Ask John: Why Do Translating Companies Change the Dub Script?

Question:
I have a question about why dubbing studios change the dialogue for the dubs? I understand when companies change the dialogue for younger viewers but why does ADV, Pioneer, etc. change the dialogue? I didn’t notice the change until I got a DVD player and could switch between languages and see the difference.

Answer:
I’m sure that there will be a lot of diversity of opinion on this topic between different fans, and different dubbing studios and translating companies have different policies, but the answer largely comes down to money. Because Western fans have a tendency to be very critical of dialogue synching to mouth movement, a dub script will virtually never be identical to the original Japanese dialogue, because the English language dialogue has to be altered to make it match the timing of the mouth movements when spoken. Beyond that, though, dubs are, for the most part, simply not intended for or created for purists that are interested in the original Japanese dialogue. Dubs are created to appeal to the widest possible market, thus dub scripts are written accordingly. Only a small fraction of the mainstream public will watch Japanese cartoons. When anime is dubbed, it instantly becomes more accessible to a wider audience that isn’t interested in watching anything in a foreign language. Adding Western references, puns and jokes to the dubbing further reduces the foreign-ness of anime and softens the unfamiliarity of cartoon characters with impossibly large eyes and wild colored hair. “Americanizing” anime by changing characterizations, adding dialogue where the Japanese version had none and adding American pop culture references all serve to capture and hold the interest of American viewers that otherwise wouldn’t normally watch “Japanese cartoons.” In turn, these new viewers watch and buy more anime. There’s no doubt that dubbing generates greater interest in anime, which is a good thing. More interest in anime means that obtaining anime will be easier and less expensive for fans, and means that translating companies will be able to sell more copies and make more profit. And the best way to get new viewers to watch anime is to make it easy to watch. By Americanizing anime, anime becomes non-challenging and non-threatening. Rather than a foreign art-form, dubbed anime becomes simply “those Japanese cartoons.”

Under ideal circumstances, loose translations in a dub version bring in new fans that eventually get interested in anime enough to seek out subtitled versions to see the animation the way it was made to be seen, resulting in a larger market for Japanese animation. The danger is that rather than generating interest in seeing anime in its original, non-Americanized form, this sort of dubbing simply creates fans that are only interested in seeing more anime edited for American tastes.

In the short term, though, there simply isn’t a big enough market in America for Japanese anime to support widespread dispersion of subtitled translations. To stay in business and continue to grow, American anime translating companies need to continually sell copies of their translated anime to existing and new consumers at a rapid pace. Given the degree of time and effort necessary to convince the average American to watch Japanese anime, it’s simply more cost effective to change the anime than it is to change the viewer.