Two Questions Regarding the Funimation dub

[The S]

These are things I've been wondering for many moons....

1) Why is it whenever Funimation superimposes something onto the edited dub (I.E. the word "Root" above "Beer", the "Mad Cows" when Kamesennin does Drunken Boxing), the object can't stay in the same place? It like, randomly floats and moves as the scene progresses. I've seen a lot of edited anime, and Funimation's DB/DBZ is the only series I've seen that does that.

2) I've known a lot of dubbed anime to do this but... WTF can't they get name meanings right all the time? I knew someone who worked for Sensation Animation as a translator, and she translated everything correctly... then they totally fucked up the names and put them in the exact Japanese phonetics, or totally take the names out of context. Of course, DBZ does this too; just look at "Oribu", "Froug", "Arqua", "Paikuhan" (and about 99% of the Anoyoichi Budokai, now that I think about it...).

[VegettoEX]

1) Why is it whenever Funimation superimposes something onto the edited dub (I.E. the word "Root" above "Beer", the "Mad Cows" when Kamesennin does Drunken Boxing), the object can't stay in the same place? It like, randomly floats and moves as the scene progresses. I've seen a lot of edited anime, and Funimation's DB/DBZ is the only series I've seen that does that.

Mostly because DragonBall was a weekly television show. Compare the budget of that, animated by hand from 1986-1995, to a show that's done digitally in 2005.

What is done with a show animated by hand is that the cels and such are literally glued together and scanned in to a film master. Sometimes you'll see that white crud at the top/bottom of a screen when the scene changes; that's the glue from the original process. It's also why things shift around a little bit. It was all done by hand. Gainax is most notorious for this.

Now, when FUNimation goes to "edit" the show, they're editing something that's already floating around on the screen ever-so-slightly. It doesn't sit still. But they're editing with things that DO sit still, because they're doing it digitally with computers. They plop things on the screen, and those things don't move. But the show DOES move around a little bit. To try and match up the minute pixel-differences of what's behind what they're editing is beyond impossible. Every second, there's approximately 30 frames. (I've had to do some of that when I'm masking and super-imposing in AMVs... it's insane.)

It's incredibly hard to explain. Maybe someone else can pop in and help.

2) I've known a lot of dubbed anime to do this but... WTF can't they get name meanings right all the time? I knew someone who worked for Sensation Animation as a translator, and she translated everything correctly... then they totally fucked up the names and put them in the exact Japanese phonetics, or totally take the names out of context. Of course, DBZ does this too; just look at "Oribu", "Froug", "Arqua", "Paikuhan" (and about 99% of the Anoyoichi Budokai, now that I think about it...).

Ya' know, FUNimation used the name "Olibu" when they should have just farkin' called him "Olive".

Why do they do this? Take "Kuririn" for example. I've been a fan of the show for a decade, I know how to correctly pronounce Japanese, and *I* can't pronounce that appropriately in a normal speaking context. Neither can the average kid FUNimation wants to watch the show.

[tarsonis]

It's incredibly hard to explain. Maybe someone else can pop in and help.

I think you pretty much summed it up. The digital overlay that Funimation or any company draws in is what is actually stays in place, and it's the original footage that shifts slightly. The newly added edit just "appears" to move because of this, but it's really the background that does. As you said, it'd be near impossible to get it to stay still the whole time, as that would require editing each individual frame.

[Super Sonic]

I don't know too much about the overlays on DBZ, but with YYH on tv, (both AS and Toonami) there were some overlays that were done that weren't too noticeable, like Kazemaru's tattoo. I had no idea that was there until I saw a picture of it on a site. Of course putting words in a black box helps too, due to the background.

[DBW]

What is done with a show animated by hand is that the cels and such are literally glued together and scanned in to a film master. Sometimes you'll see that white crud at the top/bottom of a screen when the scene changes; that's the glue from the original process. It's also why things shift around a little bit. It was all done by hand. Gainax is most notorious for this.

Well, that's kind of a different matter. Poor film editing leads to extreme misalignment of the footage, which basically causes the image to suddenly and violently jump on the screen. You'll notice this when they cut from one scene to another (watch the original footage towards the beginning of Evangelion episode 1 to see a good example of this).

However, when you watch DragonBall, if you look closely at the edges of the picture, you'll see that the image is almost always moving. That's why it looks like the digital sign is floating around on the image. But this soft movement is actually from poor photography, not editing. Back in the days of cel animation, the cels would be photographed one at a time onto the film (like stop-and-go animation). The background/cel were manually aligned and photographed, so with a show being made as quickly as DragonBall, it's only natural that not every image would turn out perfectly. You can basically follow where the photographer started going off and back on track by watching which direction the image is floating towards.

We're working on a section about this stuff on Kanzentai. Here's a rough draft of the General Overview of cel animation. (This whole thing really needs to be re-written, but it should give you a general idea ^_^).
http://www.kanzentai.com/guide/ani_proc ... _overview/

[Jord]

Ya' know, FUNimation used the name "Olibu" when they should have just farkin' called him "Olive".

Yes and then they could call Satan Bluto and Goku Popeye

Arhhh where's me spinach, Gohan?

[Dayspring]

Ya' know, FUNimation used the name "Olibu" when they should have just farkin' called him "Olive".

Yes and then they could call Satan Bluto and Goku Popeye

Totally missed his point, didn'cha?

"Olibu" is the Japanese pronunciation of "Olive." It would be like going back to "Pikkoro" and "Torankusu."

[Xyex]

Ya' know, FUNimation used the name "Olibu" when they should have just farkin' called him "Olive".

Yes and then they could call Satan Bluto and Goku Popeye

Totally missed his point, didn'cha?

"Olibu" is the Japanese pronunciation of "Olive." It would be like going back to "Pikkoro" and "Torankusu."

I think it's because they didn't want to use a girl's name, Olive, for a big and buff guy. Didn't think it would work very well. I still say that if they'd not used Hercule for Mr. Satan that Olibu would have gotten it (or just striaght up Hercules).

[Jerseymilk]

Well I've always found "Olibu" way more ridiculous sounding than Olive. To me it's just as feminine when you get down to it. And I've even heard little kids asking what the heck kind of a name is "Olibu".

[Tanooki Kuribo]

I always thought Funimation invented this type of editing where they had a superimposed image to cover somthing up. Before that I remeber the only place to get Anime on TV in America was the Sci-Fi Channel at like 8 in the morning, They would just blur out certain things not cover them up.

[Daimao]

Yes and then they could call Satan Bluto and Goku Popeye

"Popeye" is covered by Papoi, another Anoyo character.

"Olibu" is the Japanese pronunciation of "Olive." It would be like going back to "Pikkoro" and "Torankusu."

Or "Bardock." (runs and hides)

And speaking of Popeye and spinach, how did that, of all vegetables, not get made into a nice strong Saiyan name?

[Chaos Saiyajin]

Well I've always found "Olibu" way more ridiculous sounding than Olive. To me it's just as feminine when you get down to it. And I've even heard little kids asking what the heck kind of a name is "Olibu".

If you think that's weird, I know I guy named Ivy. Olibu is a very weird name, but no weirder than H e r c u l e.

[Izlude]

1) Why is it whenever Funimation superimposes something onto the edited dub (I.E. the word "Root" above "Beer", the "Mad Cows" when Kamesennin does Drunken Boxing), the object can't stay in the same place? It like, randomly floats and moves as the scene progresses. I've seen a lot of edited anime, and Funimation's DB/DBZ is the only series I've seen that does that.

Cuz the people at Funimation arent' animators, to keep up the edited artwork in-sync with the animation would require a hefty amount of work. The way I see it, most people who watch the edited episodes on the tube will watch them once and not even notice, and those who buy the uncut dvds will never have to see these edits ever. So it's pretty much just a quick edit so it can get on tv quickly and get it over with.

Although its flawed, its done with almost any anime thats edited (Mostly tv series, considering their lower than average frames of animation, making them much easier to edit), especially the likes of One Piece, which for the record has almost 40 episodes worth of content edited/skipped, which makes DragonBall Z's edits look as puny as Sailor Moon (A mere 2 episodes were skipped total of of the four seasons that were dubbed and edited for tv).

[VegettoEX]

as puny as Sailor Moon (A mere 2 episodes were skipped total our of the four seasons that were dubbed and edited for tv).

Umm... what? By episode 6 of the first TV series, three episodes had already been skipped.

[Izlude]

as puny as Sailor Moon (A mere 2 episodes were skipped total our of the four seasons that were dubbed and edited for tv).

Umm... what? By episode 6 of the first TV series, three episodes had already been skipped.

Whoops, guess I missed one, sorry my bad. ^^

My Sailor Moon knowledge is diminishing with my DragonBall knowledge, while my One Piece, Naruto and Full Metal Alchemist wisedom grows stronger with each episode/chapter. >_>

I thought Sailor Moon's editing is puny by today's standards, and to an extent, much of DragonBall Z (Season 3+), compared to a lot of anime currently running edited anime on tv. Hell, Sailor Moon got away with a dude being impaled with GREEN blood, DragonBall Z got away with it some bloodless impaling, but hey One Piece? It never even happened!

[B-kun]

About 6 eps (I think..) were cut from Sailor Moon total. Episode 45 and 46, which ended the first season, was editted down to one because of the Senshi dying (it's rather disturbing seeing Venus' body in the vines...).

[Super Sonic]

Also they were trying to introduce all of the girls faster, so that's why many of the cut SM eps were Usagi only. 4Kids did similar to introduce Chopper and Nico Robin faster. I'm not sure, but I heard most of those cut eps were filler. Not that I'm excusing it or anything.

[Tsukento]

Yanno, I do wonder about the paint editings. Sure, they do move around, but my main concern is why they choose not to try going with colors (or for that matter, why other dubbing groups that digitally edit as well) similar to what you'll find in the film?

Let's take Gurd's original edited corps when Dende flies over the bodies of the Ginyu Special Corps. Gurd's head is a completely different shade of green that sticks out like a sore thumb.

Well, that aside, I can atleast be glad the FUNi's digital editing is nowhere close to being as sloppy as 4Kids' editing:



In regards to the film moving about, you can also notice this in older anime as well. After seeing a few Tetsujin #28 (or mostly known as Gigantor) episodes from the black and white series, you can see the film's jumping all over the place.

[desirecampbell]

What the hell is wrong with Luffy's hat? It's like something is eating away at it.

[Jerseymilk]

It's because they erased the top of the pole Zoro is tied to so it won't look like anything resembling a cross and thus earn the ire of staunch Christian Fundamentalists everywhere. It's just that they were REALLY sloppy in how they did it. >_>