Does this bug the hell out of anyone else?

[nikoshinigami]

Probably my number one annoyance here on VAA is the amount of people doing anime fandubs that want someone here to sing the opening song for them... in Japanese.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's the idea of doing a fandub to put it in a language other than Japanese? Otherwise, why bother? If you want the opening to be in Japanese, guess what? OMG the original is in Japanese! How lucky for you, you no longer have to bother having people audition to put it into that language! Tada, it's like magic, huh?

Yeah, just kinda really annoyed by that x_x And all the cover groups too though to a much lesser extent. I think it would be awesome to sing translated versions of the foreign songs you love but honestly, if we want to hear the song in its original language, we'll listen to the original artist.

My two cents, for what they're worth.

[Myokei-kun]

Well I personally can't relate, because I'm just like you, I like to actually try to translate the songs into English if possible.

I'm sure there are plenty of reasons why someone would want to leave it alone. For one thing, people have a hard time making up lyrics into foreign languages, as it's hard to always create a good flow that the original Japanese version presented.

Also technically "dub" just simply means to put your voice over a video. It doesn't have to mean translating to a different languge. If someone wanted to, they could just do a dub over an anime, while speaking Japanese all over again, and just repeating the original VA's word for word, and it would still be technically a fandub.

There are also some people that think it's "blasphemy" or something to translate an anime song, never really understood that....

Oh, and I just noticed this is my 1000th post, lol, go me!

[pankekii]

Translating a japanese song into english sounds a tad weird and unfitting if the original singer had a crazy high pitched voice (i.e Sobakasu turning into the somewhat irritating Freckles opening for Rurouni Kenshin). It makes me feel odd listening to an anime song translated into english. However, some other countries have snazzy translations to the songs. I mean, the german translation for Sailor Moon's opening theme was pretty adorable.

I find singing in japanese fun because it sounds cuter in a way X3; ...Sometimes reading and pronounciation can be quite difficult (well, for me anyways). Its some good practice if you're interested in learning the language though.

[nikoshinigami]

Blaze, congrats on the 1k posts!

pankekii, I can understand it being good practice, but it just makes no sence to me why someone would, if they are dubbing an anime into English, want someone to re-sing the opening in Japanese when you can simply use the original.

As for mimicking their cute, high pitches, I think that's kinda silly to do. Culturally, our entertainment does not include voices like that unless in parody or the character is a small child (Sponge Bob Square Pants anyone?). So to make an English version doesn't make mimicry important, just being true to the meaning of the song or project or what have you.

I don't know. I, personally, prefer some dubs to the original anime version just because I hate it when a male character has an extremely high, girly voice (Yuki from Fruits Basket being a good example). It's just not iconic of our entertainment and it would have sounded ridiculous if the American voice actor had tried to sound like that.

[Tsuki Yamamoto]

Probably my number one annoyance here on VAA is the amount of people doing anime fandubs that want someone here to sing the opening song for them... in Japanese.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's the idea of doing a fandub to put it in a language other than Japanese? Otherwise, why bother? If you want the opening to be in Japanese, guess what? OMG the original is in Japanese! How lucky for you, you no longer have to bother having people audition to put it into that language! Tada, it's like magic, huh?

Yeah, just kinda really annoyed by that x_x And all the cover groups too though to a much lesser extent. I think it would be awesome to sing translated versions of the foreign songs you love but honestly, if we want to hear the song in its original language, we'll listen to the original artist.

My two cents, for what they're worth.

Well even though it IS a bit annoying to hear and english fandub with an Japanese opening song, it's even MORE annoying to hear a english fandub with Japanese words in it. Now that really bugs me! >.< An example would be this :

Girl 1: Oh! Look at that dress! *points*

Girl 2: Aww! It's so kawaii! *squeel*

Anyway, getting back on topic. ^^;; In official english dubs they usually (or the dubs I watch anyway) leave the opening song the way it is. Why fix it if it isn't broke ya know? XD

[Kei]

I think the resung openings are usuually there to make the fandub even more personal and in the end it really does show the work that went into the fandub...usually I prefer if their gonna resing the opening..translate it into english

Well even though it IS a bit annoying to hear and english fandub with an Japanese opening song, it's even MORE annoying to hear a english fandub with Japanese words in it.

Sometimes its needed, for example in my fandub of Digimon the character Wallace is fluent in Japanese and speaks it often...I spoke in japanese at one point to get the dual audio across.

[Tsuki Yamamoto]

Sometimes its needed, for example in my fandub of Digimon the character Wallace is fluent in Japanese and speaks it often...I spoke in japanese at one point to get the dual audio across.

I didn't think of that! XD;; Good point.

[fruitfly]

I think it just comes down to wanting the entire production to be "original" as Kei said. Adding in a fan-dubbed opening, even if it's still in Japanese, is just another fun thing to do in a project.

Think about it this way: Why do people like singing anime themes at all? I mean, most of them don't even know Japanese, and the original singer probably sounds better, anyway. In fact, why sing any song in any language? And why make fandubs? I mean, if it's licensed why would you want to make another version of it? And if it's Japanese, it probably just sounds better in Japanese anyway.

My point is that once you start breaking down parts of the hobby, none of it makes much sense. We do all this work for fun, and since we're doing it for fun we can do it any way we want. Which includes having someone new sing the opening but keeping it in Japanese. Some people just like it that way.

What I don't understand is redubbing Japanese scenes in Japanese. That seems a little redundant, but again: Fun is fun.

[Batgirl]

All I can say is "Hold oonnnnnnnnn to your dreaaaaaaaaaams" (MKR Theme dubbed into English)

Some people don't like the way Japanese songs dub into English, so they'd rather keep it in the original language with subtitles.

When watching Anime either liscensed or fandubs, I really don't care what language the song is in as long as its good, I rarely find a problem with it being in one language or another (example: Fruit's Basket theme translated nicely imho), but sometimes (rarely in my opinion) it does sound pretty bad (see above MKR Theme I liked it in Japanese, not English)

Some people like singing in Japanese, and in some cases they might understand more of it than you think.

Lastly, its just harder to translate a song well. Dialogue is pretty straight forward, singing involves rhthym and poetry and all that junk. If you don't know Japanese that well and are doing it based off a translation of the song, its hard.

[Sukisho]

All I can say is "Hold oonnnnnnnnn to your dreaaaaaaaaaams" (MKR Theme dubbed into English)

Well I liked the way that was dubbed, I think Media Blasters was one of the only companies that did that well in dubbing songs (since there really are none now). If you think that was bad then listen to the engRish adaption for the Sega Saturn game.


But yeah even most licensed anime even keep theme songs in japanese, so it should be something people get use to if they watch dubbed anime (licensed or fandubbed). I mean yeah they don't have someone resing them in japanese for the licenesed anime and all but it's really the same thing as just leaving it there.