Beyond the Screen - HNC Media (Clydebank) students

Culture Page 14
Toonami. Westerners
had become so interested
in Anime that these
shows aired and were
completely re-dubbed
by English voice actors
so that audiences in
America, Europe and
the UK could enjoy the
experience of these shows
for themselves. However,
it could be argued that
too much was changed
when Japanese animation
was introduced to the
West. When ‘Tokyo Mew
Mew’ was released in the
UK in 2005, a number of
changes had been made
to fit in with Western
television standards. The
original title ‘referred to
five female superheroes
that fought evil in Tokyo,
but was then changed
to ‘Mew Mew Power’.
Furthermore, the original
Japanese names given
to the characters were
changed: the protagonist
was known as Ichigo
(the Japanese word for
Strawberry), yet her name
became Zoe in the dub,
and other non-Japanese
names Renee, Bridget and
Corina were introduced.
The original Japanese
opening theme ‘My Sweet
Heart’ by Rika Komatsu
was replaced with
‘Team Up’ performed
by American singer/
songwriter Bree Hall.
With Westerners
becoming more infatuated
with Japanese animation
in recent years, the new
wave of animated series
have clearly started
Tokyo Mew Mew: (left to right) Bu-Ling Huang, Retasu Midorikawa , Ichigo Momomiya, Minto Aizawa and
Zakuro Fujiwara