Americanized OP or ED that is better or as good as or close to Japanese Version.

[Whitemoon648]

As title sais what anime series OP or ED you guys think is better in English or at least you could say is as good or close to as good.

Well i nominate Ruroni Kenshin's OP in English as better than the japanese version.

And in my opinion Fruit basket's OP is as good as the japanese version of the OP.


Any Opinions.


Edit 1: Please feel free to talk about the OP/ED in other languages too. The comparing isnt limited to just English versions. I just created the poll based on english because if i wanted to creat for every language , i wouldnt have enough poll options.

[Ash Falls Town]

I also like the English Fruits Basket theme better than the Japanese one. When I watched it in Japanese for the first time I had to stop myself from changing it back just for the credits.

I'm not sure if this is relevent but I also like the Korean Full Moon opening better than the Japanese ones.
I do however prefer the insert song in Petite Princess Yucie to be in Japanese though.

Edit: I just remembered the Pokemon theme for the Orange Islands is 10x better than the japanese version.
And this is inspite of the English version having shouting and whistles in the background.

[Sakura_Kinomoto]

Fruits basket is proberly the only one i can really think of the americans cant really do much in terms of outdoing the japanese lol, I always find that the japanese put alot more emphasis and emotion into their voices than the English/americans do and also the japanese voices suit them while the engilsh do not thats my opinon anyways

[The Chaos]

I voted For ---> Japanese version only. No need for English version.
I heard many anime Op & ED In Japanese and English ...
I loved The Japanese Voices Batter Than the English Voices...

[Vexx]

I see nothing wrong with an english dub providing the option for the tunes if they can find the talent and translators who can handle it. Songs get translated all the time in the music industry.

Personally however, I tend to stick with the original languages when possible.

[Kyuusai]

Translated songs tend to offend my ears oftentimes, but that's as much due to me being a purist as it is any general lack of quality. ...though there does tend to be a lack of quality, this being the anime dubbing industry we're talking about.

Reaching back to the days of Tenchi Muyo (the first two OVA runs and the first movie), I was actually pretty impressed with the translated songs for the first OVA's ED, the second OVA's OP and ED, and the movie's credits song. The vocal performances didn't really have the technical quality of the originals, but they DID share their emotion and spirit.

On the OVA side, I give a lot of the credit for this to Sharyn Scott (voice of Sasami, Tsunami, and singer of OVA 1's ED and OVA 2's OP), who, unlike most western women, seems to have a vocal range from squeaky-child to adult like many female Japanese seiyuu. Perhaps my now-better-trained ears would disagree, but going on memory she is in my very short list of people I think made adequate replacements for their Japanese roles.

[Alexandrite]

If I recall correctly, and it's been many years so I may not be remembering correctly, the dubbed songs for Ranma 1/2 were decently done, some maybe on par with the Japanese versions. And I just listened to the English dubbed opening of Fruits Basket, and that's not bad either. However, a majority of the time I'll gladly stick with the original. Some translated songs are just... ugh (God Knows).

[serenade_beta]

The only one in English that I enjoy listening to is Fruits Basket.

[Whitemoon648]

Yeah fruit basket is probably every one's favorite. But i personally loved the first OP from Rurouni Kenshin very much. I thought it was even better than Original one.

In my view if you can have both, why not? If you dont like the english version of it then you can listen to the japanese one ( and Vice verca).

[khryoleoz]

The only good English music performances I've heard were from the early Pioneer titles Tenchi and El Hazard. The obligatory original j-pop tunes we hear today that serve as OP ED themes would always sound better than their English counterparts. This is because in Japan they'd be using their top acts to perform them whereas there'd be no way for a US anime licensor to pay top acts to perform anime tunes. Even those themes that are simply performed by the VAs, there's a certain cuteness that the Japanese VAs lend to their sound that is wholly appropriate that American/UK/or whatever other English speaking native performer could not impart.

One thing I'm sure of, I much prefer the musical scores offered by the few Japanese composers whose works I've become familiar with than those whose music of which we hear in Hollywood films, including John Williams. Today's Hollywood music just sound so lackluster and only good for wallpaper, which I know is the intent. Over Hanz Zimmerman, James Horner, Danny Elfman, etc., give me any day the volume of works by Yoko Kanno, Mina Kubota, Taku Iwasaki, Toshihiko Sahashi, etc..

While I've liked most of Wende Lee's performances, even in SHnY, her performance of "God Knows" only rose to the level of a good sounding karaoke bar attempt, whereas Aya Hirano had all of the character of a seasoned j-pop star.

[Vexx]

Not to overly defend Wendee Lee ... but she was playing a high school student singing in an impromptu garage band for a high school festival. The Hirano version in the series was almost *too* professional whereas Wendee's take sounded more realistic. Whether Wendee can sing better or not is irrelevant -- it fit the situation.
(I usually skip Wendee's voice work or most dub work -- but lately I'm more of the opinion the VAs are hamstrung by working in solo sessions)

Of course, since its sci-fi fantasy... whatever

[Kyuusai]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Not to overly defend Wendee Lee ... but she was playing a high school student singing in an impromptu garage band for a high school festival. The Hirano version in the series was almost *too* professional whereas Wendee's take sounded more realistic. Whether Wendee can sing better or not is irrelevant -- it fit the situation.
(I usually skip Wendee's voice work or most dub work -- but lately I'm more of the opinion the VAs are hamstrung by working in solo sessions)

Of course, since its sci-fi fantasy... whatever

Just to be argumentative, is one case where that didn't necessarily apply.

Though they didn't have time to cover it in the anime, in the novel it was explained by Koizumi that Haruhi and Yuki sounded too perfect, and that any disharmony or other negative impression came from the regular band neither being used to playing with them nor being able to keep up with their perfect performances.

[Vexx]

Hmmm, missed that in the novel -- point conceded. Gee, and here I was actually defending english VA work for a super-rare occasion

[The-Duke]

I remember falling in love with the Rayearth themes in English, as well as one of the Tenchi themes. They are ok sometimes, but the only case I can remember hating it would be Burst Angel ED.

[Royal_Devil]

Originally Posted by khryoleoz

This is because in Japan they'd be using their top acts to perform them whereas there'd be no way for a US anime licensor to pay top acts to perform anime tunes.

Define "top acts" because there are way too many people making millions and costing a lot to hire despite singing garbage.

I was very surprised at Greg Ayres' and Brina Palencia's singing quality in the Beck dub. And that old man from Desert Punk singing about Punk and Rain Spider before their first battle, which sounded awesome in English. And Ikkaku's luck, luck dance

Most of the time I find little difference in a properly translated song. The ones I have a problem with are just scrapping everything from the first opening. But when done right, most of the time it sounds pretty much the same save for the language being sung.

Vic singing the One Piece opening is a prime example of this.

[-PoLLuX-]

I find the English songs either too short, or I find that the song has absolutely no meaning in the song as the Japanese songs usually do. The English versions are usually only about the actual Anime they are representing and I don't like how they usually include the title or the main characters names in the songs repeating over and over again. I voted first option.

[Royal_Devil]

Originally Posted by -PoLLuX-

I find the English songs either too short, or I find that the song has absolutely no meaning in the song as the Japanese songs usually do. The English versions are usually only about the actual Anime they are representing and I don't like how they usually include the title or the main characters names in the songs repeating over and over again. I voted first option.

And what of instances when the English version uses a properly translated version of the opening ala Fruit Basket, Yu Yu Hakusho, One Piece...in fact most of Funimation's library

[Mistacloudstrife]

I think it's safe just to leave the songs as they are and add in subtitles. In cases where they completely change the music, there's a pretty high probability of butchering the song and even anime completely. For example, Initial D. Exchanging the eurobeats with rap during the races was a completely idiotic and useless choice imo. The OP was terrible as well. And in the cases where they actually use the same song. There might be a small chance at it actually being fairly good,(I was a bit impressed by the English Furuba OP) but in most cases it really can't measure up to the original. And again, in most cases the lyrics end up becoming overly corny.

Examples of music changed:
"Initial Drive! Initial Drift! Initial D!"
"Dragon Dragon Rock The Dragon Dragon Ball Z!"

Example of the same song/translated and/or altered lyrics:
"Seek the home, and the light with Luffy! For he will be the PIRATE KING!"


Yes, when you actually read the english lyrics for "We Are!" it really isn't that bad, but it's pretty corny(at least imo) when you actually listen to the song.

[Fruitfly]

I liked the english version of the second Ranma OVA opening. The kenshin opening was pretty good too.

As for other languages, I really liked the Italian opening of Card Captors Sakara and One Piece. But I did hear a few people complaining about it.

I also like some of the fandub versions of songs on youtube. Milkcabbage (Cristina Vee) did a great english version of God Knows... and Hare Hare Yukai. StrawbellyCake does good german fandubs of songs imo.

[Liddo-kun]

Voted "Japanese version only. No need for English version".

Honestly, americanized OP and ED songs have always sounded bland to my hearing.
Original Japanese is always better.

Sorry if my opinion offends some people.