As a purely Japanese form of animation, anime has always had one problem in America: it's in Japanese. Originally, most people are reluctant to even look at anime because of their complete submergence in purely American culture. However, if one can look beyond the brainwashing that the American media has deluged the population with today, anime is one of many foreign things that can really be great if given a chance. In the early days of anime, bad translations and horrible voicing by American actors was the norm, but today decent voice actors can be found frequently in anime, and the translations are usually very good. Some anime that contain obscure references to Japanese culture come with liner notes, detailed explanations of Japanese culture in anime (of which there can be many), and explanations of the hordes of puns which the Japanese are so very fond of. Part of the US companies' job is to make anime accessible to as many people as possible, and to do so, different ways of translating anime are used.
There have been two methods to overcome the inherent language barrier in anime, subtitles and dubbing. Subtitles overlay closely translated English onto the screen, allowing the reader to listen to the original Japanese dialogue with the original voice actors and actresses, seiyuu and their intonation and style, while still being able to understand what is going on. Dubbing involves taking the original Japanese script and changing it to fit sentences in English, and sometimes changing minor elements of the story to be more "suitable" for American audiences. The advantage of dubbing is that people don't have to read the subtitles and can focus more of their visual attention on the actual animation. However, sometimes much of the original feeling of the Japanese dialogue is lost in the translation. Both methods have their advantages, but generally most anime purists enjoy watching the shows in their original format at the cost of having to pay a little more attention and read faster, and most casual viewers tend to watch anime in the language they are used to.
In the past, this created problems for US anime distributors, as they had to sell both dubbed and subtitled copies of their VHS tapes. Thankfully, a great new technology is in full swing today, that of Digital Video Discs. In addition to DVD's great video and audio quality, and the fact that DVDs will never wear out from usage, they offer an added bonus to the anime community. Both language tracks can be put on the same DVD, and the consumer can switch between tracks at will. In addition, the subtitles can be turned on or off at any time, allowing both dubbed and subtitled anime on the same disc. Starting this year, most anime companies have stopped producing subtitled VHS tapes and will probably soon cease production of dubbed VHS tapes as well. The DVD market is growing very fast, and the anime community has been one of the first to adopt the new medium so thoroughly. One company, Animeigo, has even stopped producing any VHS tapes already and is only producing DVDs from now on. Although some people have not yet seen how great the DVD format is for anime, soon VHS tapes will be a thing of the past.
With the rise of DVD and the growth of the anime market, more anime is coming to the US, and in addition, anime is being shown on American television. In the attempt to get as many as people as possible hooked on anime, companies have started making deals with networks to show longer anime series just like they show regular cartoons. Pokemon, Escaflowne, Gundam Wing, Cardcaptors, and others have already made it here, and more are on their way. Next week I'll write- on this new trend and what it means to new and old anime fans, and the anime community in general. Sometimes just getting bigger isn't always better.