“Why Hollywood Anime Movies Are So Rubbish”
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Apr 18, 2012 21:57 JST
- Tags: Adaptations, Akira, Dragonball, Hollywood, Movies, Rankings, Statistics, USA
Japanese quizzed about why it is they loathe Hollywood’s unending stream of atrocious anime and game adaptations (the likes of Dragonball and Street Fighter naturally being top of the list) provide reasons even the crazy foreigners responsible may be able to comprehend.
The top 5 reasons given and some of the responses:
1. The cast of the original and the movie are totally unalike – 42.9%
“I get the feeling they usually change the characters to fit the actors they want to use.”
“Even domestic adaptations can be dubious, but with overseas tastes they become even more so!”
“At least cast Japanese for Japanese characters…”
2. The hero isn’t Japanese but a foreigner – 39%
“It’s hard to sympathise with a foreigner.”
“If there are foreigners, it ruins your internal image of the characters.”
“They can’t portray the feelings of a Japanese.”
3. It’s totally different to the original – 36.8%
“What’s the point of making them like this. As a fan, you’d rather they didn’t bother.”
“They always ignore the essence of the original.”
“Usually only the title is recognisable.”
4. The characters have had their backgrounds completely altered – 23.7%
“At least leave the characters intact!”
“They totally ignore the originals.”
5. It’s just some action movie now – 19.7%
“It’s nigh on impossible to reproduce an anime in a movie.”
“You just can’t reproduce an anime setting in a live action movie.”
And Akira isn’t even out yet…
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number 1-5 can be summarized into one problem
Totally different to the original....
I propose a new law that the director of the adaptation must be an Otaku...
The amusing thing is that most of the characters in Street Fighter are foreigners. Just because the game is made in Japan doesn't automatically make them Japanese. Also, if you want to get really technical, most of the characters in DBZ are not even from Earth. Since the anime was made in Japan, the aliens speak Japanese, just like they would speak English if it was made in America. I agree, both SF and DB movies sucked major dick in America, but many of the arguments as to why the 2ch-ers think they are bad are invalid.
Cris look at the game Street Fighter main character is Ryu and Kem and not Van Dame "Guile" and so it was a shit.
haha true
ryu is japanese
chun li is chinese
guile and ken are american
Ken is three-quarters Japanese.
Like in the Street Fighter the Movie, Jean Claude van Damme (originally from Belgium) isn't an American who played as Guile, the actress is no Chinese who played Chun-Li, not to mention Ryu who didn't even look like a Japanese. Sagat is no Thai, E-Honda looked more like Hawaiian Dhalsim is Blanka! That last one is hilarious though.
America should just stick to dubbing anime. At least their dubbing doesnt suck as much as their movie making...
Lolwat. Most american dubs I've seen are just horrible.
Have you even seen a dub since 1995?
Yes amarican dubbing sucked back 15 years ago, but modern anime dubs are just as good, if not better than the japanese ones. With a few exceptions.
Also to the guy above you. American dubbed anime voice actors typicly have more training than japanese ones. Yes there is the ocasional dub that is done by some lone studio, like the terrible dub for Chaos Wars, where its being voice acted by a bunch of people off the street. But most american dubbing companies are useing trained and expirienced professionals. The only downside is that they need to get a wider variety of voice actors, instead of useing the same ones over and over again, but they do that in japan too.
Although I agree dubs are better than they used to be, a lot of times the original Japanese version sounds better simply because it's in its intended language and because Japanese seiyuu have the guidance of the creators. Some things can be said in Japanese but sound very off in English, and vice-versa.
Anyway, glad the Akira project is dead. It still bugs me how some directors can be so obnoxious as to think they have a right to ignore the original vision of an anime's creators.
What are you talking about?! America has one of the worst dubbing in the world!! They dont even have to be an actor or have any training to dub compared to most places where the voice actor/actress have to be a graduate from an arts college or scenic arts college...
American voice actors and actresses have two modes:
quiet and loud.
Good Japanese VAs have emotional and vocal range, and can play several different types of characters.
only to your ears maybe.
@00:55 No, what Anon 23:10 said is spot on. My ears tend to bleed whenever I hear those American Voice actors/actresses. There are a few good ones, but the majority don't match up to the original characters at all.
They're equally atrocious.
The US should just stop thinking about making everything into white and english-spoken.
If you people hate non-white and japanese language so much, why are you still bothering about manga/anime ? I'm lost.
To the people who say US dubs suck, I have two words for you:
Cowboy Bebop
Yeah, that sucked too.
lol wut.
LOL! CB dub sucks dude. Don't be fooled by nostalgia.
well for me, when i say dubs suck what i really mean is that the average dub quality isn't good. isn't good as in in doesn't capture the intended character/emotions that need to be portrayed.
Counter: Pretty much everything else.
Point is, one "good" in a sea of "bad" does not magically redeem them all.
(and yeah, DB/Z dubs was OK. Gilgamesh was kind of acceptable for me. Some people say Berserk was good. I watched it in English first, rewatched later in Jap. Jap was by far superior imo.
I generally prefer original dub, because I can actually understand a fair bit even without the subs).
Ok but unless you're familiar with Japanese the same way a native speaker is, how would you know a good Japanese dub from a bad one?
Fair Tail, Sargent Frog, Wolf's Rain, Read or Die, El Hazard The Magnificent World, Fooly Cooly, Ghost in the Shell, Excel Saga, Magic Knight Rayearth, Slayers Revolution, Code Geass, Oran High, Baka & Test, just to name a few more off the top of my head... I recognize a poor dub when I hear it. Honestly, people who whine about all English dubs being bad are friggin' stupid. If they don't like it so much why don't they become voice actors and do it better?
Seeing how they could even fuck up franchises like Transformers into a series of movies about a whiny kid befriending generic American troops and SOME overshadowed alien robots, it's already official and obvious that the root of their suckiness started from the fact that they just take some minor concepts from the original and then let the producers/directors alter and rape them as much as they want.
funny, the setting in DBZ looks like China to me. which means they're all chinks and not nips, stupid japanese.
never knew ken masters, guile, blanka, etc were japanese. doh! stupid japanese.
I thought the Hollywood Speed Racer flick was amazing and highly enjoyable. It's one of the few movies I have on DVD (since I don't buy DVD's of things unless I REALLY like it, such as KARAS or Toy Story 3).
HW's Speed Racer was the shit. It ran on "rule of cool" and was a blast to see. Got on blu-ray myself :)
Rule of thumb: If you can take the script, do a find & replace of all trademarked names and images, film it, and the legal owners of the property doesn't have much of a leg to stand on if they want to sue you for stealing their product, then it's a bad adaptation.
Not true, you can still sue for plagiarism. Just not for copyright violation, unless the designs of characters violate likeness copyright laws too. Which Japan does not have BTW, which is why so many anime characters are just blunt copies on another.
2. The hero isn’t Japanese but a foreigner – 39%
Though i agree that hollywood has made awfully movies from japanese anime and games.
But you know.... Son goku is an alien, so is vegeta och piccolo lol...
Not to mention street fighter has a few none japanese fighter.
Don't foget about Last Airbender.
Where ALL cast are caucassian actor (less Zuko, who was Indian...)
airbender is a horrible example because it wasnt an anime in the first place it was a nickelodeon cartoon produces in america.
A cartoon and a shit cartoon. Even naruto, bleach and one piece are better than avatar.
you can't ignore the fact that avatar and anime are animated... avatar wasn't exactly made by japanese designers/producers/artists/etc. but it still got fucked up pretty bad
I can't never sympathize with the Japanese. They're so robotic.
I can't ever sympathize with japanese. They think different from us and therefore are our inferiors!
see? I can act like a little jap too.
1. The cast of the original and the movie are totally unalike
ever notice that physics dont allow for most anime characters? boobs arent that big, hair doesnt stay that shape, so on so forth
2. The hero isn’t Japanese but a foreigner
this asshole specificly
“It’s hard to sympathise with a foreigner.”
some how i just imagine someone from the kkk or other such organizations when i read that. its a step away from "who cares, they dont look like me my fucks given = 0"
3. It’s totally different to the original
most anime are totally different from the original.
4. The characters have had their backgrounds completely altered
so they never adaptoed anything to be their cultures version? yea it sucks when it happens but i get why.
5. It’s just some action movie now
arent most manga an action movie waiting to be made?
And hollywood's adaptations are great, right?
Don't make me laugh!
>You just can’t reproduce an anime setting in a live action movie.”
This.
The point of anime is that anime portrays character/action/situation/world that you actually can't portray in a movie... else, you would just do a movie...
Except for reason number 2, all reasons are legitimate complaints. A lot of anime characters don't even live in world where a "Japan" doesn't even exist. Some anime characters don't even practice Japanese customs. So Japanese actors shouldn't be a requirement unless the story takes place in Japan.
Hehe, especially in Dragonball. Goku ain't Japanese hes an alien.
Still, can't make a movie out of it imo. Just...no.
I was going to say that as well he's an alien.
Plus the Dragonball earth is an alternate world the countries of the real world do not exist in it.
You see characters that could be Asian,Caucasian,African,and even Indian, or Native American but other then that it's purposefully very vague.
lol, dragon ball was kinda racist in its racial stereotyping too... "mr popo" indeed...
Right, it's basically massive hypocrisy to tell the foreigners "we can't sympathize with foreigners, therefore make them all like us even when it makes no sense storywise." The rest of the complaints are totally valid, and often apply to Japanese live action movies too. I'm not sure if it's possible to make consistently good anime movies, but it must be very difficult.
that jap bitch ought to be taught a little lesson me thinks...such cheeky little brat.
surprisingly, this is how nips think - they think world revolves around their way of thinking, and when something better comes up, bitch about it, then silently copy them, make a few alterations and claim it as their own. case in point: japanese language itself.
but what else do you expect from a small nation of broken and suicidally depressed island monkeys?
@00:44 Oh, you're just another brain-dead racist..... You sound quite insecure in that little head of yours.
Yup I agree with you Anon 06:25. Anon 00:44 is quite insecure.
So Anon 00:44, how is your relationship with your father when you're still a child? Did your uncle molested you when you have your vacation in his place?
laughably narrow-minded japs at their finest. they like to claim whatever they like as 'japanese' when in fact they copied it all from 'foreigners', add a few bells and cheap touch, and say it's 'japanese'. when they are accused of the truth, they deny, deny, deny. since when are characteristics displayed in these anime solely 'japanese' characteristics?
japanese way: learn from others, make a few alterations that only they find significant, then claim it is 'theirs'. try to innovate morons. that means building upon, and making something new.
@00:37 Yeah, you have no fucking clue what you're talking about. Take your insecurity and your racist bullshit elsewhere.
Look who's talking all high and mighty... your not even in your own country. Say all what you want you're still a narrow minded barbarian.
shaddup barbarian!!