WI: More anime dubbed in the UK

Mort the Reaper

Much has been said about the United Kingdom's influence in popular culture. Much has also been said about its similarities with Japan, Eurasia's other island bookend. But despite these two things, the UK is hardly known for its anime dubs. Most English-language anime localization is done in the US or Canada, with a handful of (mostly low-quality) curiosities from places like Malaysia. But what if there were more British anime dubs out there? What might get picked up? How might it affect the industry as a whole?

Believe it or not, there's actually a possible point of divergence I found. In August 2000, BBC Choice aired two episodes of the 1980s anime adaptation of Urusei Yatsura, which they retitled Lum the Invader Girl. And the title wasn't the only thing that was changed. You see, this was a full-on gag dub of the original anime. While they didn't change any of the names and the story and characterization largely remained faithful to the original, a lot of liberties were taken with the script, though the last few scenes of the second episode played things closer to the source material.

The dub wasn't well-received and would never re-air or be released on home media. It was effectively lost media until both episodes resurfaced on the internet earlier this year. More to the point, the BBC didn't make its own anime dubs anymore. So, let's say the dub is more popular and the BBC decides to not only do the rest of the series, but also localize more anime. What changes from there?
 

Reflection

It’s kind of funny to think about there being a lot of dub anime with British accents to be honest.

Would that negatively impact their viability in the US market?
 

NOMISYRRUC

Mort the Reaper said:
Believe it or not, there's actually a possible point of divergence I found. In August 2000, BBC Choice aired two episodes of the 1980s anime adaptation of Urusei Yatsura, which they retitled Lum the Invader Girl. And the title wasn't the only thing that was changed. You see, this was a full-on gag dub of the original anime. While they didn't change any of the names and the story and characterization largely remained faithful to the original, a lot of liberties were taken with the script, though the last few scenes of the second episode played things closer to the source material.
Click to expand...
That had been going on for decades.

Famously, "The Magic Roundabout", Eric Thompson (father of Oscar winning actress Emma Thompson) was given the video tapes of French-dub and told to write a story to fit the pictures and according to Phylida Law (his wife) the first thing he did was to throw the translations of the French scripts away.

Not animie, but Japanese imports "The Water Margin" and "Monkey" were very popular in the UK during 1970s & 1980s. It used many of the same voiceover artists (e.g. David Collings) and the English dialogue was written by the same people for both series. What they were saying in English was nothing like what they were saying in Japanese because the British scriptwriter had a synopsis of the episode's story and they wrote dialogue to fit the mouth movements of the actors.
 

NOMISYRRUC

Reflection said:
It’s kind of funny to think about there being a lot of dub anime with British accents to be honest.
Click to expand...
They might be speaking with mock-Japanese accents because "The Water Margin" and "Monkey" were dubbed into mock-Chinese.
Reflection said:
Would that negatively impact their viability in the US market?
Click to expand...
When "Dangermouse" was sold to US television Brian Trueman had to spend a weekend re-dubbing Stiletto from a Sicilian to a Cockney for fear of offending the Mafia.
 

New Cleo Genesis

This may be slightly off-topic, but what anime has there even been on British television in the first place? From what I've understood, Sailor Moon (!) never aired in the UK. The only British anime dub that I'm aware of was the 1990 Moomins, though I can't remember offhand if/when/where it was aired there.
 
Ammonios

Ammonios

New Cleo Genesis said:
This may be slightly off-topic, but what anime has there even been on British television in the first place? From what I've understood, Sailor Moon (!) never aired in the UK. The only British anime dub that I'm aware of was the 1990 Moomins, though I can't remember offhand if/when/where it was aired there.
Click to expand...
Hello,

 

NOMISYRRUC

New Cleo Genesis said:
This may be slightly off-topic, but what anime has there even been on British television in the first place? From what I've understood, Sailor Moon (!) never aired in the UK. The only British anime dub that I'm aware of was the 1990 Moomins, though I can't remember offhand if/when/where it was aired there.
Click to expand...
Do "Marine Boy" and "Battle of the Planets" count as anime? If they do they were on Saturday mornings and Weekday afternoons regularly in the 1970s and 1980s respectively.

Another one that may count is "Thunderbirds 2086" which was on Children's BBC in the late 1980s. That was after my time and I was disappointed with the one episode that I did watch because before watching it I thought it was going to be an animated version of Gerry Anderson's "Thunderbirds" al la "Star Trek - The Animated Series" which I remember liking when it was on in the middle 1970s.
 
Opo

Opo

New Cleo Genesis said:
This may be slightly off-topic, but what anime has there even been on British television in the first place? From what I've understood, Sailor Moon (!) never aired in the UK. The only British anime dub that I'm aware of was the 1990 Moomins, though I can't remember offhand if/when/where it was aired there.
Click to expand...
Came to this thread to mention this brilliant series!

The Moomins was first brought to British audiences with the stop motion series in 1983 for ITV Central. It was so popular it had a revival in 1986 and another in 1988 before CBBC imported the Japanese anime series Moomin in 1993. They ran all 78 episodes until 1999.

This website has some great background on how the series was dubbed for UK audiences: http://shawweb.myzen.co.uk/stephen/moomin.htm#adapt
 

New Cleo Genesis

Analytical Engine said:
It absolutely did - I should know, I watched it.

Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R both aired in the UK, though, for some reason, Sailor Moon S and onwards didn't.
Click to expand...
Okay I checked, and you're right. According to this, it was on Fox Kids UK; not a channel I was previously familiar with.
Opo said:
Came to this thread to mention this brilliant series!

The Moomins was first brought to British audiences with the stop motion series in 1983 for ITV Central. It was so popular it had a revival in 1986 and another in 1988 before CBBC imported the Japanese anime series Moomin in 1993. They ran all 78 episodes until 1999.

This website has some great background on how the series was dubbed for UK audiences: http://shawweb.myzen.co.uk/stephen/moomin.htm#adapt
Click to expand...
Always nice to see a fellow Moomin enthusiast. Thanks for the link as well.
 

Mort the Reaper

New Cleo Genesis said:
This may be slightly off-topic, but what anime has there even been on British television in the first place? From what I've understood, Sailor Moon (!) never aired in the UK. The only British anime dub that I'm aware of was the 1990 Moomins, though I can't remember offhand if/when/where it was aired there.
Click to expand...
I know DBZ aired in the UK for a while, mostly the Ocean dub, though they aired the AB Groupe dubs of the movies.
 

AltBBCGordon

The issue with this (which I have been researching for my TL) is that most things which were seen as "foreign" defaulted to either a mostly gag dub; "Monkey" or "The Water Margin" or the dubbing was fine but it looked funny (well into the 1990s people were doing "bad kung fu movie voices" as a joke)

The primary reason I think is the low cultural interchange between the UK & Japan. Most stuff we got with a Japanese basis, was an American adaptation, "Battle of the Planets" for example, so we picked things up from a dub made by Americans.

I think this is actually because of the vanishingly small proportion of people are Japanese or of Japanese descent. So Japanese cultural imports would not be seen as economically viable or culturally relevant.

Also there is an insularity and unconscious racism in the UK when it comes to "foreign" cultural products being seen as weird or odd.

So whilst it is not impossible for it to happen you have a narrow window for it to grab a cultural moment.

The framework I am using is this:
"Monkey" & "Battle of the Planets" begin airing in 1979. Official figures I have found say they were moderate successes in terms of viewing numbers but were popular with kids. This is also coming off the 1970s Kung Fu craze.
So another company or producer then offers a dubbed version of something else. Possibly for free or very cheaply as it is a VERY risky investment. They get the rights for it, but it needs to hit the air before about 1983 before being buried by US imports such as Transformers & He-Man etc
Which allowing for production gives you an air date of either late 80 or early 81 to get a foothold. Now unless you butterfly the American stuff (I know how I am doing it) it will definitely lose to them, getting buried in something which is seen as more culturally relevant.

To stick to your proposed dates, the BBC air a few series, seeing a limited return on investment (how the BBC can't derive profit from things they haven't made, unless BBC enterprises have snagged licence rights etc). I would say unless it found a slot it's footing on Choice (unlikely given it was a digital only Channel), or was picked up as "something different" for the soon to be launched BBC Three (more likely given BBC Three commissioned original animation), it would wither on the vine before being axed.

Feel free to message me and we can bat ideas around or even join forces.
 

DAv

AltBBCGordon said:
The issue with this (which I have been researching for my TL) is that most things which were seen as "foreign" defaulted to either a mostly gag dub; "Monkey" or "The Water Margin" or the dubbing was fine but it looked funny (well into the 1990s people were doing "bad kung fu movie voices" as a joke)

The primary reason I think is the low cultural interchange between the UK & Japan. Most stuff we got with a Japanese basis, was an American adaptation, "Battle of the Planets" for example, so we picked things up from a dub made by Americans.

I think this is actually because of the vanishingly small proportion of people are Japanese or of Japanese descent. So Japanese cultural imports would not be seen as economically viable or culturally relevant.

Also there is an insularity and unconscious racism in the UK when it comes to "foreign" cultural products being seen as weird or odd.

So whilst it is not impossible for it to happen you have a narrow window for it to grab a cultural moment.

The framework I am using is this:
"Monkey" & "Battle of the Planets" begin airing in 1979. Official figures I have found say they were moderate successes in terms of viewing numbers but were popular with kids. This is also coming off the 1970s Kung Fu craze.
So another company or producer then offers a dubbed version of something else. Possibly for free or very cheaply as it is a VERY risky investment. They get the rights for it, but it needs to hit the air before about 1983 before being buried by US imports such as Transformers & He-Man etc
Which allowing for production gives you an air date of either late 80 or early 81 to get a foothold. Now unless you butterfly the American stuff (I know how I am doing it) it will definitely lose to them, getting buried in something which is seen as more culturally relevant.

To stick to your proposed dates, the BBC air a few series, seeing a limited return on investment (how the BBC can't derive profit from things they haven't made, unless BBC enterprises have snagged licence rights etc). I would say unless it found a slot it's footing on Choice (unlikely given it was a digital only Channel), or was picked up as "something different" for the soon to be launched BBC Three (more likely given BBC Three commissioned original animation), it would wither on the vine before being axed.

Feel free to message me and we can bat ideas around or even join forces.
Click to expand...

What would be a good selection for this? I'd be thinking something with Lupin, but would run into the problem of it being for older audiences when something more general would be best, able to be watched by the family, sort of thing.
 
Sargon

Sargon

Donor
Monthly Donor
Back in the 80s Star Fleet created by Gō Nagai was dubbed for ITV. It was immensely popular, so much so ITV sent a team to Japan to get a second series organised. Unfortunately a fire at the set destroyed much of the puppets and ship models and that sadly put an end to the idea.

Interestingly the dub was done by British voice actors doing American accents. Notably, most of the villains used British accents.


Sargon
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top