Editing of anime in American distribution
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Editing of anime in American distribution describes the process of altering anime to prepare it to be distributed in the United States and forms part of the process of localization. The process is generally applied only to series intended for broadcast on American television; series released directly to DVD are not subject to such heavy alterations.
On top of the translation of dialog into English, this process commonly includes the censorship of audio/visual content to adhere to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and television network regulations and standards and the editing of content not covered by FCC guideline in order to conform to American cultural norms, or to prepare it for distribution to a younger audience than was originally intended.
This type of editing may involve removing nudity or sexual innuendo, removing violent scenes and softening/removing profanity (standards for these in Japan are generally less conservative than in the USA, and audiences are often older) or the making of changes for reasons of political correctness in relation to race and religion.
The process may also include editing a product to remove reference to issues that are accepted by the Japanese public and U.S. media law, but which might provoke controversy among parents or conservative groups in the U.S., or which might confuse viewers who are unfamiliar with Japanese culture. Edits of this type commonly include the substitution of place names, food, and cultural elements not found in the U.S. This may also include the changing/removal of titles, character names, and honorifics and the removing of issues such as marriages between cousins, non-pornographic depictions of homosexuality and references to Japan's view of events such as WWII. Opening and closing credits or scenes may be shortened to allow more time for advertisements in a television time slot.
This type of censorship is not unique to anime, and is also practiced against imports from other countries and even original U.S. productions; Spider-Man: The Animated Series was heavily censored for violence by Fox[1] during the production process, and the Canadian series ReBoot was censored post production by American Broadcasting Company for sexual content and scenes that executives believed would promote incest.[2]
This type of censorship remains highly controversial among fans, many of whom feel that censorship tampers with art and interferes with the creators' artistic visions or belittles the audience by attempting to hide more adult themes from them.
History
The first few anime series to be brought to the United States were all bowdlerized for American audiences, with violence, deaths of major characters, sexual references, etc., completely edited out, since the audience of the anime was assumed to be made up of young children (over time, anime has moved its target audience from young children to young adults and teenagers). These titles included the earliest anime films to be brought to the U.S., in 1961 (and the first three feature films ever released by Toei Animation):[3]
- Panda and the Magic Serpent (白蛇伝 Hakujaden?, The Tale of the White Serpent) (August 14, 1960)[2]
- Magic Boy (少年猿飛佐助 Shōnen Sarutobi Sasuke?, Young Monkey-Jump Sasuke) (December 1959) [3]
- Alakazam the Great (西遊記 Saiyuki?, Journey to the West) (August 14, 1960) [4]
The first anime series to be translated were not exempt:
- Kimba the White Lion (ジャングル大帝/ Janguru Taitei?, Jungle Emperor)
- Astro Boy (鉄腕アトム Tetsuwan Atomu?, Mighty Atom)[3]
- Speed Racer (マッハGoGoGo? Mach GoGoGo)
Star Blazers (宇宙戦艦ヤマト Uchū Senkan Yamato?, Space Battleship Yamato) (1979) and Robotech (which was adapted from three separate series) (1985) broke this tradition by leaving in some of those elements and preserving the drama of the original. However, they still had heavily modified plots.
Founded in 1987, Streamline Pictures was the first North American company founded primarily for the intention of distributing translated anime uncut and faithful to the original content. Streamline Pictures founder Carl Macek had worked for Harmony Gold USA during the mid-1980s, most notably on Robotech.
In the early 1990s, several American anime companies began to experiment with licensing less children-oriented material. Some, such as A.D. Vision and Central Park Media, and its imprints, achieved fairly substantial commercial success and went on to become major players in the now very lucrative American anime market (although, as of late, companies such as A.D. Vision and Central Park Media have come under financial stress). Others, such as AnimEigo, achieved more limited success. Many companies created directly by Japanese parent companies did not do as well, most releasing only one or two titles before folding their American operations.
The localization and editing processes were far more common in the past, when anime was largely unheard of in the United States. However, in recent years, these processes have been used less because of the demand for anime in its original form. This "light touch" approach to localization and editing has proved popular with fans, as well as viewers formally unfamiliar with anime. The "light touch" approach also applies to DVD releases, as they often include both the English-dubbed audio version and the original Japanese audio version with subtitles, are often uncut, and lack commercials. Anime series with edited television versions may have "uncut" DVDs (such as YuYu Hakusho).
In recent years, a change in audience demographics has led to a greater emphasis being placed on releasing (or re-releasing) anime with fewer changes, especially on DVD, where there are fewer content limitations. Often, these releases (such as the Disney releases of Studio Ghibli productions) include both English-dubbed versions and the original Japanese versions, usually with subtitles.
Examples
Direct censorship
Political correctness
Due to cultural differences between America and Japan, some anime contains images that are publicly acceptable in Japanese society, but which are considered politically incorrect in the U.S., or which carry connotations of racism or ethnic stereotyping in the U.S. that do not exist in Japanese culture.
Examples include an ancient Sanskrit religious symbol known as the manji, (representing "life, sun, power, strength, and good luck", and sometimes referred to as the “footsteps of the Buddha”), which was airbrushed out of series like Shaman King because it is commonly associated with the Nazism (see swastika). In some cases however, disclaimers have been included explaining the situation to readers, such as the manga Blade of the Immortal, in which the protagonist of the series wears this symbol.
Religious symbols, such as the Christian cross, are also commonly airbrushed out if they appear in contexts that are not acceptable in the U.S. Religious terminology is often removed from dialogue for the same reason.
For example, representations of the Christian cross were airbrushed out of Pokémon and One Piece, while references to Heaven and Hell were replaced with "HFIL (Home for Infinite Losers)" in Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT. Demonic imagery is also commonly removed or toned down, as are uses of pentagrams, because of their religious meanings, especially with their association to Satanism.
The word "Bible" has also been removed from the covers of Bibles. Names of certain monsters with religious origins are also commonly changed.
In the series
Recreational drugs, alcoholic beverages, and tobacco products
Due to FCC regulations and U.S. social factors, alcohol and tobacco products are commonly airbrushed out of anime in the United States, or are replaced with more acceptable soft variations. However, the exact level of censorship varies between television networks, often depending on the target audience of the anime and the context in which the products appear. Wine or champagne may be acceptable in banquet or restaurant scenes and might escape censorship, while beer or saké consumed on the street might not. For example, in Tenchi Muyo!, references to sake were substituted for tea, and cigarettes were airbrushed out when it screened on Cartoon Network's Toonami, but were left in when the series broadcast on KTEH. Naruto, however, was edited for a slightly more mature audience; consequently, the bridge builder was shown drinking alcohol, though kanji on the bottle and the redness in his cheeks were removed to lessen the effect of the scene. The Third Hokage was also shown smoking a pipe, while Asuma is shown smoking a cigarette. In the Cartoon Network airing of Ruroni Kenshin, Saito, a character who is commonly seen smoking cigarettes, instead is depicted with a toothpick in his mouth - sometimes resulting in some inconsistency when in some scenes he takes a drag of what appears to be a toothpick and somehow exhales smoke.
In the Toonami versions of Mobile Suit Gundam and Mobile Suit Gundam 0080, bottles had the word "SODA" applied to them to show that they were not alcohol, and direct references to alcoholic drinks were substituted for references to drinks such as coffee. In the anime One Piece, Dr. Kureha was drinking a bottle of alcohol, but the dialog was changed to state that it was "bug juice". Another character from One Piece named Sanji is commonly seen smoking a cigarette, though in the English dub, the cigarette is replaced with a lollipop. However, the Funimation Dub has recently changed this to have Sanji not having anything in his mouth.
Violence, death, and weapons
The
Commonly, the censorship of violence is done by removing the exact moment when a physical attack, such as a punch or kick, connects with a person. In some cases this is achieved by airbrushing the scene to include a caption or object (such as an explosion or movement lines) over the point of impact, or by flashing the screen so that the impact is never seen. In other cases, the frames containing the connecting blow are removed and the frames immediately before and after it are extended to procure a slow motion or comic book frame effect.
Under the same principle, weapons are also commonly airbrushed to take a less threatening form, and blood is either airbrushed out or covered with bandages. Where this is considered impractical or too time consuming, an entire scene might be deleted, leading to fights appearing highly contracted, or series missing details that are referenced later on.
For example, the Pokémon episode "The Legend of Dratini" was entirely deleted because of the prolific use of guns being pointed and shot at characters. This caused much confusion as the missing episode explained how Ash captured 30 Tauros.
Plots are often changed to explain the absence of a deceased character by other means. For example, in the original version of Sonic X Maria Robotnik was killed by G.U.N. soldiers, but she was "captured" in the censored version, and in One Piece, the death of the character Kuina, which inspired Zoro's vow to the greatest swordsman in the world, was changed to a crippling injury that kept her from fighting.
In some censored shows death is also either never mentioned, or referenced in some other way; words such as "kill" were substituted for "destroy" in the Gundam series. In early seasons of Dragon Ball Z, they had voice actors do nothing but breathe heavily so that a pile of dead civilians seemed like a pile of civilians that had been simply beaten up. In Saber Rider, the death of enemy foot soldiers was removed by having them teleport to their own dimension rather than die. In Battle of the Planets, voice-overs were added telling the audience that cities were evacuated prior to their destruction, and the dialog was altered to implicitly describe all combatants as being robot soldiers. The afterlife, Heaven, and Hell, are called by different names, such as the "Shadow Realm" in Yu-Gi-Oh! (Also used as a concept to substitute character death for banishment) or "Another Dimension" in early episodes of Dragon Ball Z.
As the teen, young adult, and DVD market becomes more important, a greater number of anime are now adapted without significant cuts to the violence and some networks devoted to animation such as the Cartoon Network are now increasingly setting aside time slots in the evening and at night for uncut or lightly cut anime.
Although not supported across the board, the principle under which this type of censorship is done has been supported experimentally (for example, by the Bobo doll experiment conducted by Albert Bandura), and the media is widely believed to have some impact on behavior by parents and family groups.
Swearing and profanity
While anime intended for a young audience or for television broadcasting in the U.S. does not include profanities, and broadcast anime is routinely censored if it does contain them, this form of censorship is among the least common.
As in the U.S., Japanese series targeted at school age children rarely use overtly strong language. However, translators producing English-language fansubs are often known to use stronger interpretations for certain words, common resulting in the incorrect impression that the original version of the anime contains notably stronger language than its English counterpart. Most prominently, the commonly-used word "kuso" (糞?) is an expression of discontent with a situation; it is regularly translated by fansubbers as "shit". For a series targeted at school-age children, this is not an appropriate English equivalent, as "shit" is considered a taboo word, while "kuso" is not.
Nudity and sexuality
Bottom: the censored version of Sailor Moon (if one notices, there is not as much reflection in the water, and the distance between her and where the reflection begins is greater).
Although Japan has laws governing "indecency", they are much more relaxed than U.S. laws and the display of breasts and young boys' genitals are both permitted and common in anime, as is non-sexual nudity that is included in context (for example, mild nudity during bathing). However, nudity of any kind is far more stigmatized in the U.S., and is not permitted on broadcast television prior to the watershed (not between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.), even if shown in context, and so must be removed from broadcast anime.
In some series like Dragon Ball Z, nudity is concealed by painting in foreground objects to hide exposed parts of characters' bodies. In others, such as Tenchi Muyo!, bathing suits have been airbrushed on to hide nudity and additional clothing has been digitally painted on to help make clothing less revealing. In the 4Kids version of One Piece, cleavage was often removed on characters whose clothing were considered too revealing.
Mention of sex is also commonly toned down to just "hugs and kisses." Scenes of male characters that have perverted natures may be toned down too. One example of this is with the Dragon Ball character Master Roshi; many of his lines were changed to remove or tone down adult references.
Due to U.S. media owners sensibilities, suggested nudity is also commonly censored, often by airbrushing. For example in the U.S. release of Sailor Moon, all of the female leads (except for Moon and Chibi-Moon) were airbrushed to remove the lines tracing their breasts during transformation scenes, even though the characters were shown in silhouette form only.
A nosebleed in Japan indicates sexual arousal and is a visual euphemism for an erection. However, it is often edited out of anime because American audiences would simply not understand the implication.
In recent[citation needed] years however, attitudes as to what is considered acceptable have begun to become more relaxed, with some networks allowing the screening limited rear view nudity of males and prepubescent females in non-sexual contexts (for example, Turner's screening of female rear section in the bathing scene in My Neighbor Totoro). Where permitted, male rear view nudity remains more common than female rear section nudity. At the same time, the type of casual non-sexual nudity (e.g. bathing) that was once common in anime in Japan is becoming more scarce, and some series are even 'pre-edited' before being sent to America at all.
When Sci Fi Channel showed anime like Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture, most scenes with nudity like Mai Shiranui's exposed backside and her breasts were blurred. But a graphic wet t-shirt scene with extensive near nudity in the series Tokko was left intact.
Homosexuality
In Japan, views on sexuality and a tradition of celebrating strong male-male bonds (See shudo) mean that there is less prejudice against homosexuals (particularly male homosexuals) in Japan than in the U.S.[4][5] This level of social acceptance means that anime, including many series aimed at children, often includes male and/or female homosexuals as recurring characters. However, there is still considerable social stigma attached to homosexuality in the U.S., particularly where children's entertainment is concerned, and there is a strong association between homosexuality and sexual acts. Due to this, anime containing homosexual characters is often heavily censored through plot changes, dialog editing, and the deletion of scenes. Where such edits are not possible or practical, the entire anime may be considered unsuitable for broadcast television and never imported.
Examples include the American version of Sailor Moon in which lesbian characters Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus, were changed to "cousins" to cover up the fact that they were a romantic couple,[6] and some scenes that could not be explained away by their new relationship were cut. The character Zoicite was also changed to a woman in order to conceal his relationship with the character Malachite. The character Fisheye was also changed to a woman because he would impersonate women to seduce men to obtain the type of energy he and the other villains of that particular story-arc needed.
Censorship usually occurs even in cases when homosexual characters do not make sexual contact with one another on screen. Toya and Yukito's relationship was completely removed from Cardcaptor Sakura despite them never being openly referred to as homosexual, and despite them never having any sexually intimate moments (they were never even pictured holding hands).
In some instances, censorship on the grounds of homosexuality has taken place even when no homosexual relationship exists. For example, Syaoran Li's attraction to the power of the moon contained within Yukito Tsukishiro in Cardcaptor Sakura, was deleted on the grounds that it could be construed as homosexuality.
Similar censorship is applied to conceal transgenderism. For example, in Battle of the Planets a key villain with a male and female alter ego was divided into two separate characters, while in Sailor Moon, the character Sailor Uranus, who frequently dressed and acted as a male, was toned down by dialog edits and scene changes.
Underage sexual images
In 1996, the Child Pornography Prevention Act (CPPA) was put in place, expanding a federal ban on child pornography from including only pornographic images including real children, to include any images, including computer-generated images, which appear to show minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The act defined a minor as any person being, or appearing to be, under the age of 18.
Many U.S. distributors solved this problem by changing the ages of the anime characters to 18 or older. Altering dialog to move characters from high-school to college (thus raising their age ceiling), or by amending character back story to indicate that they were over 18, but remained in high school for some reason (an extended period illness or injury, lack of study, time spent traveling). Others complied with the law by removing adult scenes, or airbrushing them to include towels, swimsuits or clothes, (the so called "digital bra/bikini" method).
In 2002 the U.S. Supreme court ruled that the 1996 act violated the first amendment, thus being unconstitutional.
"The (Act) also prohibits speech having serious redeeming value, proscribing the visual depiction of an idea -- that of teenagers engaging in sexual activity -- that is a fact of modern society and has been a theme in art and literature for centuries."
- in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition and Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union [5]
Although Japan also has laws governing the use of underage imagery, its laws define a lower range limit for the purposes of child pornography. Japan also has a more relaxed attitude towards nudity that separates contextual nudity (bathing, transformation sequences) from sexual nudity (physical sexual contact or nudity for the purpose of arousing the audience).
Non-censorship modification
Plot
Plots have been sometimes changed to American distributors' likings.
In the case of Robotech, one part of the three-part series, The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, was originally aired in Japan as a weekly series. Harmony Gold USA, the American company that produced Robotech [6], decided to combine it with two other weekly series, The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada, in order to make a show that had enough episodes to market it as a daily series on American syndicated television. Voltron would also be another example; in this case, it combined the series GoLion and Dairugger XV.
It is also possible to change the plot of anime through dialogue. An example of this is in the show YuYu Hakusho in the final fight between Yusuke Urameshi and the Younger Toguro. We see the faces of Yusuke and Toguro, and they are talking. In a shot of Yusuke, we see his girlfriend, Kayko Yukimura, in the background. The dialogue between Yusuke and Toguro, in which Yusuke talks about how he and Kayko will grow old together, is added in the English version.
Another case of the plot being changed through dialogue took place in season two (aka. the Battle city ark) in Yu-Gi-Oh. In the original, Marik wanted to kill yugi because he thought that Yugi killed his father. In the dub, Marik wanted to posess all three Egyptian God Cards so he could rule the world. This was changed to censor one character wanting to kill another.
Cultural streamlining
In order to allow easier access to American audiences, anime is commonly modified to state or imply that it takes place within the United States or a fictionalized country with a culture that resembles America's own. This is commonly achieved by substituting Japanese elements in a series for elements drawn from American popular culture, modifying food or other products to resemble their American equivalents, and by replacing Japanese writing with English.
Examples include Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, in which the Japanese newspaper at the end of the feature is changed to the New York Times newspaper, and the early episodes of Dragon Ball, in which Japanese currency is changed to U.S. dollars.
Although once common, recent years have seen a decline in this process, as American audiences have come to identify various aspects of Japanese and Asian culture as "exotic", and they have actually become factors which attract them to the show. This trend has been mirrored in original North American animation, with series such as Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, Xiaolin Showdown, American Dragon: Jake Long, Shuriken School, Yin Yang Yo, and more being constructed around aspects of Asian culture due to its current popularity. Consequently, fewer companies are carrying out the process of eliminating such aspects in anime.
Despite this trend, however, some companies, 4Kids Entertainment in particular, continue to heavily edit most of their productions in order to remove non-American elements. This tends to include all text on signs, whether Japanese, Engrish, or English.
Audience stereotyping
Some series have been heavily edited in order to comply to American audience stereotypes, either to add elements that increase the series appeal to a key demographic, or to remove elements that may detract from that demographic. For example, in order to attract male audience in the 6 to 9 age range, the company who distributed the U.S. release of Cardcaptor Sakura (a series originally aimed primarily at a female audience), the series was retitled Cardcaptors (note: plural and non gender specific) and it is presumed that Warner Brothers deleted the first 8 episodes of the first series in order to give a male sub-character equal status to the original female lead. It also deleted every episode from the show's continuity that did not sufficiently feature the male character, including the 3 romance based subplots that formed much of the shows appeal to female demographics. To this end, most elements of romance were also removed from the series, thus damaging the plot. However, all 70 episodes aired in other countries, such as Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom's first run (albeit still titled Cardcaptors.)
In some cases, changes made to fit with audience demographics can be so pronounced that they result in the production of a second unique series. For example, in order to take advantage of the popularity of space-themed features among 6 to 9 year old boys that was created by the 1977 release of Star Wars, footage was taken from 85 of the 105 episodes of Gatchaman and heavily modified to create the new series Battle of the Planets.[7] Whereas Gatchaman was a dark series set on Earth and containing a heavy environmental protection message, its American counterpart was a light space based series which contained none of the original environmental message and was aimed at a younger audience.
Opening and closing credits
Changing the visuals of the opening and closing credits is common for demographic reasons, and to allow for the names of U.S.-based production staff and voice actors to be included. Credits may be completely remade, replaced with an English language version of the original credits, or retained but with a unique English language musical score.
When Cardcaptor Sakura was dubbed, its primary demographic was changed from female to male, necessitating the complete replacement of its romance based credits (both audio and visual) with a more masculine alternative (though the Australian version retains the original opening with English words dubbed over the Japanese words), but when Neon Genesis Evangelion was broadcast (a show aimed at the same demographic - young adults and teenagers - in America and Japan, and at existing anime fans), the Japanese credits were retained in full, but with the addition of English and romaji lyrics being displayed on alternating episodes.
In many cases, credits are also altered for commercial reasons. Typical Japanese opening and ending credits are 90 seconds long. Shortening the credits to 30-60 seconds allows more time to be made available for advertisements.
Eyecatches
An eyecatch is a scene or illustration used to begin and end a commercial break in a Japanese television program, especially in anime and tokusatsu programs, similar to how "commercial bumpers" into/out of commercial breaks are used in the United States.
Anime shown on television most frequently have their eyecatches removed, an exception being Pokémon's "Who's that Pokémon" sequence. Eyecatches were also commonly left intact for the Cartoon Network run of Cowboy Bebop.
Titles and names
Shortening of long titles
Sometimes companies, notably FUNimation Entertainment, will change the titles of episodes, specials, movies, or other things, since Japanese titles are sometimes longer than English titles, because the titles do not clearly summarize the content, or because the title spoils what would otherwise be a surprising moment.
For example, the Dragon Ball GT special is, in Japanese, "Goku Sidestory!: The Proof of His Courage is the Si Xing Qiu," so it was changed to "A Hero's Legacy." Also, the thirteenth episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! is, in Japanese, "Morphing Jar's Trap: Flame Swordsman in Danger," although that action took place in one turn of the card game, equalling to less than a minute, so it was changed to "Evil Spirit of the Ring," describing the evil side of Ryo Bakura, Dark Bakura, who was dueling Dark Yugi.
The nicknames of series are sometimes used as the English titles. For example, the manga of Kareshi Kanojo no Jijō is published in English under its nickname, Kare Kano, instead of the literal translation His and Her Circumstances (which is used as the title of the anime). Saikano is the official English title of Saishū Heiki Kanojo ("She, the Ultimate Weapon" or "Ultimate Weapon Girlfriend").
Words and phrases that do not translate elegantly might be paraphrased. For example, the martial arts tournament that the characters in Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT participate in, the "Tenkaichi Budokai" (literally the "Foremost Under Heaven Martial Arts Tournament"), was changed to just the "World Tournament" or "World Martial Arts Tournament."
Untranslated titles
Sometimes, the titles of shows or other names are not translated.
Shows notable for this include YuYu Hakusho (although the show logo has the subtitle "Ghost Files," which is one translation of it; one of the two movies, done by a different studio from that of the show, U.S. Manga Corps, was translated to "Poltergeist Report"), Yu-Gi-Oh! (which translates to "The King of Games", or more accurately, "Game King"). and Fushigi Yūgi (literally "Mystery Game" but usually rendered "Mysterious Play", or "Curious Play" as aired on Animax in South Asia). This is not seen as often as one might expect, often because the original Japanese titles are in English, as is the case with Fruits Basket, One Piece, Perfect Blue, and .hack//SIGN (although, technically, the Romanized forms of the titles would be an attempt at pronouncing the English words), or because the title of shows are the names of the shows's main characters, as in Naruto or Lupin III.
Other things are sometimes not translated: the card in Yu-Gi-Oh! was merely shortened to "Jinzo" ("artificial" or "man-made") in America, from the original name "Jinzoningen ('cyborg' or "android') Psycho Shocker".
Renaming and retitling
Sometimes, the titles of shows and names of characters are completely changed.
The Japanese series "Konjiki no Gash bell!" had its name changed to "Zatch Bell" due to the gore connotations with the word "gash" which means a wound inflicted with a sharp object (or possibly the related sexual dysphemism). In doing so, the title character Gash Bell had his name changed to Zatch Bell. Other character name changes in the show included changing "Tio" to "Tia", "Suzume" to "Suzy", "Kiyomaro" to "Kiyo", "Reira" to "Laila", and "Zophise" to "Zofis" (most of these cases were to shorten the names or to make them seem more American).
Another example, the show Case Closed was, in Japanese, Detective Conan, and the first English version of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was called Warriors of the Wind (although later Disney released it with the original Japanese title).
Sometimes character names are changed to "American" names to make them more familiar and memorable. For example, much of the casts of Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon were renamed (Mazaki Anzu became Téa Gardner, Satoshi became Ash Ketchum). On the other hand, sometimes the changes are less drastic. For example, in Digimon Adventures, the characters' original names were shortened to nicknames (Ishida Yamato became "Matt" Ishida, Yagami Hikari became "Kari" Kamiya. By the time of Digimon Tamers, these name-changes were becoming rather pointless, changing a foreign name to an equally foreign name, e.g. Ruki Makino to Rika Nonana, or Jenrya Lee to Henry Wong. Some characters just have the vowels taken out of their Japanese name, such as Takeru Takaishi, who is called "T.K." in the English dub), and in Shaman King, Horohoro states that his nickname is Trey Racer, though the dub references Horohoro as his real name and Trey being a nickname.
In Disney's release of Studio Ghibli's Laputa: Castle in the Sky, the film was retitled Castle in the Sky, because "la puta" is extremely offensive in Spanish (translating into "the whore"). Hayao Miyazaki, the writer and director of the film, named the movie (and the titular castle located in the sky) after the fictional flying island of Laputa in Jonathan Swift's satirical novel Gulliver's Travels, and remarked that if he knew of the meaning of the word, he would not have used it. It is very possible that Swift knew of its meaning and intentionally used it because of that.[8]
Almost the entire cast of Sailor Moon were given Americanized names, especially if their Japanese names could not be modified easily. For example, "Usagi," the main character whose name translates to "bunny" or "rabbit" was renamed "Serena." However, Sailor Mercury, whose Japanese name is "Ami" was simply called "Amy" in the American release, it's also noted that Ami's last name is also changed while the other member's last names remain the same. Also, Rei was renamed "Raye".
Spellings of names and titles
Some names of characters have been changed because those characters's names were trademarked:
- "Tetsujin 28-gō" (鉄人28号? Iron Man #28) to "Gigantor" ("Iron Man" is an American comic book character)
- "Roronoa Zoro" to "Roronoa Zolo" in One Piece (the spelling "Zoro" is similar to that of the pulp novel and film hero "Zorro")
- "Gonzou Tarukane" being chosen instead of "Gonzo Tarukane" in the show YuYu Hakusho ("Gonzo" being the Muppet – although the English version of the manga uses "Gonzo" as the romanization)
- "Pocket Monster" to "Pokémon" (the phrase "Pocket Monsters" was trademarked by Universal Studios).
- "AquaMan" to "SpoutMan" in MegaMan NT Warrior (Aquaman is a DC Comics superhero; the name IceMan was kept intact even though there is a Marvel character with the same name)
- "Dark Knight Gaia" to "Gaia The Fierce Knight" in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters. The Dark Knight is a term used to refer to DC Comics' Batman.
More rarely, a company might decide to change the romanization of Japanese names, so that the names can be more easily read by English-speaking viewers. For example, "Keiko Yukimura" became "Kayko Yukimura" on the show YuYu Hakusho. In all versions of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT, "Yamucha" (which is the Japanese rendering of the Cantonese term "Yum cha") was romanized as "Yamcha" possibly because the "u" in the name is an epenthetic vowel not found in the original Chinese pronunciation, and in the anime "Kuririn" was changed to "Krillin" for ease of pronunciation.[citation needed]
Anglicisation of pronunciation
The English language has rules for the phonetics reading of words written in the Latin alphabet. Based on those patterns, when people see a new word, they pronounce it in a certain way. Sometimes, the pronunciations of names and titles in anime are just the default native English pronunciations of the romanized titles, even if those pronunciations are different from the original Japanese pronunciations. For example, the "ur" in the name of the character Kurama in YuYu Hakusho is pronounced in the English version by FUNimation Entertainment to rhyme with the "ur" in "churn" (resulting in /kɚˈɹama/). But, in actuality, there is no "ur as in churn" sound in Japanese; it would be pronounced /kɯɺ̠ama/.
Music
Music is sometimes added to moments of silence, as in several English-language versions of Studio Ghibli features. While it is common in Japanese films and anime to have silent moments of reflection (or moments with only faint background noise for the same effect), it is not widely encountered in their American counterparts.
Music is sometimes replaced entirely, as it was in Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Yu-Gi-Oh! second series, Zatch Bell!, One Piece (4Kids version), and Pokémon (Many current episodes of Pokémon such as the Battle Frontier and Diamond & Pearl series has edited out some of the original musics composed by Shinji Miyazaki, which were the ones that can be heard in the one of the video games, with the exceptions of more interesting musics. They sometimes replace the songs of Pokemon with non-relating musics made by 4Kids, Pokemon USA, and TAJ Productions). Other times, Japanese dialogue in theme songs is replaced with English (such as in YuYu Hakusho, Dragon Ball, and the new version of One Piece), or the theme music is replaced or altered, but the background music remains unchanged (as formerly seen in Naruto). In some cases, all of the music is completely unchanged (as in most of the Gundam series, Bleach, and currently Naruto). More dubbing companies have begun to use the original music, as it is usually preferred. One example is FUNimation. It had already released the entire Dragon Ball Z series and are currently releasing season box sets with the English audio and the original Japanese music. Fullmetal Alchemist was also released with its original music. Other instances have the instrumentals of the original theme being used as the American opening theme.
Expansion of dialogue
Lines of dialogue may be added that were not in the original to clarify certain concepts or scenes. For instance, in the anime Naruto, the kunai is often called a "kunai knife." In the film Spirited Away, the first time Chihiro sees the bath house in the English version, she says to herself, "It's a bath house." However, in the original version, she said nothing, as the Japanese audience would be expected to recognize what it was.
English dubbing
- See also: Lip sync#Language dubbing
While it only makes sense that, in any language, the more information that is conveyed in speech, the more syllables it takes to convey that information (in other words, in all languages, the number of syllables it takes to convey information is at least somewhat proportional to the amount of information conveyed), it is unlikely that the same information spoken in two different languages will result in the same number of syllables it takes to convey that information.
When dubbing in English, the voice-overs have to either go by the number of mouth movements in the anime, or edit the video to modify the movements.
Therefore, it is almost impossible to make the English scripts in anime to be the "direct" translations of the original, Japanese versions (the type of translation found in the subtitles of the Japanese versions on DVD's), so the script has to be altered.
Translation problems/untranslatability
Untranslatability is a property of a text, or of any utterance, in one language, for which no equivalent text or utterance can be found in another language.
Terms are neither exclusively translatable nor exclusively untranslatable; rather, the degree of difficulty of translation depends on their nature, as well as the translator's abilities.
Quite often, a text or utterance that is considered to be "untranslatable" is actually a lacuna, or lexical gap. That is to say that there is no one-to-one equivalence between the word, expression, or turn-of-phrase in the source language and another word, expression, or turn-of-phrase in the target language.
A translator, however, can resort to a number of translation procedures to compensate.
Dragon Ball GTs "Lost Episodes"
The English adaptation of the anime Dragon Ball GT ran on Cartoon Network between 2003 and 2005, but the version by FUNimation had a major alteration: the first 16 episodes of the series, the "Black Star Dragon Ball Saga", were cut and replaced by a single US-only episode which summarized the missing episodes; this became the new series premiere. This edit was implemented by the producers of the English dub to prevent viewers from possibly being put-off by these differently-toned early episodes, which contained a slow-running plot and less fighting. The missing episodes have since been released as the "Lost Episodes".
Editing for length
Television anime broadcasted in Japan typically have only one commercial break in the middle of the episode. Typical American television cartoon shows have three or four. This makes an average half hour American television cartoon about five minutes shorter than the average anime episode. Many anime theatrical films, especially early ones, had slow, deliberate pacing resulting in runtimes that often exceeded two hours[citation needed]. American demographics indicate that this is much longer than the average attention span of children[citation needed]. Often, extended scenes of dialogue would be cut or truncated. Many earlier anime theatrical films also had long sequences of pure visual effects and no dialogue. Sequences with musical numbers would also be cut in the interest of shortening the film. Odin: Photon Sailer Starlight, whose original runtime was two hours 15 minutes had numerous surrealistic special effects scenes as well as a musical ending (special appearance by Loudness, the band who performed some of the music numbers), all of which were cut out resulting in a 90 minute English dub.
Getting uncut anime to the public unofficially
Fansubs
A fansub (short for fan-subtitled) is a version of a foreign film or foreign television program which has been translated and subtitled by fans into a language other than that of the original. It is most commonly used to refer to fan-translated anime that is shared amongst other fans.
Anime comparison sites
Some individuals or small groups who have had access to the original, uncut, Japanese versions and the edited, English versions of anime have created internet sites comparing and contrasting those versions, to show the public what is missing from the edited version.
Current American companies licensing anime
Most anime produced for the United States today is left uncut, but almost all uncut anime is only released on DVD; many anime series shown on television, such as One Piece, are still edited. That being said, most major distribution companies leave anime completely uncut, although they may make edited versions for television, as is the case with the show YuYu Hakusho and Naruto.
Here is a list of some of the major American anime companies today. NOTE: This list is based off the list found on Wikipedia's article List of anime companies [last updated on October 28, 2006].
- ADV Films
- AN Entertainment
- AnimEigo
- Bandai Entertainment
- Central Park Media
- Dark Horse Comics
- Walt Disney Home Entertainment
- Family Home Entertainment
- FUNimation
- 4Kids Entertainment
- Geneon
- Manga Entertainment
- Media Blasters
- Miramax
- MVM Films
- Optimum Releasing
- Streamline Pictures
- The Right Stuf International
- TOKYOPOP
- US Manga Corps
- Viz Media
Controversy
Many anime fans object to this editing on artistic grounds, claiming that modifying elements of the original stories amounts to tampering with works of art. Additionally, many fans feel that they do not get the genuine Japanese cultural learning experience they might have gotten had the anime been left uncut. Some fans object because editing is usually done without consulting the original creators of the anime that are edited. On the other hand, many fans are just glad to have anime in the United States and would rather have edited anime than no anime at all.
After several years of petitioning, 4Kids Entertainment released uncensored versions of Yu-Gi-Oh! and Shaman King on DVD. In addition to containing scenes originally cut from the features, the new versions contained the original music, Japanese language tracks and new English language tracks with unlocalized dialog that more closely matched the original Japanese dialog. [9]
These unedited DVDs sold poorly, being purchased only by a subset of fans within the wider anime market. Fans also contend that the uncut DVDs were poorly promoted, being pushed as a niche item within the franchise, rather than as a mainstream franchise in themselves. [10] Indeed, by the time that the unedited DVDs were released, both Yu-Gi-Oh! and Shaman King had been running on television in their localized forms for several years, and had been released in that format for years as well. [11]
The first two volumes of Yu-Gi-Oh were released uncut in 2004, and the third volume was released in 2005. Two volumes of Shaman King were released uncut. After time both projects were canceled. [12]
Despite the poor reaction to the uncut versions of Yu-Gi-Oh and Shaman King in the USA, other uncensored franchises have fared better. In 2005, Optimum Asia began releasing the Studio Ghibli collection in Europe with a Japanese audio track and an uncensored subtitle stream in addition to a censored English language audio track provided by Walt Disney. The collection was a commercial success, and was particularly notable because it included a subtitle only version of Only Yesterday, which had previously been deemed unsuitable for release in the U.S. because it made references to menstruation.
One Piece made many fans furious for its extreme edits, including changing the music, cutting out entire story arcs (sometimes for no apparent reason) that leave plotholes in the series, adding in jokes and puns to make the show more childish, and making serious moments more silly. Funimation has acquired the exclusive American rights to dub One Piece as of April 2007.[13]
Editing of anime has also proven ineffective, as even edited anime still tends to be criticized by moral conservatives. The Parents Television Council has criticized imported anime programming on Cartoon Network for contributing to the violence and sexuality on the network as well as television in general, claiming it to be "morally ambiguous and dominated by violence" [14] without regards to its censorship. It also criticized the heavily censored 4Kids Entertainment dub of Shaman King for violence [15] and the "wide spectrum" of anime offerings available in America, from family-friendly material like My Neighbor Totoro<