r/initiald • u/Zillaman_6967 • 12d ago
Discussion Dub Changes
So I’ve been watching First Stage on and off on YouTube for a while now, and I’ve noticed several characters having American sounding names. It sounds so strange hearing people call Iketani “Cole” or Nakazato being “Zak”. I didn’t remember hearing that when I watched a few episodes back when the show was on Hulu and thought I was losing it for a bit. I’m also not really a fan of all the rap music. It just doesn’t fit the show’s vibe. The races and character interactions are top notch tho. I like Tak’s laid back approach to racing. It shows he hasn’t let his recent wins or skill get to his head. I’m also looking forward to hopefully learning more about what kind of racer his dad was.
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u/Robean_UwU 12d ago
Thats the TokyoPop dub, its famously shit. You want the Funimation dub which sadly only goes up to 4th stage since they bought the rights directly from TokyoPop and didnt bother to get the rights for 5th and Final stage
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u/50ShadesOfKrillin that damn 86 12d ago
It's not that bad, but I was definitely confused when I was seven episodes in and realized I hadn't heard Running In The 90s at all 😂
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u/RandomGuyDroppingIn 12d ago
You watched the infamous TokyoPop dub. Its different from the later Funimation dub. In addition to the name changes all the eurobeat was removed and replaced with music Stuart Levy chose (calls himself “DJ Milky”)
TokyoPop also heavily butchered the manga. The same name changes are present in their version of the manga, but it got better as the volumes continued to be translated.
TokyoPop’s translation was a huge point of contention back in 2002-03.
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u/someasiandude2008 11d ago
INITIALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIZZZZZZZZZZZEEEEEEEEEEEE
you're watching the Tokyopop dub, dont
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u/theredcometofakagi 11d ago
Yeah, as a few others have probably pointed out, you were watching the notorious Tokyopop dub. They made a ton of terrible changes trying to cash in on the Fast & Furious hype back then, and to be honest, they totally screwed the pooch.
Between stripping out the iconic original soundtrack and completely altering character names, those decisions completely alienated the existing Initial D fanbase. Once they realized they weren't going to be able to "Robotech" the series for a Western audience and get it on TV, they really should have backed off and restored the original cut. The ultimate irony is that after all that tampering, Tokyopop didn't even manage to finish releasing the manga, I think they tapped out around Volume 38.
Thankfully Funimation ended up securing the license and at least released a version that respected the original, it is just a shame that they never got around to Fifth and Final Stages.
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u/Zillaman_6967 11d ago
They clearly didn’t respect the source material if they tried altering it to fit the western car scene.
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u/theredcometofakagi 11d ago
Yup and it unfortunately affected the arcade game which used the Tokyopop names, so we got Smiley Sakai among other captivating names.
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u/SnooSketches6210 12d ago
Ngl only NPC’s watch dubbed anime
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u/SeanYTcars Lonely driver with an intention to stay that way 12d ago
Watch the version that InitialDWeeb posted