http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/columns/sunday.php?id=35
This guy is a complete idiot. He complains that they only look at merchandises they think they can market and make merchandise off of because all of the stupid re-writing/re-scoring/etc. costs them too much.
PROTIP: Don't change it so god damn much!
And, finally, the answer to why they have to rescore every thing they pick up:
"A lot of aspects in your adaptations are changed from the original Japanese version. Some things like dialog, credits and names are changed for obvious reasons, but things such as music are re-done. Why do you feel this is necessary?
Only to make it more Western. We westernize it so that children in English-speaking countries will understand it, and to us that is very critical. It's a mixture of the westernization, the trying to make the music appeal to kids who are in the United States."
I always figured as much, but I don't know how the crappy Casio background noise appeals to youngsters in the US or...anybody, really.
"At a licensing convention last year, where 4Kids revealed a first look at One Piece, a version of the Japanese opening with English vocals was played. However, 4Kids used an original rap opening in the broadcast version. What made you consider this opening over the other one?
Yeah, well.. we liked it, we thought it was good. And we thought it was going to be something that'd have a lot of popularity. There wasn't anything more to it than that."
Dear god....they LIKED the rap opening.
The one bright spot in the entire interview:
"Is there a possibility of an uncut release of One Piece?
Yes, definitely"
I realize 4Kids is a business, as much as I hate to think of that justifying how much they butcher things. I realize that, hey, they need to cut some stuff to air it on TV. But re-doing the music, picking crappy voice actors, etc. are things that do NOT need to be done to air it on TV. And they say they want to market it to two different audiences, however, one of these audiences (the people who want the uncut versions) is woefully neglected.
This guy is a complete idiot. He complains that they only look at merchandises they think they can market and make merchandise off of because all of the stupid re-writing/re-scoring/etc. costs them too much.
PROTIP: Don't change it so god damn much!
And, finally, the answer to why they have to rescore every thing they pick up:
"A lot of aspects in your adaptations are changed from the original Japanese version. Some things like dialog, credits and names are changed for obvious reasons, but things such as music are re-done. Why do you feel this is necessary?
Only to make it more Western. We westernize it so that children in English-speaking countries will understand it, and to us that is very critical. It's a mixture of the westernization, the trying to make the music appeal to kids who are in the United States."
I always figured as much, but I don't know how the crappy Casio background noise appeals to youngsters in the US or...anybody, really.
"At a licensing convention last year, where 4Kids revealed a first look at One Piece, a version of the Japanese opening with English vocals was played. However, 4Kids used an original rap opening in the broadcast version. What made you consider this opening over the other one?
Yeah, well.. we liked it, we thought it was good. And we thought it was going to be something that'd have a lot of popularity. There wasn't anything more to it than that."
Dear god....they LIKED the rap opening.
The one bright spot in the entire interview:
"Is there a possibility of an uncut release of One Piece?
Yes, definitely"
I realize 4Kids is a business, as much as I hate to think of that justifying how much they butcher things. I realize that, hey, they need to cut some stuff to air it on TV. But re-doing the music, picking crappy voice actors, etc. are things that do NOT need to be done to air it on TV. And they say they want to market it to two different audiences, however, one of these audiences (the people who want the uncut versions) is woefully neglected.