Dubbing is hard. You have to translate text, rewrite it to fit cultural sensitivities, make sure it appeals to the audience and avoid changing the context.
Dubbing is even harder when you don't have a translator ready to understand the original language.
Fortunately, there's a common way to get around this: Base your dub on the language of another dub. It gets around the issue of cultural issues if it's from a similar country, and most of the translation work is already done.
This often leads to Dub Induced Plotline Changes and Dub Name Changes if not corrected/overseen.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
As a whole
- The original language of anime and manga is Japanese. Here are some examples of the dubs being based on non-Japanese dubs:
- For an entire string of reasons, Polish translations — the overwhelming majority of which were Voiceover Translations on top of it all — were either based on French, Italian, English or European Spanish dubs, the "basis" language depending on TV station and/or corporation. If something received an actual dub, it came from the English version. It wasn't until the 2010s that dubbing directly from Japanese started to pop in.
- According to this article
, the English dub for Akage no Anne used the German dub as their basis, complete with dubbing the German dub's opening and ending themes. All other European dubs of the series were also based on the German dub.
- The French and European Spanish dubs of Attacker You! are based on the Italian dub, which is why they have the same Dub Name Changes.
- The Arabic dub of Bakugan Battle Brawlers is based on the Nelvana English dub. It changed the main character's "Americanized" names to Arabic ones.
- The Latin American Spanish dub of Dash Kappei is based on the Italian one. Since the protagonist's Italian name is Gigi, that name is also kept in the Spanish version. However the show has a Completely Different Title of "Chico Terremoto".
- The Norwegian dub of Digimon Adventure is based on the American-English script. Hence Taichi and Yamato also being called Tai and Matt there.
- The European Portugeuse dub of Hello! Sandybell was based on the Italian dub. It's why the European Portuguese and Italian theme songs sound so similar. The Portuguese dub also added a lot of its own Dub Name Changes.
- The Dutch, Italian and French dubs of Magical Princess Minky Momo were based on the English dub by Harmony Gold. The only dub that was based on the original Japanese script was the Arabic one.
- The Italian dub of Majokko Meg-chan changed Meg's name to Bia, and also removed some episodes deemed unfit for syndication. The Polish and Portuguese dubs are based on the Italian dub so they inherit these changes.
- Every foreign dub of Medabots and Medabots Spirit besides the Italian and Taiwan Mandarin ones are based on the English dub by Nelvana, and as such keep the Westernized character names, Foreign Re-Score and edited episode order.
- The first three seasons of the Norwegian dub of Moomin (1990) is based on the Swedish dub, with its largely different dialogue. The fourth seasons's dub's translation source is unknown. The Northern Sami dub is also based on the Swedish one. In turn, the Danish dub (which covers the first three seasons) is based on the Norwegian one.
- The Mysterious Cities of Gold was originally broadcast in Japanese. When the series was scheduled to be re-run on the NHK channel, it was discovered that the original Japanese audio track was missing. Thus, the series had to be re-dubbed in Japanese from the French-language script.
- The Latin American Spanish dub of Naruto is based on the American dub that ran on Cartoon Network. It keeps in the bowdlerizations, such as the ninjas drinking "elixirs" (alcohol).
- Pokémon: The Series: Most dubs besides the Chinese version are based on the English release, so whenever any episodes are banned, that episode will not be dubbed in other languages either.
- Robot Romance Trilogy:
- The Polish dub of Daimos was based on the Italian dub. The Italian dub voices can even be heard in the background in some scenes.
- The Greek dub of Voltes V was based on the Italian dub. This led to the Italian Dub Name Changes being adapted into the Greek dub, for example Prince Heinel being called Prince Sirius.
- The Italian dub of Samurai Pizza Cats is based on the English dub by Saban Entertainment. Hence the Italian dub being two episodes short of the original Japanese series — the English dub skipped those ones too.
- Science Ninja Team Gatchaman was heavily Macekred and released in America as Battle of the Planets. The Italian, French and European Spanish dubs would be based on this, instead of the source material.
- The Norwegian dub of Secret of Cerulean Sand is based on the French dub, as shown by the French opening and ending credits (with the show's title being talked over in the Norwegian dub).
- The Italian dub of the first Shaman King anime was based on the 4Kids dub, but used the original Japanese names for all the characters that were renamed by 4Kids.
- This trope is why the Latin American Spanish dub of Sherlock Hound has the Italian dub's Alternative Foreign Theme Song even though the dialogue was translated.
- Many dubs of Smile PreCure! go by the English dub, Glitter Force. You can probably tell because the main character is called Emily (instead of her Japanese name, Miyuki) in Italian, Danish, Polish, French, German, Dutch, and European Spanish. Or at least localized, as the European Portuguese dub names her Emília.
- Most foreign Sonic X dubs are based on the bowdlerised 4Kids dub. The few exceptions based on the original Japanese script include the French and Korean versions.
- Tokyo Mew Mew:
- There were two Albanian dubs of Tokyo Mew Mew. The first one was based on the English version. The second one was based on the Italian version, though it kept the Japanese OP and ED.
- The Brazilian Portuguese dub of Mew Mew Power was based on the 4Kids dub. However, the Portuguese dubbers clearly weren't fluent in English, as lines like "I've brought my fly swatter" in English are translated to "I've brought my flying sweater" in Portuguese.
- The Italian dub of UFO Robo Grendizer was based on the French dub, and as such kept all the names from that dub, with a few exceptions such as the titular character being called "Goldrake" instead of the French dub's "Goldorak".
- Yo-kai Watch: Most foreign dubs of the anime are based on the English dub produced by Disney XD (with the exception of the English dub made by Toonami Asia, which is more faithful to the Japanese script and keeps most of the imagery that was cut from the Disney XD dub).
- Yu-Gi-Oh!:
- Yu-Gi-Oh!:
- The Italian dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! is based on the English dub by 4Kids. The dub, however, did a few name changes that were based more on the Japanese version: Yugi Moto is reverted to Yugi Muto, while Weevil Underwood is named "Bruchido Haga", which is an Italianized version of his Japanese name Insector Haga.
- The same applies to the French dub, which actually uses the name "Insector Haga".note
- The Latin American Spanish dub is also based on the 4Kids dub. This is despite the fact that the content of the original Japanese would have been deemed mostly fine by Latin American censors.
- The Italian dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is based on the 4Kids dub for the first three seasons, while the fourth is based on the original Japanese one.
- The Italian dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds is based on the 4Kids dub for the first season only, while the remainder of the series is based on the Japanese version.
- Zigzagged by the Italian dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL: The first 25 episodes are based on the original Japanese version, but with the dub names and a few script changed from the 4Kids dub. Episodes 26-49 are based entirely on the Japanese version, while from episode 50 onwards the dub is based on the 4Kids dub.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!:
Eastern Animation
- The French dub for the Russian animated series, KikoRiki, was based on the English 4Kids version, GoGoRiki, even keeping the original compositions made specifically for said dub.
Live-Action TV
Original language: Japanese
- Spectreman: The Brazilian dub is based on the American dub, including the Opening Narration. Ra is named Karas, similar to his English name Karras, while Nebula is named Dominantes ("Dominant Ones"), thematically close (although not a literal translation) to the English name Overlords. This happens because the Brazilian TV channel that first aired the show imported it from the USA instead of buying it directly from Japan.
- Due to a massive case of Germans Love David Hasselhoff regarding The Persuaders! the French dub is based on the German dub which almost completely changed the original dialogue with many cases of Breaking the Fourth Wall making the series much more comedic in contrast to the original version. In fact, after watching three German episodes himself Tony Curtis wanted the German co-ordinator of the dubbing, Rainer Brandt, to write the original scripts due to this success, which never happened though, since the series was not continued.
Mythology & Religion
- Latin remains the official language of the Catholic Church, and all Bibles should be translated from the Latin Vulgate. However, as a practical matter most translations these days start from the English translation since Latin scholars who also speak the target language can be rare, or even non-existent in the case of translating into Asian languages.
Video Games
Original language: Japanese
- Final Fantasy VI:
- Kefka was originally a generic evil Dragon with an Agenda antagonist in the Japanese script when it was first released. When the game was released internationally, it first came to the US where Ted Woolsey rewrote Kefka as a goofy hammy villain with a sadistic streak, something international scripts based their versions of Kefka on and codifying a trope all about dubbed moments that are changed to land well in a different language.
- Dissidia Final Fantasy: After the success of Kefka's international rewrite, things would come full circle, as the Japanese script for the game would retool Japan's version of Kefka into the same kind of wacky and sadistic Large Ham that his international appearances were, something that has stuck since.
- Final Fantasy VII: The French version is based on the English one, as evidenced by a few translation errors that are clearly English-to-Frenchnote , and a few of Emerald Weapon's attacks being in English.
- Pokémon:
- Prior to Pokémon Black and White, all main series Pokémon games were translated into English first, then the French, Italian, Spanish, and German translations were based on that.
- Many Pokémon species' names in languages outside of Japanese are based on the English names. All Pokémon species' names are the same in English, Spanish, and Italian except for Type: Null and the Paradox Pokémon.
- The script for Cyberpunk 2077 was written in Polish, then translated to English, from which that version was used as a basis for most other translations. There are some exceptions, such as the Russian translation, which was directly based on the Polish script.
- Genshin Impact: Most other languages (other than Japanese or Korean) would adopt the English dub names for terms that are originally in Chinese, such as "Gnosis" or " Archon".
Western Animation
Original language: English
- Filly Funtasia: The show's original language is English, but because it took a long time to finalize that version, most dubs use the Italian version as a base.
- The first Italian dub of Inspector Gadget was based on the French version of the show, to the point that Gadget himself was given a French accent.
- The Polish dub of Wishfart for some reason is based on the French dub. This can be evidenced by the fact that the show aired on teleTOON+ Poland with French prints (even though other English-produced Canadian cartoons previously aired on the channel with English video masters) and episodes titles being closer to the ones in French dub, rathen than original version.
