Amerikanism

Dear American Dub,

The way in which you hold yourself is offensive to my ears. I am a fan of Japanese animation, and I will admit that when I first started watching and became aware of it through the television, you were a very large part of it. Neon Genesis Evangelion’s American Dub still rings through my memory from dodgy SBS broadcasts I used to watch relatively late at night (9:30pm). Pokemon was particularly offensive because even the characters names were changed. I could never quite get my head around why all the characters in Neon Genesis were American but had strange foreign names. Perhaps, if you had not blanketed Pokemon so thoroughly, I would have released myself from your clutches earlier. Sadly, it would be many years, and yes, even many American re-makes before I would realize how erroneous you really are.

Some people consider those who watch subtitled films to be wankers. Culturally, not literally, of course. And in some cases they are. These cases are those who refuse to watch something if it is NOT subtitled. For example, may thoroughly enjoy the latest French arthouse feature on at the local theatre, but balk at seeing that American blockbuster at the cineplexx up the street. I do not. I love American films and am certainly not sending a gauntlet their way, however deserving it may be in some cases. No, this one goes out to the American Dub.

This is a world where subtle character differences are washed over with an overly cartoony cast of voice actors fresh from Nickolodeon or Disney. A perfect example of this comes from Mai Hime, in which a character sporting an extremely refined, extremely desirable accent originating in Kyoto, one of the most traditional areas of Japan, is American Dubbed with a Texan accent. Texan. I implore you to actually view the horror of the comparative links.

Add to this the loss of identity, rice-balls become donuts that are clearly not donuts, goodnight becomes I love you and the subtle reading and comprehension puns littering many different forms of Japanese mass media are lost in a 26 letter alphabet of twanging American Dub.

If confronted with you now, I will not stand for you. I will wait for a DVD to be released, God willing, with original voice acting, or in the case of the utter usurping of the item in question by the American Dub, I will resort to crime (downloading) to avoid you. You are a blight on the world’s cultural growth and diversity and deserve every gauntlet to be rammed down your repulsively effluent throat.

Adrik