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Anime Debates
(and some of my own rantings)
A quick note before you
press onward. I may have made some mistakes or horrible examples for
each of these debates. Feel free to contact me if I made a mistake or if
you have a better example or scenario that I could possibly throw into these
debates.
Censorship
| Rules
& Drools | Dubbed Vs
Subbed
Controversy
& Censorship of Anime in America:
Anime, like everything
else in life, is going to have a minority of people who literally hate the
medium and will trash it to death. Just as I'm not too crazy about 'boy
bands' or 'teen pop' music, there are those who feel the same about anime.
The controversial
aspects of anime that are pointed out by the major critics of the medium, have
existed since the days of "Astro Boy"......saying that anime is just
'too' violent and the stories 'too' deep or controversial for it to become
widely accepted among Americans.
To understand why anime
gets away with so much violence and controversial aspects related to, but not
limited to, religious, sexual preferences of characters, and ....'coughs'....
hentai in Japan, you'd have to first look at the home country where most of
the anime product comes from.
Now don't get me wrong,
Japan DOES have limits as to what can be shown on TV stations, but compared to
what the FCC lays down here in the USA, their rules are pretty lenient.
For example, in Pocket Monsters (Pokémon), the comedic elements are
more 'risqué' than the 'toned-down' 4Kids dubbing of the smash-hit TV
series. A classic example is in the episode where James entered a
swimsuit competition and he was wearing a body suit......with an obvious part
of the female anatomy showing......not quite what parents here in the USA
would like to see their kids watching. Thus when the episode in question
went to the editing room, they cut all of that out.
It is also ok to show
bits of nudity in TV shows, but this totally depends on the situation.
If it's meant as a comedy element (Ranma 1/2 is a good example of
where it's used for comedic elements), it's fine. If they were to show
characters actually doing something, then they may draw the line at some
point. In America, any of that stuff is seen as inappropriate for TV,
thus any titles that have too much of this 'comedic' nudity will never see a
running here.
As for the violence
aspect, there's a whole mess of anime that falls into that area.
Basically what it boils down to here is that too much violence is seen in a
'not a very good example for our kids' approach.
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My Rant:
Well, seeing as the
above debate focuses on censorship of anime's 'controversial' elements, I say
yes and no.
Yes, to the censorship
of nude scenes......they just don't carry on the story of an anime series, and
are just there for kicks.
No, to some of the more unnecessary
edits that depict violence. I think anime should get the same treatment
as American animation does. I see more violence in all the American
animated product out there today, than in the 5-6 anime series running on TV
combined. Plus it seems as it's OK for American 'cartoon' characters to
carry weapons around and stuff, while in anime, these elements sometimes see
the editing scissors.
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So, what are your
thoughts on this topic? Send your opinions here,
and they may see a spot on this site someday.
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(Insert
Title Here) Is The BEST Anime In The World
~ or ~
(title) Rulez, (title) Droolz:
OK, picture this
scenario. You're in a chatroom, newsgroup, or message board.
Someone posts a message saying (insert title) rules and something the likes of
"Pokémon" sucks majorly.
First, I shall get this
out of the way......Anime is anime, as long as it's origins are
Japanese. "Pokémon" IS anime...love it or hate it to
death. Same goes for "Digimon", "Card Captor Sakura"
and all those other TV run anime that exist in the realms of Fox, WB, Cartoon
Network & YTV.
I think the reason these
TV run anime here in North America get bashed so much, is because of the
...well....in die-hard anime fans' terms....'less than average' quality
dubbing, and numerous edits. Lets face it people....anime as it stands
right now, will never see a totally 'unedited / uncensored' TV run here.
This is due to the beliefs that Disney set a LOOOONG time ago, that animated
stuff is 'just for kids & kids at heart'. The FCC and TV stations
took these 'beliefs' in stride throughout the years, and explains why most
anime.....the better anime anyways, will never see North American TV screens.
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My Rant:
I've been through so
many chatroom, newsgroup, and message board arguments with this topic, I wish
I would have gotten $20 for each time it's happened. I would be rich by
now.
It's unfortunate that
die-hard anime fans and 'newbies' can't get along because of the constant
arguing that one title rules and the opposing title sucks. What is being
said here, for example, is that a person may like Dragonball Z, but thinks
Pokemon sucks, so he/she is going to bash Pokemon to death and say it isn't
'true' anime, while they'll praise and rave about DBZ. What these DBZ
lovers seem to throw out the window, is that BOTH TV SERIES ARE ANIME!!
END OF STORY, CASE CLOSED!!
I myself, have
disagreements as to what people like/dislike for anime. For example, I
may not like Pokemon as much as I used to, but I sure as heck aren't going to
bash it to death, and I still have the Pokemon section of my site that's
survived the days when I liked Pokemon very much.
I like Digimon a lot
more, but I'm not going to say its the "BEST" anime in the world,
because I KNOW for myself that it is not, plus I've seen more anime than
Pokemon & Digimon, and most of what I seen is better than both those
titles. There's really only a few anime titles I could care less for,
but it's due to their lack of a good story, and/or horrible dubbing and
animation editing, not just because 'they suck'.
On top of that. I don't
bash anime I've never seen.....that's unfair.
To wrap this topic up,
I'll leave you with this. If you're going to BASH an anime title to
death, you better have some darn good reasons as to why you hate it, or else
I'll disregard your opinions. I'll also disregard them if you've never
seen the title that you're bashing.....going that route is just plain stupid,
and you'll end up having people hate you.
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Any thoughts or
opinions? Send
'em In,
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The
Ultimate Debate - Dubs vs. Subs:
(NOTE: Because of
DVD, this topic is pretty much moot, but I feel I must still bring it up,
because anime is still available on VHS, even though within a few years, it'll
be limited to just the TV run versions of anime titles.)
Yes, I saved the biggest
anime debate for last....."Dubbed Vs. Subtitled"
First we have subtitled
anime. Subtitling is where the original Japanese scripts are
translated, and then are typed out and shown as captions at the bottom of the
screen. The music and voice tracks are kept intact, and there is very
little, if any, changes or edits made to the images.
Next we have dubbed
anime, which is where a team of Japanese to English translators, voice
actors/actresses, and, in the case of TV run anime like "Digimon",
music composers to write up new soundtracks, do a complete reworking of an
anime series so it is able to air on network or syndicated TV.
Dubbed VHS of TV series
and movies not run on North American TV is for the most part, left intact as
far as animation/drawings goes, and sometimes even the original Japanese music
score and opening/closing credits, but the voice track is English.
In TV dubbed anime, the
voice track, music score, and opening/closing credit sequence are all done
over for North American audiences, and numerous edits to comply with FCC
regulations and so various groups out there don't criticize it, are also done
to the scripts and animation.
Now, what you, the
newbie to anime, decide to watch, I'll leave totally up to you. However,
understand that if you go out and spend hard earned money on subtitled anime,
you're going to be doing a lot more reading than watching the actual
animation. Plus those captions can fly by pretty fast, so you have to
have a quick eye.
On the other hand,
dubbed anime is all done for you....all you have to do is sit back and enjoy.
However, respect those
fans that like subs and hate dubs, because it seems as they know their anime
and have good taste, and more than likely, have been around longer. The
reason dubs, whether they're on TV, or only on VHS/DVD get bashed so much by
the die-hard anime fans, is because companies (eg: Pioneer, VIZ, ADV,
etc).....and trust me....they try hard, sometimes don't hit the correct
translation of Japanese scripts. What some fans don't realize is that
Japanese to English conversion is VERY VERY HARD and tedious work, so to 'compensate'
a hard translation, they'll make up something in English that's 'close to'
what was said in the Japanese original.
Another fair argument
here is some of the acting by voice talents can be rather
....well.....annoying. Some voices are 'too' squeaky (Miaka = Fushigi
Yuugi ), while others are too 'monotone' or do not correctly match up with
the character's personality (Xelloss = Slayers NEXT/TRY ). It all
depends on the producer's (for the dubbed version of an anime series) vision
of the character and how he/she thinks the character should sound.
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My Rant:
Seeing as most better
anime is ending up the route of DVD, and because I have access to a DVD player
now, my rant need not apply.
However, I'll say
this.....some people (like yours truly) don't have the kind of money, or a
retailer that readily carries subtitled tapes or anime DVDs, that die-hard
anime fans might have to obtain a gazillion subtitled tapes or DVDs, thus they
have to or are forced to resort to dubbed versions.
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Opinions? Send
Them,
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