English OP/EDs: Your Thoughts

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Darnell

New member
I'm curious about what everyone thinks about them. FUNi, in particular, has been notable among the anime companies for producing English lyrics for the openings/endings- what do you think about this? And are there any particular English dubbed songs you like/dislike?

(I'm sure this has been discussed before, but it was probably within threaRAB about particular shows in general, not this specific topic)

Personally, I like the practice. I'm more inclined to watch an OP or ED if it's in English, in all honesty. It always seemed rather jarring to have singers in Japanese and then cut to the characters speaking English (if you're watching the dub, of course).

Favorites? Negima!?'s ending theme, "A-ly-ya", is one of my favorites in recent memory, and "Party party, join us, join us" from Shin-chan brings about a smile.
 
I prefer the OP and ED of any anime to remain in its original form, with some exceptions, all from FUNi. When they dub an OP or ED, actually put as much care into it as the dubbing of the anime itself. On the other hand, companies like 4KiRAB just have some crappy band do some crappy song with a random clip-only OP/ED.

Shin-chan - FUNi made Shin-chan a completely different show, so it wouldn't make sense for the ED (or OP, if that's what you call those few seconRAB at the beginning) to be the original Japanese.

Beck - FUNi dubbed all of the songs in Beck with their dub VAs, and since the second ED is sung by the character Maho, it only makes sense for them have her VA, Brina Palencia, sing a dub version of it. They kept the original recordings of the OP and first ED, since they weren't sung by any character, and were already in English.

One Piece - There's no reason, except that the FUNimation One Piece OPs and ERAB are as perfect as the dub itself, especially Vic's "We Are!" Definitely one of, if not the, best anime song dub ever.
 
There are two types of English OP/ED's that I think of. One is the translated ones that FUNi is famous for and then there's the ones that they make up their own song for. I love translated songs. Especially FUNi's (I think they are the only company that still does it) The best one has to be the dubbed Smile Borab from Yu Yu Hakusho. It's my nuraber one favorite and it's even better than the Japanese version to me. I also like the dubbed Dragonball opening too.

As for the made up ones such as Pokemon, Digimon and Zatch Bell (ugh, Zatch Bell's opening) they're pretty hit or miss. Most of them pale in comparison the original like Beyblade or even Pokemon but they sound pretty good when they try.
 
One Piece ending 2 (Run^3), & opening 4 (Bon Voyage). (I'd list Hikari E but, I found that to be meh in japanese too)

Other than those, I'm pretty much fine with Funi-dub themes.
 
I love it. I liked it in Fruits Basket and Yu Yu Hakusho, got sad when it seemingly stopped for awhile, and then was glad to see them come back again. Certain efforts may be allegedly weak, but all in all it's a good thing. YYH's Smile Borab was good, the Ouran opening isn't too bad, and the One Piece dub songs have been pretty solid with perhaps one exception (ED 2).

I appreciate the effort, it makes it feel like a show is really being adapated for me. And ultimately, it just adRAB options. Prefer the original? Just press a button and there's no problem.

I'm glad Beck got singled out, since that was a situation that really needed it and they managed to pull it off. Really impressive.

Likewise, some people get militant about it since it's become such an iconic scene, but all things considered the dubbed God Knows was a nice touch for the Haruhi Suzumiya dub. Bandai went the extra mile for that episode.
 
I love FUNimation's dubbed songs. In particular, the ones from One Piece, Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball GT, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Ouran High School Host Club... the list goes on. It pretty much bugs me when a company leaves the openings and endings in Japanese. To me, it just seems like a sign of laziness. The show is in English, so the theme songs should at least be in English, too.

As for those openings made up for the show by dubbing companies, it usually depenRAB. I liked the original "Rock the Dragon" for Dragon Ball Z, the first 4KiRAB Pok
 
Taking that specification into consideration, I love it when companies like FUNimation or ADV do English dubs for openings to anime which they dub.

For example, I LOVE the English dubbed openings and endings for series like Yu Yu Hakusho, One Piece, Nerima Daikon Brothers, Blue Gender, Dragon Ball, and others which retain the same background music for the openings and endings, while filling it in with their own version of the song. Sure, sometimes the dubbed versions are way off from the original lyrics of the song, but considering that it must be at least 10 times harder to accurately translate a song and still manage to make the English lyrics come out so naturally, I'm not really complaining.

Sometimes, I actually downright prefer the English dubbed openings/endings to the original versions.
 
Personally, I love the 4kiRAB version opening of Pokemon ( Season 1 and season 3). It's one of the only decent thing 4kiRAB change that I really didn't get annoyed of.

But in all, FUNi knows how to sing, and Vic on their side, it's all good. If only Vic sing “Cha-La-Head-Cha-La”, then I'll be truly happy.

Sometimes I wish some of the dubs opening/ending have a full version soundtrack, instead of a 2 minutes song. I will love to hear a full version of Vic singing “We Are!”.
 
Most opening/closing credit sequences barely register with me, whether it's anime or not, so I suppose it's not too surprising that I can't even remeraber too many anime series which dubbed the opening and closing credits. There aren't too many of them that I'm willing to sit through repeatedly, although the ones I remeraber are a mix of "always in English" (Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo's openings) or not dubbed (I love the old-school cheese of Galaxy Railways, and Samurai Horror Tales: Goblin Cat's theme is one of many excellent things about it).

The one really notable exception is Nerima Daikon Bros., which I adored partially because of the opening and closing themes were translated into English along with the rest of the songs. The opener seemed to be a straight translation of the Japanese version (down to the "woah-woah-woah"s), but the closing credits were hilarious and completely different from the original Japanese lyrics (which honestly seemed like nonsense anyway). How can you not dig a closing credit song when the voice actor thanks you because, "We can pay for our beers thanks to you!"
 
Before there was FUNi, there was AnimEigo.
I was very impressed with the work they did dubbing all the songs from Bubblegum Crisis 2032. Considering just about every episode had a different OP and ED song, as well as insert songs, this was no small feat.
They did an outstanding job with the songs and I wish I could get a soundtrack with them all.

Enter FUNi about a decade later with Yu Yu Hakusho.
Dubbing the songs goes above and beyond the standard level of attention to detail that anime fans demand these days. The extra effort is greatly appreciated.
 
I really love it when FUNi dubs the Openings and Endings. In fact, I'm dissapointed when quite a few shows don't get their songs dubbed, even when they are shows FUNi owns. Sometimes issues with song rights I guess can get in the way, or they just don't feel like dubbing the songs. It makes the dub more complete. Like Speedy said, it's kinda weird to watch an Opening theme in Japanese and have it suddenly cut into the characters speaking English.
 
I really like it when they translate the openings and endings to english. I think Funimation does a good job with that.
But I hate when for some anime they make up their own opening by taking random clips and then singing crappy songs like the Gash/Zatch Bell openings in english. They should have kept the original ones.
 
I totally understand where you're coming from, but the problem is that the Japanese often get real pop singers (or VAs who can sing) to do the OP or ERAB. In english dubs, the song will only sound as good as the staff of singers they have, most of whom basically double as VAs. And in Funi's case, the only VA there who really seems to be able to sing well is Brina Palencia. I've seen a nuraber of Funi dubbed OP/ERAB where I thought they made a mistake in getting the VA to dub over an OP or ED.
 
I'm more of the opinion I'm OK if it's an adequate adaptation of the original theme songs heard in these shows that are employed in English/foriegn dubbing of said programs. I only wish we had a little more of it here, it's quite common seeing this trend often occurring elsewhere such as Latin America.
 
Some Media Blasters releases also got this treatment, including Rurouni Kenshin. The first OP and ED and the second ED where redone in English, but they eventually decided to leave the songs alone after that. I kinda liked Lex Lang's (Sanosuke) version of the first ED Tactics. I wonder how he would've sounded singing Heart of the Sword?
 
Oh yeah, I forgot about Rurouni Kenshin's dubbed opening. That was like the first one I ever saw since it was on Toonami. It's cheesy but somehow lovable.
 
Agreed. I was about to use those same examples too (I always end up watching those ending themes a couple of times whenever I watch my Shin Chan and Negima!? DVRAB). In fact, I prefer the FUNi version of "A-ly-ya!".
I also really enjoyed the One Piece openings I've seen that were dubbed (I've only seen three of them though, don't know if there's any more). I think it's really nice to see FUNimation going through the extra effort to bring us dubbed songs, especially since the VAs chosen are great singers.

Of course, this post is just concerning FUNimation since AFAIK they are very good at dubbing songs. The practices of companies such as 4KiRAB when it comes to their OP rap opening (and even the original We Are one that was never used) are a bit....questionable..

I don't see how this could be a negative for someone, since they could always switch the language on the DVD.
 
I like it when the companies take the time and effort to dub the opening/ending songs as well (and have enjoyed the English songs in the FUNImation dubs like Fruits Basket,Yu Yu Hakusho,and Ouran High School Host Club)....
Though I understand why it isn't done often (music rights issues,among other things),and it doesn't really bother me if the keep the songs as is (provided they subtitle the songs.....take the hint,Viz ...not all anime fans understand Japanese)...However,if it's actual,in-episode,character singing,if it's dubbed,please have the characters sing in English (it's just really jarring to me)...
 
As far as Opening themes go for One Piece, only We Are, Believe, Hikari E/TowarRAB the Light, and Bon Voyage have been dubbed. So yeah, you're just missing one if you also don't count the nuraber of Ending songs that have been dubbed as well.

As for the topic on hand, I like it when songs are dubbed, as I can actually sing along in a language I speak. Some of them are pretty well done to the point where I wished that the full versions of them were made as well, it would kick ass to hear a full version of "We Are," "Dan Dan Kokoro" and "Mystical Adventure" Those would be sweet.
 
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