You can't translate anime scripts directly, and expect what they say to match the mouth movements. I find that kind of work daunting, and some times I'm extremely impressed how the companies do it. Other times I'm not. You mention corny puns and what not, and express distaste due to removing original humor. However, when showing these anime on television, they're being broadcasted to a wide audience, which doesn't have as much of an understanding of Japanese culture as the more "hardcore" anime fanatics. Since said humor is often based on Japanese linguistics there's not much dubbers can do but remove them in favor of humor English speakers would understand. Unfortunately this often results in a poor quality joke, but sometimes I've been surprised by how clever some of the writers can be.
As for music I have no answer, and find it frustration as well. However, I do know that sometimes it's difficult to get the rights to the music, or the price is higher than the company is willing to pay. I'm not fond of it either, but it's the way of the world. Of course, there's always the case of Pokémon, where most of the music is kept, but certain songs are changed, usually due to Japanese lyrics. This sort of changing I can understand.
The situation with violence isn't always up to the company dubbing the show, which is why you sometimes see uncut versions of anime released. That decision often falls on the network who has bought the rights to the play the show, like Cartoon Network, Fox, and what not. Depending on what block the network is going to show the anime, certain scenes need to be edited. I'm all for uncut anime, but you need to understand there are rules and regulations in the industry. So, as long as anime remains in its original form on DVDs, I'm happy.
4Kids is hardly the worst company out there, and I think they do a great of casting voices. A job I would say rivals pre-Cartoon Network FUNimation. But localized Anime is going to be butchered, regardless of who, what, when and where. There's no use in getting angry about it.
Edited by - Black Mage on 6/23/2005 8:42:44 PM
