Music Background music of the show

[kantoskies]

Don't know if this is the right thread, but

You know how Pokemon dubs replace the Japanese music, which they claim it's because of copyright issues?
But if you watch the dub of Yokai Watch, both the opening theme and ending theme are same with the Japanese music-- they just put English words in it.
Why can Yokai Watch do that, but not Pokemon?

Well I think part of it, at least nowadays, is because Cartoon Network won't allow a 1:30-long opening (I think I heard somewhere that the limit is 30 seconds, shows like Steven Universe, We Bare Bears, and Adventure Time have around 25 second openings but I believe Pokemon's have been consistently 30 seconds since the dub/network switch). TPCi probably feels that instead of either cutting down the Japanese opening and/or making two versions (a TV Size one and a full one) they could just make their own 30 second version. It's much easier to write your own 30 second song and then extend it later rather than cut down a 1:30 minute song.

Well that and the dub is a joke and has always thought it can make a better opening than the original.

 

[uncutpokemon]

Don't know if this is the right thread, but

You know how Pokemon dubs replace the Japanese music, which they claim it's because of copyright issues?
But if you watch the dub of Yokai Watch, both the opening theme and ending theme are same with the Japanese music-- they just put English words in it.
Why can Yokai Watch do that, but not Pokemon?

Yokai Watch kept the BGM intact? Awesome, so now we know that kids anime can leave that alone and have success, and they even took the Yu Yu Hakusho approach with the openings and endings, that's even more good news. I'm gonna go support that dub from now on, as soon as I figure out when/where it airs. As for CN only allowing 30 second openings, that doesn't stop FUNimation from using Dragon Soul in their dub, no excuses. Seriously I think it takes far more effort to change stuff (and gets far more angry fans) than it does to just keep it.

 

[Yoshi1001]

But if you watch the dub of Yokai Watch, both the opening theme and ending theme are same with the Japanese music-- they just put English words in it.
Why can Yokai Watch do that, but not Pokemon?

There are advantages to being an upstart. Yokai doesn't have a dub production history to draw from.

 

[Blue_Drifblim]

There's only one thing I don't get with current TPCi: what happened to all of that silence they used to keep during DP? During Battle Dimension and later on, they would keep minutes]/i] of silence on a regular basis. I'm not talking about episodes where they left the whole soundtrack alone, either. These were just regular episodes. Sometimes they would even keep whole sections of silence in between Japanese pieces, resulting in entire sections of episodes that were the same as the original.

It's all... gone now.

 

[kantoskies]

There's only one thing I don't get with current TPCi: what happened to all of that silence they used to keep during DP? During Battle Dimension and later on, they would keep minutes]/i] of silence on a regular basis. I'm not talking about episodes where they left the whole soundtrack alone, either. These were just regular episodes. Sometimes they would even keep whole sections of silence in between Japanese pieces, resulting in entire sections of episodes that were the same as the original.

It's all... gone now.

I won't get too much into this since it's not exactly the right topic for it but I've definitely been getting "phoned in" vibes from the dub a lot more frequently in the last few years. The music situation has gotten worse, the performances/dialogue have been getting more and more unnatural, and it seems like they're making a lot more changes now just for the hell of it.

 

[lavandula]

Well I think part of it, at least nowadays, is because Cartoon Network won't allow a 1:30-long opening (I think I heard somewhere that the limit is 30 seconds, shows like Steven Universe, We Bare Bears, and Adventure Time have around 25 second openings but I believe Pokemon's have been consistently 30 seconds since the dub/network switch). TPCi probably feels that instead of either cutting down the Japanese opening and/or making two versions (a TV Size one and a full one) they could just make their own 30 second version. It's much easier to write your own 30 second song and then extend it later rather than cut down a 1:30 minute song.

Well that and the dub is a joke and has always thought it can make a better opening than the original.

But why is it easier to make a 30 second song than to edit what's already made?
You can just select parts of the song to fit 30 seconds. You can even alter the speed of the song.

 

[KojiroKing]

But why is it easier to make a 30 second song than to edit what's already made?
You can just select parts of the song to fit 30 seconds. You can even alter the speed of the song.

Good points, I agree, and even when 4Kids had a 45 second song like Advanced, they managed to make it sound good and well composed.

Heck, look at Galactic Battles, TPCi did that and I honestly think it's wayyyyyyy better than both the XY themes so far.

 

[Lord_Mewtwo]

4Kids: I didn't mind the dub music in their dub even though it did get worse in AG when we started hearing more of it over the Japanese score.
TPCi: All 3 composers scores are just terrible. It's like the same synthesizer piece over and over again. It's only getting worse as XY goes on and the replacement of the music in the Diancie & Hoopa movies is inexcusable.

 

[kantoskies]

But why is it easier to make a 30 second song than to edit what's already made?
You can just select parts of the song to fit 30 seconds. You can even alter the speed of the song.

I was speaking more from what's easier for me personally (so I shouldn't have made it sound like it's like this for everyone) but I feel it's easier to make something that's 30 seconds long from scratch rather than try to edit something down to 30 seconds (for instance I don't think Getta Banban would have worked as a 30 second song).

 

[Yoshi1001]

As someone who has to occasionally edit down music, I'll agree that reducing tracks to a shorter length isn't as simple as you might think, especially if the song has tempo or instrumentation changes. Even editing pure speech can be pretty tricky.

 

[Ryu Taylor]

Quite frankly, I'm gonna have to go along with Maddie and say that 4Kids did a better job. =\ Watching scenes of Revelation Lugia... I was pretty bored. I also went "" when the helicopter crashed and they were basically still playing the same music as before. It didn't seem fit. Didn't feel right at all. Especially when compared to the dub version. I also noticed that they seemed to try to make SFX speak more for what was happening in the scene, as opposed to the music. Music is very important. It sets the tone of the scene. 4Kids did a much better job of ensuring that, especially if it was a dramatic part.

You and me both.

The first Pokemon original Japanese version thing I saw was the first movie, which was the best possible first impression. The second movie was the first time I felt disappointed in the original version. And of course, finally tracking down full episodes last year and seeing a few of them turned me into the dub lover I am now.

I never felt that Shinji Miyazaki was the Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart he's been made out to be, but I still like a lot of his stuff. Which is why it disappointed me greatly when his compositions for the XY saga (and for the record, except for about nine or so tracks, I felt the XY game soundtrack was very bland) turned out so subpar. And the Diancie movie soundtrack? Complete trash. The controversial English dub soundtrack for that movie was also shoddy, but I enjoyed it so much better. It doesn't make me happy to say this, but as long as the XY saga continues, Miyazaki is a musical has-been. Hopefully the G7 saga can fix that.

But in general, I don't think any of the composers for the show and its lore were 100% perfect. They've all made great tracks and they've all made horrible tracks.

All that considered, my bigger problem with the show's music has to do with the sound editing department. On the dub side of things, someone should've clued them into how use of the Pokedex Theme worked against just about every episode it was used in. On the original Japanese version side of things, here are my two biggest discrepencies with it: this was not meant to go over Pierre and Aria's dance in XY104. Not unless it was a rave party, which it wasn't; it was a ballroom party. Oh, and this going over the flying Pokeballs scene from the original Japanese first movie? No, just... NO.

Currently, this is all that comes to mind.

 

[Poke Trey]

I don't really mind that the dub changes the music because even since the 4kids days it didn't really bother me at all. Going into gen 6 I watched both Japanese and English versions, I still go for English any day because I just could never get used to how the sub version handles things plus this was during early season 1 xy that I attempted to do it and had to stop due to just not really caring for it.

 

[Ryu Taylor]

In general, I feel the dub soundtrack of "The Power of One" is not only superior to the original Japanese "Revelation Lugia" soundtrack, but it's also my pick for the best Pokemon movie soundtrack ever. The theme they gave Lugia is the single best 4kids track ever, the single best Pokemon movie track ever, and the single best Legendary theme to come out of the anime.

Oh, and that theme has been fan-remixed not once, not twice, not thrice, not four times, not five times, not six times, not seven times, not eight times, not nine times, but ten times! And counting! I'm sure the original Japanese one (which is good in its own right) has been remixed, but I haven't found any for that one.

 

[matt0044]

Honestly, a good question would have to be... why would the dub (be it by 4kids or TPCi) bother keeping any Japanese music period? Don't localized dubs have a tendency to give the music soundtrack a complete overhaul?

(Not that I prefer the dub music for Pokemon. I mean, there are dubs that replace the original soundtracks with some genuinely good music. Digimon Frontier and Data Squads along with LBX have surprisingly memorable pieces. Pokémon's dub music... has its moments like with the 4kids dubs of the first two movies).

 

[Satoshi Da Ze]

I love Shinji Miyazaki's versions of the songs, as well as the original songs by him. They're always very emotional, fit the anime's feel like a glove, and the versions of game themes tend to be better than the games' IMO, with very few exceptions.
I wish he started making music for video games (Not necessarily Pokemon).

Only theme I'm not a big fan of is Satoshi's new theme as of Best Wishes. His D/P theme was vastly superior.

Honestly I'm not american and I don't like their distibutors tendency of wanting to add original tracks in anime like Pokemon and DBZ. People can't be THAT dependant on heavy localization. I don't think I'll ever understand north american tendency to do that with every localization of foreign work. In my country to have a single track edit outside just translating and localizing the script to adapt the meaning, references and jokes, etc is extremely rare and it doesn't stop certain foreign content, american or japanese, of reaching big success.
It sucks that after some anime distributors made monopoly over most series that reach this continent we end with leftovers of their localization work instead of directly from the source like we used to.

 

[Dogasu]

I don't think I'll ever understand north american tendency to do that with every localization of foreign work.

Please don't think all English dubs are bad based on the few shitty adaptations that still exist. The number of English dubs on TV right now with replacement music scores can probably be counted on one hand.

 

[Ryu Taylor]

I don't think I'll ever understand north american tendency to do that with every localization of foreign work.

Please don't think all English dubs are bad based on the few shitty adaptations that still exist. The number of English dubs on TV right now with replacement music scores can probably be counted on one hand.

And also, Satoshi Da Ze, please don't think English dubs are bad only because they change the BGM. Some dubs have done things that are actually harmful, like how Nelvana's dub of Cardcaptor Sakura tried to promote Syoran Li to co-lead character.

Honestly, a good question would have to be... why would the dub (be it by 4kids or TPCi) bother keeping any Japanese music period? Don't localized dubs have a tendency to give the music soundtrack a complete overhaul?

For whatever reason, Pokemon has been a notable exception, though there may be others. But with a soundtrack as bland as the XY saga's, I personally would actually prefer it that way; scrap it all and rescore the whole thing.

I'd only ever say such a thing about a Japanese cartoon soundtrack I thoroughly (or almost thoroughly) don't enjoy. So far, DBZ is the only other Japanese cartoon soundtrack I've ever said that about.

 

[uncutpokemon]

Please don't think all English dubs are bad based on the few shitty adaptations that still exist. The number of English dubs on TV right now with replacement music scores can probably be counted on one hand.

hmm lets see, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh and Digimon if it's still airing on nicktoons, I think that's all of them. And to anyone that wants to use the "it's for kids, therefore it doesn't matter" argument, Yo-Kai Watch keeps all the music for their dub, and that's all the reason I need to prove that replacement scores need to go. But ya, don't go thinking good FUNimation and VIZ dubs are bad because of a few 4kids wannabes.

 

[JediMaster362]

I've got a question about a couple of songs in the episode called Gaining Groudon. Which song is playing when:

• Team Magma's submarine is arriving at the secret base? For a time-specific moment, it's when May asks if what is ahead of them is Team Magma's secret base.
• Maxie and his fellow Team Magma members are arriving on Monsu Island? For the moment that I'm thinking of, it's when Maxie's leading his troops, while Archie awaits.

It would be nice to have a download link to each song, so I can listen to them. They sound pretty well done. Thanks.

 

[JediMaster362]

Does anyone know the songs I'm trying to find? They're very catchy tunes.