MovieChat Forums > Meitantei Conan (1996) Discussion > Why the change????

Why the change????

posted 20 years ago by edogava
12 replies | jump to latest

I am wondering why the hell the names in Meitanei Conan aka Detective Conan aka Case Closed which makes the least sense out of all had to change for the english version of the anime. i mean come on Jimmy kudo and Racheal Moure. It is a japanese anime the names should be the same for all the languages. In germany they kept the names. Why did they have to change them for the english one. They are taking a perfectly good japanese anime and altering it, and its not any better.

I have always wanted to know WHY?

[–] go-28 19 years ago

ran and shinichi (kudou) and mouri shouldve been the names, but nooo rachael, jimmy, and i forgot mouris english name ;). I dunno why the changed it, though :/

[–] le052383 19 years ago

Well, not sure if the info from several sites is true, but several website sand such said the anime was going to be on fox family in 2000. My guess is that if they were going to kidify it, they had to alter the names so kids can understand it better. Seems to be logical since they also localized it where Ran or Rachel is batheing conan, but in the american version, they added Richards comment if she was nude and she replied "She is wearing a bathing suit" despite the actual image shows her naked(her bits are covered by Conan.) Furthermore, I don't see the point of replacing the songs if is wasn't going to be geared towards kids.

However, that doesn't make sense as it has all the cussing and some of the violence are intact. Maybe it was intended to be for fox kids, but the producers or whatever probably realize censoring the elements in the show would be too hard since most ep deals with murder. So maybe they scrapped it and brought it back once Adult swim was made or that CN bought the license and added some of the cussing and such. Not sure, really.

[–] nes_star 19 years ago

Bull.

anyway, I read somewhere that the decision to change the names for the English version was actually a decision on the part of the Japanese producers, NOT on the part of the English dubbers (who wanted to keep the title and the character names). Supposedly this was because the Japanese company felt that this would improve sales.

Personally I think Japanese companies should not make decisions for countries they know nothing about, but that's just me...

[–] Xalibar 19 years ago

I like the american names better. I like japan and anime but some of the japanese names i don't really like. I don't mind ones like inuyasha, kagome, goku, kinda like the simple ones. I don't like the harder ones like shinichi or abe yumana or whatever. changing the names probably did appeal to a wider audience. Japan may have let them have it over here but they should have a say on how it is. Saying they know nothing about the country is wrong. Just because you live in america and don't happen to like the name changes doesn't mean you speak for the entire country. There may be others who like to watch anime but may be turned off by the unusual japanese names. The show isn't to appeal to just you. What do you know about marketing and sales and such. and about the audience.

[–] brandon_harwell 19 years ago

I agree that I have no problem with the name changes. I only gripe when the original names have a strong meaning and get changed, such as the Ten Wise Men in Star Ocean 2 getting changed to the garbage in the American version just to please these despotic religions that currently run around trying to control everything in America.

When they changed the final boss names in Star Ocean 3, though, I was fine with it because the Japanese names actually made no logical sense.

In this, it doesn't go either way, so I would have been happy with the originals or the ones we have. I do think I like the ones we have better, though, as it's easier to identify with Jimmy Kudo and Rachel Moore than with Shinichi Kudo and Ran Mouri.

[–] slg34 19 years ago

>I only gripe when the original names have a strong meaning and get changed

actually... the name Shinichi does have a strong meaning - in English, it means 'one truth', which is an enormous part of his character

also, if you read in the translated manga, at the end of each volume, he talks about particular fictional detectives, and how the names translated over into characters in the manga/anime

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end" - Semisonic

[–] megaposters 19 years ago

Shinichi's name doesnt mean "one truth". It means "the new one."

[–] baratiakos 19 years ago

Actually, both versions are right. The problem lies more on the side of TMS (Tokyo Movie Shinsha) and FUNimation, since they let the distributors decide how to apply the names.
Since FUNimation has licensed the first two motion pictures of the show (which are not directly related to Meitantei Conan, only based on them), the only advise I can give, watch the subtitled version of the Fourteenth target, since the dub director/screenwriter will have a hell of a job to explain, how the original character names are related to Japanese numbers, and frankly, neither James, nor Jimmy contains the number one in the name itself.
Other obvious strong connection lies in Aoyama Gosho's affection to classic Japanese films. I'm sure, many of you have seen Kill Bill vol.1, where the Bride meets Hattori Hanzo in Okinawa, but notice, Tarantino's version is stupified compared to the original historical figure, played on TV by Chiba Sonny, whose original name is Shinichi, and that's how Harley Hartwell (brr, creeps the hell out of me when I hear that name) got his name, and his affection to kenjitsu, a subject already covered by Aoyama years ago in his other famous anime, Yaiba.
Mitch, George and Amy are also characters inspired by the work of Enid Blython, Serena on the other hand, is a typical heiress to a great financial company which is why she received a such common name, like Suzuki.
Last, but not least, the Mouri family: Kogoro got his name from Edogawa Ranpo's famous detective, Akechi Kogoro, who is mostly a "drunken monkey" and a wannabe womanizer. Ran has also a double meaning, depends in which mood she is: on one occasion she is smooth and nice, like a water lily (mentioned in movie 3), on other occasions, since she is a karate champion, outrageous like a war, the other meaning for Ran.
All in all, I'm a bit sad, that American fans are almost stripped from this possibly, if there wouldn't be subbed eps every week;)

[–] nes_star 19 years ago

"There may be others who like to watch anime but may be turned off by the unusual japanese names."

If they "like to watch anime," then Japanese names should not be at all unusual to them--even if their exposure is solely through what plays on Cartoon Network.

"What do you know about marketing and sales and such. and about the audience."

What do I know about the audience that always FLIES INTO FITS OF RAGE over even the most minor of arbitrary alterations? Gee, I wonder!

Being someone who actually lives in America and actually interacts with the fans, I probably know more about the audience than a company in a foreign country run by people who have probably only ever been to America once in their lives, if even that.

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] JuliusHenry 18 years ago

unneccessery title change

.. detective conan much much better than [case closed?]

[–] mechachan15 18 years ago

hmmm..I think that Detective Conan sounds alot better. I mean, at first I called it Case Closed..but when I found it the original name was Detective Conan,I started saying that.Personally,I like the Japanese names better. The thing that really bugs me is that the main characters have english names,but EVERYONE else has Japanese names!! If the names were just Japanese or just english it would be fine,but mixing them together like that just sounds stupid.btw I DO NOT like the name Harley!His original name was Hattori Heiji( * sighs * he's so hot )