Ask John: Why Do Dubbed Anime Get Title Changes?

Question:
I recently saw a show called Legend of the Last Labyrinth in a local Suncoast. I wonder, is this Princess Rouge? I was thinking about purchasing Princess Rouge in subtitled format and had no idea that they had a dubbed one. Then I saw the DVD, and it was also called Legend of the Last Labyrinth. Why do companies sometimes change the name of the series when it is dubbed?

Answer:
The full Japanese title of the show in question is Princess Rouge: Legend of the Last Labyrinth. For some reason, Media Blasters decided to delete the main part of the show’s title for the dub and DVD release of this show. In some cases, anime shows get name changes in the US to make them more accessible to American viewers. For example, Pioneer will be changing the title of Kacho Ohjii to Black Heaven, and difficult to pronounce Japanese titles including Makai Tenshou and Kakugo no Susume were retitled as Ninja Resurrection and Apocalypse Zero, respectively. In many cases, anime titles are simply released in the US under their English or Western titles. That’s the case with Hokuto no Ken being called Fist of the North Star and Pioneer releasing Fushigi Yuugi as Fushigi Yuugi for the subtitled version and the English translation “Mysterious Play” for the dub version. AD Vision has stated that they have chosen to use the moniker “Samurai X” for the dubbed version of the Rurouni Kenshin movie and OAV series in order to tie in with Sony’s plans to market Rurouni Kenshin to American mainstream markets and television. Samurai X is Sony’s official English language title for the show.