S20 Opening - "Under the Alolan Sun"

[Lillie]

I really wish they could make these songs longer than they are, but its honestly not bad at all. It fits the series vibe well and the vocals aren't that bad. Its far better than the last English dub theme.

Yeah I would have really liked the opening to be a little longer; even just by 15 seconds.

 

[Hidden Mew]

A full minute would be more ideal, but making it forty-five seconds would be great too. With a good chuck of the TPCI era openings, it really felt like they were pressed for time. This opening is no exception to that. It started off with a good pace, but once it got into what I think was the chorus when Ash was looking up at the moon, it felt like it was panicking over its run time and trying to cram a lot within those last few seconds. I still like the opening, but it does have some pretty big flaws like that.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Even 10 seconds extra might give them the time they need to put together a chorus that doesn't feel like they're in such a panic over reaching that 30 second mark. I think a lot of English dub openings could benefit if they'd just let them make longer openings.

I'm a huge sucker also for those reggae/ska instrumentals.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

What in the world did I just watch?

If that isn't the worst dub opening, I'd hate to see the ones that contend for that title.

The Diamond and Pearl rap is an easy contender.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

The Diamond and Pearl Rap, Black and White, and Stand Tall[XYZ] are probably among the worst I'd say. Under The Alolan Sun is more in the middle. Its nothing amazing like Pokemon Johto, Unbeatable, or This Dream, but its not terrible like the DP Rap, Black and White, or Stand Tall. Its still decent to me and it has such an awesome reggae/ska instrumental.

 

[Neo Blaze]

The Diamond and Pearl Rap, Black and White, and Stand Tall[XYZ] are probably among the worst I'd say. Under The Alolan Sun is more in the middle. Its nothing amazing like Pokemon Johto, Unbeatable, or This Dream, but its not terrible like the DP Rap, Black and White, or Stand Tall. Its still decent to me and it has such an awesome reggae/ska instrumental.

I really like reggae and ska but I personally hate the instrumentals in this song. Add the uninspired vocals and in my opinion you have the worst opening second only to the DP rap (or whatever that terrible mess ever was).

I just find the song incredibly dull, which is a shame for such a lively and colorful series.

 

[WatcherMark]

Honestly, I don't mind the opening. The song is quite different to what we're used to, and I liked that its trying to match the feel of the series. And yeah, in terms of badness I don't think anything will ever beat the Diamond and Pearl rap.

Also, major props to TPCi for adapting an ending. I didn't think I'd ever see that done on the dub.

 

[Shadao]

The lyrics are too low to hear and feel like an afterthought. Needs more energy and upbeat sounds. I feel like I was watching a spinoff.

 

[Linkpre]

It's got a decent beat. Wish it was longer and it's probably sound better with stronger instrumentals and maybe a couple different lyrics.

 

[OshyHikari]

I heard this new OP and I cringed so badly.

I already have many sour reasons behind me not wanting to watch the Sun & Moon series (doesn't help that it seems to be copying elements from Yo-Kai Watch) and this dub OP had to add to that list of turn-offs. I get the music fits with Alola, but the vocals seem to be weird.

Do the dub OPs get worse every season? Most definitely.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

I prefer DP rap, cheesy BW and edgy XY openings to this monstrosity.

 

[vncredleader]

Man this is lackluster. It sounds almost like they are trying to be quiet while singing. I can barely hear them. Much prefer the Japanese intro.

 

[Charmander4]

What do you expect from the uncreative, unimaginative folks at PUSA. Horrible voices, horrible writing, horrible songs and no creativity has been SOP for 10 years now. Does anybody expect it to change?

 

[Likeitornot.]

I've heard worse from dub openings, honestly. I enjoy the bubbly soundtrack and feel the tone of it suits the general nature of the series that they are trying to convey - I will say I felt that the artist's voice is too easily overwhelmed by the soundtrack though; there wasn't a sense of the passion there that the soundtrack had. The lyrics are pretty generic, but not too mundane - I mean, for the Pokemon dub, it's pretty standard - but the short time allotted doesn't really help.

All in all, it'd be fine if they just improved the volume and pitch of the voice as well as making it longer for me.

 

[Charmander4]

I hope the people at 4Kids, after taking years of lots of abuse, much of it unjustified, see crap like how the dub is today and feel vindicated.

 

[IncineROAR]

At the rate the "break" between series is going, I feel like the crappy dub opening will never see the light of day

 

[alcid34]

Why doesn't Pokemon learn from the Yo-kai Watch dub? They basically keep everything from the original japanese, they even dubbed the original opening (until at around 20 episodes in, where they replaced it with a dub song, but it's still 1 minute long compared to Pokemon's) and ending theme.

This is the current opening to the dub of Yo-kai Watch, ALSO on Disney XD:

WAY longer than Pokemon's
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This is the Yo-kai Watch dub's ending called "Don-Don-Dooby-Zu-bah!", which is a dub of the original Japanese ending:


For comparison, this is the original japanese:

Seriously, I wish TPCi just learned from Yo-kai Watch when it comes to the music department. However, the only progress I see is that they did use clips from the original ending theme to fill the black background at the end. But it still does not excuse the shortness of the opening theme.
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Just note that I'm not here to show my fanboy-ism of Yo-kai Watch (I treat Pokemon and Yo-kai equally), I'm just here to show you that Pokemon has the capability to make longer dub openings now that these two shows are on the same channel. I was really disappointed when Pokemon still uses a 30 second opening on Disney XD, Despite that there is a similar show to Pokemon that has a minute long opening.

 

[Momentum]

Just throwing it out there, perhaps the restrictive 30 second openings weren't a result of Cartoon Network but instead the standard for its international broadcasters. I'm not sure if Yo-Kai Watch's English adaption is the basis for its international adaptions like Pokémon is, but I can understand why it is.

Dubs for countries like Germany, Italy, French (Basically any country that isn't in Asia) uses English Dub adaption materials for everything. The opening tune, replacement BGM, even the font typing. The only differences are the opening tunes are fitted with lyrics of the respective language as well as the typed on-screen texts in the opening and ending. It could very well be the case that some of these other countries mandate a 30 second opening, so to prevent less work, the English adaption just uses 30 seconds as the basis.

It could also be the cause of them just not being allowed to dub the Japanese openings into English. As we've seen with other dubbing companies, like FUNimation and One Piece, dubbed songs were phased out and there were even situations where an original Japanese song couldn't be used on home video release due to legal reasons. Sure, Yo-Kai Watch might be able to do this, but it might not be as easy for TPCi to do the same here.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

Do they really air all of that ending? Seems really long for American TV standards.

I'm too scared to speak to that boy on my class

It's so weird to hear something so animey from an english dub.

 

[Dogasu]

Just throwing it out there, perhaps the restrictive 30 second openings weren't a result of Cartoon Network but instead the standard for its international broadcasters. I'm not sure if Yo-Kai Watch's English adaption is the basis for its international adaptions like Pokémon is, but I can understand why it is.

It could also be the cause of them just not being allowed to dub the Japanese openings into English. As we've seen with other dubbing companies, like FUNimation and One Piece, dubbed songs were phased out and there were even situations where an original Japanese song couldn't be used on home video release due to legal reasons. Sure, Yo-Kai Watch might be able to do this, but it might not be as easy for TPCi to do the same here.

I don't really believe either theory. Nothing TPCI has shown us in the past however many years indicates that they give a single shit about making things easier for international dubbers (ask any of them how they feel about Team Rocket!) and we have no reason to believe that the likes of Rika Matsumoto and whatever no-name girls' groups they get to perform the shows' openings / endings are being stingy with their music. I mean, they could be but I really, really doubt it.



I personally just think that the Pokemon = 30 second openings idea has been so ingrained in TPCI over the past decade that making a longer opening now that they're on a new network never even occurred to them. For fans the move to Disney XD was a chance for the dub to fix one of its (many) problems but for TPCI? "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

We've seen similar things in the past. TPCI continued to give the Best Wishes! Rocket trio that sing-songy dialogue out of habit for a while there and they still automatically convert "die" or "kill" to some euphemism despite the fact that most kids networks these days wouldn't bat an eye if those things were kept in the scripts. TPCI doesn't really like to change things up or evolve with the times and so I think that unfortunately 30 second openings are here to stay.