About the japanese dub... take out some scenes?!

[Raiden_Opsaidoun 23]

Hey, was watching an episode of マイリトルポニー：トモダチは魔法　(My little pony: friends are magic) Aka the japan dub of the show. I liked it, and somewhat understood it (I am learning the language), but I noticed that they took some of the original scenes from the episodes (6 from the recent one). I understand that one of the reasons Japan did is probably because they can't find a line in Jap for some of our English expressions. Any other reasons why they took the scenes out?

 

*incase anyone wants to know how I got the japanese text, I used a plug-in that types in japanese. It took about a couple of days to get the hang of it.

[cuteycindyhoney 13,284]

I watched the first two episodes and I didn't notice any missing scenes. If they took out six scenes, the episode would only be about ten minutes long. By any chance do you mean they changed/removed some dialog? I did notice some changes there, but it was mostly due to cultural differences and weren't drastic. The biggest change was Everfree Forest became the Forest of No Return.

(Managed to find the episodes with English subtitles)

 

PS. When Fluttershy said "Baby Dragon" I almost slid out of my chair from a doki-doki cuteness overload! 

Edited April 17, 2013 by cuteycindyhoney

[Homura Akemi 974]

I was in Japan when it debuted, but didn't get to watch it. I've seen some scenes online. The only thing I ever noticed being taken out is a very short segment of Rainbow Dash's laughing.

Edited April 17, 2013 by тwιℓιgнт ѕραякℓє

[Raiden_Opsaidoun 23]

I watched the first two episodes and I didn't notice any missing scenes. If they took out six scenes, the episode would only be about ten minutes long. By any chance do you mean they changed/removed some dialog? I did notice some changes there, but it was mostly due to cultural differences and weren't drastic. The biggest change was Everfree Forest became the Forest of No Return.

(Managed to find them with English subtitles)

They didn't "drastically" changed the show, that much. One of the scenes that did follow with the dialialog is when in the first episode, Twilight was supposed to stare into the moonlight and try to face the fact that "it was all just an old pony's tale", then spike told twilight that the celebration is starting. Some of the scenes were important though.

Edited April 17, 2013 by Raiden_Opsaidoun

[Midnight Dragon 264]

Here is a comparison video I found of the original English version and the new Japanese dub [episode 1]. It shows all of the scenes that have been removed. (There's also one for the second episode but I haven't really looked at it yet.)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aGf4shzxnA

[Scythe 39]

Do cartoons in Japan need to cut parts from North American cartoons to run within a certain, shorter time-frame? Raiden could be right that they couldn't translate some of the scenes, otherwise, it seems odd to remove parts.

[MyLittlePonyTales 273]

I'm pretty sure they had to take some scenes out because the theme song is so long. If you compare it to the U.S. run time of the theme, the Japanese one is longer.

[Chuckles4lyfe 441]

Here's my theory as to why the Japanese dub had some scenes removed from its American counterpart. I'm going to assume that tv show run times are different in these countries. The original MLP FIM ran for ~22 min an episode (this includes the intro and ending sequence). Let's say both the intro and ending are 30 seconds apiece, this means that we essentially have 1 min. of filler, 21 minutes of actual content, and then the rest of the time is devoted to commercials (8 minutes worth to use up the standard 1/2 hour block).

 

Now lets take a look at the Japanese dub: The new (and better imo ) intro and ending sequence are 1:30 min each, so if nothing was cut then we would have 24 minutes of pony and only 6 min. of commercials. Because of the extended time of the op and end, the Japanese need to squeeze in those 2 extra minutes of commercial time to probably keep with the standards. Therefore, the only logical choice from there was to cut certain parts of the show out .

 

Now, before you get all up and angry and say things like, "MLP JAPAN DUB IS INFERIOR TO THE ORIGINAL BCUZ THEY MAKE UNNECESSARY CUTS BLAH BLAH BLAH" hear me out on this one. I'm probably in the minority when I say this, but I think MLP benefits from these cuts. I don't really notice it when watching the Dub, and it really speeds things up and keep things fresh. I'm always looking forward to episodes every week to see what parts stay in and get cut out .  

[windy_prance 114]

I watched those japanese episodes and...I found the decision totally understandable.

 

I watched anime straight off Japanese TV as a child. Before the age of internet, my cousin in Japan would record shows into VHS and sent it to me in the mail.

 

That being said, Japanese TV love longer OP and ED credits. Not just because they are helping to make a pop song into a hit but it's rude to rush and squash the credits so no one can read names like they do in the US.

 

It is also common practice especially in new shows for at the end of the episode, announce ongoing contest to get prizes so viewers would keep coming back.

 

The episode only lost 2-4 minutes of its original run time...get over it!

Edited April 18, 2013 by windy_prance