Viz Dubs

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Can anyone tell me if the dubs of Zatch Bell, MAR, and Prince of Tennis have different music than the original? I know the openings are different but what about the in show music? And if they are in fact different did VIZ leave any of the original bgm?
 

bayoab

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Can anyone tell me if the dubs of Zatch Bell, MAR, and Prince of Tennis have different music than the original? I know the openings are different but what about the in show music? And if they are in fact different did VIZ leave any of the original bgm?
Zatch Bell has most of its music removed. Every now and then some of the original BGM is there though. It's rather random.
Prince of Tennis had most of the original pieces but I don't recall how much of it was replaced. I do recall the difference between the two was jarring.
 

Master Moron

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I'm pretty sure Prince of Tennis only started replacing some of the music in the later episodes. I'm not sure why they would all of the sudden start replacing some of the music as if that strategy had actually worked for their other dubs. If anything, it would appear that replacing the music makes it more likely that one of Viz's shows will bomb.
 

ChibiGoku

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MAR's dub was a little weird. For some reason, ViZ added some dub music to it, but they also rearranged where the Japanese BGM was played, rather than having it in the correct spot. The DVD release was uncut though, barring the opening and ending song removal and overlays. Not sure if the BGM was "fixed", since I never did pick up the dvds.

Zatch Bell's dub I still find odd. There were a couple instances where ViZ basically left the japanese music track virtually untouched (except the episode title card and next episode preview, like usual). I believe this was only two or three episodes, though. Silence is almost always left alone. ViZ did dub most of the insert songs though, that were sung by the characters. So that's always a plus...
 

chdr

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If anything, it would appear that replacing the music makes it more likely that one of Viz's shows will bomb.

How? It's not like kids watch Naruto for the background music.

Heck, I could care less about BGM, I usually just tune it out and focus on the dialog anyways. The only thing that irks me is when they replace silence with music.
 

Rocketboy

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The DVD release was uncut though, barring the opening and ending song removal and overlays. Not sure if the BGM was "fixed", since I never did pick up the dvds.
The music was the same as it is for the dub track, but the Japanese audio left the music alone.
 

Raidon Makoto

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Heck, I could care less about BGM, I usually just tune it out and focus on the dialog anyways. The only thing that irks me is when they replace silence with music.
BGM matters. One Piece was so much better, and felt so much more epic, when the original BGM was kept.
 

Light Lucario

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Music can help add emotion to a scene.

That's definitely true, but I'm not sure if the change of music would be a key factor as to why Viz's dubs that change the background music weren't huge hits. I would think the lines and the plot of the show itself would have more influence on how kids see the series than the music.
 

Master Moron

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How? It's not like kids watch Naruto for the background music.

Heck, I could care less about BGM, I usually just tune it out and focus on the dialog anyways. The only thing that irks me is when they replace silence with music.

I was just using a statistical analysis. The MAR, Prince of Tennis, and Zatch Bell DVDs apparently didn't sell well enough to continue, while the Bleach, Death Note, and Naruto DVDs sell much better. I even heard that the Hikaru No Go DVDs sold better than the MAR DVDs. Based on that, it really doesn't make any sense for them to change the music. It certainly doesn't help them sell DVDs or get better ratings. So, it just seems like a waste of money.
 

Gold Guy

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You are right, Hikaru no Go DVDs are selling well. I didn't even know MAR had DVDs.
 

bigddan11

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I was just using a statistical analysis. The MAR, Prince of Tennis, and Zatch Bell DVDs apparently didn't sell well enough to continue, while the Bleach, Death Note, and Naruto DVDs sell much better. I even heard that the Hikaru No Go DVDs sold better than the MAR DVDs. Based on that, it really doesn't make any sense for them to change the music. It certainly doesn't help them sell DVDs or get better ratings. So, it just seems like a waste of money.
That's not necessarily true. Sometimes it's cheaper to create your own music than it is to acquire the rights to the Japanese music. FUNi created their own music for DBZ and DBGT because it was cheaper than acquiring the original music. It was also cheaper for 4Kids to create their own music than to acquire the original music for Shaman King, One Piece, and the others they did. Poke'Mon USA does much of their own music for that reason as well. Most dub watchers don't watch the sub versions and even know the music has been changed as well. That's what most people fail to realize when it comes to acquiring series. You can acquire the series, but then you have to acquire the songs separately. The songs don't automatically come with the series. Now, that's not to say companies like Viz don't tend to be too cautious with music. FUNi does roughly 95% of their series now with the original music because they are one of the few companies still gaining money. Viz might be the same way if they actually acquired the full series instead of just doing 13, 26, or 52 episode blocks at a time. I will say honestly most people won't buy the DVD, despite the music it may or may not have, it they don't think the series is going to be completed.
 

Dogasu

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Cheddar said:
Heck, I could care less about BGM

Couldn't care less. Not could.

</pet peeve>


bigddan11 said:
FUNi created their own music for DBZ and DBGT because it was cheaper than acquiring the original music. It was also cheaper for 4Kids to create their own music than to acquire the original music for Shaman King, One Piece, and the others they did. Poke'Mon USA does much of their own music for that reason as well.

In the case of Dragon Ball Z (Saban) and One Piece, the music was probably replaced because the series was so chopped up (a second cut here, a three second cut there, a scene rearrangement over there) that the music would be skipping constantly if they had just kept it as is. So, rather than try to edit the Japanese music to the new, shorter music, they figured they'd just make their own music cues that are easier to edit in.

Besides that, I'm sure a big factor with Dragon Ball Z was FUNimation's desire to hid the fact that this is a 20 year old Japanese cartoon produced on a shoestring budget. As much as I absolutely adore the music in the Japanese version of Dragon Ball Z, you can't deny that it really does scream "late 80s/early 90s synthesizer!!!"

And a recent interview with the guy who did the Pokemon music said that, in the PUSA dub, he was told to make music that sounded more "hip" and "modern." Nevermind the fact that the dub doesn't shy away from using those 10+ year old Kanto music cues.


So while money certainly is an issue, I think that, more often than not, dubs get their music changed more for "artistic reasons" and "because we just felt like it" rather than monetary ones.
 

Master Moron

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That's not necessarily true. Sometimes it's cheaper to create your own music than it is to acquire the rights to the Japanese music. FUNi created their own music for DBZ and DBGT because it was cheaper than acquiring the original music. It was also cheaper for 4Kids to create their own music than to acquire the original music for Shaman King, One Piece, and the others they did. Poke'Mon USA does much of their own music for that reason as well. Most dub watchers don't watch the sub versions and even know the music has been changed as well. That's what most people fail to realize when it comes to acquiring series. You can acquire the series, but then you have to acquire the songs separately. The songs don't automatically come with the series. Now, that's not to say companies like Viz don't tend to be too cautious with music. FUNi does roughly 95% of their series now with the original music because they are one of the few companies still gaining money. Viz might be the same way if they actually acquired the full series instead of just doing 13, 26, or 52 episode blocks at a time. I will say honestly most people won't buy the DVD, despite the music it may or may not have, it they don't think the series is going to be completed.

But, they DO use the Japanese music in Zatch Bell, Prince of Tennis, MAR, and Blue Dragon. They just don't use all of it. They must have the rights to it if they use it.
 

Sketch

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Yeah but that doesn't negate the point of "artistic choice" Dogasu just made. Infact that's exactly what the case was with The Prince of Tennis IIRC.
 

bigddan11

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But, they DO use the Japanese music in Zatch Bell, Prince of Tennis, MAR, and Blue Dragon. They just don't use all of it. They must have the rights to it if they use it.
What we know is they have the rights to some of the music, but since we don't know which artists wrote what music, then we don't know that they actually have all of it.
 
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