I always thought it was strange this was a “complete failure” because the show actually seemed like something that could still be pretty good without the comedic dub. Makes sense now
It is good. Like it's nothing groundbreaking or must-watch, but with how little horror anime comes that straightly plays with ghost stories, it's fairly rare to have some like this.
I watched the dub for a bit, realized something was off, and switched to the sub. Idk, it’s not bad, but I wouldn’t call it anything to write home about. Then again, I was in my 20’s, not a kid, so I was certainly beyond the target audience.
well it technically was a different kind of failure, in Japan a show does not just need good ratings, it also needs to move merchandise, Dragonball GT got pretty good ratings but was considered a failure in Japan because the merchandise failed to sell very well, and Ghost Stories had no merchandise to speak of so you won't find a lot of people in Japan that have much in the way of nostalgia for it.
@@aidanyoung9133 yeah the original audience for this anime would not have found it very interesting in the U.S.A. as kids over here have very different interests so the dub had to appeal more to adults.
@@jadedheartsz Plus didn't anime air late at night on almost every program that had children's cartoons. So that's another factor. Shure thinks such as Dragon Ball and One Piece ran during earlier hours but they weren't meant to just be something made to fill show time like Ghost Stories was.
Thank you for making this video. There’s so much misinformation circulating around this dub on the internet, and no one seemed interested researching it properly. People just believed and repeated what they were told.
well Japan arguably considers it a failure since there's certainly been no nostalgia for Ghost Stories in the same way of Cowboy Bebop, very few people in Japan really have fond memories of this show.
@@jadedheartszCowboy Bebop is a one in a hundred type of situation, do you even know how many anime were created in the 90s and are mostly forgotten nowadays?
@@Dyno_98 my point exactly, Ghost Stories isn't some super special amazing anime like the TH-camr made it out to be, it's just another forgettable 90s anime that nobody really cared about until the dub.
More people need to see this video. I used to live in Southeast Asia, we got Animax, which airs Eng sub and dub (their own dub team) versions of shows and I saw this show being advertised and it was about kids and spooky ghosts and found it interesting. It aired, I saw the dub and it was a fun anime, not anything groundbreaking but far from the mess the myth from the Western rumors make it out to be. I wish more people would know that. I'm sure the popularity of the abridged level dubbing of the Western dub is way more popularity than it would've ever gotten had it aired originally but the original is still a decent anime that is not close to a trashfire like people in the West believes.
I mean you can tell it's far from a trashfire just from watching the gag dub. I was struck at how pretty it was watching it recently. It looks better than almost all TV anime coming out now. Which says more about modern anime than ghost stories
@@jadedheartsz everytime I hear people talk about Ghost Stories it's either because of the TH-cam Abridged level dub, or about how this was only possible because the "original was terrible so they just said do what you want".
@@SteelBallRun1890 You do realize the dub came out before Abridged was a thing right? and it wasn't even the first dub like this, the English dub of Duel Masters was VERY similar in tone with all of it's fourth-wall breaking jokes and mocking the cliches of the original(which was a mediocre Yugioh clone at best). Just became some people say it does not mean ALL fans of the dub are like that.
The voice actors in the dub were what made it funny to me. But, I also only watched it because of the rumors about it. The fact that it's a failed screenwriter trying to live out his dream using a medium he hates is kinda sad if you ask me.
I am still so upset by the Guin Saga situation, considering how much pedigree that series has, but also in general this type of thing shouldn’t be done to any show, tbh
Here in Brazil we actually got a faithful dub, and it aired uncensored on Cartoon Network (yeah, with all the panties jokes and blood) on prime time and even had marathons voted by the public. I LOVED this show as a kid, it gave me many nightmares and sleepless nights, I still remember vividly how some episodes genuinely terrified me, but it's part of what made me love horror and anime so much. Even hearing the opening and endings gives me chills and a nostalgia rush. It's a shame Americans didn't get a faithful dub, I wish this show had been part of more people's childhood. I think the dub is funny but only as an abridged of some sort. Doing this on an official project is insulting.
If we want a faithful interpretation of the story, then we can simply watch the sub. Most people who are old enough to find anime on their own don’t watch dubs anyways, so it’s not really a big deal if the dub is super different.
@Masterjungleninja 23 Eureka sevens dub is crap and I have no idea why people like it. It's all the weird inhuman scripting and acting thats overly faithful and fake sounding.
The highlight reels of the Ghost Stories dub are funny, but when actually watching the complete episodes you discover between those highlight it's mostly just dull. Steven Foster wasn't the only person there with this sense of Humor, all the Voice Actors in interviews seem to fondly remember the fun they had with it. And for shows like Excel Saga, Neirma Daikon Brothers and PaniPoniDash where the Japanese version is also an absurdist comedy they manage to fit it perfectly.
Honestly I get people go "haha funny dub" but I honestly think holding it as one of the best dubs and just assuming the original show sucked just because they heard it on the internet is pretty dumb. This is just the case of a director not giving a damn about his job, not even a case of trying to adapt it for a western audience. you can like it or not. But it doesn't take away from the fact that it's quite unprofessional.
Would have been fine if it was parody dub like Robotech Gunbuster and there wasn't this whole mythology around it. Nobody says "Yugioh Abridged is way better than the japanese version"
most dub fans don't think the original sucked, just that it was average and forgettable at best, and i'm firmly in that camp, maybe it's because of all the J-horror films i've seen, but the original show has so many cliches that it's practically begging to be riffed on IMO
@@jadedheartsz you say most dub fans, quite odd you don’t even bother to mention what the Japanese think no? It was already a childrens media franchise in Japan based off evidence we have no?
I watched all of the ADV dub and in multiple occasions I thought three things- "This was supposed to be an anime for kids?" "This doesn't actually seem that bad." And "wait, wasn't this same music used in Inuyasha?"
Hong Konger here, I watch the original, sub version on Animax around the 10s. While it is not high quality stuff like CC Sakura, i think it is decent and the ED is a real banger(even if it got weird lyric and name for a kid show) It certainly doesnt deserve all those bad rumors.
it's average at best IMO which is honestly worse than being bad, at least bad would've made it interesting but the original being so mediocre makes it easy to forget.
@@HSE331 no troll, Foster himself has already commented on here on his own profile. Plenty of people like the show and are allowed to defend it genius.
Thank you for making this video and bringing this misinformation to light. I fully intend to check out the original Ghost Stories anime and give it a watch. It's always surprising, but satisfying, when incorrect information that's been perpetuated for so long gets put to rest like this.
I always figured there were zero expectations of Ghost Stories doing good in the west considering it's basically goosebumps with japanese kaiju in it and this basically confirms my suspicions, especially if the distribution rights were acquired in bulk. Basically any extra profit they could extract from Ghost Stories was welcome, thus why the loose contracts and seeming disdain for the property.
Not to mention the original stories popularized most of the tropes that are heavily used in J-horror films nowadays and ADV probably figured that fans who were already familiar with those tropes through the Grudge and Ring remakes would already be mocking the show if they made a faithful dub, so they might as well make a gag dub.
Though not exactly Goosebumps. Ghost Stories is about different kinds of monsters too, but Goosebumps makes it a different group of characters entirely every time sans direct sequels to stories like The Haunted Mask. That and the production values of Ghost Stories is probably higher since it's animated.
@Janeiro I if you're going to single people out you need point out Amanda Winn Lee as well. None of her localizations are accurate either. And don't take my word it she herself has gone on record saying she would add things or change dialogue because she thought it would be "cool" or funny or to emphasize something she wanted to say regardless of if it was in the original script or not
Making a second comment because it's important information: Your timeline of events is incorrect. The Animax dub premiered one year after the ADV dub began releasing, 2006 vs 2005.
@@MercuryFalcon you are mistaken about the dub doing more harm then good as the popularity of the dub actually resulted in the show getting actual merchandise in Japan for the first time ever.
@@MercuryFalcon unfortunately I don't have the info on me right now but i'll see what I can find. Let's face it the original anime wasn't great, it was certainly not on the level of fondly remembered shows like Cowboy Bebop(it has an incredibly inappropriate opening and ending theme for a horror show, seriously WTF were the creators smoking when they thought "Sexy Sexy" would be a good ending theme? LOL)or Tenchi Muyo, it was average at best and not the second coming of jesus like some users would lead you to believe. Problem was the original books were the main inspiration for pretty much every single popular trope in J-horror films over the past three decades, so the original anime suffers from the "Seinfeld is Unfunny" effect where people who are familiar with the Ring and Grudge films have seen all of these cliches before and can't help but groan and roll their eyes.
never knew this, in Indonesia we got an Indonesian proper dub, faithfull to Japanese original its an interesting history but IIRC, the animax aired Ghost at School in original Japanese not a dub
I found this dub way back in the 00s and thought it was hilarious, it reminded me of 'abridged' yt series back when those were a big thing. I always bought the story everyone told, but its interesting to know the truth now. Sadly I may be one of those who says it may not have been remembered here in the west if it was given a faithful dub, though now I want to rewatch the series properly knowing its based off of a kid's horror book series, that's cool as hell. Kinda sad they didn't give it another season considering how well it seemed to do, I would have looked to see the weird merch based off of the ghosts lol
Back in the day, the Ghost Stories dub was always been a bit of a conundrum for me. On one hand I hated how little respect it had for the source material and entirely discarded how localization should be done (a problem thats been plaguing the anime dub scene for awhile now). On the other hand, I did find it very, very funny and was very much a product of a simplier time with how edgy the humor could be. Finding out the dub was just a product of Foster's own ego and uncaring attitude, my stance is now pretty firmly in the first hand. I really don't need a Nancy Grace parody in my anime. I see so many people saying it reminds them of an abridged series, and if it was one I think it would be an easier pill to swallow. There's a big difference between fans making a free video to riff on something they actually enjoy and a Hollywood reject charging people money to see him scribble over someone else's hard work.
Ngl man Robotech is waaaaaaaaaay worse than Ghost Stories’ dub in terms of approach perspective and intent, as you say in your description. Harmony Gold not only has a chokehold on the rights to the original Macross (among other shows but Macross is the most important here) blocking all distribution of it, but also anything referencing it, which is the only reason why we didn’t get Super Robot Wars Alpha localized in 2001 and it took so long for one to be localized officially. And more recently, we’re getting a macross game in 2024 with a worldwide release, but all the original macross content has to be removed from the localized product. And the worst part? Harmony Gold recently they did a presentation to say “no we’re not giving up the rights, fuck you.” So this goes beyond simple changes to the dub.
Very good work! It's nice to know that there are people who actualy care about perserving the truth and not just the funny version of it. This is well researched and I can see it being a valuable resorce in the future!
would've been good if it wasn't for the creators pathetic and bogus claims about how the dub "did more harm than good" which is utter nonsense considering nobody would've even heard of the original version if the dub hadn't been made.
@@murderalphabetinc.5162 and many, many more enjoyed the comedic dub. the fact that ghost stories still has discussion surrounding it is because of the dub. otherwise its just another forgettable kids show.
This series aired in my country (Brazil) back in the day with a proper dub that followed the original script, it used to be one of my favorite series during my teenage years... it is such a shame that I simply cannot bring it up in online anime spaces without people mentioning the dub or how bad the show actually is (it isn't)
Man i feel so vindicated by this video, i grew up watching the series in spanish were the dub was straight and always had good memories of this anime just to find out americans trash talk it and praise a shitty dub as if was christ's second coming to the point that even spanish speakers shit on the anime just cuz they found out how "funny" the adv dub is
Dude, I can feel you. As a Korean who grew up watching the show in faithful dub I can guarantee that everybody who watched it had a great time even though they retrospectively know it wasn't a masterpiece. Besides, the American dub isn't even funny. The crude humor just reeks of early 2000s and is terribly outdated.
as someone who watched the show in spanish when i was growing up, i really dont get the appeal, ghost stories was straight garbage lmao. honestly surprised there are genuine fans of the series.
@@yareyarejose5080 yeah the original anime was never that great, the way some people talk about it on here you'd think it was on the same level as Akira or Cowboy Bebop, LOL not even close, the original show was average at best.
I personally like the Ghost Stories dub a lot, but only because if it were dubbed faithfully I probably would've thought it was just an average show at best. With that said though, Steven Foster can suck it. I was genuinely surprised to see how the Guin Saga dub was handled, I was totally unaware... I'm a big fan of dubs in general but there always seems to be something happening behind the scenes which can potentially ruin some nice performances. I try to filter out the behind the scenes stuff when I hear certain voices in shows I like, but it's not always easy.
Personally I hate people like him and people who advocate for this kind of shitty dubbing under the excuse of "improving" it...the way I see it, we should respect the original work of the author and try to perserve it to the best of our ability...if it sucks then, then it deserves to be ridiculed.
@@Tyrone181 you're not the boss of me. also you're replying to a 7-month old post so I already had stopped so I don't know what on earth you were trying to accomplish here.
@@jadedheartsz Never said that or implied anything of the sort. I called you out about repeatedly posting the same comment on this video, nothing else. You're the one who's getting wadded up about it, not me.
" YEAH DIGITYDIGITYDIGITY GIGGITY!" And dayum man, you really roasted the dude at the end but thank you for answering a lot of questions. It seems like this series has more mystery behind it than a lot of anime which weird considering this isn't a 'lost' series or anything like that.
This video aged surprisingly well, now that the localization industry is getting noticed by japan who are thinking is using ai and localizers all are slowly having mental breakdowns on Twitter. Steven can berate me all he wants this dub and shin chans dub is where this problem started, It was funny then, but that principal has spread to all localizations now and surprising 10 years later people are tired of dubs like this and insertion of politics to be funny for dubs like this. I also spoke with Japanese Twitter they say they never knew shin Chan and ghost stories dubs took this approach and they didn’t like it and found it disrespectful. It’s catching up to them, now they’re in damage control. Funny it says Steven was an adr director for Harlock: space pirate golgo 13 and fucking grave of the fireflies yet he wants to be remembered for this gag dub people only found out about because of TH-cam, makes you think.
Also I’m not implying stevens a bad evil person judging from his TH-cam video he seems like a nice guy who does love the fans he has, so if he chooses to be remembered that way it’s his choice, it’s my opinion after all. Still doesn’t change the fact I find it odd tho.
Steven is a failed screenwriter with a massive ego. This dub is the closest thing he'll ever have to being a successful writer. It's not hard to figure out why he's that way. I don't hate the guy and the dub is damn funny, but it doesn't change his glaring character flaws.
@@MarvinPowell1 I absolutely agree, he will swear to the bitter end that this is his legacy. He’s dubbed much bigger and more important anime, it’s pathetic. I know he and a bunch of ex employees stalk and white knight this comment section. Steven if you genuinely believe this, why not have an ACTUAL debate not mudslinging like all these other localizers are doing but an actual debate in the ethics and effect this dub has had. I know you can be civil, I’ve seen it on your TH-cam, I’ve also seen how much of absolute bitch baby you can be when anyone questions you. So Steven I don’t believe you fully caused the whole localization drama that’s exploding now, but your are 100% complicit in it, and effected it massively. I get this dub to an extent, it failed in other Asian markets of course they’d want you to localizes it but not the direction you took. But for shin chan, I know you weren’t involved but your style also partially contributed to this. There was no excuse for funimation to dub it in the way they did movies out the ass every year and one of its films is ranked 4th highest anime film on Japanese biggest film magazine. Ghost stories is not your work Steven, stop claiming it is yours and you popularized it, there’s evidence you didn’t from Japan and it’s a bullshit narrative. I don’t know if Vance lied, I don’t know if there was a miscommunication, but based on all your other dubs I wanna hear you excuse and thoughts for your most egregious. Keep in mind I’m not trying to hurt your legacy, or career, that is your ego Steven. If you want an actual chat about this issue I’d be more then glad to interview you about it and listen as we debate. But that most likely won’t happen at all. Reply if interested or if you wanna Critique or straight up berate me.
@@MarvinPowell1 I have a pretty big update. Me and him had a very good discussion on his TH-cam channel about it. He said I was pretty smart and raised good points. And would like to discuss more faithful work he did and to keep in touch. So yes a potential interview is on the way. We will discuss and debate a bit about ghost stories. But also a lot of the more faithful dubs he did. Harlock space pirate, the shinkai films, and Gilgamesh
I've seen the Animax dub of this..I never get why folks say "hurr hurr, the original one sucked, the gag dub is better" considering that it's good for what it is.
I watched that one as a kid and really enjoyed it. I liked it a lot and I would look forward to them seeing a new type of ghost, learning the method and conditions for exorcising them through the ghost diary.
the english dub is funny as fuck,but I also really like the faithfull dub we got in brazil. But,man,foster is an arrogant guy,just do your work correctly
I still like the dub, but it's also because it made me curious about the original version. I'm generally into children's media anyway, so finding out it's just a regular kid's show didn't make my interest waver. Btw, the Japanese opening is soooooo good man! But yeah, I think most people wouldn't want more dubs like this one.
I sure as hell want more dubs like this one, i'll gladly take that over dubs that are so obsessed with being faithful that they become boring(Viz's dub of Sailor Moon falls into this big time).
I'm from Brazil and here dub of this anime was faithful to the original text, although this anime was nothing exceptional, it was fun to wait until midnight to watch it. It was also a starter in anime and horror media for me, so I have a personal affection for it.
Wow super milk Chan. Now that’s a show I haven’t heard in over 20 years haha I’ll never forget one of the early adult swim bumpers they used for it was a remix of the word “dumbass” and “oh yeah”
I heard about this and its a shame cause the writer, who has no respect for anime pretty much lied to everyone that the anime did poorly in its own country and everyone bought it
i'm gonna make my own goddamn video. I DIDN'T LIE TO ANYBODY. That's what I WAS TOLD. Jesus. It's true. You can just make up shit about anything, load it up, say it's the truth, and half of the people will take it as gospel.
@@exchangediary968 oh, K, swear to god I'm so sick of hearing this bullshit. But ever since Orphen I've been overboard otakus favorite punching bag. Maybe one of these days, I'll hit back. lol
@@STE7ENFOSTER "You can just make up shit about anything, load it up, say it's the truth, and half of the people will take it as gospel." lmao you would know all about that wouldn't ya buddy?
I think it got attention because of just how audacious it was to see an official anime licensor produce a parody dub of an entire television show using their regular voice actors when these were typically only done by fans (usually limited to a single episode or often a special). This made it a bizarre curiosity, but not something anybody really needed more of and I think Foster had the wrong takeaway from it.
it's forgettable at best IMO, problem is Ghost Stories pretty much pioneered all of the cliched tropes you've seen in those J-horror films like The Ring and Grudge series, so if you've seen those this series is all too predictable, so for me a gag dub was the only way to make it work.
@@jadedheartsz bro did the original murder your family or something? You reply to every comment praising the show just to shit on it. It was a very good spooky show, I watched the faithful lationamerican dub, Americans are unable to watch anything that doesn't have quips or random humor in it.
@@malacara1335 LOL that has to the dumbest reply i've seen on here and that's saying something, i'm allowed to like the goddamn genius. Original wasn't spooky at all if you'd already seen the films that were inspired by it like the Ring and Grudge series(and I mean the originals, not the shitty American remakes) Wrong nazi troll, Americans are perfectly of watching stuff without quips and random humor in it, there's loads of prestige dramas like Sopranos and dark stuff like The Boys that are still really popular on streaming and we also like serious animated stuff like Invincible as well. Bet you feel pretty stupid now eh?(if not you totally should). Did the fans of the dub rape you or something?
As a Mexican that GROW UP (Hehehe...) in the 00s, this was one of his favorites shows from CN in that time. I barely remember from 2005 the show aired in late nights, and was short lived, but i saw it with devotion. In the Latinamerican dub the plot and personality of the characters was very well respected, so the infamous dub never reached us, until the youtube clips from that became to pop in the last years from the decade. AND this is when the thing became to get so... weird? I say this because my fellow Mexican, and latinamerican comrades know more about the american dub, than of the original latinspanish one!! To me is weird, because for us, Gakkou no kaidan was dub with respect for the original source, however, because of the polemics and rumours about from the ADV one, a spanish cult grow to see this last. So, when you throw Gakkou no Kaidan to the conversation, there's two or three who laught and start to mimic the DVA dub. So thanks ADV for ruining even in Mexico and other spanish countries, a decent anime.
y lo peor es que esto a incentivado a mas adaptaciones gringas en bastardísar anime con dubs "haha funny lmao" y cualquier critica desecharle tachandote de otaku sucio o nazi de doblaje.
Nadie recuerda este anime del todo,en todo caso el doblaje en Inglés le hizo un gran favor ya que es lo único que hace que esté anime no esté 100% olvidado.
I like the comedy dub for the ad-libed jokes and offensive humor, but steven foster is a complete rube and he only got lucky that it's funny because of the talent of the voice actors. Obviously everything he actually influenced is dumpster fire bad.
I honestly feel the same what about the dub for Gensoumaden Saiyuki. If it weren't for the fact that the cast has top-notch actors/actresses, the god-awful writing in the first half and the over-the-top swearing would absolutely kill the dub for me today. Greg Ayres, Guardiola, Vic Mignogna, Hilary Haag, Shelley Calene-Black are also in the Ghost Stories dub, as well as some of ADV's best dub efforts. It's crazy how Foster would pick the best people for the role but absolutely butcher it. I'll never forget the ICE anime: where Steven Foster in his infinite wisdom and talent decided to cast Chris Patton as an axe-crazy maniacal lesbian...
Whilst I appreciate your willingless to reupload to correct small mistakes, given how well the old video did algorithm wise, it's rather unwise to do this for your channel's growth. Something to keep in mind - but i'll try and spread this around anyway.
Something they can do instead is simply post a pinned comment with additional information and corrections. I've acted as a consultant with a few channels on Mesoamerican history stuff and that's what we usually do.
Oddly enough, I do like the botch dub, but I also think that it did manage - in spite of the more comedic tone - to set a good tone with some of the horror elements, even if it was more dark comedy than unnerving at times. If anything, I kind of do agree that the dub is kind of like Catch 22 because I don't know if a more faithful dub would have kept it memorable or not, but it's existance and cult success probably makes it so that other dub companies feel justified when making weird changes to their dubs - even though most people didn't ask for said changes or feel they are a downgrade or disservice to the series. It's a weird conundrum.
@@murderalphabetinc.5162 LOL i'm not Foster troll, as he's already commented on this very video under the name Stephen Fo7ter. typical loser response-assume ANYONE daring to have a different opinion then you on a certain piece of media MUST be someone who actually worked on said media and not just ya know someone who dares to have a mind of their own who does not just mindlessly copy you, LOL fool. So no you "get off TH-cam" freak.
Here in Latin America we received a faithful dubbing of the original, only the names of the characters were changed. It's a shame that you can't talk about this anime without people saying, "Woah, the English dub made it better." It's a bad adaptation, plain and simple.
honestly the fake story of ghost stories was never what interested me, nor did it add to the comedy for me. The comedy mostly suited my taste so I enjoyed it for what it is. If it had a straight dub it more than likely would've been completely forgotten about quickly too. With that said I do agree it probably did more bad in the end. Aside from inflating the writer's ego it probably inspired many other shitty dub writers into doing more bullshit in mostly serious series. Good video by the way. Well researched.
no it did not "do more bad" that claims is totally bogus, nobody in the USA would've ever seen the original version outside of Japan if the dub hadn't existed, dubs having more comedy inserted was most definitely NOT something exclusive to this dub troll, if anything 4Kids pioneered that sort of thing(though even before that there was stuff like Samurai Pizza Cats) and also Funimation, so laying all the blame on ADV is dumb. Nah this video is crap like the guy who made it.
Thank you for spreading the truth. Gakkou no Kaidan deserved much better. But you give Foster too much credit, he is clearly lying. Also, Ghost Stories IS remembered in the territories where it was faithfully displayed, so your final question is a false dilemma, the bad dub just did damage and nothing more.
@@MercuryFalcon the dub did NOT do "more harm then good" you are full of crap, fact is the original show was too dark and violent to be targeted towards kids in the U.S. but too childish to appeal to adults and teens, face it a straight-forward dub would've been a massive flop and been forgotten instantly so a gag dub was necessary.
I live in mexico, we here got a decent dub of the series and i remember it with a lot of love. it was one of my favourite series when i was younger. But it when i found out about the english dub i was really disgusted. The show is good, it didnt deserved to be treated like that.
Thank god I'm not alone in this. I like abridged series, but even as a kid, knowing this wasn't fans making fun of a show they watched, instead producers replacing a show I loved, it made me so angry. The worst part is, whenever I mention the original, someone always has the need to tell me how wrong I am to like it and that the dub is better even though they probably didn't watch the OG. No thanks. I can handle fanmade parodies, but I refuse to look at the official English dub of Ghost Stories. Historias de Fantasmas is wonderful and nostalgic as is. If a fan out there made a parody, I'd probably love it. But you can just feel the disrespect toward the original in a way Free and SAO fans don't have to deal with with 50% Off and SAO: Abridged.
Every single glowing defense of this dub is just dripping with aging millennial Redditer energy. They genuinely think this was some kind of victory for the people instead of the laser-precision opposite of that.@@ceebbees12345
When I studied in the US and the topic of creepy/scary childhood shows came up, I was quite puzzled with the Ghost Stories US dub. I felt it was quite a cool scary show as a kid and did NOT have to endure a "joke" dub.
It was funny as hell, a straight dub would've been boring, unfortunately this happened with one of the Evangelion films as the people in charge saw a screening at an anime convention and didn't like the humor of the dub so they forced them to do more faithful adaptation instead and it was widely derided as being extremely boring and forgettable.
I enjoy that this dub exists, but it'd be nice if we could get a proper one at some point too. I doubt a professional studio would bother, but it could be a good project for people trying to break into the industry as a way of practicing their voice work and audio skills. Same with Guin Saga. I've been trying to find sources to check it out sporadically over the years after hearing it was one of Kentarou Miura's biggest inspirations. I've seen no scanlations of the manga anywhere and its got no official english release over here.
Since my old comment about ADV was gone cause my main account was terminated , I'll comment it again Only people like Steven Foster and Chris Ayres made butchered dubs at both ADV and Sentai The others luke John Swasey,Don Rush,Kyle Jones,David Williams and Matt Greenfield not only gave a shit about the voice directing but also made the most effort in keeping an accurately translated script in their dubs
And this is why I only watch subbed anime. ADV's disrespect for anime disgusted me and I was glad when they went under. But, like cockroaches, they came back.
Technically, ADV never actually died. What they did was create several different subsidiaries and companies that all stemmed from the same company, with similar people in charge, and spread their assests out between them before bankruptcy happened. ADV pretty much tried to claim they weren't liable for debts owned at the time because they were now "X" company, not actually ADV. Funimation figured this out and promptly sued ADV and all companies involved in 2011-2012. Apparently, ADV even tried to countersue but their suit was dismissed and both parties settled in 2014.
WOW. years ago i touted the dub but when i tried to pull it up for friends i found the actual serious dub of it and was baffled. Now that the truth is clear, my love for the goofy dub has diminished but i also dont think the anime really would have gotten any attention without its existence. Ignoring the guy behind it, i still think its pretty funny but im glad i know the real story behind it.
I reckon the dub is fun for like 10 minutes and then that's kinda it. Never finished watching it but never watched the original one either. At least the animation is pretty darn good, that's more than 90% of animes airing today, so that's something
I grew up watching the sub and Animax dub so its so weird that people were talking about a completely different dub (and it being titled Ghost Stories) and how bad the original was when I started to look for "Ghosts at School" a while back The Animax dub wasnt anything to write home about but the anime itself was okay. Not mindblowing, but it was not as bad as they myth around the ADV dub wants us to believe. Thanks for putting this video out :)
If I am not mistaken Samurai pizza cats had problems because something went wrong when they send out the scripts, it was never send but they had to air and work on the dub in a short tme so had to make changes, but outside of a few changes the show isn't an insult to the original anime and the creators ahd a love for the show
I heard the original studio didn't send out scripts on purpose because they wanted each country to do their own take on the source material and not just copy the original version.
@Dex Tiger it was the same with Pokemon and Yugioh, there was a lot of very specific Japanese stuff that would never translate well to English so 4Kids basically had to change the original meaning.
I'm a fan of the dub, and was wondering how it could've been so bad it failed in Japan. The animatiins are done so well and it lends itself to being good. Aside from the script of the dub it almost felt like i was watching a japanese Scooby Doo. Which you would think would be successful. It makes alot more sense now that I know it was.
@@cinemacrow2521That really doesn't matter when you consider that doing this is basically like saying to the author that their original is shit. You know... disrespectful?
As a non native english speaker eng dubs never interested me, but people were speaking about this dub in such high regards that i decide to give it a change and I barely get past episode 2 it was just so anoyng to see the characters craking a painfully unfunny joke that ruined the atmosphere everytime the story was geting interesting that I switched to the sub and everyting was flowing a lot more easy, now the original isn't some groundbreaking story but for what it is it was a solid horror anime and I honestly had a good time watching it. Great video👍👍👍it is interesting to see real story behind this dub, keep doing the good work👍
Seems like Foster is the template for every failed writer turned "localizer" trying to turn their otaku-focused JP>EN translation job into a writing career.
I'm gonna be honest: I don't find ADV's Ghost Stories dub to be that funny. When it's not trying too hard to be edgy, it comes off as painfully dated with its pop culture references. If you want to watch a dub from the same era that does what this one is trying to do but much more successfully, watch Geneon's Lupin III Part 2 dub.
@blahblahblah1312 Well Lupin III can hold up on its own, no gag dubs needed, I go subbed all the way. Edit: I might actually watch the dub though, beyond episode 80 the quality of the subbing takes a nosedive and is mostly gibberish.
I really appreciate this video. For years friends of mine kept showing me clips of the Ghost Stories dub, but I never thought it was very funny. It just seemed like it designed to service out of context compilations online for people looking for a cheap laugh. When I finally watched an episode of it I couldn't help but question the legitimacy of the dub and feel like the original would be a better watch all around since the dub is just so crammed full of jokes that it becomes grating. Knowing all of this information now reinforces my opinion, and I can't help but really dislike what Foster and company did to the original. The show may have just been filler for a broadcasting station, but I can't help but think it could've found a more genuine audience had it received a proper localization by ADV. Regardless of its present western popularity (which I feel is more cynical than anything else), I think it's done more harm than good, and its existence is a real disservice to the legacy of Ghost Stories, all of its creators, and the fans of the original TV anime, all for the sake of making a slightly higher quality abridged series. It's frankly gross imo, and I feel bad for anyone who might have earnestly enjoyed the original, but who ended up ignoring it because of the false information spread by the producers. Good video.
this is one of the aspects i hate about internet culture, you cant just say that this dub that reeks of 00s american references is bad, no there has to be more to it than that, and that a faithful adaptation would somehow save this show instead of ending up forgotten in a gutter somewhere like spiral. what's spiral? exactly. i actually grew up watching a faithful dub of this show, and good god even as a child i knew it was terrible. well below that yo yo anime in originality.
@blahblahblah1312 I really wouldn’t care about it if I didn’t find the current dub painfully unfunny and cringey. That there is an explanation for it that seems dubious business-wise obviously means I’ll like it a little bit less than I already did. Call that confirmation bias, but it’s a throwaway opinion I typed here because nowhere else was anyone gonna bring this legitimate point of criticism up in discourse. But even then the video states that this show really wasn’t a big deal and would’ve likely been forgotten no matter what happened to it. Regardless, I’d still rather a proper dub been produced by a bigger company, because at least there would be a legitimate alternative to the few who would appreciate it. That’s just how I see it. I’m happy other people enjoy what came of the current dub and that it brought a small bit of notoriety to an otherwise forgettable 2000s TV filler. I’m not trying to take away from other people’s enjoyment. I just personally don’t like the means by which that notoriety was achieved, or the execution. That’s all.
@@dragunkiller360 that's cool, you can just watch the japanese sub then if you're so devoted to the show as it was meant to be. like i said, i grew up with a faithful adaptation of the show and no amount of good dubbing would save it from the mediocre writing and directing that is inherit in it. i genuinely dont get why people are so hung about the reputation of this show when it's nothing special and the way that it was dubbed goes to show that, especially with the sheer amount of forgettable anime that was dubbed in the 2000s.
Wow this gives me a whole new perspective on this issue. While I admit I did find the dub funny when I first saw clips on TH-cam but knowing now that there was miscommunication to a point where this Foster dude thinks he can do whatever he wanted and not be faithful to the source kind of leaves a sour taste. Also some of the dub voice actors turn out to be trash people irl.
@@MonadoSaga94 But I suppose it's better late than never that he was exposed. There are still plenty on the dubbing scene who didn't deserve the harassment he caused.
This honestly was very informative to me like I heard about the false story around but always seems off to me. But honestly the dub did had its funny moments, I might go back and watch the sub
Great video, this makes me kinda sad for original creators who wanted a serious anime, on the other hand it did give us some laughs and made it memorable. Foster guy seems like a genuine asshole
At least SOMEONE told us the name of a background song! I hate it so much when video creators don't do that. How hard is it to say the name of the song playing somewhere in the video?
Thank you very much for this video. Localizers of Japanese media LOVE saying how "Ghost Stories was the best dub and it was nothing like original", in justifying themselves absolutely butchering scripts of games and anime they work on. Now we know they are full of shit(Even though they probably don't even realize they are, because they also believed Steven Foster). I don't believe knowledge of this will fix the disrespectful attitude towards Japanese media that those localizers have, for that to happen entire localization industry would have to crash and burn, but at least it's good to know everything those people do is unjustifiable destruction of original author's intent, either "for fun" Foster-style, or for ideologies they want to promote where they don't belong(Ekhm... "Patriarchal societal demands" in Dragon Maid... ekhm...).
Loved watching that thing growing up. I bet if I watched it in english I would laugh a little but it would be forgettable as hell, instead of being among the cartoons and anime that I cherish from childhood. In Brazil they treated it seriously. The Amanojaku voice actor in fact went on to dub Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies. Definitely no scrub in the voice acting scene. It's pretty common for animes around here to be dubbed based on the english version. It's easier to find english speakers than japanese ones to translate it, and it's cheaper because they already put their hands on the censored version of shows. They might have looked at the american dub and thought "We can't publish that sh*t"
The thing about Samurai Pizza Cats wasn't that the voice actors were drunk... It's that the guy who sang the theme song was drunk and was doing a Fred Schneider impression on accident. He was actually trying to sound like Paul Lynde, if I remember the interview correctly.
Having been exposed to a proper dub of it on Indonesian TV first (which I really enjoyed), I still enjoyed the english dub and think there's room for both, though it's unfortunate that the circumstances that led to it's creation was like that. But it's hard to think that the dub would exist otherwise, so I'm conflicted.
It's a murky situation, and fans need to ask themselves a lot of questions. Where do you draw the line when it comes to localizations? Power Rangers adapted Super Sentai by chopping it up and shooting new live-action footage starring white people, and it's a beloved classic that's still going to this day. If Power Rangers came out 20 years later, would it still have the same reception? Some people consider DBZ Abridged a legitimate dub of the show and even superior to the original. Would things be different if it was "official"? People praise inaccurate "flavorful" video game localizations like Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, and Symphony of the Night and raise hell when a more accurate redone localization comes along. What makes that so different? And should hardcore anime fans even care about what a dub does if they wouldn't watch it anyway?
It really just depends on the person and when said thing came out. I mean, Power Rangers is still doing the same thing to this day and sometimes localizations are more fun if I’m being honest. I don’t think that shows deserve to be changed and butchered even if that may be the worst thing in the world but it happens. I say that if the original creators allow it then let it be and if you enjoy a localization over a more accurate dub don’t feel bad about it. Your tastes and what you like are up to you.
Complicating the toku example even further is that there are instances of the localized versions finding equal or more success than the originals in their own home countries. Power Rangers Lost Galaxy was a bigger ratings hit in Japan than Seijuu Sentai Gingaman, and while Kamen Rider Ryuki wasn't a failure by any means, Kamen Rider Dragon Knight got a Japan-exclusive sequel novel and some of the toys were branded with the English names.
the thing is that power ranger became good in its own right in later season and it's different enough to watch both version of the japanese and american (but not after being bought back saban back in 2009-10, then it becomes a mix bag). And i wouldn't trust anyone that say TFS DBZ superior than the OG. The early ep has that 2000 humor which isn't bad as a fan thing but treating it as a legitimate dub, it becomes really dated. But to the freiza to cell cell there's moment where it pretty good.
I agree with your conclusion entirely. However, in my country we got an accurate and decent (for the time and budget) dub, so I got to experience the series "as intended" and the shitpost dub too. I hate to say it, especially because I really don't like the guy responsible for it, but the gag dub is what makes me care to this day about the show. With that said, I'm happy that you were able to demystify the stories around it.
@@jadedheartsz well, my problem with that is the fact that he's not "making" a character in the sense of creating them. He's simply "turning" a character non-binary, which goes against the wishes of the original authors. While gag dubs make me laugh, I've come to the conclusion that messing with another author's work is very disrespectful, even if there are good intentions behind it.
@@LichCrypt sometimes the original author is a tosspot so in that case i'm cool with going against their wishes, sometimes an adaptation is better if it goes against their wishes, like the films based on Bret Easton Ellis's novels, Ellis is a major jackass(FAR worse then Foster)and frankly his books haven't aged well, the film adaptations of them are far superior. Disrespectful my ass, "messing with them" is fine, hell the creators of Samurai Pizza Cats outright encouraged the dubbers to do their own take on the show instead of trying to be slavishly faithful to the original. ADV actually tried the faithful approach with their uncut dub of Saint Seiya and it wasn't very good at all and the poor DVD sales reflected that, resulting in only 60 of 114 episodes getting dubbed by them. I'll gladly take the "unfaithful" DiC dub of Sailor Moon over the boring as hell "faithful" version by Viz any day of the week.
@@seg162 oh please what "cost"? LOL you gatekeeping elitist nazi trolls are the worst, there's no "corruption" here at all, face it the original anime was boring AF.
I'll admit that I got a few laughs from out of context ADV clips, but the Animax version seems pretty interesting since it seems to keep most of the original vision intact.
I loved Ghost Stories. I loved its graphic nature. Yes. If I were to make a complaint, its the dialog. I really hate it when people in the entertainment industry cranks out stuff that entertain themselves instead of the audience.
Well… most media is made by people who want to entertain themselves AND the audience. When it’s only for the audience, you can get corporate trash. If it’s only for the creators you get ego projects. It’s best to hit that middle ground, and luckily most media is in that middle ground.
My second book about anime--"A Gathering of Spirits"--has a hefty chapter about "Gakkou no Kaidan"'; it goes back to the original audience for the Toremitsu books--children in grade school--and respects their interest in both classic ghost stories and modern "urban myths" about ghostly goings-on. Japan is an older culture than most Americans will ever be able to conceive; Japan's first "ghost story" would be the 7th century "Kojiki", written a thousand years before America was founded; we really need to understand and respect that if we are ever expected to put Japan's ghost lore in any kind of context. Needless to say, I totally "get" the original and cannot stand to watch the dub; especially after reading that after the deadly tsunami of 2011, scholars expected a new group of ghost stories to be inspired. As one scholar said about the new stories: "Personally I don't believe in spirits but that's beside the point!"
I always thought it was strange this was a “complete failure” because the show actually seemed like something that could still be pretty good without the comedic dub. Makes sense now
It is good. Like it's nothing groundbreaking or must-watch, but with how little horror anime comes that straightly plays with ghost stories, it's fairly rare to have some like this.
I watched the dub for a bit, realized something was off, and switched to the sub. Idk, it’s not bad, but I wouldn’t call it anything to write home about.
Then again, I was in my 20’s, not a kid, so I was certainly beyond the target audience.
well it technically was a different kind of failure, in Japan a show does not just need good ratings, it also needs to move merchandise, Dragonball GT got pretty good ratings but was considered a failure in Japan because the merchandise failed to sell very well, and Ghost Stories had no merchandise to speak of so you won't find a lot of people in Japan that have much in the way of nostalgia for it.
@@aidanyoung9133 yeah the original audience for this anime would not have found it very interesting in the U.S.A. as kids over here have very different interests so the dub had to appeal more to adults.
@@jadedheartsz Plus didn't anime air late at night on almost every program that had children's cartoons. So that's another factor. Shure thinks such as Dragon Ball and One Piece ran during earlier hours but they weren't meant to just be something made to fill show time like Ghost Stories was.
Thank you for making this video.
There’s so much misinformation circulating around this dub on the internet, and no one seemed interested researching it properly.
People just believed and repeated what they were told.
well Japan arguably considers it a failure since there's certainly been no nostalgia for Ghost Stories in the same way of Cowboy Bebop, very few people in Japan really have fond memories of this show.
@@jadedheartszIt received reruns as recently as 2016.
I mean they were told to do whatever and I don’t think anyone is taking it that serious and mad at foster about a mistake or something
@@jadedheartszCowboy Bebop is a one in a hundred type of situation, do you even know how many anime were created in the 90s and are mostly forgotten nowadays?
@@Dyno_98 my point exactly, Ghost Stories isn't some super special amazing anime like the TH-camr made it out to be, it's just another forgettable 90s anime that nobody really cared about until the dub.
More people need to see this video.
I used to live in Southeast Asia, we got Animax, which airs Eng sub and dub (their own dub team) versions of shows and I saw this show being advertised and it was about kids and spooky ghosts and found it interesting. It aired, I saw the dub and it was a fun anime, not anything groundbreaking but far from the mess the myth from the Western rumors make it out to be.
I wish more people would know that. I'm sure the popularity of the abridged level dubbing of the Western dub is way more popularity than it would've ever gotten had it aired originally but the original is still a decent anime that is not close to a trashfire like people in the West believes.
Les people need to see this video because it’s false
I mean you can tell it's far from a trashfire just from watching the gag dub. I was struck at how pretty it was watching it recently. It looks better than almost all TV anime coming out now. Which says more about modern anime than ghost stories
the original isn't considered a trashfire by most western fans, just kinda forgettable and average.
@@jadedheartsz everytime I hear people talk about Ghost Stories it's either because of the TH-cam Abridged level dub, or about how this was only possible because the "original was terrible so they just said do what you want".
@@SteelBallRun1890 You do realize the dub came out before Abridged was a thing right? and it wasn't even the first dub like this, the English dub of Duel Masters was VERY similar in tone with all of it's fourth-wall breaking jokes and mocking the cliches of the original(which was a mediocre Yugioh clone at best).
Just became some people say it does not mean ALL fans of the dub are like that.
The voice actors in the dub were what made it funny to me. But, I also only watched it because of the rumors about it. The fact that it's a failed screenwriter trying to live out his dream using a medium he hates is kinda sad if you ask me.
not really no, i think it's cool he found success in some other way and there's no proof Foster "hates" anime.
Haha thats most people working on 'geek' media now. They all hate the medium and try to "correct" it.
@@kabronex9877 Steven (St7ven?) Foster was a visionary.
But not in a good way.
@AndysHam91
Flash forward to the mid 2020s and you'll find that's everyone in Hollywood, AAA gaming, and English anime dubs, nowadays.
I am still so upset by the Guin Saga situation, considering how much pedigree that series has, but also in general this type of thing shouldn’t be done to any show, tbh
Adv dubs really have a lot of these added jokes in their dubs
This is such a well made video and more people should see it instead of perpetuating the “gave the actors free reign” story
Here in Brazil we actually got a faithful dub, and it aired uncensored on Cartoon Network (yeah, with all the panties jokes and blood) on prime time and even had marathons voted by the public. I LOVED this show as a kid, it gave me many nightmares and sleepless nights, I still remember vividly how some episodes genuinely terrified me, but it's part of what made me love horror and anime so much. Even hearing the opening and endings gives me chills and a nostalgia rush.
It's a shame Americans didn't get a faithful dub, I wish this show had been part of more people's childhood. I think the dub is funny but only as an abridged of some sort. Doing this on an official project is insulting.
If we want a faithful interpretation of the story, then we can simply watch the sub. Most people who are old enough to find anime on their own don’t watch dubs anyways, so it’s not really a big deal if the dub is super different.
@@rubyy.7374 You're talking with the perspective of a grown person in 2021. I'm referring to watching the show as a kid in the late 2000s.
@Masterjungleninja 23 Eureka sevens dub is crap and I have no idea why people like it. It's all the weird inhuman scripting and acting thats overly faithful and fake sounding.
eh a faithful dub would've been boring as hell IMO
@Masterjungleninja 23 no they should not troll
This dub is a redditor's idea of comedy gold.
The highlight reels of the Ghost Stories dub are funny, but when actually watching the complete episodes you discover between those highlight it's mostly just dull.
Steven Foster wasn't the only person there with this sense of Humor, all the Voice Actors in interviews seem to fondly remember the fun they had with it. And for shows like Excel Saga, Neirma Daikon Brothers and PaniPoniDash where the Japanese version is also an absurdist comedy they manage to fit it perfectly.
Honestly I get people go "haha funny dub" but I honestly think holding it as one of the best dubs and just assuming the original show sucked just because they heard it on the internet is pretty dumb.
This is just the case of a director not giving a damn about his job, not even a case of trying to adapt it for a western audience. you can like it or not. But it doesn't take away from the fact that it's quite unprofessional.
Would have been fine if it was parody dub like Robotech Gunbuster and there wasn't this whole mythology around it. Nobody says "Yugioh Abridged is way better than the japanese version"
most dub fans don't think the original sucked, just that it was average and forgettable at best, and i'm firmly in that camp, maybe it's because of all the J-horror films i've seen, but the original show has so many cliches that it's practically begging to be riffed on IMO
@@jadedheartsz you say most dub fans, quite odd you don’t even bother to mention what the Japanese think no? It was already a childrens media franchise in Japan based off evidence we have no?
i mean it's possible Vance was told "the studio doesn't care what you do with this, go nuts." and just assumed that meant it had bombed.
This was an awesome video dude, would love to see more content like this
I watched all of the ADV dub and in multiple occasions I thought three things-
"This was supposed to be an anime for kids?"
"This doesn't actually seem that bad."
And "wait, wasn't this same music used in Inuyasha?"
Hong Konger here, I watch the original, sub version on Animax around the 10s.
While it is not high quality stuff like CC Sakura, i think it is decent and the ED is a real banger(even if it got weird lyric and name for a kid show)
It certainly doesnt deserve all those bad rumors.
Yeah the ED was a huge Kareoke song in japan.
@@MercuryFalcon so what? that does not make it an appropriate ending song for a freaking horror-themed show.
it's average at best IMO which is honestly worse than being bad, at least bad would've made it interesting but the original being so mediocre makes it easy to forget.
@@jadedheartsz Are you that Foster dude? You are going way too hard to defend it in every comment.
@@HSE331 no troll, Foster himself has already commented on here on his own profile. Plenty of people like the show and are allowed to defend it genius.
In Brasil we had a proper dub, it was not a major anime, but was remember very fondly by all that watched its Cartoon Network specials and reruns
Thank you for making this video and bringing this misinformation to light. I fully intend to check out the original Ghost Stories anime and give it a watch. It's always surprising, but satisfying, when incorrect information that's been perpetuated for so long gets put to rest like this.
Oh man, the Kuchisake Onna one would've been a neat episode, shame it got cut.
I always figured there were zero expectations of Ghost Stories doing good in the west considering it's basically goosebumps with japanese kaiju in it and this basically confirms my suspicions, especially if the distribution rights were acquired in bulk. Basically any extra profit they could extract from Ghost Stories was welcome, thus why the loose contracts and seeming disdain for the property.
Not to mention the original stories popularized most of the tropes that are heavily used in J-horror films nowadays and ADV probably figured that fans who were already familiar with those tropes through the Grudge and Ring remakes would already be mocking the show if they made a faithful dub, so they might as well make a gag dub.
Though not exactly Goosebumps. Ghost Stories is about different kinds of monsters too, but Goosebumps makes it a different group of characters entirely every time sans direct sequels to stories like The Haunted Mask. That and the production values of Ghost Stories is probably higher since it's animated.
think you mean Japanese youkai lol
where exactly are the kaiju...?
Kaiju are Godzilla like monsters (giant monsters). Yōkai (youkai) are pieces of folklore, monsters who can be good or bad. They mess with humans.
It's scary how Steven keeps commenting using that Jimm account years after the video was first uploaded.
This just gives me another reason to dislike ADV. It baffles me that people still to this day try to defend them.
@Janeiro I if you're going to single people out you need point out Amanda Winn Lee as well. None of her localizations are accurate either. And don't take my word it she herself has gone on record saying she would add things or change dialogue because she thought it would be "cool" or funny or to emphasize something she wanted to say regardless of if it was in the original script or not
A lot of anime fans hated ADV back in the day.
nah ADV were awesome fool
@@fattiger6957 their uncut dub of Saint Seiya was pretty bad
@@rockyarchambeau4004 I think that's cool
Making a second comment because it's important information: Your timeline of events is incorrect. The Animax dub premiered one year after the ADV dub began releasing, 2006 vs 2005.
Good, then Griffin Vance lied for sure
@@MercuryFalcon Sure seems that way, yep.
@@MercuryFalcon you are mistaken about the dub doing more harm then good as the popularity of the dub actually resulted in the show getting actual merchandise in Japan for the first time ever.
that doesn't make any sense, if you have a source Ill check it out though
@@MercuryFalcon unfortunately I don't have the info on me right now but i'll see what I can find.
Let's face it the original anime wasn't great, it was certainly not on the level of fondly remembered shows like Cowboy Bebop(it has an incredibly inappropriate opening and ending theme for a horror show, seriously WTF were the creators smoking when they thought "Sexy Sexy" would be a good ending theme? LOL)or Tenchi Muyo, it was average at best and not the second coming of jesus like some users would lead you to believe.
Problem was the original books were the main inspiration for pretty much every single popular trope in J-horror films over the past three decades, so the original anime suffers from the "Seinfeld is Unfunny" effect where people who are familiar with the Ring and Grudge films have seen all of these cliches before and can't help but groan and roll their eyes.
never knew this, in Indonesia we got an Indonesian proper dub, faithfull to Japanese original
its an interesting history
but IIRC, the animax aired Ghost at School in original Japanese not a dub
Animax aired both the dubbed and subbed version, dubbed anime were generally aired only in particular regions and usually late at night
So miscommunication and a writer with a lot of ego is how it came to be. It's kinda lucky that the dub was any good.
It wasn't luck but skill
I found this dub way back in the 00s and thought it was hilarious, it reminded me of 'abridged' yt series back when those were a big thing. I always bought the story everyone told, but its interesting to know the truth now. Sadly I may be one of those who says it may not have been remembered here in the west if it was given a faithful dub, though now I want to rewatch the series properly knowing its based off of a kid's horror book series, that's cool as hell. Kinda sad they didn't give it another season considering how well it seemed to do, I would have looked to see the weird merch based off of the ghosts lol
very true, it would've been another dime-a-dozen anime that was quickly forgotten about if it had a faithful dub
Back in the day, the Ghost Stories dub was always been a bit of a conundrum for me. On one hand I hated how little respect it had for the source material and entirely discarded how localization should be done (a problem thats been plaguing the anime dub scene for awhile now). On the other hand, I did find it very, very funny and was very much a product of a simplier time with how edgy the humor could be. Finding out the dub was just a product of Foster's own ego and uncaring attitude, my stance is now pretty firmly in the first hand. I really don't need a Nancy Grace parody in my anime. I see so many people saying it reminds them of an abridged series, and if it was one I think it would be an easier pill to swallow. There's a big difference between fans making a free video to riff on something they actually enjoy and a Hollywood reject charging people money to see him scribble over someone else's hard work.
Ngl man Robotech is waaaaaaaaaay worse than Ghost Stories’ dub in terms of approach perspective and intent, as you say in your description. Harmony Gold not only has a chokehold on the rights to the original Macross (among other shows but Macross is the most important here) blocking all distribution of it, but also anything referencing it, which is the only reason why we didn’t get Super Robot Wars Alpha localized in 2001 and it took so long for one to be localized officially. And more recently, we’re getting a macross game in 2024 with a worldwide release, but all the original macross content has to be removed from the localized product.
And the worst part? Harmony Gold recently they did a presentation to say “no we’re not giving up the rights, fuck you.” So this goes beyond simple changes to the dub.
Very good work! It's nice to know that there are people who actualy care about perserving the truth and not just the funny version of it. This is well researched and I can see it being a valuable resorce in the future!
would've been good if it wasn't for the creators pathetic and bogus claims about how the dub "did more harm than good" which is utter nonsense considering nobody would've even heard of the original version if the dub hadn't been made.
@@jadedheartszNo, plenty of people enjoyed the faithful dub in every other country.
@@murderalphabetinc.5162 and plenty of others in other countries thought it was crap.
@@murderalphabetinc.5162 and many, many more enjoyed the comedic dub. the fact that ghost stories still has discussion surrounding it is because of the dub. otherwise its just another forgettable kids show.
This series aired in my country (Brazil) back in the day with a proper dub that followed the original script, it used to be one of my favorite series during my teenage years... it is such a shame that I simply cannot bring it up in online anime spaces without people mentioning the dub or how bad the show actually is (it isn't)
Man i feel so vindicated by this video, i grew up watching the series in spanish were the dub was straight and always had good memories of this anime just to find out americans trash talk it and praise a shitty dub as if was christ's second coming to the point that even spanish speakers shit on the anime just cuz they found out how "funny" the adv dub is
Dude, I can feel you. As a Korean who grew up watching the show in faithful dub I can guarantee that everybody who watched it had a great time even though they retrospectively know it wasn't a masterpiece.
Besides, the American dub isn't even funny. The crude humor just reeks of early 2000s and is terribly outdated.
as someone who watched the show in spanish when i was growing up, i really dont get the appeal, ghost stories was straight garbage lmao. honestly surprised there are genuine fans of the series.
ADV's dub is good fool, get over it.
@@yareyarejose5080 yeah the original anime was never that great, the way some people talk about it on here you'd think it was on the same level as Akira or Cowboy Bebop, LOL not even close, the original show was average at best.
I personally like the Ghost Stories dub a lot, but only because if it were dubbed faithfully I probably would've thought it was just an average show at best.
With that said though, Steven Foster can suck it. I was genuinely surprised to see how the Guin Saga dub was handled, I was totally unaware... I'm a big fan of dubs in general but there always seems to be something happening behind the scenes which can potentially ruin some nice performances. I try to filter out the behind the scenes stuff when I hear certain voices in shows I like, but it's not always easy.
Personally I hate people like him and people who advocate for this kind of shitty dubbing under the excuse of "improving" it...the way I see it, we should respect the original work of the author and try to perserve it to the best of our ability...if it sucks then, then it deserves to be ridiculed.
yeah most people would've felt the same, a faithful dub would've been quickly forgotten about.
@@jadedheartsz Can you stop?
@@Tyrone181 you're not the boss of me. also you're replying to a 7-month old post so I already had stopped so I don't know what on earth you were trying to accomplish here.
@@jadedheartsz Never said that or implied anything of the sort. I called you out about repeatedly posting the same comment on this video, nothing else. You're the one who's getting wadded up about it, not me.
I've known about this for years and I'm happy that you're telling the truth
" YEAH DIGITYDIGITYDIGITY GIGGITY!"
And dayum man, you really roasted the dude at the end but thank you for answering a lot of questions. It seems like this series has more mystery behind it than a lot of anime which weird considering this isn't a 'lost' series or anything like that.
I now feel a little less alone in my distaste for this dub's circumstances, so thanks for that.
"distaste", oh grow up that dub is funny as hell.
@@jadedheartsz The dub's circumstances, not the dub itself.
@@bansho7076 k
This video aged surprisingly well, now that the localization industry is getting noticed by japan who are thinking is using ai and localizers all are slowly having mental breakdowns on Twitter. Steven can berate me all he wants this dub and shin chans dub is where this problem started, It was funny then, but that principal has spread to all localizations now and surprising 10 years later people are tired of dubs like this and insertion of politics to be funny for dubs like this. I also spoke with Japanese Twitter they say they never knew shin Chan and ghost stories dubs took this approach and they didn’t like it and found it disrespectful. It’s catching up to them, now they’re in damage control. Funny it says Steven was an adr director for Harlock: space pirate golgo 13 and fucking grave of the fireflies yet he wants to be remembered for this gag dub people only found out about because of TH-cam, makes you think.
Also I’m not implying stevens a bad evil person judging from his TH-cam video he seems like a nice guy who does love the fans he has, so if he chooses to be remembered that way it’s his choice, it’s my opinion after all. Still doesn’t change the fact I find it odd tho.
Steven is a failed screenwriter with a massive ego. This dub is the closest thing he'll ever have to being a successful writer. It's not hard to figure out why he's that way. I don't hate the guy and the dub is damn funny, but it doesn't change his glaring character flaws.
@@MarvinPowell1 I absolutely agree, he will swear to the bitter end that this is his legacy. He’s dubbed much bigger and more important anime, it’s pathetic. I know he and a bunch of ex employees stalk and white knight this comment section. Steven if you genuinely believe this, why not have an ACTUAL debate not mudslinging like all these other localizers are doing but an actual debate in the ethics and effect this dub has had. I know you can be civil, I’ve seen it on your TH-cam, I’ve also seen how much of absolute bitch baby you can be when anyone questions you. So Steven I don’t believe you fully caused the whole localization drama that’s exploding now, but your are 100% complicit in it, and effected it massively. I get this dub to an extent, it failed in other Asian markets of course they’d want you to localizes it but not the direction you took. But for shin chan, I know you weren’t involved but your style also partially contributed to this. There was no excuse for funimation to dub it in the way they did movies out the ass every year and one of its films is ranked 4th highest anime film on Japanese biggest film magazine. Ghost stories is not your work Steven, stop claiming it is yours and you popularized it, there’s evidence you didn’t from Japan and it’s a bullshit narrative. I don’t know if Vance lied, I don’t know if there was a miscommunication, but based on all your other dubs I wanna hear you excuse and thoughts for your most egregious. Keep in mind I’m not trying to hurt your legacy, or career, that is your ego Steven. If you want an actual chat about this issue I’d be more then glad to interview you about it and listen as we debate. But that most likely won’t happen at all. Reply if interested or if you wanna Critique or straight up berate me.
@@MarvinPowell1 I have a pretty big update. Me and him had a very good discussion on his TH-cam channel about it. He said I was pretty smart and raised good points. And would like to discuss more faithful work he did and to keep in touch. So yes a potential interview is on the way. We will discuss and debate a bit about ghost stories. But also a lot of the more faithful dubs he did. Harlock space pirate, the shinkai films, and Gilgamesh
I came in wanting to defend the dub but now yeah, Steven sounds like a hack.
I learned a valuable lesson here: "do research"
Doesn't change the fact if you enjoyed the dub'd version then it's good!
I've seen the Animax dub of this..I never get why folks say "hurr hurr, the original one sucked, the gag dub is better" considering that it's good for what it is.
most folks don't hate the original per se, they just find it forgettable and average at best.
I watched that one as a kid and really enjoyed it. I liked it a lot and I would look forward to them seeing a new type of ghost, learning the method and conditions for exorcising them through the ghost diary.
the english dub is funny as fuck,but I also really like the faithfull dub we got in brazil. But,man,foster is an arrogant guy,just do your work correctly
I still like the dub, but it's also because it made me curious about the original version. I'm generally into children's media anyway, so finding out it's just a regular kid's show didn't make my interest waver. Btw, the Japanese opening is soooooo good man!
But yeah, I think most people wouldn't want more dubs like this one.
@@JakobatHeart Idk honestly. There's no particular reason.
Well ya I think what makes it legendary is the fact that it's a one of a kind thing. It's the kinda thing you cant really replicate well
Wdm
I sure as hell want more dubs like this one, i'll gladly take that over dubs that are so obsessed with being faithful that they become boring(Viz's dub of Sailor Moon falls into this big time).
Just watch the subbed version. It's much closer without the ad libbing and jokes.
I'm from Brazil and here dub of this anime was faithful to the original text, although this anime was nothing exceptional, it was fun to wait until midnight to watch it. It was also a starter in anime and horror media for me, so I have a personal affection for it.
This is basically the biggest lie in dubbing. The fact that most people believe the dub was officially sanctioned to be what it was is honestly sad...
Pretty much
Wow super milk Chan. Now that’s a show I haven’t heard in over 20 years haha I’ll never forget one of the early adult swim bumpers they used for it was a remix of the word “dumbass” and “oh yeah”
Thanks for putting this video together. Better late than never with finding this information out.
The show was cute and fun. Didn't deserve to be mocked like that. It's worth repeating.
@@mmmoendo what did it said?
"it" lol
oh grow up.
Actually it did because the sub is boring as hell
@@DameOfDiamonds damn straight.
I heard about this and its a shame cause the writer, who has no respect for anime pretty much lied to everyone that the anime did poorly in its own country and everyone bought it
i'm gonna make my own goddamn video. I DIDN'T LIE TO ANYBODY. That's what I WAS TOLD. Jesus. It's true. You can just make up shit about anything, load it up, say it's the truth, and half of the people will take it as gospel.
@@STE7ENFOSTER If you're not a troll then this is hilarious cringe
@@exchangediary968 oh, K, swear to god I'm so sick of hearing this bullshit. But ever since Orphen I've been overboard otakus favorite punching bag. Maybe one of these days, I'll hit back. lol
@@STE7ENFOSTER "You can just make up shit about anything, load it up, say it's the truth, and half of the people will take it as gospel." lmao you would know all about that wouldn't ya buddy?
@@STE7ENFOSTER you dubs are on their majority "shit made up".
I think it got attention because of just how audacious it was to see an official anime licensor produce a parody dub of an entire television show using their regular voice actors when these were typically only done by fans (usually limited to a single episode or often a special). This made it a bizarre curiosity, but not something anybody really needed more of and I think Foster had the wrong takeaway from it.
Toonami Argentina done marathons of the spanish dub and was amazing, based in the original japanese script, not the South Park like shit.
I found out about because of the dub. I actually switched to the Japanese version with subtitles and found out it's a good anime.
it's forgettable at best IMO, problem is Ghost Stories pretty much pioneered all of the cliched tropes you've seen in those J-horror films like The Ring and Grudge series, so if you've seen those this series is all too predictable, so for me a gag dub was the only way to make it work.
@@jadedheartsz bro did the original murder your family or something? You reply to every comment praising the show just to shit on it.
It was a very good spooky show, I watched the faithful lationamerican dub, Americans are unable to watch anything that doesn't have quips or random humor in it.
@@malacara1335 LOL that has to the dumbest reply i've seen on here and that's saying something, i'm allowed to like the goddamn genius. Original wasn't spooky at all if you'd already seen the films that were inspired by it like the Ring and Grudge series(and I mean the originals, not the shitty American remakes)
Wrong nazi troll, Americans are perfectly of watching stuff without quips and random humor in it, there's loads of prestige dramas like Sopranos and dark stuff like The Boys that are still really popular on streaming and we also like serious animated stuff like Invincible as well.
Bet you feel pretty stupid now eh?(if not you totally should).
Did the fans of the dub rape you or something?
@@jadedheartsz Right...🙄
@@Tyrone181 yes i am right
As a Mexican that GROW UP (Hehehe...) in the 00s, this was one of his favorites shows from CN in that time. I barely remember from 2005 the show aired in late nights, and was short lived, but i saw it with devotion.
In the Latinamerican dub the plot and personality of the characters was very well respected, so the infamous dub never reached us, until the youtube clips from that became to pop in the last years from the decade. AND this is when the thing became to get so... weird?
I say this because my fellow Mexican, and latinamerican comrades know more about the american dub, than of the original latinspanish one!! To me is weird, because for us, Gakkou no kaidan was dub with respect for the original source, however, because of the polemics and rumours about from the ADV one, a spanish cult grow to see this last.
So, when you throw Gakkou no Kaidan to the conversation, there's two or three who laught and start to mimic the DVA dub.
So thanks ADV for ruining even in Mexico and other spanish countries, a decent anime.
Ahora uno ya no puede hablar de este anime sin que alguien se burle de la version japonesa o se la pase defendiendo el doblaje gringo
y lo peor es que esto a incentivado a mas adaptaciones gringas en bastardísar anime con dubs "haha funny lmao" y cualquier critica desecharle tachandote de otaku sucio o nazi de doblaje.
Nadie recuerda este anime del todo,en todo caso el doblaje en Inglés le hizo un gran favor ya que es lo único que hace que esté anime no esté 100% olvidado.
I like the comedy dub for the ad-libed jokes and offensive humor, but steven foster is a complete rube and he only got lucky that it's funny because of the talent of the voice actors. Obviously everything he actually influenced is dumpster fire bad.
nah he's cool
Oh that cast is beyond brilliant. But no cast is talented enough to turn 10,000 bad lines into 10,000 hilarious ones.
I honestly feel the same what about the dub for Gensoumaden Saiyuki. If it weren't for the fact that the cast has top-notch actors/actresses, the god-awful writing in the first half and the over-the-top swearing would absolutely kill the dub for me today. Greg Ayres, Guardiola, Vic Mignogna, Hilary Haag, Shelley Calene-Black are also in the Ghost Stories dub, as well as some of ADV's best dub efforts. It's crazy how Foster would pick the best people for the role but absolutely butcher it. I'll never forget the ICE anime: where Steven Foster in his infinite wisdom and talent decided to cast Chris Patton as an axe-crazy maniacal lesbian...
@@akirafuudou2037 TF he did Ice? How many cool anime did this asshole get his hands on? Been meaning to watch that ova
Whilst I appreciate your willingless to reupload to correct small mistakes, given how well the old video did algorithm wise, it's rather unwise to do this for your channel's growth. Something to keep in mind - but i'll try and spread this around anyway.
Something they can do instead is simply post a pinned comment with additional information and corrections. I've acted as a consultant with a few channels on Mesoamerican history stuff and that's what we usually do.
@@MajoraZ that’s what I was gonna say. A pinned comment would suffice for video mistakes.
Oddly enough, I do like the botch dub, but I also think that it did manage - in spite of the more comedic tone - to set a good tone with some of the horror elements, even if it was more dark comedy than unnerving at times. If anything, I kind of do agree that the dub is kind of like Catch 22 because I don't know if a more faithful dub would have kept it memorable or not, but it's existance and cult success probably makes it so that other dub companies feel justified when making weird changes to their dubs - even though most people didn't ask for said changes or feel they are a downgrade or disservice to the series. It's a weird conundrum.
Yeah if it was a faithful dub I guarantee you nobody would remember Ghost Stories in the U.S.
@@jadedheartszPeople don't remember Guin Saga either, so that's just not true. Get off TH-cam, Foster.
@@murderalphabetinc.5162 LOL i'm not Foster troll, as he's already commented on this very video under the name Stephen Fo7ter. typical loser response-assume ANYONE daring to have a different opinion then you on a certain piece of media MUST be someone who actually worked on said media and not just ya know someone who dares to have a mind of their own who does not just mindlessly copy you, LOL fool.
So no you "get off TH-cam" freak.
Here in Latin America we received a faithful dubbing of the original, only the names of the characters were changed.
It's a shame that you can't talk about this anime without people saying, "Woah, the English dub made it better." It's a bad adaptation, plain and simple.
So...everything is foster fault?
honestly the fake story of ghost stories was never what interested me, nor did it add to the comedy for me. The comedy mostly suited my taste so I enjoyed it for what it is. If it had a straight dub it more than likely would've been completely forgotten about quickly too. With that said I do agree it probably did more bad in the end. Aside from inflating the writer's ego it probably inspired many other shitty dub writers into doing more bullshit in mostly serious series.
Good video by the way. Well researched.
no it did not "do more bad" that claims is totally bogus, nobody in the USA would've ever seen the original version outside of Japan if the dub hadn't existed, dubs having more comedy inserted was most definitely NOT something exclusive to this dub troll, if anything 4Kids pioneered that sort of thing(though even before that there was stuff like Samurai Pizza Cats) and also Funimation, so laying all the blame on ADV is dumb.
Nah this video is crap like the guy who made it.
Thank you for spreading the truth. Gakkou no Kaidan deserved much better. But you give Foster too much credit, he is clearly lying.
Also, Ghost Stories IS remembered in the territories where it was faithfully displayed, so your final question is a false dilemma, the bad dub just did damage and nothing more.
Shoutout to the Korone song cover at the end!
She is a very very very very very very very good doggo
@@MercuryFalcon the dub did NOT do "more harm then good" you are full of crap, fact is the original show was too dark and violent to be targeted towards kids in the U.S. but too childish to appeal to adults and teens, face it a straight-forward dub would've been a massive flop and been forgotten instantly so a gag dub was necessary.
I live in mexico, we here got a decent dub of the series and i remember it with a lot of love. it was one of my favourite series when i was younger.
But it when i found out about the english dub i was really disgusted. The show is good, it didnt deserved to be treated like that.
Thank god I'm not alone in this.
I like abridged series, but even as a kid, knowing this wasn't fans making fun of a show they watched, instead producers replacing a show I loved, it made me so angry.
The worst part is, whenever I mention the original, someone always has the need to tell me how wrong I am to like it and that the dub is better even though they probably didn't watch the OG. No thanks. I can handle fanmade parodies, but I refuse to look at the official English dub of Ghost Stories.
Historias de Fantasmas is wonderful and nostalgic as is. If a fan out there made a parody, I'd probably love it. But you can just feel the disrespect toward the original in a way Free and SAO fans don't have to deal with with 50% Off and SAO: Abridged.
Every single glowing defense of this dub is just dripping with aging millennial Redditer energy. They genuinely think this was some kind of victory for the people instead of the laser-precision opposite of that.@@ceebbees12345
When I studied in the US and the topic of creepy/scary childhood shows came up, I was quite puzzled with the Ghost Stories US dub. I felt it was quite a cool scary show as a kid and did NOT have to endure a "joke" dub.
It was funny as hell, a straight dub would've been boring, unfortunately this happened with one of the Evangelion films as the people in charge saw a screening at an anime convention and didn't like the humor of the dub so they forced them to do more faithful adaptation instead and it was widely derided as being extremely boring and forgettable.
@@jadedheartszI bet you HATE the Cowboy Bebop dub and prefer the live action series...
@@murderalphabetinc.5162 LOL wrong again troll, I happen to like both, bet you feel REALLY stupid now eh troll?(if not you should)
I enjoy that this dub exists, but it'd be nice if we could get a proper one at some point too.
I doubt a professional studio would bother, but it could be a good project for people trying to break into the industry as a way of practicing their voice work and audio skills.
Same with Guin Saga. I've been trying to find sources to check it out sporadically over the years after hearing it was one of Kentarou Miura's biggest inspirations.
I've seen no scanlations of the manga anywhere and its got no official english release over here.
rewatched, reliked, and recommented. again
I dunno why but this anime’s op is a bop
Since my old comment about ADV was gone cause my main account was terminated , I'll comment it again
Only people like Steven Foster and Chris Ayres made butchered dubs at both ADV and Sentai
The others luke John Swasey,Don Rush,Kyle Jones,David Williams and Matt Greenfield not only gave a shit about the voice directing but also made the most effort in keeping an accurately translated script in their dubs
And this is why I only watch subbed anime. ADV's disrespect for anime disgusted me and I was glad when they went under. But, like cockroaches, they came back.
Disrespect my ass troll, they did an uncut faithful dub of Saint Seiya but the DVDs sold poorly.
Dubs are legit
Technically, ADV never actually died. What they did was create several different subsidiaries and companies that all stemmed from the same company, with similar people in charge, and spread their assests out between them before bankruptcy happened. ADV pretty much tried to claim they weren't liable for debts owned at the time because they were now "X" company, not actually ADV. Funimation figured this out and promptly sued ADV and all companies involved in 2011-2012. Apparently, ADV even tried to countersue but their suit was dismissed and both parties settled in 2014.
WOW. years ago i touted the dub but when i tried to pull it up for friends i found the actual serious dub of it and was baffled. Now that the truth is clear, my love for the goofy dub has diminished but i also dont think the anime really would have gotten any attention without its existence. Ignoring the guy behind it, i still think its pretty funny but im glad i know the real story behind it.
I reckon the dub is fun for like 10 minutes and then that's kinda it. Never finished watching it but never watched the original one either. At least the animation is pretty darn good, that's more than 90% of animes airing today, so that's something
This is how I feel about Working Designs locs now and still praise MGS1's and Valkerye Profile's.
I grew up watching the sub and Animax dub so its so weird that people were talking about a completely different dub (and it being titled Ghost Stories) and how bad the original was when I started to look for "Ghosts at School" a while back
The Animax dub wasnt anything to write home about but the anime itself was okay. Not mindblowing, but it was not as bad as they myth around the ADV dub wants us to believe. Thanks for putting this video out :)
If I am not mistaken Samurai pizza cats had problems because something went wrong when they send out the scripts, it was never send but they had to air and work on the dub in a short tme so had to make changes, but outside of a few changes the show isn't an insult to the original anime and the creators ahd a love for the show
I heard the original studio didn't send out scripts on purpose because they wanted each country to do their own take on the source material and not just copy the original version.
@Dex Tiger it was the same with Pokemon and Yugioh, there was a lot of very specific Japanese stuff that would never translate well to English so 4Kids basically had to change the original meaning.
@Dex Tiger yeah that's why it failed on kids channels in China and Thailand they didn't get it
I'm a fan of the dub, and was wondering how it could've been so bad it failed in Japan. The animatiins are done so well and it lends itself to being good. Aside from the script of the dub it almost felt like i was watching a japanese Scooby Doo. Which you would think would be successful. It makes alot more sense now that I know it was.
I'm not a fan of Foster because of how he screwed-up Sorcerer Hunters halfway through the series.
New York dubs are better than
Foster is a hack and the worst part is that the loser takes pride in destroying other people works
But the dub made it better 🤡
@@cinemacrow2521That really doesn't matter when you consider that doing this is basically like saying to the author that their original is shit. You know... disrespectful?
Foster is nuts but the voice actors are actually very talented and are the ones that carried the show
As a non native english speaker eng dubs never interested me, but people were speaking about this dub in such high regards that i decide to give it a change and I barely get past episode 2 it was just so anoyng to see the characters craking a painfully unfunny joke that ruined the atmosphere everytime the story was geting interesting that I switched to the sub and everyting was flowing a lot more easy, now the original isn't some groundbreaking story but for what it is it was a solid horror anime and I honestly had a good time watching it.
Great video👍👍👍it is interesting to see real story behind this dub, keep doing the good work👍
Seems like Foster is the template for every failed writer turned "localizer" trying to turn their otaku-focused JP>EN translation job into a writing career.
Please, most "changes" in any translator these days are tame compared to Steven Foster being... Steven Foster. Quite frankly, we've gotten soft.
This has been happening since the 70s or 80s.
I'm gonna be honest: I don't find ADV's Ghost Stories dub to be that funny. When it's not trying too hard to be edgy, it comes off as painfully dated with its pop culture references. If you want to watch a dub from the same era that does what this one is trying to do but much more successfully, watch Geneon's Lupin III Part 2 dub.
@blahblahblah1312 Well Lupin III can hold up on its own, no gag dubs needed, I go subbed all the way. Edit: I might actually watch the dub though, beyond episode 80 the quality of the subbing takes a nosedive and is mostly gibberish.
agreed Ghost stories is funny in a collection of scenes but not as watching full out episodes
I find the datedness makes it more charming and gives me fond memories of 2005, I think it's a riot.
I really appreciate this video. For years friends of mine kept showing me clips of the Ghost Stories dub, but I never thought it was very funny. It just seemed like it designed to service out of context compilations online for people looking for a cheap laugh. When I finally watched an episode of it I couldn't help but question the legitimacy of the dub and feel like the original would be a better watch all around since the dub is just so crammed full of jokes that it becomes grating. Knowing all of this information now reinforces my opinion, and I can't help but really dislike what Foster and company did to the original. The show may have just been filler for a broadcasting station, but I can't help but think it could've found a more genuine audience had it received a proper localization by ADV. Regardless of its present western popularity (which I feel is more cynical than anything else), I think it's done more harm than good, and its existence is a real disservice to the legacy of Ghost Stories, all of its creators, and the fans of the original TV anime, all for the sake of making a slightly higher quality abridged series. It's frankly gross imo, and I feel bad for anyone who might have earnestly enjoyed the original, but who ended up ignoring it because of the false information spread by the producers. Good video.
I don't care for it either it's just cursing= funny. Even Family Guy a show known for being raunchy has variety in the jokes.
this is one of the aspects i hate about internet culture, you cant just say that this dub that reeks of 00s american references is bad, no there has to be more to it than that, and that a faithful adaptation would somehow save this show instead of ending up forgotten in a gutter somewhere like spiral. what's spiral? exactly.
i actually grew up watching a faithful dub of this show, and good god even as a child i knew it was terrible. well below that yo yo anime in originality.
@blahblahblah1312 I really wouldn’t care about it if I didn’t find the current dub painfully unfunny and cringey. That there is an explanation for it that seems dubious business-wise obviously means I’ll like it a little bit less than I already did. Call that confirmation bias, but it’s a throwaway opinion I typed here because nowhere else was anyone gonna bring this legitimate point of criticism up in discourse. But even then the video states that this show really wasn’t a big deal and would’ve likely been forgotten no matter what happened to it. Regardless, I’d still rather a proper dub been produced by a bigger company, because at least there would be a legitimate alternative to the few who would appreciate it. That’s just how I see it. I’m happy other people enjoy what came of the current dub and that it brought a small bit of notoriety to an otherwise forgettable 2000s TV filler. I’m not trying to take away from other people’s enjoyment. I just personally don’t like the means by which that notoriety was achieved, or the execution. That’s all.
@@dragunkiller360 that's cool, you can just watch the japanese sub then if you're so devoted to the show as it was meant to be. like i said, i grew up with a faithful adaptation of the show and no amount of good dubbing would save it from the mediocre writing and directing that is inherit in it. i genuinely dont get why people are so hung about the reputation of this show when it's nothing special and the way that it was dubbed goes to show that, especially with the sheer amount of forgettable anime that was dubbed in the 2000s.
@@yareyarejose5080 I have watched it. Thank you for telling me to do so as if I hadn’t already.
Wow this gives me a whole new perspective on this issue. While I admit I did find the dub funny when I first saw clips on TH-cam but knowing now that there was miscommunication to a point where this Foster dude thinks he can do whatever he wanted and not be faithful to the source kind of leaves a sour taste. Also some of the dub voice actors turn out to be trash people irl.
>Also some of the dub voice actors turn out to be trash people irl.
Yeah, shame about Vic Mignogna.
@@MonadoSaga94 But I suppose it's better late than never that he was exposed. There are still plenty on the dubbing scene who didn't deserve the harassment he caused.
@@ThePontiffofPonWolf Not my fault. They're both Christians who have problems with boundaries.
@@matt0044 shame about monica and sean*
@@matt0044 except the proof of him touching fans was disproven and her behavior around him was so unfitting of a victim it's amber levels
This honestly was very informative to me like I heard about the false story around but always seems off to me. But honestly the dub did had its funny moments, I might go back and watch the sub
Thank you for uncovering this! It’s super fascinating.
Dude it’s all a lie
Great video, this makes me kinda sad for original creators who wanted a serious anime, on the other hand it did give us some laughs and made it memorable. Foster guy seems like a genuine asshole
if you want a serious anime watch the sub then.
Foster's actually a cool dude
@@jadedheartszok steven foster
12:20 Just noticed the background music "Wish" from the anime Kaiji!
Thanks for the info i was wondering from whear it is
Btw do you have a yt link i can.t finde it😅
th-cam.com/video/1RB8ENl8S0U/w-d-xo.html@@Hamza....987
At least SOMEONE told us the name of a background song! I hate it so much when video creators don't do that. How hard is it to say the name of the song playing somewhere in the video?
Thank you very much for this video. Localizers of Japanese media LOVE saying how "Ghost Stories was the best dub and it was nothing like original", in justifying themselves absolutely butchering scripts of games and anime they work on. Now we know they are full of shit(Even though they probably don't even realize they are, because they also believed Steven Foster).
I don't believe knowledge of this will fix the disrespectful attitude towards Japanese media that those localizers have, for that to happen entire localization industry would have to crash and burn, but at least it's good to know everything those people do is unjustifiable destruction of original author's intent, either "for fun" Foster-style, or for ideologies they want to promote where they don't belong(Ekhm... "Patriarchal societal demands" in Dragon Maid... ekhm...).
"Even though they probably don't even realize they are", nah they 100% know what they're doing
I still think it's funny but learning the truth is pretty off putting.
Foster is a liar.
at 5:17 the actor for kaiba sounds like he's trying his best not to laugh
Loved watching that thing growing up. I bet if I watched it in english I would laugh a little but it would be forgettable as hell, instead of being among the cartoons and anime that I cherish from childhood.
In Brazil they treated it seriously. The Amanojaku voice actor in fact went on to dub Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies. Definitely no scrub in the voice acting scene.
It's pretty common for animes around here to be dubbed based on the english version. It's easier to find english speakers than japanese ones to translate it, and it's cheaper because they already put their hands on the censored version of shows. They might have looked at the american dub and thought "We can't publish that sh*t"
The thing about Samurai Pizza Cats wasn't that the voice actors were drunk... It's that the guy who sang the theme song was drunk and was doing a Fred Schneider impression on accident. He was actually trying to sound like Paul Lynde, if I remember the interview correctly.
Having been exposed to a proper dub of it on Indonesian TV first (which I really enjoyed), I still enjoyed the english dub and think there's room for both, though it's unfortunate that the circumstances that led to it's creation was like that. But it's hard to think that the dub would exist otherwise, so I'm conflicted.
I would pay cold hard Paypal cash money to whoever can get me the Animax Dub series in its full or at least whats available.
Great video, thanks for clarifying all, it really gave a lot of insight. You got a new subscriber.
Man, this foster guy is the typical twitter “artist” who “fixes” other’s art
not true
@@jadedheartsz how so?
@@jadthecat387 this was an official dub, not unofficial like those twitter guys.
@@jadedheartsz I meany that his attitude is the same as those twitter folks
@@jadthecat387 not really no, Foster just wanted to entertain people, those artists genuinely think they are better.
and this is why I hate it when people say Ghost Stories is the Best Dub...
@@slanderthesnake3525 It's a good abridged series, you mean?
@@genyakozlov1316 technically it's a official dub.
Pretty sure there not being to 100% serious about it
"A lawyer would never tell a lie"
Me, a brazillian: *Press X to doubt*
Ugh. The worst excesses of modern "localizers" can probably traced right back to here.
Wow, that ending with Korone singing the ending. Very nice.
It's actually the opening but yeah she did a great job!
we in latino america got this series with a normal dub that follow the history if any one is curious about it
Same in Indonesia. I think we got all the episodes including the Kuchisake-Onna
It's a murky situation, and fans need to ask themselves a lot of questions. Where do you draw the line when it comes to localizations? Power Rangers adapted Super Sentai by chopping it up and shooting new live-action footage starring white people, and it's a beloved classic that's still going to this day. If Power Rangers came out 20 years later, would it still have the same reception? Some people consider DBZ Abridged a legitimate dub of the show and even superior to the original. Would things be different if it was "official"? People praise inaccurate "flavorful" video game localizations like Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, and Symphony of the Night and raise hell when a more accurate redone localization comes along. What makes that so different? And should hardcore anime fans even care about what a dub does if they wouldn't watch it anyway?
It really just depends on the person and when said thing came out. I mean, Power Rangers is still doing the same thing to this day and sometimes localizations are more fun if I’m being honest. I don’t think that shows deserve to be changed and butchered even if that may be the worst thing in the world but it happens. I say that if the original creators allow it then let it be and if you enjoy a localization over a more accurate dub don’t feel bad about it. Your tastes and what you like are up to you.
Complicating the toku example even further is that there are instances of the localized versions finding equal or more success than the originals in their own home countries. Power Rangers Lost Galaxy was a bigger ratings hit in Japan than Seijuu Sentai Gingaman, and while Kamen Rider Ryuki wasn't a failure by any means, Kamen Rider Dragon Knight got a Japan-exclusive sequel novel and some of the toys were branded with the English names.
@@bf5250 WHATTTTT!!??? I didn't know that.
“White people”
lol you’ve never seen power rangers I guess
the thing is that power ranger became good in its own right in later season and it's different enough to watch both version of the japanese and american (but not after being bought back saban back in 2009-10, then it becomes a mix bag).
And i wouldn't trust anyone that say TFS DBZ superior than the OG. The early ep has that 2000 humor which isn't bad as a fan thing but treating it as a legitimate dub, it becomes really dated. But to the freiza to cell cell there's moment where it pretty good.
I agree with your conclusion entirely.
However, in my country we got an accurate and decent (for the time and budget) dub, so I got to experience the series "as intended" and the shitpost dub too.
I hate to say it, especially because I really don't like the guy responsible for it, but the gag dub is what makes me care to this day about the show. With that said, I'm happy that you were able to demystify the stories around it.
I like Foster, anyone who had the balls to make a character non-binary in the 2000s is A-OK in my book.
@@jadedheartsz well, my problem with that is the fact that he's not "making" a character in the sense of creating them. He's simply "turning" a character non-binary, which goes against the wishes of the original authors.
While gag dubs make me laugh, I've come to the conclusion that messing with another author's work is very disrespectful, even if there are good intentions behind it.
@@LichCrypt sometimes the original author is a tosspot so in that case i'm cool with going against their wishes, sometimes an adaptation is better if it goes against their wishes, like the films based on Bret Easton Ellis's novels, Ellis is a major jackass(FAR worse then Foster)and frankly his books haven't aged well, the film adaptations of them are far superior.
Disrespectful my ass, "messing with them" is fine, hell the creators of Samurai Pizza Cats outright encouraged the dubbers to do their own take on the show instead of trying to be slavishly faithful to the original. ADV actually tried the faithful approach with their uncut dub of Saint Seiya and it wasn't very good at all and the poor DVD sales reflected that, resulting in only 60 of 114 episodes getting dubbed by them.
I'll gladly take the "unfaithful" DiC dub of Sailor Moon over the boring as hell "faithful" version by Viz any day of the week.
@@jadedheartsz Who cares what you personally like, when it comes at the cost of corrupting what was into what it isn't?
@@seg162 oh please what "cost"? LOL you gatekeeping elitist nazi trolls are the worst, there's no "corruption" here at all, face it the original anime was boring AF.
I'll admit that I got a few laughs from out of context ADV clips, but the Animax version seems pretty interesting since it seems to keep most of the original vision intact.
I loved Ghost Stories. I loved its graphic nature. Yes. If I were to make a complaint, its the dialog. I really hate it when people in the entertainment industry cranks out stuff that entertain themselves instead of the audience.
Well… most media is made by people who want to entertain themselves AND the audience. When it’s only for the audience, you can get corporate trash. If it’s only for the creators you get ego projects. It’s best to hit that middle ground, and luckily most media is in that middle ground.
I was entertained
My second book about anime--"A Gathering of Spirits"--has a hefty chapter about "Gakkou no Kaidan"'; it goes back to the original audience for the Toremitsu books--children in grade school--and respects their interest in both classic ghost stories and modern "urban myths" about ghostly goings-on. Japan is an older culture than most Americans will ever be able to conceive; Japan's first "ghost story" would be the 7th century "Kojiki", written a thousand years before America was founded; we really need to understand and respect that if we are ever expected to put Japan's ghost lore in any kind of context. Needless to say, I totally "get" the original and cannot stand to watch the dub; especially after reading that after the deadly tsunami of 2011, scholars expected a new group of ghost stories to be inspired. As one scholar said about the new stories: "Personally I don't believe in spirits but that's beside the point!"