Dogasu's Backpack Discussion

[PaperSplash]

Interesting new comparison, it's surprising that the dub is actually MORE explicit about the romantic stuff when usually it's the other way around and you see dubs toning that stuff down so i'm surprised to learn that it was more subtle in the original version.

I don't know, while it's definitely not unheard of for other dubs to downplay or outright censor romantic stuff, I'd say 4Kids was pretty darn pretty consistent about making Ash/Misty shipping hints in Pokémon more explicit than they were in the original (barring a few odd cases like that one Delcatty episode, but even that's arguable in terms of intent as Dogasu mentioned in his comparison).

 

[darksteel6]

Wow two episode comparisons in a row! Dogasu you're too kind.

Wow they added kill to the English dub? Interesting, I thought for sure that line was in the original.

Still not bothered by the addition of music during silent scenes(9 minutes worth of silence is a LOT for an episode of a animated kids shows so can't say I blame 4Kids for that one) but that one music replacement choice you mentioned was an odd one indeed, I actually didn't notice the jump cut in the music myself but I can see how others would.

I don't think that one exchange near the end was "Dumbing it down" at all though, just sounded like standard translation stuff to me, didn't seem egregious to me in the least.

I do think you're reading a bit too much into the narrator's speech at the end though, it's not meant to be that deep.

 

[Antiyonder]

1.

"What are you trying to do, kill me? I had about enough of you."

Yeah. Should have been "What are you trying to do, send me to another dimension?". Or Shadow Realm.

2.

This isn't a dialogue edit per se, I'm just bringing this up to highlight how Nyarth's "tickling attack" isn't the same thing as the "Tickle" attack that would eventually be introduced in the Generation 3 Pocket Monsters games. Here, the "attack" Nyarth uses in the TV show is kusuguri (くす ぐり) while the attack in the games is kusuguru (くす ぐる).

Still, a possible example of the producers just having these episodes on while developing new Gen ideas?

 

[Dogasu]

9 minutes worth of silence is a LOT for an episode of a animated kids shows

A lot of the episode depicted characters just walking around a forest, trying to find their friends. It's not like there were any "important" or "exciting" scenes that needed to get music but just didn't.

If you think nine minutes is a lot then I wonder how much time you think would have been acceptable.

I do think you're reading a bit too much into the narrator's speech at the end though, it's not meant to be that deep.

It was a joke comment, it wasn't meant to be that deep.

Still, a possible example of the producers just having these episodes on while developing new Gen ideas?

Maybe, but I think it's just as likely the game designers simply came up with the idea all on their own. By that point they were probably just like "OK, so what other verbs can we use out there?"

 

[darksteel6]

A lot of the episode depicted characters just walking around a forest, trying to find their friends. It's not like there were any "important" or "exciting" scenes that needed to get music but just didn't.

If you think nine minutes is a lot then I wonder how much time you think would have been acceptable.



It was a joke comment, it wasn't meant to be that deep.



Maybe, but I think it's just as likely the game designers simply came up with the idea all on their own. By that point they were probably just like "OK, so what other verbs can we use out there?"

Oh, sometimes in your comparisons it's hard to tell when you're joking and when you're being serious.

For me around 3-4 minutes of silence is the sweet spot, that's about how much the DBZ English dub had per episode.(though the Orange Box DVDs annoyingly added in more dialogue where there was none in the original dub)

 

[PaperSplash]

Wow they added kill to the English dub? Interesting, I thought for sure that line was in the original.

It's not even the only time they did something like that either. Must depend on whoever is in charge of the writing for a given episode and whoever is the head of the given network's standards and practices department at the time (and/or perhaps how daring either or both of them are feeling at the time). And I have no real evidence to back this up, but I'm starting to wonder if American children's television networks (or at least Kids' WB!) are more lax in general when it comes to casual/hyperbolic mentions of death compared to more serious/frank discussions of the matter. You'd think that most parents would prefer the subject to be handled maturely if anything, but I suppose the underlying argument behind all of these regulations is the opposite: the more mature something is thematically, the less appropriate it is for kids.

I don't think that one exchange near the end was "Dumbing it down" at all though, just sounded like standard translation stuff to me, didn't seem egregious to me in the least.

It's not the worst change in the world in my opinion and I'd agree calling it "dumbing it down" is a tad uncharitable, but I certainly wouldn't dismiss it as a simple difference in translation either; the rewrites there are minor in the grand scheme of things, but they are present and definitely were done intentionally, whatever the reasoning was. And I honestly do think the rewritten exchange effectively does end up spelling things out a bit more, whether that was the actual intent or not. Though the last two lines were probably just rewritten to sound "punchier", as is typical with Team Rocket dialogue in the dub. Of course, your mileage may vary on whether any of that's really a bad thing.

With regards to the removed mention of Pikachu's gender, at first I thought they might be doing the thing I've seen a lot of localizations do (including this one at times) where they write around turns of phrase that could be perceived as unnecessarily gendered whenever possible. But in the dub's early years, they actually kept quite a bit of that stuff in, and even inserted their own sexist-sounding lines every now and then, so who knows. Maybe they just thought "you're the boss" sounded more like something their version of Meowth would say.

I get the bit about the narrator was just a joke, but it actually got me thinking. While not an actual person per se, I kind of do see the narrator as his own, omniscient character. Especially because in both the original and the dub, there are several gag scenes where his presence is acknowledged (though I suppose those aren't meant to be taken seriously either).

Yeah, I think the famished/hungry exchange in the dub was meant to be a joke on James not understanding the words to be synonymous. Though "famished" to my knowledge implies stronger hunger than normal, so having him say "I'm just hungry" in response kind of muddles the intended humor somewhat.

 

[fluffy-wooloo]

Still not bothered by the addition of music during silent scenes(9 minutes worth of silence is a LOT for an episode of a animated kids shows so can't say I blame 4Kids for that one) but that one music replacement choice you mentioned was an odd one indeed, I actually didn't notice the jump cut in the music myself but I can see how others would.

I didn't mind the instances of them adding music to silent scenes because sometimes music can help set a mood, however, I found it annoying when they'd change the music like every 5 seconds in later dub episodes.

 

[darksteel6]

I didn't mind the instances of them adding music to silent scenes because sometimes music can help set a mood, however, I found it annoying when they'd change the music like every 5 seconds in later dub episodes.

Yeah it gets particularly bad in the TCPI era.