Shoutout to the guy who told me to stop binge watching old dubs

I was rewatching Cowboy Bebop for the 5th time and realized the subtitles on my old DVD didn't match the newer bluray release, so I spent like 3 hours trying to figure out which version was the original script. Turns out the dub changed a bunch of lines back in the day and I was chasing a ghost. Has anyone else run into this with classic shows getting re-translated?

3 comments

3 Comments

jordan1846d ago

Yo, did the Blu-ray just straight up change lines on the original script? I used to think the old dubs were always the most accurate, but after reading this I'm second guessing everything I thought I knew about Bebop. Which version do you usually watch now?

rowan8496d ago

Man that's exactly what I went through too! I grew up on the old Animaze dub and thought it was perfect, but once I watched the Blu-ray version it was like hearing the show for the first time. The old one had all those extra jokes that got in the way of the sad moments, you know? Like I never realized how much they softened some of the darker lines. The new dub actually lets the show breathe and hit you in the feels. I was super skeptical at first but now I can't go back, the new one just feels right.

rowan8496d ago

Not exactly changed lines, more like the Blu-ray went back to the original Japanese script and made the dub match that instead of the old TV dub that took some liberties. The old Animaze dub was great but it had a lot of added jokes and rewrites to fit American audiences, so "more accurate" kinda depends on whether you want a direct translation or what you grew up with. I watch the new dub on the Blu-ray now, mostly because the voice cast kept everyone and the new script stays way closer to what Watanabe actually wrote.