What do Japanese fans think of the U.S replacement scores?

[Thanos]

most of them simply don't understand why they chose to replace the great original score in the first place and assume that people in the U.S. have poor taste.

They're right.

Well yeah. The actual quality of the score and the legitimacy of its existence are separate issues entirely. Even if it were an amazing soundtrack, that still wouldn't justify its existence, would it?

[Ringworm128]

Good music doesn't need justifying.

[JulieYBM]

We have established that the FUNimation replacement scores have nothing to do with Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT. We also appear to have established a general consensus as to how citizens of the franchise's Motherland feel. I do believe we have tapped out the resources of this proverbial well of discussion.

[Roland_ELoG]

Is it... is it NOT possible to talk about this without being incredibly rude?

Pardon me for saying, but I think we should give people credit for their own tastes in "things," whatever those tastes may be.

[kei17]

Is it... is it NOT possible to talk about this without being incredibly rude?

Pardon me for saying, but I think we should give people credit for their own tastes in "things," whatever those tastes may be.

I simply quoted what I've read on the Internet and that's one of the very purposes of this thread, isn't that?


Other reactions I've seen on Nico Nico Douga and 2ch:

"They should have hired him for Kai." (Faulconer Productions' score)
"Sounds cinematic." (Mark Menza's score for the first Broly movie)
"It's cooler than Kikuchi's which sounds like old samurai drama music."

"Too serious sounding for a kids show." (Nathan Johnson's score)
"American people must love something different than what we got."
"They really hate silence, don't they?"
"Why music never stops?"

[Roland_ELoG]

You were not being rude, but someone inevitably is when this topic comes up.

[Big Momma]

Is it... is it NOT possible to talk about this without being incredibly rude?

Pardon me for saying, but I think we should give people credit for their own tastes in "things," whatever those tastes may be.

I simply quoted what I've read on the Internet and that's one of the very purposes of this thread, isn't that?


Other reactions I've seen on Nico Nico Douga and 2ch:

"They should have hired him for Kai." (Faulconer Productions' score)
"Sounds cinematic." (Mark Menza's score for the first Broly movie)
"Too serious sounding for a kids show." (Nathan Johnson's score)
"It's cooler than Kikuchi's which sounds like old samurai drama music."

"American people must love something different than what we got."
"They really hate silence, don't they?"
"Why doesn't the music never stop?"

Those are some really interesting comments. That's for that, Kei

[Roland_ELoG]

Americans have that problem. We must fill all emptiness. The whole screen must have images on it! The WHOLE audio track must be at or above 12dB!

[JulieYBM]

Americans have that problem. We must fill all emptiness. The whole screen must have images on it! The WHOLE audio track must be at or above 12dB!

This is not true. Plenty of American works do not have music during entire portions of their body. Hell, Batman's first fight with Bane in The Dark Knight Rises was without a music score, making silly things possible. Silence in film is vastly atmospheric and requires sharper participation of the audience in paying attention to the work. I just knew something bad was going to happen when that fight battle with Bane was without a score.

[Roland_ELoG]

Well nothing is 100 percent true 100 percent of the time.

But full-screen pan and scan evolved from the need of semi-ignorant people to fill entire screens with an image, even if that results in much image being lost.

[Big Momma]

I would also say that Americans don't need a constant soundtrack. That's just what most of the headers of these productions think.

[Roland_ELoG]

Americans don't need constant noise, or for their entire TV's to be filled. But companies think they do, and they probably do because of past experience or market research.

I'm sure many people remember helping family members set up their first DVD player, and being asked why the video was all shrunk down in the middle of the screen with black bars on top and bottom. Is there some way to change it so it takes up the whole screen?

[Mewzard]

It's cool that some Japanese fans like the Ocean score. I'm not surprise that some Japanese fans like some DB stuff from the US since I seen Japanese Super Sentai fans that like some of the Power Ranger shows.

Liked to the point that several have been dubbed into Japanese (Power Rangers SPD was dubbed a while ago, and I hear they've been dubbing Power Rangers Mystic Force).

There's nothing wrong with having different music tastes, and I'm sure some people in Japan do enjoy them. I like a few of the replacement songs myself, but vastly prefer the original. Then again, I like a lot of types of music, and the Kikuchi score falls under music I enjoy listening to. Some people might not due to taste, which makes it a tricky thing to decide what's a judgement of quality, and what's one of taste alone.

[BurakkuForesuto]

It's probably similar to how Americans feel about the Japanese Disney dub of X-Men. They really do not care. People seem to have some misconception that the Japanese by and large interested in random foreign dubs of their work, which they are not. I admit, some dubs like Lucky Star and Madoka have had their dubs included in a Japanese release of some kind, but by and large they don't care. Gundam UC, a "dub" that was included and produced during the same time as the Japanese version, included in the format bought by most people and has great audio gets no attention. Nobody in Japan gives two shits about the English version of Gundam UC, an OVA with an English audio in the original release. Now, WHY would they care about an even more random replacement track? It's like an American going out of their way to get Japanese Laserdiscs of Batman TAS/Ducktales, because both shows were very popular during their airtime in Japan and garnered a Japanese fanbase. That's fine, but it is of no interest to them. If shows like Haruhi, Gundam UC and Tenchi Muyo cannot be noticed with their vastly superior English versions, then what will Brucey boy's so called music do to them?

[kenisu3000]

It's like an American going out of their way to get Japanese Laserdiscs of Batman TAS/Ducktales, because both shows were very popular during their airtime in Japan and garnered a Japanese fanbase. That's fine, but it is of no interest to them.

Well, for a while I was interested in the Japanese laserdisc of DuckTales: Treasure of the Golden Suns, because it was the only legal release of the original telefilm edit

[Super Sonic]

I was thinking lately, as this is sorta related, you know how when some Americans think of the replacement score as DBZ music, in Japan, do they think of replacement scores or theme songs of US cartoons as the music for that?

[cRookie_Monster]

We have established that the FUNimation replacement scores have nothing to do with Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT. We also appear to have established a general consensus as to how citizens of the franchise's Motherland feel. I do believe we have tapped out the resources of this proverbial well of discussion.

The music was inspired by watching DBZ and matching the music to the action on screen. Without DBZ those scores wouldn't exist.


I think that it's probably true that the Japanese don't particularly care that much and haven't listened enough to form much of an opinion.

[kei17]

I was thinking lately, as this is sorta related, you know how when some Americans think of the replacement score as DBZ music, in Japan, do they think of replacement scores or theme songs of US cartoons as the music for that?

As for theme songs, yes they do, but there's a very, very few instances of replacement scores there unlike the US.

[Valerius Dover]

Up until I heard about Canadian DBZ I thought the US was the only country in the world to do replacement scores in general. I haven't been able to find much information about score replacements in general, since most articles just mention the theme song. There isn't even a trope for this for some reason, despite being common.

So, any examples of other countries replacing scores completely (not only anime, could be anything)?

[GarrettCRW]

The foreign language dubs of '60s Doctor Who had different scores, but mainly because the BBC only shipped off kinescopes/telercordings to foreign countries with just the finished soundtrack on the optical tracks. (The Beeb's kinescopes were created for the needs of the Australian market, the only one in the '60s large enough to should the costs of creating them. These prints would then be "bicycled" to various countries that would purchase the rights to air each story after Australia.)