Michael Haigney's Podcast - 'Original Pokéman'

[snowmint]

MH told me his next episode should be out "soon." Interviews with some of the backstage people are interesting. One recent JCC Interview reveals that they really have most of the Japanese OST removed from the current composer. The championship episode is going to be a mess ugh!!!

 

[SushiBurrito]

I listened to the first episode. I have to agree with the criticism that he really needs a co-host or a rotation of guest to bounce off of. The most interesting things I learned was

*We pretty much got confirmation that 4Kids never dubbed Electric Soldier Porygon. I guess that's somewhat obvious but there was a rumor for a while they did.

*A man named Paul Taylor provided the translations for 4Kids. That's cool I guess. I know Funimation originally worked on wonky translations provided by Toei for Dragon Ball Z until they hired a fan named Steve Simmons to do translations. So it's neat 4Kids didn't just have to rely on translations from OLM.

*Haigney mentions his surprise the networks let them keep the Voltorb alarm clock because it could be confused for in-show advertisement and violate FCC regulations. He's probably right, but I don't recall Voltorb alarm clocks ever existing in real life. Would it have mattered?

*Apparently BS&P don't like kids slapping each other. I can see that being true, imitidable behavior and all that but I have to point out the second season of Digimon, which also aired on network television, had no qualms keeping kids slapping other and that only aired 2 years later.

*He said 4kids was unsure of Pikachu's gender but as Dogasu pointed out in his comparison for episode 17 the Japanese anime pretty much assigned all of Ash's Pokemon a male gender.

I kind of wish he got into the music differences. The first episode only kept two pieces of Japanese music; the Gameboy Game opening tv remix and Tears in the Cloudy Weather. Everything else was replaced by 4Kids own music even though a lot of the Japanese cues would show up in later dub episodes. I know the 4kids music exist for two reasons: To fill in gaps with no music and to have music they can charge royalties for other companies to license in their dub. But it would be nice if he knew why they sometimes replaced some of the music and sometimes they didnt or why they kept any music at all when most of their other non-Pokemon dubs replaced all of the music.

 

[PaperSplash]

*A man named Paul Taylor provided the translations for 4Kids. That's cool I guess. I know Funimation originally worked on wonky translations provided by Toei for Dragon Ball Z until they hired a fan named Steve Simmons to do translations. So it's neat 4Kids didn't just have to rely on translations from OLM.

He's actually listed in the credits of almost every Pokémon thing 4Kids produced during their time with the franchise, with the main exception I can find being several episodes of Chronicles. He also worked on quite a few other 4Kids-produced anime dubs as well.

*Apparently BS&P don't like kids slapping each other. I can see that being true, imitidable behavior and all that but I have to point out the second season of Digimon, which also aired on network television, had no qualms keeping kids slapping other and that only aired 2 years later.

Different networks though, so different regulations. That's what "BS&P" typically refers to: individual television networks' broadcasting regulations, not those of broadcast television as a whole (although Pokémon originally aired in syndication in the United States, it doesn't seem to have received different levels of editing for the different individual networks it aired on, just one single edited-down version that appeased all of them).

*He said 4kids was unsure of Pikachu's gender but as Dogasu pointed out in his comparison for episode 17 the Japanese anime pretty much assigned all of Ash's Pokemon a male gender.

There's also this interview with the voice of Pikachu herself, Ikue Ohtani, where she claims that the Japanese production staff had already decided that Pikachu should be gendered male, which she disagreed with and personally suggested using "it" for the English version (something she would later come to regret). But from Michael Haigney's recollection, it seems like 4Kids' decision to use "it" was one they came to independently without any input from the Japanese side.

 

[snowmint]

Different networks though, so different regulations. That's what "BS&P" typically refers to: individual television networks' broadcasting regulations, not those of broadcast television as a whole (although Pokémon originally aired in syndication in the United States, it doesn't seem to have received different levels of editing for the different individual networks it aired on, just one single edited-down version that appeased all of them).

4kids edits were all over the place. The 4kids shaman king dub that aired on Fox kept Anna slapping Hao err "Zeke" in one episode.

 

[Yash]

MH told me his next episode should be out "soon." Interviews with some of the backstage people are interesting. One recent JCC one reveal that they really have most of the Japanese OST From the current composer. The championship episode is going to be a mess ugh!!!

What exactly does that mean - "have most of the Japanese OST from the current composer"? Are they actually planning on using it in the show?

 

[snowmint]

What exactly does that mean - "have most of the Japanese OST from the current composer"? Are they actually planning on using it in the show?

I meant most of Japanese music being removed. Sorry for the typo.

 

[PaperSplash]

4kids edits were all over the place. The 4kids shaman king dub that aired on Fox kept Anna slapping Hao err "Zeke" in one episode.

Again, different TV networks demand different edits. There wasn't a single TV network that all 4Kids-licensed shows aired on; while the most common one was a block of the Fox TV network that they fittingly renamed "4Kids TV" at one point, you also had Kids WB! which most of Pokémon as well as the Duel Monsters series of Yu-Gi-Oh! aired on, and then there was its successor The CW4Kids, which was later also known as Toonzai.

And I'm not sure 4Kids' Shaman King dub is a good comparison in this case; if anything it was the exception that proved the rule. 4Kids appeared to take a gamble on that particular series by giving it a relatively faithful dub in contrast to all their other anime licenses. But they and Fox reportedly received a multitude of parental complaints for allowing it to air which explains why 4Kids never tried anything on that scale ever again, and Fox's B&SP department most likely got stricter regarding what they would allow to air in a kids' programming block as a result of that as well.

 

[snowmint]

Again, different TV networks demand different edits. There wasn't a single TV network that all 4Kids-licensed shows aired on; while the most common one was a block of the Fox TV network that they fittingly renamed "4Kids TV" at one point, you also had Kids WB! which most of Pokémon as well as the Duel Monsters series of Yu-Gi-Oh! aired on, and then there was its successor The CW4Kids, which was later also known as Toonzai.

And I'm not sure 4Kids' Shaman King dub is a good comparison in this case; if anything it was the exception that proved the rule. 4Kids appeared to take a gamble on that particular series by giving it a relatively faithful dub in contrast to all their other anime licenses. But they and Fox reportedly received a multitude of parental complaints for allowing it to air which explains why 4Kids never tried anything on that scale ever again, and Fox's B&SP department most likely got stricter regarding what they would allow to air in a kids' programming block as a result of that as well.

I'm sure the TMNT shredder being beheaded didn't help. Apparently the fox censor person got fired over that. I wish Haigney was more consistent on the podcast EP releases.

 

[Ricbolog]

Has this podcast been de facto discontinued? If I recall correctly, the last episode was released even before the announcement that Ash was going to leave the anime. I hope Haigney's OK.

 

[BigDocFan]

I'm guessing Michael is probably busy so hasn't been able to record his podcasts

 

[Ricbolog]

I'm guessing Michael is probably busy so hasn't been able to record his podcasts

If it's just that, no problem for me, he alone should decide what his priorities are.

 

[snowmint]

A new podcast episode just dropped. I wish the pace was more consistent.

 

[BigDocFan]

A link can be found here

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1663597/12725032-ep-8-the-path-to-the-pokemon-league?t=0

 

[snowmint]

If it's just that, no problem for me, he alone should decide what his priorities are.

I don't think they are currently working besides doing a lot of conventions.

 

[Charmander4]

I

I don't think they are currently working besides doing a lot of conventions.

that doesn’t mean the guy doesn’t have a life and other priorities.

Anxiously waiting for “Charmander the Stray Pokémon” podcast. That is my favorite Pokémon, in part thanks to his voice.

 

[snowmint]

I want him to talk about "Beauty and the Beach."

 

[BigDocFan]

I want him to talk about "Beauty and the Beach."

Definitely an episode I'm not looking forward to

 

[snowmint]

I just find it funny the whole EP was banned because of the James scene when they could've easily just cut it out and moved forward.

 

[Charmander4]

I just find it funny the whole EP was banned because of the James scene when they could've easily just cut it out and moved forward.

That’s literally what they did.

 

[PockyAddict]

That’s literally what they did.

pretty much, i actually saw the premier in 2000 and that scene was cut out (the WB hyped it as a lost episode, iirc). didn't find out that a scene existed until a few months later when i discovered dogasu's site.