Now, normally, I don't weigh in much on this particular subject, but one would usually find my opinion to be of the persuasion that the dub is just as good, if not better, than the sub for a lot of series. I adore the dubs of Fullmetal Alchemist (both series), Noragami, Fairy Tail and many more. I find most of them to be stellar.
So...why is it, then, that I believe the sub is the definitive version of Pokemon? I could cite multiple reasons, perhaps, but I really think I only need to give the one I believe makes the difference: the music. And this is where our comparison begins. I'll be using a number of examples, most particularly from the XY&Z series to prove my point, simply because it was one of the most emotional examples of the series. It's also where I feel the dub began to drop the ball. So, first we'll give some history.
Long ago, when 4Kids was no longer able to dub the series, things changed rapidly. However, back in the DP days, the music was...really damn good. I still hold the Ash vs. Paul battle as great no matter what the language. Were there a few musical missteps? Sure. But you hardly noticed them. Heck, we even got one episode full of all Japanese music. I can't rightly remember BW so I won't comment...but then we hit XY. And then the question became...what the hell happened? Well, I want to say Ed Goldfarb happened, but that would seem cruel. Personally, I think it comes down to a lot of factors, but this "dumbing down" of music greatly affected the show, and I'll give you a few scenes for why.
1) The Opening Theme Songs
This is probably my weakest argument overall. However, an opening theme song sets the tone for everything. For Fullmetal Alchemist, the opening Rain gave you the feeling of sadness and "everything on the line". For Fairy Tail, that opening "Believe in Myself" made you know that this was a darkly epic battle.
So, for Pokemon, what do we get? Well, Stand Tall is not a bad song...but it certainly doesn't pump you up. It has a certain epic feeling, but XY&Z contain much the same. Only those are exciting. It's fast paced. It's rocking. You listen to it and you get excited for the battle ahead. This makes a huge difference in your perception of what you're about to watch. Naturally, both of these openings retain various uses, so I'll save the talk of that for later. Instead, let's get into some more nitty gritty musical moments in the XY&Z Series.
2) Serena's Final Performance
The Master Class. Regardless of your thoughts on how it was paced or handled or whatnot, no one can deny that up to that point, it served as the culmination of Serena's character development. That's what it needed to feel like. Now, I could talk about how it lacks the XY Legendary Theme to open up the Master Class, but that's picking at something that doesn't need to be picked at. Instead, I'll focus in on the final performance because...well, that was it.
In the Japanese original, we have DoriDori, better known as Serena's theme song and ending. You may not care about this song, but the way it is used in this moment...it takes your breath away. Every movement on the screen is choreographed with the song: Serena's foot tapping, her Pokemon moving, her dancing at the end, swelling to the sky with the swell of the song. When it finishes, you feel this thrill that you just watched Serena blossom from a girl into a woman.
Now how about the dub? Well, on it's own, the music...isn't that bad. It's peppy, techno, and upbeat...and totally irrelevant to the scene. There's no rhyme or reason with Serena's movements to the point that it just feels like someone slapped a pre-recorded song over it and said "dance however you want". You no longer get the feeling that this is a culmination. It's just another moment. And that's where the music makes a huge difference and the dub falls flat.
3) Ash vs. Diantha: A Battle of Awesome or...?
Ash vs. Diantha was arguably one of the most talked about and epic battles XY&Z had to offer. For the first time, our hero went toe to toe with a Champion's ace. A. Champion's. Ace. This was HUGE! How huge? Well, it depended on the version you watched.
Let's start with the dub first, where nary a battle track is played. In some way, you're supposed to experience this feeling of absolute wonder when Greninja's water veil breaks, and you do...but every other moment, where they're talking it feels dull, lifeless. Oh, they're talking, not battling. And it doesn't always speed up when they start to battle. You walk away with the feeling of "Yes, we sat down, had tea and something interesting happened to Greninja".
The Japanese? Hello XY&Z (the song, not the series). This thing. This song. It crescendos. It builds. What starts off as "Hey, Ash-Greninja is battling again" quickly ramps up. Greninja gets faster...and faster...and faster...and so does the song, and then the veil breaks as the music does before settling in to the final moment where you're left saying to yourself "Holy shit! Did Ash almost defeat a Champion?"
But you don't get that from the dub. Because there is no crescendo. There is no build. It's a simple back and forth.
4) The Winding Woods of Not-Silence
Ah. The Winding Woods. Probably one of the most iconic sequences of XY&Z. But I'm going to take it in 2 separate parts. The first, and most obvious, is that moment where Ash is broken. The end of XYZ 27 (All Hail the Ice Battlefield). Yes, we have Eternal Prison play, which sets up how sad this moment is, but I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the ending of the episode.
Ash is sitting there. Broken. And in the Japanese, that's what you feel: broken. There is no sound but nature. Just a picture of footsteps across the snow in a circle and the boy sitting there like he has nothing left. You feel as empty as that entire scene does. Only it's not empty in the dub. There's music. No, there's accordions. That's right, we have to make us feel happy because Lord knows, we can't be depressed at the end of Pokemon. It no longer feels like Ash is broken, completely changing the actual tone of the scene...something which shouldn't happen.
Now, the second part. Where did the silence go? Silence in any show or movie is key. You cannot appreciate music if it's constantly shoved in your ear. With silence, you know when something is serious. Yet as we move into XYZ 28's dub, you'll find not a single second without music playing...at all. It's like we constantly need to be told what to feel, even if that feeling is wrong. We don't have time to think, like Ash. It becomes forced upon us. This lack of silence heavily plagued later episodes as well, overtaking everything. Moments of drama no longer felt dramatic...
...until Squishy's Song. And here's what proved that the dub could be amazing. Was it the original music? Was it Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld crushing it amazingly? I'd argue it was none. It was the fact that for a half a minute before Bonnie sobs out Squishy's Song...it was quiet. Mercifully quiet. And as a result, it was beautiful. You could feel the impact of Bonnie's tears in the dub. And then the music kicked right back in and started to make you wonder why you even bothered...
Point is: Silence is good. It's okay to use it.
5) The Kalos League
Let's forget how controversial the Kalos League was for a moment here. Instead, we're going to talk about a few moments. Having seen the original version, I had hopes the dub would step its game up. And, lo and behold, they did upon hitting the Kalos League. Sure, lack of silence was still a problem, but I found myself enjoying the episodes. We even got to XYZ 35 intact and it was so exciting to hear Ash vs. Sawyer dubbed. It was doing great! So well! I was ready for Ash-Greninja vs. Mega Sceptile in full dubbed glory. "Come on, Stand Tall! Kick in!" I remember thinking.
And it did! I had hope! This battle was going to be lit!
But it cut off. I spoke too soon. Just as soon as that epic piece of dub work was kicking in, it died with the transformation. The music became...generic. No sense of choreography. No crescendo. No vocals. My God, the build-up was squandered. Clemont saying that "Ash fights together with his Pokemon" suddenly became another throwaway statement, not a culmination of Ash's journey. The Water Shuriken? Cool looking...but nothing behind it. Perhaps it wouldn't have been so bad if the original music hadn't been kept in for Ash and Sawyer's mental conversation. That piece helped to prove that when something is done right, the VAs shine and the show is beautiful. Then it gets drowned.
But let's move past that disappointment and onto Alain.
Now, Alain suffered two major issues in the dubbing process. One of them, I'll agree, is neither here nor there. The other...it is. The first thing I mentioned is how the sub takes a very dark turn with the music near the end of the battle. If you didn't feel Ash was going to lose before...you should have then. The dub didn't reflect that. Maybe that was for the better, so that's a personal preference.
Talonflame vs. Unfezant, though? Yeah, no. Hands down, the best bird battle ever seen. It was high flying, intense and fast paced. Beautifully animated to the point it was like two rockets crashing and colliding with each other until that fateful draw that shifted the battlefield. But in the dub, I might as well have been literally bird-watching. This is a battle, not a simple flight. Where is the fast-paced music? Where are the soaring brass instruments and snare? The dub drained the energy out of it, and I stopped caring, to the point I started zoning out.
That was the big problem with the latter half of the League: lack of energy. Considering what they did in the DP days...this felt like an insult. The League is all about the battles, so make us feel like we're watching a battle!
6) Hello, Gym Leaders! Stopping By for a Coffee?
Thought I was done? Nope. I've already covered Squishy's Song so let's dive into a culminating moment of the arc when the Kalos Gym Leaders arrive for that fateful battle.
In that moment, perfection plays in the form of Volt. It's badass, upbeat and it tells you the Gym Leaders are there to kick ass as each of them are introduced. I had thought the series would use the Pokemon Theme (XY Version) for the dub to really play up this epic scene, because I knew they could do it! It would have been so cool! They even used Stand Tall earlier in the episode! But they didn't. It went generic and...I don't even know. It felt more like they were introducing themselves as they got coffee than they were standing there to save the entire world like a boss. Maybe the lack of text on the screen hurt them too, but like with Sawyer, the entire meaning of the scene suddenly...wasn't there.
The worst part? They did it right in the final episode by using the Pokemon Theme and Be A Hero as ending songs. That cut the deepest...
If I haven't made my point bluntly clear, music is a HUGE factor on how something sounds. It can heighten a good performance, and sometimes hide a bad one. I have no problem with some of the tracks in XY. The Openings are good, and some of the pieces, like Alain's Theme and the Mega Evolution Theme are stellar...when used appropriately. The problem is...the dub doesn't. It ignores the actual intention of the scene...the creator's intention, to put it's own music in, and we should never have that.
In summary: music is good when it conveys the tone correctly and fits perfectly with the scene. Failure to do so results in a lackluster dub performance.
With that out of my system, I leave thee. Next time, we'll be discussing some Voice Acting between dub and sub; a far less onesided discussion than music. And don't worry, Sun and Moon...I'm coming for you.
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