Some English dubs of anime are looked down
upon for how they fail to capture the spirit
of the original, be it through awkwardly written
dialogue, stilted performances, or all of the above.
Eating lunch together is so much fun, so much
fun, I like it.
She can be pretty weird sometimes.
However there are some that are enjoyed in
spite of their flaws due to their unintentional charm.
Kagome!
Meanwhile, other dubs are praised for allowing
viewers of all cultures to walk away with
a similar experience to those who viewed the
show in its original language.
Let a man walk alone, let him commit no sin,
let him have few wishes, like an elephant in the forest.
Think of a big black man chasing you!
And then there’s Ghost Stories.
Well he’s not racist.
ADV’s dub’s of the supernatural horror
anime originally known as Gakkō no Kaidan
has become something of an industry legend.
According to some of the American actors,
the series had done so poorly in Japan to
the point that producers wanted to recover
as many sales as possible, apparently allowing
the dub team to do whatever they could in
order to accomplish that end.
Mom, what’s going on?
Come rub my nipples.
Excuse me!?
Do you have any books written by black people?
If you do…I’ll suck you off for a Scooby
Snack.
So, instead of an atmospheric mystery show
aimed at kids, we got an offensive comedy
that in no way suited a young audience.
You see kids, the boy bunny has a thing called
a penis, and he puts that into the girl bunny’s vagina.
Oh wow, I can’t even comprehend how inappropriate
this is…
It was crude, unapologetic and made jokes
at the expense of everyone regardless of their
age, race, gender or sexual orientation, including
the people working on the dub itself!
God, what an egomaniac!
He even makes Chris Patton look humble.
Or Greg Ayres.
This dub has had an undeniable bearing on
Ghost Stories’ reputation here in the West,
even though the original has been made available
on DVD and online.
Given its infamy, maybe there’s even a market
for more dubs of unsuccessful shows to be
handled like this.
Some appear to have come close to what was
done with Ghost Stories, though there’s
no implication that these dubs had the freedom
to go nearly as far.
Teach me, my sensei!
 Teach you I shall.
But not every anime coming out is going to
be stellar anyway, so why waste the opportunity?
We’re sure there are people in the dubbing
industry who would love to have THAT much
creative control more often, but the situation
that lead to Ghost Stories’ alleged failure
in Japan is a bit more complicated than simply
“it performed badly”.
In fact there’s evidence to suggest that
it had a very strong following, which makes
the discussion surrounding the dub’s treatment
of the original material more subjective.
You can jump ahead to find out more with this
timestamp but if you’re unfamiliar with
Ghost Stories, it’s worth clarifying the
actual process behind this highly unorthodox
dub, and what implementing it meant for everyone
from the actors to the consumers.
Now, this likely isn’t the only instance
of a foreign dub deliberately changing the
overall appeal of a show to be more comedic,
but many fans have referred to Ghost Stories
as an “official abridged” anime, though
that might imply more creative control than
what actually was the case.
All of these reasons can be speculated to pertain
to the cultural significance of the Japanese
language, and spirits the source material
was taking influence from.
Run, Satsuki!
Run from yet another Japanese horror movie
knock-off!
Run!
I know.
We’ve done The Ring like 4 or 5 times.
English dubs of select anime franchises have
a messy history of altering, censoring or
dumbing down material for the sake of appealing
to a new audience, however it’s very easy
to single out Ghost Stories as a unique entity
even among those examples.
This was a dub with no cut scenes or other
visual edits.
It syncs up perfectly with the original video
track, and was distributed alongside the Japanese
audio with accurate subtitles on home video.
So despite all its deviations, saying ADV
was given “full creative freedom” is a
bit misleading.
Instead they seemed to work around those limitations
by acknowledging yet downplaying the show’s
unavoidable story beats,
It’s not meth! It’s another damn ghost.
supplanting any dramatic payoffs with comedic
ones,
His funny little requests…
Touch me…
His reprimands…
Touch me harder!
and having
fun with everything in between, even to the
point of breaking the fourth wall.
Why do you have your shoes on inside the house?
This isn’t the time for cultural translation
differences, we gotta get out of here!
Maintaining the general arc of an episode
in no way required the characters to retain
their original personalities either.
Satsuki goes from a spunky leader to a sassy
optimist,
Girl alone in haunted school hose…I’m an idiot.
Hajime becomes an egotistical pervert,
So
I’m nailing this midget when my mom walks in...
Leo is even more paranoid and for some
reason Jewish
…a Jew who can act and sew so obviously I’m gay!
and Momoko, who was
originally drawn to evil spirits because she
was psychic is now a born-again Christian
who tries to save the others from their own damnation.
I have faith in my Lord Jesus.
I don’t believe in cursed stairs and this
test will prove it.
Good one!
Even Satsuki’s little brother Keiichirou,
who didn’t have much to him in terms of
personality in the original, was made out
to be mentally challenged because the actors
decided to take advantage of his large and
exaggerated lip flaps.
I’ve got to fill out my Special Olympics
application.
Generally the louder you want to be, the wider
and more pronounced your mouth is forced to
conform and that principle is applied in reverse
with dubbing animation.
Keiichirou had additional open mouth flaps
when he wasn’t talking or making sound in
the original, so ADV decided to fill those
moments with as much loud, random noise as they could.
Obviously! Which way did they go?
Now we'll never find out who the ghost is!
I hope to God you're adopted...
Then on the inverse side, Momoko had smaller
flaps which lead to a quieter, more polite
tone which ironically ended up also being
a comedic contrast to some of the more outrageous
things she says in the series.
And her voice actress Monica Rial actually
ended up referencing bible verses just for
the sake of these jokes.
ISAIAH 63:1!
‘Stride forward in the greatness of his
strength.’
In fact almost all of the actors were listed
in the credits as script writers for the show,
likely because a lot of what was added to
the dub occured in the booth.
The start of episode 1 is actually quite tame
in terms of deviations
All ready for us to move in!
Hey, you think it’s okay if we make this
our game room?
Well let’s ask dad about it later.
However, it’s implied that the script became
progressively more ad-libbed as it went on,
so long as everything could fit within those
aforementioned lip flaps as that is often
a professional standard most dubs try to meet,
even if that isn’t always the case stateside.
Ohmygodwhatthehellshappeningthesearethefastestlipflapsiveeverhadtosync!
In Japan, anime voice-acting is typically
done in group sessions where everyone present
for a scene will bounce off each other in
real time, but English dubs usually record
one person in the booth at a time no matter
how many are needed for a scene.
The first actor performs around the Japanese
performances while every followup actor plays
off the parts that were dubbed before them
and so on.
This means that the earlier actors can record
joke takes or “bombs” alongside their
professional ones, with a director's permission,
solely for the purpose of catching the next
actors off guard.
Thing is, I might look your way accidentally
after scoring another point.
I’ll be sure to tell the difference.
Thing is, I might look your way accidentally
after scoring another point
…I’ll be sure to tell the difference…
Most of these bombs would never make it into
the final product outside a blooper reel,
and sadly even those have been on the decline
for home releases recently, but this approach
was arguably the basis for some of the show’s
humorous back and forths.
I want a HUGE allowance and breasts when I
get older.
And when I get older I want to fondle said
breasts.
I pray that all my friends will become born-again
Christians.
According to Monica, each actor would do their
best to be the first person in to record a
scene because that way they could be the one
to set up a joke, and everyone who came in
afterwards would need to go along with it;
either playing the straight man or trying
to take the joke as far as possible within
the confines of the scene.
While this constant need to oneup eachother
lead to some jokes that were definitely dated
upon arrival, others are still making the
online rounds today.
A police station!
Thank God!
I never thought I’d be happy to see one
of those things!
Hey, put the donuts down!
Drop the Krispy Kremes Serpico, we need your
help here!
Thesepeopleinmyhouselooklikemyfatherandmybrother..
Yeah! *gibberish*
Comedy is subjective, but it’s hard not
to admire the synergy the actors have with
one another as they’re given this once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity.
However in spite of this I can’t help but
wonder what Japanese viewers who grew up with
Ghost Stories feel about all this.
Are they happy that the show garnered even
more popularity in the West at all?
Do they feel betrayed because it’s impossible
for them to share a similar experience of
the series with people who have ONLY watched
the dub?
For those watching this on YouTube, our own
videos on English dubs sometimes get uploaded
to NicoNicoDouga with Japanese subtitles kindly
provided by E.Hoba, links in the description.
For an audience that doesn’t require localization
to consume anime, I imagine that some things
like the Dragon Ball dub’s incredibly convoluted
history would seem a bit...strange.
Likewise, we also have E.Hoba to thank for
transcribing a great deal of information regarding
Ghost Stories’ presence in Japan, so now
hopefully our non-Japanese viewers can understand
the show from a perspective they’re not
familiar with.
According to Anikore, a famous website that
ranks all animated TV shows, OVAs and films
that aired in Japan, Ghost Stories was ranked
21 out of everything that aired in the year
2000, beating the likes of Digimon Adventure
2.
On an old anime database website called “Sakuhin
Database” which has a weighted score system,
Ghost Story is number 1 of 2000 anime, putting
it higher than Fooly Cooly.
It was frequently discussed on popular message
boards including 2chan, which at the time
allowed anime fans to do real time chats on
TV shows.
Not only did Ghost Stories apparently generate
some of the highest traffic levels to those
threads, but the real time commentary of the
show had gotten so popular to the point where
they needed to be moved to another site due
to issues caused by that high traffic.
By most accounts, the show was far from a
critical failure but despite all this investment,
Ghost Stories appeared to have come out at
the wrong place at the wrong time.
Ghost Stories was one of the last childrens’
shows to air on prime time at 7:30 following
Ojamajo DOREMI, as part of Fuji TV’s new
children's shows lineup despite the fact that
much of its fanbase seemed to be comprised
of older otaku.
Not only was Momoko considered a candidate
for the best girl of the season but some of
the show’s highest rankings on the network
were apparently during episodes that had the
most panty shots.
It’s possible that had the show aired today,
it would be put alongside other shows geared
towards otaku during a night time slot, and
fans even pointed out that the character designs
seemed to be based on a new otaku-anime style
that rose in popularity at the turn of the
century, or at the very least the designs
weren’t indicative of other children’s shows.
However its rankings on the network slowly
dwindled over time, dropping below 10%, which
may have been seen as a failure in the network’s
eyes...despite the fact that such a ranking
technically wasn't too far off what a lot
of other children shows were receiving during the block
However, the network didn’t seem to think
Ghost Stories would recover and had it replaced
with One Piece which also didn’t survive
the late night time slot.
After One Piece and many other shows also
dropped under 10%, Fuji TV stopped airing
anime in this slot all together, and One Piece
was moved to the Sunday morning slot where
it still resides to this day.
Ghost Stories may have performed poorly on
prime time television, but anime itself was
performing poorly on prime time anyway, so
it seems the truth of the matter had become
simplified by the time the American actors
were told how bad the original show was.
A lot of this can still be seen as speculative
of course, but ADV being given the ability
to make such extreme changes seems to have
been the result of a commercial failure, NOT a critical one.
So asking for more dubs like Ghost Stories’
would be less about improving something that
was objectively broken, and more about asking
Japanese clients to not value the integrity
of anime that perform poorly, something that
I think we can all agree is an issue unto itself
I'm sure we all have at least one title that
we might hold in high regard that’s either
denounced or looked down upon by other parts
of the community, but despite that I doubt
a lot of us would feel comfortable if those
shows were handled in a similar capacity to
Ghost Stories just for the sake of giving
other people a laugh.
The anime industry can be unforgiving with
how franchises are distributed to fans and
sometimes you need to do what you can to make
ends meet, but what would an anime have to
do to deserve getting dubbed like this?
It’s ridiculous to expect everyone to like
everything, but from there, who is deciding
which media has more inherent value and which
ones have so little that they’re quote “worth
the Ghost Stories treatment?”
But then if everything was already reversed,
which world would be the real world?
Would it be the mirror world or this one?
Maybe the reflection we see is real, ever
thought of that?
The American actors involved probably didn’t
have some grand vision for this dub to become
a cult classic that lived in infamy, and unlike
4Kids dubs it didn’t stop the original Japanese
version from being officially viewable in
the West so it’s technically less harmful.
Isn’t that just freaking you out?
I mean seriously, isn’t that just whack
crap?
However the legacy of Gakko no Kaidan that
inspired all these adaptations has effectively
been dominated by this dub’s comedic legacy.
All those flippant improv-based jokes mentioned
earlier add up and undermine the show’s
very sense of continuity.
And you know what the weird part is?
I’m not even high!
Not a bit!
Totally sober!
Isn’t that just as harmful?
And does the authorial permission from the
Japanese side suddenly justify this, even
in the face of fans who did or would appreciate
the original for what it was?
Some fans attribute poor adaptation decisions
to “unnecessary creativity” on the actor’s
or writer’s part.
And while in some cases this is true, it’s
worth being careful with how that sentiment
is phrased, as it could imply that dubbing
anime is not a creative job.
Even in a medium where performances need to
adhere visuals, lipflaps, scripts and timecodes,
dubbing something means so much more than
just reading words off a page and imitating the seiyuu.
How a character views themselves, how they
view the general world around them and how
they view their current situation are all
necessary layers in an actor’s performance
that make their responses feel genuine and
natural instead of rehearsed.
In a way, you could argue that Ghost Stories
represents both the best and worst that an
anime dub is capable of.
The comedic delivery from each actor was able
to shine through almost completely unfiltered,
demonstrating just how much an ADR team is
able to accomplish with a property despite
technical limitations, for better or worse.
It’s such an extreme outlier that we’d
be remiss to ignore it and not continue to
bring it up as a part of the larger conversation
about anime localization because of how much
that creative freedom can accomplish.
This kind of energy...when channeled in a
way that actually respects the original version,
is what’s allowed some of the most memorable
dub performances to come to life.
Now tell me again who ran away from home,
huh!?
You goddamn otaku!
Turn that shit down!
Actually, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t
tell anyone about all of this!
I’m sorry! I really am! Oh my gosh! Sorry!
I was sure, I couldn’t let myself go, even
though I feel the end...
For one reason or another, there will never
be a shortage of bad dubs no matter the decade,
but if the other anime dubs that came out
around the time Ghost Stories did are anything
to go by, it’s that respectful adaptations
can help shows find a dedicated home in other
regions because they worked hard to properly
adapt the spirit of what made those shows
work even if they weren’t one-for-one adaptations.
And we’re still feeling the effects of dubs
like that even to this day.
While the Ghost Stories dub threw the original
context aside, that didn’t mean it wasn’t
creating its own context which many viewers
were no doubt entertained by.
However, it’s hard to deny that it has also
become alien to the concept of what should
be considered an appropriate adaptation and
compliment to the original, to the point where
people who've watched the dub and people who
watch the sub can no longer come together
as fans of the same story.
This is something that veteran ADR directors
like Mike McFarland and Taliesin Jaffe see
as incredibly important, and while Ghost Stories
probably wouldn’tve been as popular if it
was given this treatment, was this an adequate
price to pay in making it so anime fans are
no longer on the same page?
Maybe it's a good thing that there hasn’t
been another dub like Ghost Stories and we’re
not just saying that because it's becoming
harder to get away with the type of shock
humor the dub capitalized on, even if there's
certainly a discussion to be had there.
In an ideal world we’d probably have more
situations like Super Milk-chan, which got
two dubs for two different purposes,
You dumbass!
Don’t make me laugh too much.
Anyway take a look at this.
though we get the feeling that wouldn’t
be entirely practical.
Even then you could argue Milk-chan’s Americanized
dub was a more coordinated adaptation effort than Ghost Stories.
It does find itself on a lot of peoples’
“Favourite English Dubs” lists, and Western
fans who generally prefer subbed anime often
semi-ironically bring it up as one of the
few anime they prefer the dub of.
But right now at the tail-end of the 2010s,
anime dubs are perceived far differently from
how they were back in the early 2000's.
With how readily available subbed anime is,
and with companies like Aniplex actually overseeing
the dubbing of their shows, it’s clear we
live in a world where many creators and fans
alike are concerned with preserving the original
version of a show, and aware of the consequences
of failing to do so.
We’re not saying a dub like Ghost Stories
will never happen again cuz we can’t predict
the future, though it will likely be for a
series that wasn’t it high demand to get
a dub, and it would probably happen well after
said series has ended.
But if there ever is a Ghost Stories 2.0,
the two of us will at the bare minimum be
very, VERY curious about how it’ll be received
this time.
But what you guys think?
Would you like to see more dubs like Ghost
Stories?
If so, which titles do you think should get
that treatment?
Let us know down below, and once again huge
thanks to E.Hoba for sending us this information
which is linked in the description, and Marissa
Lenti for once again fact checking this video.
We’d also like to thank her alongside our
other Patrons including Regan Carriere, Ryan
Rodriguez, Seth Phillips, Brandon, JRPictures,
UnknownSecret1000, and everyone else supporting us.
There’s gonna be some renovating going on
on Eric’s end so I might be narrating the
next few videos.
Sorry about all the audio inconsistencies
in this one, there’s closed captions available
if it’s too much of a bother.
This has been The Cartoon Cipher and, until
next time.
