Hackdubs

[Lord Dalek]

I could argue that back in the day, we didn't know better and that's why hack dubs were so commonplace 10-15 years ago.

But that would be taking the easy way out wouldn't it?

[Sketch]

A show should be able to stand on it's own merits without any kind of revisioning but if you tell that to someone at a toy company that see's potential for bringing over a highly successful toyline and they'd probably ask you if you "hate making money" or something like that. Art be darned if there's money to be made and the like.

Thankfully there's only a handful of these kinds of dubs on the market with 4Kids being the last major offender after DiC and Saban had their time.

Of course the Japanese producers are just as much to blame if not more to blame than the American staff because they don't really care what happens to a show as long as it makes them money. Toei sold all their biggest properties to hit the states first and foremost to people looking to merchandise them and get them on children's television no matter what it took to get it there. Fueling the fire for World Events Productions, DiC, Saban, early FUNimation and 4Kids to take the hottest properties with kids in Japan and make them barely resemble their what they were in a sedated westernized form intended not to offend anyone. The truly regrettable thing is that a lot of those dubs became the basis for international dubs of those shows. Of course Toei wasn't the only company to do this but I felt it was a particularly good example.

Modified dubs can be more entertaining than the originals if the original is bland but of course purists would find the modification appalling regardless if the dub was more entertaining than the original. Or at least they'd never admit that they actually did find entertainment value in it.

Of course there were many more failed attempts to jazz up a script that success stories because for every Pizza Cats and Duel Masters you have Card Captors and One Piece.

If a show is really good, sometimes the quality can shine through the poor dubbing. I feel that's the case with Sailor Moon and to a lesser extent Dragon Ball Z (because it's overall decently accurate). Yes the dialogue can be groan worthy but it gets the heart of the show.

A hackdub should imply cutting footage so I don't tend to think of "westernized" as "hackdub" particularly in the cases of SGT Frog, Case Closed and Hetallia but Shin Chan which I believe splices some episodes could maybe be considered a "hackdub".

Though in most cases I don't mind necessary edits nearly as much as I mind westernization. You can edit a show without butchering it depending on the original content level and the content cap but often westernization is merely an attempt to hide where the show came from. However with comedies in particular the translation may not be funny to western audiences and thus a snappier dub script written with western viewers in mind  The most important thing is getting the intent across. If you can't do that with a straight translation then I have no qualms with loose ones or even notable changes to a script as long as it's entertaining in it's own right and the company provides the original subtitled version as well. Shin Chan didn't get the original and that's unfortunate but I'm glad SGT Frog and Hetallia have not shared that fate.

Hackdubs are becoming less common place due to the rise of Japanese animation fandom and the lack of success of most hackdubs in recent years. Really only Pokemon, Bakugan and Beyblade remain other than 4Kids hold-overs and DBZ Kai's Saturday morning broadcast dub. Companies aren't interested in new shows from Japan. They want shows they know people here are familiar with or if they're willing to risk money on new ideas they might go as far as to fund animation in the style that isn't coming from Japan and thus they can craft however they please. Hence Redakai.

I think what makes the 90s and 2000s hackdubs stand out is what American shows they aired with. Voltron was not a well handled dub but it was pretty on par with Transformers, G.I. Joe and He-Man. Then you compare Yu-Gi-Oh!  to Batman Beyond and you see the drastic difference in their handling. One of the things that made 4Kids dubs of foreign animation (not just from Japan) seem particularly bad is their home grown TMNT series was excellent. Sure ADR is harder to get good performances from than pre-lay but the direction on most 4Kids dub was horrendously bad while TMNT had great direction and while still having plenty of that 4Kids brand humor at least most of the dialogue was delivered in a manner that it could be funny and not just funny for the wrong reasons. None the less some notable hackdubs got along just fine with less edited material and some outstanding American cartoons on a little block called Toonami. Most of the Japanese cartoons to air on it did get edits but few would be considered actual "hackdubs".

It's good that so few shows are getting hackdubs today but edited dubs are how a lot of people became fans of Japanese animation and not having many Japanese cartoons targeting kids will likely be detrimental to growing fandom and contrary to what some weeaboos will say, every fan counts.