8 Mile

The following is the academic conversation between three of my sources. Annie Manion is a Japanese animation expert from USC, Brian Ruh has a PhD in Communications and Culture, specializing in anime and Japanese culture, from Indiana University. Finally Eri Izawa is from MIT and he conducted an interview with an anime producer, writer, and editor. 

I chose these sources because they play around the issue of how fan's prefer dubbed anime over subbed anime. They do not necessarily contradict, rather they all touch upon the problem of dubbing anime, in there own unique ways. 

Annie Manion talks about otaku, who are die-hard American anime fans. Brian Ruh looks at a heavily changed and dubbed anime called Warriors of the Wind, and why it was not successful in America. He compares Warriors of the Wind to two other heavily changed anime, Voltron and Robotron, both of which were very successful in America. Finally, Eri Izawa conducted an interview with anime heavyweight Toshio Okada, where they discuss various topics regarding anime, including dubbing anime in America and the themes of anime. 

To Eminem's Lose Yourself:

Lose Yourself in Anime

[Annie Manion]

Yo, 

It's on and ready, plugged in, palms are sweating

There's ramen in his bowl already, poor man's spaghetti

He's nervous, can't decide between Pokémon and One Piece

To stop dubs, because he keeps on subbin'

He's got Japanese down, the whole tape is edited now

He's an otaku, how, part of the subculture wow,

The sub is perfect now, lines drawn, over, blaow!

Snap out of reality, oh back into fantasy,

Oh, here goes everything, he's stoked

He's so bad, but he won't give up that easy? No

He won't have it, he knows his whole cosplay's broke

It don't matter, he's dope, he knows that, but he's choked

He so sad that he knows, when he goes back to the forum home, that's when its

Back to the thread again yo, this fake galaxy

He better go re-watch this moment and hope he don’t fall asleep

You better lose yourself in the illusion, the enjoyment

You’re an otaku, yo, let reality go

You only watch sub, don’t watch a dubbed show

This subculture is fan ready, so you better,

You better lose yourself in the illusion, the enjoyment

You’re an otaku, yo, let reality go

You only watch sub, don’t watch a dubbed show

This subculture is fan ready, so you better,

 [Brian Ruh]

The TV’s taping, watching the anime that is playing

This fantasy world is his for the taking

Make him king, as we move toward a, new social order

American culture’s borin’, but anime kingdoms just complete awesome 

It only grows faster, only spreads quicker

It blows up all over these shows is all on them

Coast to coast subs, he’s known as the fansubber 

Breaking laws, that don’t matter, he’s grown tired of dubs now, he’s no loser

He watch anime, Warriors of the Wind is a laughing matter,

But hold your nose ‘cause here goes the cold water

The fans don’t want it no mo, it’s bad product,

The company cut out the scene that shows, how it’s simplified for regular Joes

So the entire show is told and unfolds, I suppose it's bad partna, because the dubs go 

Da da dumb da dumb da da

You better lose yourself in the illusion, the enjoyment

You’re an otaku, yo, let reality go

You only watch sub, don’t watch a dubbed show

This subculture is fan ready, so you better,

You better lose yourself in the illusion, the enjoyment

You’re an otaku, yo, let reality go

You only watch sub, don’t watch a dubbed show

This subculture is fan ready, so you better,

[Eri Izawa]

It so lame, they’re gonna change everything in rage

Tear this mother loving anime apart like two dogs caged

It was better in beginning, the themes all changed

It has been rewrote and sanitized and forced to change

But the fan’s keep subbin’ and translatin’ the next cipher

Best believe they’re trying to keep the themes hyper

All the pain and complexity in the

Original that can’t be changed to

Make the dub and simplified it,

Anime is full of complexity, these themes of racism and poverty

And its no movies, there’s no easy equality 

This is the original and they have worked so hard

And it’s getting even harder tryin’ to draw and write these, plus

See dishonor done to them by a corp. and an Americana

No one wanna that drama on and too much

For them to watch to stay in one spot, another failure or not

Has gotten them to the point, they hate a dub, its rot

To formulate a plot before the genre ends up a fail or wrought

Subtitles are the only mother loving option, dub is not

Anime, we love you, but this trait has got to go, we cannot grow old in dubbed plot

So here we go this is our only shot

Computer fail me not ‘cause this maybe the only subbed copy that I got

You better lose yourself in the illusion, the enjoyment

You’re an otaku, yo, let reality go

You only watch sub, don’t watch a dubbed show

This subculture is fan ready, so you better,

You better lose yourself in the illusion, the enjoyment

You’re an otaku, yo, let reality go

You only watch sub, don’t watch a dubbed show

This subculture is fan ready, so you better,

You can record anything you set your dvr to, man.

Drop the mic.

(Word Count: 925)