Normally I am a big fan of MarzGurl from That Guy With the Glasses. Her videos are typically well informed and interesting, forcing you to rethink your views on the industry. I have totally switched my views about streaming, downloads and torrents because of her.

But her recent line of videos have made her look like a totally uninformed Weeaboo.

She has been attacking 4Kids entertainment, a totally valid and reasonable target, but her recent video on openings, closings and editing are completely inaccurate. For this recent video she talked about how 4Kids butchers the opening and closing of various animes with their translations and new music, except her point is right off the mark:

Follow up:

First: Japanese versions are always better.

Any time you say that, about anything Japanese, you immediately scream 'WEEABOO!!!!' Just because something is Japanese doesn't make it good. Writing, Voice Actors, Music and so on can at times be way better in an English version than Japanese--something that Marzgurl herself has admitted in some of her Anime News Editorials. When she would show the Japanese clips she didn't translate them, so how am I supposed to know is the lyrics flow better or make more sense? Cool sounding music in a foreign language can sometimes translate into something unpleasant, and Japanese music tends to be rampant with Engrish.

Personally, after hearing both, I thought the English opening to Yugi-Oh captured the spirit of the show better than the Japanese--even with some of its silly interjections.

Second: They should just use the same music

There are two problems with using the same opening/closing credits of a Japanese program in a US broadcast show. One reason is the US's fault, the other being the Japanese's fault.

On average, Japanese opening/closing credits are about 3 minutes long, and in a few cases, even longer, making the total programming about 26 minutes long. In the US, particularly, in the past 3 years, programming that is supposed to fit in a half-hour time slot are 17 minutes long. The other 13 minutes are commercial time. That means almost ten minutes of a program needs to be cut out in order to fit into that time slot. You could have your 3 minute credits, or you could have 30 second credits and more show. Closing credits songs are generally cut out of a program, because during the ending credits there is usually a commercial for the next program coming up, or a preview of what will happen next week. There simply isn't the space because of sponsor demands.

Now, the Japanese are also at fault for this. In Japan there is a company called JASRAC, the Japanese Society for the Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers--which is basically like a union which controls all the music made by the Japanese for Japanese programming and entertainment. Any time a series gets licensed, a separate license from JASRAC is required in order get the music from the show. JASRAC has the right to charge any price they want for the license, and also have the right to refuse to license at all for foreign broadcast of their music. And they do deny foreign broadcast A LOT. I don't entirely understand the reason, but from what I *do* understand, it has to stay with nationalistic tendencies and preservation of culture. This means the original music can be extremely expensive or totally inaccessible, and for a kids cartoon company, it may just be cheaper to record their own music for openings and background instrumentation.

JASRAC has relaxed their policies in 2001, making it easier for foreign markets to broadcast their music, but it still quite expensive.

So MarzGurl, continue your rant about 4kids, but next time be more informed!