Thread: Should the dubbing companies of the Pokémon Anime replace BGM and songs?

Both 4Kids and TCPI have replaced BGM and songs featured in the original version of the show. Costs, creativity and contracts have all been cited and/or theorised as reasons, but do you think that they should do it? Should either BGM or songs be an exception?

Is the sky red like blood?

This is just a definite no. The way they handle the music is probably the weakest part of both dubs. Replacing music and silence really loses the cinematic atmosphere in the series, so the dub will never get the effect that the Japanese version conveys.

Replacing vocal songs is a definite no also. The Japanese songs really do fit the series. The English songs are just cheesy with sappy and monotonous lyrics to boot. Aim to be a Pokémon Master, for example, is definitely the better first opening compared to dub. It's much more triumphant and upbeat while the lyrics capture the feeling of the show wonderfully. Pokémon Theme, on the other hand, is just awful. It remains my least favorite dub opening because the singer sounds like some crappy 80's singer and the lyrics are so commercialized. Who wants to hear "Pokémon! Gotta catch 'em all!" nonstop? Not me.

They shouldn't, if there is no reason to do.

To put down a definite answer for me, no. Not only because I think a good amount of the Japanese music is really great, but... it's the original music. Not music from country X- but the music that came around first. When one considers adapting a show into another language, one of the most main things is to translate the language. (And, well, Pokemon has many names in English different from Japanese, so there's that too.)

I have a preference for the Japanese music, but there's plenty of Japanese music I dislike and plenty I like from... well, mainly 4Kids. I liked many 4Kids lyrical songs although I like many Japanese ones too. I also think the best TV Japanese music came from Kanto (even though there were more Kanto pieces than later sagas had)...

I could go on, but I won't go on now...

Originally Posted by Agaçant

Replacing vocal songs is a definite no also. The Japanese songs really do fit the series. The English songs are just cheesy with sappy and monotonous lyrics to boot. Aim to be a Pokémon Master, for example, is definitely the better first opening compared to dub. It's much more triumphant and upbeat while the lyrics capture the feeling of the show wonderfully. Pokémon Theme, on the other hand, is just awful. It remains my least favorite dub opening because the singer sounds like some crappy 80's singer and the lyrics are so commercialized. Who wants to hear "Pokémon! Gotta catch 'em all!" nonstop? Not me.

A lot of the English songs are catchy in their own right for me and would work as supplement material outside the actual series (like Japanese image songs) but as official replacements for the JPN songs, no way Jose.

And to be fair, Pokemon's Anime have "Commercialized" written all over it but I know what you getting at.

Originally Posted by Agaçant

Replacing vocal songs is a definite no also. The Japanese songs really do fit the series. The English songs are just cheesy with sappy and monotonous lyrics to boot. Aim to be a Pokémon Master, for example, is definitely the better first opening compared to dub. It's much more triumphant and upbeat while the lyrics capture the feeling of the show wonderfully. Pokémon Theme, on the other hand, is just awful. It remains my least favorite dub opening because the singer sounds like some crappy 80's singer and the lyrics are so commercialized. Who wants to hear "Pokémon! Gotta catch 'em all!" nonstop? Not me.

Eh... he Japanese version isn't completely lacking of that, is it? With the song at the beginning talking about willing to go to/through various places to catch Pokemon and whatnot. The dub one, using "all", does it even more, but still...

I would say no, but i just don't like the best wishes bgm, it's very generic and although the dub music can be generic to, it's atleast different, the raw mainly consist of 6 repeated tracks these days.

But if the raw were to get the older music back from the previous seasons then i would like tcpi to keep the bgm.

Originally Posted by Agaçant

This is just a definite no. The way they handle the music is probably the weakest part of both dubs. Replacing music and silence really loses the cinematic atmosphere in the series, so the dub will never get the effect that the Japanese version conveys.

Replacing vocal songs is a definite no also. The Japanese songs really do fit the series. The English songs are just cheesy with sappy and monotonous lyrics to boot. Aim to be a Pokémon Master, for example, is definitely the better first opening compared to dub. It's much more triumphant and upbeat while the lyrics capture the feeling of the show wonderfully. Pokémon Theme, on the other hand, is just awful. It remains my least favorite dub opening because the singer sounds like some crappy 80's singer and the lyrics are so commercialized. Who wants to hear "Pokémon! Gotta catch 'em all!" nonstop? Not me.

Tcpi has to change the vocals, because no american kid can understand japanese, sorry but that's the way it is, plus i love tcpi's vocals. "yes" there cheesy but i love cheesy songs.

Plus it's a children show, a cheesy song for a childrens show shouldn't suprise you

No they should not...ever. They may have the legal right to do that, but not the moral right.

"The japanese music has just as much bad tracks as much as good tracks"

That is a subjective opinion and I can respect that, but whether or not the Japanese BGM has a few "bad" tracks, or "the same tracks keep repeating themselves" It's still the original music. The reason why the BGM must always be kept is because it was already put in the show. It already conveys the right mood.

"But the original BGM doesn't always convey the mood properly."

It's still not their moral right to replace. Replacing BGM is extremely pointless these days. I've said this once and I'll say it again. The 90's have long since been gone. The dub of Pokemon has had enough BGM butchering for the past decade. Just when I thought that TPCi has changed for the better, they slapped us in the fans by STILL replacing music that we were getting sick and tired of. It also doesn't help that the folks at TPCi are a bunch of arrogant snobs who think that they can improve a show by composing "Big, Lush, and extravagant music with lots of instruments". They can't.

"Well the anime is crap"

Whether or not the anime isn't all that great, replacing music is still a slap to the face of the original product. By the way, if "contractual agreements" have something to do with BGM replacements, then why do the 5 episodes of Diamond and Pearl and the first 5 episodes of Black and White have all of the BGM intact without dub music? I'm sure that they are replacing it for "artistic" reasons. To me, that's just wrong.

Originally Posted by BladeLight52

What does that sarcastic statement have to do with this thread?

I was saying "No, I don't think that replacing music is right at all. It's pointless and utterly unnecessary so they may as well have quite while they could've and fired Manny and/or John." I was just attempting light humor.

And while the Anime is pretty mediocre, it does have awesome music by Shinji Miyazaki going for it and the fact that the TPCi dub removes it makes things worse. I was able to remotely enjoy 4kids since they had enjoyable dialogue to make up for some of their shortcoming and their dub music was bearable though since nothing compared to the original BGM.

The original music is what makes the japanese version fun to watch and listen to - they use a lot of BGMs from the games, see. So replacing them with other music is not great.

Originally Posted by (P.O.K.E.M.O.N)

Tcpi has to change the vocals, because no american kid can understand japanese

Quick, who here can recite the lyrics to that "The Ultimate Challenge" song? Anyone?

Replacing a vocal song with another because of language barrier issues is kind of pointless when you can't even make out the lyrics of the replacement song.

Originally Posted by Dogasu

Originally Posted by (P.O.K.E.M.O.N)

Tcpi has to change the vocals, because no american kid can understand japanese

Quick, who here can recite the lyrics to that "The Ultimate Challenge" song? Anyone?

Replacing a vocal song with another because of language barrier issues is kind of pointless when you can't even make out the lyrics of the replacement song.

Well, the lyrics are on Bulbapedia and I assume they're right since I don't think they'd put guessed lyrics on a factual Wiki. So I'll raise my hand since I can at least refer to it. Plus, we WOULD be able to hear the lyrics if the music was loud enough but not too much seen we need to hear the dialogue and what not. So yeah, it's more of a volume issue that could be solved easily. Not to mention that they could (if they wanted to) release the whole song to hear clearly.

I would say no, but i just don't like the best wishes bgm, it's very generic and although the dub music can be generic to, it's atleast different, he raw mainly consist of 6 repeated tracks these days.

I can say the same thing to the dub music by both 4Kids and TPCi.