Quantum Raiders Forum

[Ashura]

First worst anime i seen that was translated my all time favorite,Inital-D translated by Tokyo Pop here is what one person thinks and it really is true
Why am I so hostile towards Tokyopop? Well they are translating the anime and
manga to english here. And oh my god, did they butcher the anime BAD. They
feel that "Westernizing" the names will make the anime more popular. This is
not true! It only butchers the anime. It's like rape!

We true, pure Initial D fans thought it was bad enough for them to change the
names, but oh no, they went much further: The soundtrack HAS CHANGED. Instead
of my worries of listening to Limp Bizkit or Eminem. We got something much
much worse. What we got was this RETARDED rap by people who probably never
listened to rap or hip hop in their lives and it sounds like something from
Seasame Street. It goes something like "Da Eight Six Rolling down the track,
Initial Drift, Initial Passion *a bunch of other crap that I couldn't bare to
listen*" and THIS S*** REPLACED the energetic Eurobeat soundtrack!

They also CHANGED THE BATTLE SCENES. They tried to added more visual affects
to the car battles but it looked cheap and godawful. And get this, their
slogan for Initial D is "Initialize Your Dreams!" What kind of g** s*** is
that!?

They ARE targeting Initial D to a bunch of little bastard children who probably
don't know a thing about cars. People have been telling me that they think it
could appeal to children to find out about the REAL Initial D. 100% untrue.
Kids and other people are too racist and prejudice to care about the real
Initial D. They will never find out what Initial D REALLY IS. You want to
prove me wrong? BUY THE HONG KONG PIRATED DVDs, or if you can read Japanese
THE ACTUAL DVDs FROM JAPAN.

Tokyopop did piss anime fans off in the past however. When it was known as
Mixx Entertainment and they had their Mixxzine, they included Sailor Moon as a
special comic, then the owner of Mixx move Sailor Moon to another zine named
"Smile!" (What kind of name is that!?) So this pissed off a ton of fans, and
the Editor got so pissed he resigned. Anyways check below for list of name
changes.

Here's the list of names.

Crap Names - Real Names

Tak - Takumi
Iggy - Itsuki
Cole - Kouichirou
Natalie - Natsuki
Boss - Yuuichi
Ry - Ryousuke
K.T. - Keisuke
Zack - Takeshi
Maya - Mako
Simone - Sayuki
Kyle - Kyouichi
Hawk - Seiji
Aki - Wataru (Hey Tokyopop, Aki is not a American name! It's Finnish!)
Carrie - Kazumi (Wataru's sister)
Dice - Daiki
Smiley - Sakai (Sakai literally means Smiley I think)
Touch - Tomoyuki
Kylie (Previously Kia) - Kyouko
Danny - Kenta (What the hell is that?!)
Caine - Kai
Nobu - Nobuhiko (Uh, "Nobu" still sounds Japanese)
Sid - Tsukamoto/Sakamoto

However Shingo, and Bunta escaped with their real names. But doesn't that
defeat the whole purpose of changing the names in the first place!?

It gets worse. They are changing the dialogs, and get this they want to change
Takumi into a PIZZA DELIVERY BOY instead of Tofu delivery driver! Why? To
appeal to those big TV network corporate f*****s and put the show on TV!

Also my friend Ryosuke had to sin and get volume 3 of the TokyoPop mangas for
some reason. This is what he found. I'm sure he will repent someday.

- Itsuki calling Takumi his "homie." like nearly every time.
Homie? No one said that since 1991!

- Tons of spelling and grammer errorz (like what I just did).

- Changing the dialog completely. (I.E. Takumi: "I'm not going to let a
dickweed like him win this race!")

- Natsuki Mogi's scences with Papa at the "hotel": DELETED.

- Listing the Trueno's engine runs on "Spirit, Talent, and Determination"
(STD!)

- Saying that a Rotary engine runs on one cylinder, thus more power (which is
completely WRONG.)

- Translation errors in future versions. Like saying Seiji Iwaki drives a
Lancer Evolution VI (he actually drives a Lan Evo IV).

- In another volume: Listing Takumi Fujiwara as a Akina SpeedStar even though
he is not a team member.

The whole result of "Americanizing" everything (which is like RAPE) is a
butchered Initial D that is also a slap in the face to Japanese names and
cultures (AKA Racisim).

And get this...One of Stuart Levy's excuses to why he prefers dubbed to
subtitles was; "subtitles covers up the art of the anime and ruins it." So
here he is trying to call himself an artist with that excuse, trying everything
he can to justify his butchering. Well I'm not a artist, but I believe I have
the right to say that what Levy said was irrelevant and ignorant. My belief is
subtitles are there to help people UNDERSTAND the whole art and concept of the
anime, while keeping it's original form intact. While dubbed ruins the
original form of this great piece of art (Initial D in this case.)

Another thing! I don't believe the Japanese change the names when any American
comics or cartoons are released in Japan. Like they don't refer Homer Simpson
as "Hiroshi Sato" or some crap like that. They don't change Super Man's real
name to a more "Japanese name." So why are the North American companies are
changing everything to sound more "American"? It's a form of racisim!

Now TokyoPop released a DVD with the original copies of Initial D on it. BUT!
It also contains the "translated" episodes too. TokyoPop (while trying to
appeal to teenagers in a pathetic, half-assed matter) calls it the "Tricked Out
Edition." They also said it has "enhanced battle scenes" and you can do a
bunch of other crap with it. "Enhanced battle scences"? Good god! How did
they butcher the battle scences like Keisuke vs. Takumi for the first time? I
don't want to know! Avoid it all costs. Besides, it's the first three
episodes on DVD for in Japanese and English. So it's more like paying $20 for
JUST THREE EPISODES!? What a rip off. You can get the translated DVDs by
independent translators with all of the episodes for $40 Canadian on 4 DVDs!
Do the math.

The best way to boycott Tokyopop is to NOT buy ANY of their products. Buy fan
translations of the anime instead! You can get those in places where there is
a big Asian community. A note for the DVD owners: Buy the real versions, not
the burned DVDs. The burned ones don't work on all machines!

So that's pretty much it. F*** TOKYOPOP!

[Archangel]

bored right now, work is slow as hell
and ashura, i agree with you totally, but when it comes to manga, tokyopop isnt that bad (considering its the only one that actually transilates it) lol

and yes yes, tokyopop really does crap up the anime
why? cuz they are stupid cuz they dont do anime

[Odis86]

that was one long post......

[V.3.!.N.$]

yea i agree with you odis86...breathtaking...perhaps?

[Nevahku]

Ashura, i totally agree with you

but...seeing as they're the only company (is it a company? im not too sure) translating manga, i cant complain....although i DID turn to printing or reading the manga off the net by some more TRUSTWORTHY translators......

or...i can just ask this one person i know to translate it...im sure she wouldn't mind....much...