Never did I say 4Kids was more faithful to the original.

Also, I've seen shows aimed towards kids using well-structured dialogue (Avatar, Marvel cartoons, etc.), so the problem lies with the way the dialogue in the anime was structured in the Japanese version.

 

[Cura]

Also, I've seen shows aimed towards kids using well-structured dialogue (Avatar, Marvel cartoons, etc.), so the problem lies with the way the dialogue in the anime was structured in the Japanese version.

You have to remember, your examples given were developed by Viacom on both commission (Many Marvel cartoons) and own titling (Avatar). These are English based animations, and not originated in Japanese. Normally, large scale companies have well-equipped translation teams able to read from the original transcripts of a foreign animation (example: Pokemon) and translate them. That is fine, then the translated dialogs go through what the far east actually calls, 'Culture Clips'.

A 'Culture Clip' is effectively the clippings or rough edging between cultures. What is allowed in one place might not be allowed in another and as a result, changes are made. Naturally, animation companies from the east have access as well as usage of certain resources the west doesn't (example: music rights or original transcript protection) which causes the western studios (the ones who dub the series in question) to modify episodes to fit the time slot needed and if having to, edit and every have content rearranged to fit the need.

On the topic of Pokemon seasons in the past, 4kids was infamous for their dubbing world. Like Garchomp stated, they really pushed the whole pokeshipping role since the original dubs felt they were too underwhelming or not up to par with US animation standards. They wanted to have kids watch their show, and not get bored with it, so modifying the dialog and giving engaging parts to a viewer who would get hooked.

In all honestly as well, with the exception of your first pic linked, the other two do make sense when spoken.

"Just because you're correct, doesn't mean you're right." is actually a good example here. When you look at it, some might feel this is a garbled statement, but in actual context; its correct in what it means. If you are doing something that you think is correct, it doesn't in fact mean what you are doing is the right thing to do. It makes sense as does the second statement.

"When you have a birthday, you celebrate being born." This makes sense. Why do you have a birthday? To celebrate the day you were born. Its not incorrect or mistranslated. Its actually spoken correctly, a direct translation from Japanese to English. Sure, some can argue that they could of cleaned it up with better sentence structuring, but in all honestly; doing that would mean you are editing the original dialog of the transcript and like said before this in some cases (many in fact) is actually prohibited in the west.

 

[shadowmoon522]

Tbh, I think the two quotes you listed aren't really that terrible or cringeworthy. This is an anime aimed towards kids, so it doesn't bother me that they dumb it down for that reason.

And no, 4kids was not more faithful to the original. The most recognizable instance is definitely when they embellished pokeshipping. If you look at the English-subbed episodes and compare it with the dub, they pushed it a lot more.

yet at the same time, they altered the ending to sonic x to make it less romantic.
they also did a lot of very stupid and pointless edits to both sonic x

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in case neither of those work

also we have this part.

they even edited an episode so freaking bad that people where left to guess where ash got all 30 of his tauros from.
its kind of ironic that the episode based on a time when guns where commonplace in the us, is severely edited once it got dubbed. though that was more from lazy parents who, rather then teaching their kids about gun safety & not keeping their guns out of kid's reach, decided to instead blame everyone else. still 4 kids could have chosen not to give into the parents who don't know how to parent rather then this crap

Spoiler:

honestly, that might be more of an incentive for kiaba to jump out of the window then the guns would be

[Garchomp]

Never did I say 4Kids was more faithful to the original.

Also, I've seen shows aimed towards kids using well-structured dialogue (Avatar, Marvel cartoons, etc.), so the problem lies with the way the dialogue in the anime was structured in the Japanese version.

I read that on my phone and it looked like it read "more faithful", that's my bad.

Not that I'm trying to start something up or anything, but I will point out the fact that Avatar and Marvel cartoons are American based. Therefore, the dialogue should be better, because it's far easier to script American lingo/slang/mannerisms and then animate characters accordingly to that script.

yet at the same time, they altered the ending to sonic x to make it less romantic.
they also did a lot of very stupid and pointless edits to both sonic x

I have no idea what 4kids' agendas were with each show, so I can't really comment on sonic x.

 

[Jorah]

The editing 4Kids did to Pokemon was very limited in comparison to other anime they've dubbed, but it was still rather irksome. Although I am obviously not in the target audience for a children's programme any longer, I remember watching the "jelly filled doughnut" episode when I was about 10/11 and talking about how funny it was that it actually looked like a rice ball. I can't understand why you would want to pretend it's a different food. If you didn't know what a rice ball was as a child, why couldn't you learn...by seeing it on screen? Why then was it fine to say Americanisms like "jelly doughnut", which doesn't even make sense to other English speaking countries like the UK? Why did they end up even going so far as to edit out a rolling riceball to a rolling sub sandwich?

Wow, I'm sounding pedantic. Luckily, rice balls aren't integral to the plot of Pokemon. Hahaha. If we're going to talk about edits that actually matter, then I would talk about a lot of movie 1 or 4Kids actually adding in a death saying that Brock's mum had died when nothing of the sort was said in Japanese. Most stuff just doesn't impact the plot in any way though, like unnecessary paint edits, an aversion to saying "die", few second edits, BGM changes. There's limited scene cuts like where Misty slaps Ash. I think the last time the dub cut a scene was in DP where Giovanni was, um, all oiled up and had bug Pokemon over him...yeah, not too integral to the plot. You do have to wonder why they wasted time and money like that, though. Most dialogue edits I think go to Team Rocket, both for 4Kids and TPCI, but only because they add in jokes for them when they are more serious in Japanese and don't insult each other as much. But the gist is there.

You're pretty much not missing much by watching the dub of Pokemon, but for anime like Yugioh, paint edits like the "invisible guns" were just the tip of the iceburg. They made scene cuts, plot edits, dialogue edits and actually cut character development for some characters. A few funny scenes were cut which were just a shame not to see in the dub, like where Kaiba is being a badass (no need to fear gun crime when you have children's trading cards) or edited Kaiba badassery, and Bakura eating steak "you know you're badass when you're censored for eating steak" lol.

 

[shadowmoon522]

I think the last time the dub cut a scene was in DP where Giovanni was, um, all oiled up and had bug Pokemon over him...yeah, not too integral to the plot.

regardless, it was kind of unsettling. meowth had some weird freaking fantasys about giovanni. also there where flying types and grass types in the mix
click the spoiler only if your prepared to be unsettled deeply

Spoiler:

If we're going to talk about edits that actually matter, then I would talk about a lot of movie 1 or 4Kids actually adding in a death saying that Brock's mum had died when nothing of the sort was said in Japanese.

the closet thing to that that did happen, happened 18 years prior to the finding of mew's eyelash when jessie's mom, miyamoto got caught in a blizzard in the andes mountains while looking for mew at the command of madame boss, giovonni's mother. the blizzard broke & mew appeared before her. she asked mew to let her capture it for the sake of jessie and mew did what any respectable legendary would do in that situation: let the blizzard resume & fly off. soon after an avalanche buried her alive & she was presumed dead for quite awhile. she's most noted for being the first person to get tangible evidence of mew's existence and leading the expedition that led to mew's eyelash fossil 18 years after her near death experience.