Tenken wrote:
OH? May I ask, since when has FUNimation become a JAPANESE company?
It's worse to blame others for your mistakes!
That's the thing, it isn't Funimation's fault. If you want to keep deluding yourself into thinking that, that's fine. However, it certainly isn't the case. Using your own words, it's worse to blame others for your mistakes. Don't blame Funimation for things that were out of their control.
Misinformed.
Funi did the name change by themself; it even says on the 'Cased Close' website that they want to change for the American people to "understand" (!) it, not because of Japanese licensor. Thinking about it more, they said they only "worked with their Japanese partners" to choose new names for the characters for American audiences to better understand the show. And Detective Conan was changed to Case Closed because of copyright issues (they're afraid Conan O Brien is gonna sue... LOL!). So, as far as I'm concerned, FUNimation themselves has yet to say that the Japanese companies are forcing these changes - only that FUNimation is working with them to "choose" these things.
Even VIZ replied to me saying the change was made, then Japan just agreed to it.
So, unless you or FUNimation can shove the opposite evidence in my face, I won't believe otherwise.
A lot of people say it was "copyright issues" that led to the title change, but that's very likely not the case. If anything, it would be a trademark issue and nothing to do with copyrights.
The name change was likely done for two reasons: A) TMS wanted the show to be more accessible to the Western audience and B) the licensee wanted complete control over the brand name. If it were "Detective Conan," they would likely have issues with brand confusion and a lack of clarity in regards to marketing, given that there are quite a few "Conan" characters in America.
I've spoken with Funimation (in person, not email) many times before. In fact, I talked to them about Conan in July 2003, before it was released at all over here (in fact... before I had ever even heard of it). They were excited to get it (...quite a contrast compared to their lackluster release schedule recently), but were irritated that they had to change the names.
If you think about it, why would they change the names of characters in this show to make it more "America friendly", when they don't do it for basically any other show they do? If they did this with a lot of shows, I could see it being Funi's fault, but when it's one out of dozens of shows, that just doesn't seem logical.
Since the name changes were done both by Viz/Shueisha and Funimation, you can probably guess that some coordination occurred at a higher level, ala Shogakukan and TMS. While it might be somewhat debatable where the idea of changing names originated, all those entities are culpable. Funi reps may have complained, but I'd say (being the cynic that I am) that of course they would, to a Conan fan, whether Funi wanted the changes or not. And the attempts to de-Japanify the anime can probably be laid mostly at Funi's doorstep. Now I do realize that in general the Japanese companies retain a lot of creative control, and that may have been the case here, but that doesn't excuse Funimation for not standing their ground (if they actually were opposed).
In all, I think this was a bad strategy. Not so much the name changes (tho Harley Hartwell is an awful stupid choice), but the way the property was pitched, trying to "kiddify" the story even more (which, admittedly, has plenty of childish features to it already). Removing Japanese references, hiring voice actors who's idea of acting characters is to use unnatural, how-to-talk-to-children, voices, and failing to use any of the darker elements of the work in their advertising. That just plopped it awkwardly into a demographic that it wouldn't work right in, and turned off teenagers/adults that might have appreciated the high quality of the product.
Prince Trom wrote:
Removing Japanese references, hiring voice actors who's idea of acting characters is to use unnatural, how-to-talk-to-children, voices, and failing to use any of the darker elements of the work in their advertising.
assuming you are telling the truth, this is pretty funny considering their One Piece dub
It's pretty crazy how pretentious and sensitive a few fans get over a cartoon/comic book about a kid detective (blasphemy!).
If you think about it, who do you think--at the time of its release-- TMS would be gearing a cartoon aimed at family audiences in Japan when granting a license to another country: to a smaller market that has illegally downloaded scans/episodes of the Internet, or the large amount of people that didn't (and a younger audience no less)?
Yeah, it's disappointing, but what can we do about it? Not a damn thing. I think it's silly and annoying to get all nuts and dramatic over name changes (which are small edits in comparison to what they COULD'VE done *jabs thumb at CMX's Tenjho Tenge edits).
Besides, Funi and Viz have only changed names in a small handful of series they've handled. I could see a company requesting such a thing to make it popular (not that it worked). Me, a hardly care about the changes at all, as I stated before. I kinda like a few of the names, actually.
Last edited by Shakura on September 29th, 2008, 9:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Shakura wrote:
It's pretty crazy how pretentious and sensitive a few fans get over a cartoon/comic book about a kid detective (blasphemy!).
Perhaps calling people "pretentious" isn't really called for here. I don't think anyone is faking their opinions. And considering how this whole site is devoted to cartoon/comics about a kid detective, just what audience are you targeting with your screed?
Just to add: Not to say you shouldn't post about what you think ("It's no big deal; it's just a kids' anime; etc.") but implying other people are stupid for their opinions goes a bit beyond what's appropriate, IMO.
Last edited by TromOuji on September 29th, 2008, 11:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Shakura wrote:
Yeah, it's disappointing, but what can we do about it? Not a damn thing. I think it's silly and annoying to get all nuts and dramatic over name changes (which are small edits in comparison to what they COULD'VE done *jabs thumb at CMX's Tenjho Tenge edits).
Besides, Funi and Viz have only changed names in a small handful of series they've handled. I could see a company requesting such a thing to make it popular (not that it worked). Me, a hardly care about the changes at all, as I stated before. I kinda like a few of the names, actually.
Well it just takes getting used to really. For most of us we watched it in Japanese first and continued to watch it in Japanese. Seeing the names different or the story deviate must be annoying. If you watched Case Closed first, and got used to watching it in English, it must be jarring to watch it in Japanese afterwards (which most people have to do because Case Closed is so far behind lol).
Heh One Piece dub, Sanji eats candy 24/7, because smoking is bad (which is true I guess).
Oh and x64_02, your avatar of the Grim Fandango cosplay is love <3. Interesting stuff with the Audio.
Hey, I have an idea, let's have a THIS SUCKS / NO THIS SUCKS / NO YOU / NO YOU argument for a couple pages, that will really be great. - Ingmar
Shakura wrote:
Yeah, it's disappointing, but what can we do about it? Not a damn thing. I think it's silly and annoying to get all nuts and dramatic over name changes (which are small edits in comparison to what they COULD'VE done *jabs thumb at CMX's Tenjho Tenge edits).
Besides, Funi and Viz have only changed names in a small handful of series they've handled. I could see a company requesting such a thing to make it popular (not that it worked). Me, a hardly care about the changes at all, as I stated before. I kinda like a few of the names, actually.
Well it just takes getting used to really. For most of us we watched it in Japanese first and continued to watch it in Japanese. Seeing the names different or the story deviate must be annoying. If you watched Case Closed first, and got used to watching it in English, it must be jarring to watch it in Japanese afterwards (which most people have to do because Case Closed is so far behind lol).
I don't go with that "getting used to" thing; especially since I'm used to the usual fluent American conversation which sounds "natural" to the ears. It's just that it ain't like that in the dubs .
I "feel" like the Japanese voice acting sounds more like a "natural" dialogue to the ears. Although real Japanese might not think the same way as me, because normal Japanese dialogues are fast chit-chats. I just manage to learn Jap by interacting w/a sensei of mine in our school (teaches math, but is kind enough to share japanese words... oh well )
And eating lollies 24/7 is also bad for the teeth! Plus it ain't cool (degrades Sanji's image)
I have this friend at work that started watching Dragon Ball Z in english back in 2000 or so and he loves it that way, I have treid to have him watch in Japanese with subtitles, but he hates it while on the other hand it hurts my ears to hear Goku and Co speak english, I think it does have to do with what you are use to do and if you are really open to listen the original stuff, I haven't watched Case Closed, but the only fact that they changed the names makes me not want to watch it, that's why I use the Dragon Ball example instead of The Conan one .
With the Case Closed English dubs, I always think to myself that they can do a better job finding better voice actors cause I really don't care for what they have right now; and too, they should have stuck with the original names of the characters. That's just my opinion.
Oh, and thanks, best game ever, imho.
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