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Less creative episode titles?

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PokeDot517

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Notice TPCI lately haven't been coming up with creative titles for the dubbed episodes?

I know 4kids was notorious for putting puns in their titles but TPCI title names seem pretty bland especially in Season 16 (Adventures in Unova)

Not really a issue just something I noticed.
 
Yeah I've been noticing that too I mean Saving Braviary? To Catch a Rotom? Iris and the Rouge Dargonite? The DP ones were waayyy more creative.
 
Explosive Birth! Cycling Road!

I know I know, it's a Japanese title and most of them are "Explicit Event?!?!!?! Hyper Tag Line!?", but this one takes the cake.
 
This isn't really that recent of a thing, either. I'm in the middle of rewatching the Johto section of the OS and most of the titles are pretty boring. There are definitely some puns, but there are a bunch of pretty bland titles here as well.
 
I really like it :)

I prefer a title that gives us an idea of what we're in for over a lame joke that makes little sense.

No, I don't care that kids are primary audience and that other kiddy dubs have sucky titles. An episodes title should us an indication of why to watch. Not make us potentially apathic to it...
 
Some of the pun titles just didn't work. Like "Cheers on Castaways Isle." I knew it was supposed to be a play on "...here on Gilligan's Isle," but it just didn't sound good. Then there's "Pace--The Final Frontier." Obviously meant to channel "Space--the final frontier" from Star Trek, but I never understood what "Pace" was supposed to mean in that context. Any help on that?
 
I actually prefer straightforward titles over the punny ones from Johto-Sinnoh... Typically. Some of them admittedly worked ("Fire and Ice" for the ice field battle with an Arcanine), others didn't ("A Claim to Flame" sort of sounds like, and I'm sorry for saying this, a coming-out-of-the-closet episode)

The Japanese ones are pretty bad too since they use "ZOMG It's a battle! Vs. ______!!" about every other episode.
 
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Yeah I see what you guys mean and I noticed they could go over board with the puns May we Harley Drew'd Ya? I know they're using names but the audience wouldnt really get what that meant.
 
Sashaa said:
Yeah I've been noticing that too I mean Saving Braviary? To Catch a Rotom? Iris and the Rouge Dargonite? The DP ones were waayyy more creative.
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The reasoning behind this is that TPCi has begun to translate the japanese ones. For instance, the Japanese title for Iris and the Rouge Dargonite was Iris and the Roughneck Kairyu! (Kairyu is Dragonite's Japanese name).
 
4Kids' certainly took some creative liberties with the titles (among other things), but the puns were pretty decent most of the time. A few were cringe-worthy, though.

TPCi's were mostly the same quality in BF and DP as 4Kids' titles, but in BW I'd say their episode titles are the best thing for the dub in this regard.

While I don't prefer the TPCi dub myself, and find the 4Kids dub superior overall when weighing the pros and cons of both dubs, there are some things about it I do prefer to the 4Kids dub. One thing being how faithful they are to the titles in the Original Japanese Version, and the titles in the original are often quite cool and mature for a kids' show.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't really have a problem with the 4Kids' dub titles or TPCi's dub titles for BF/DP, and in a way I do admire how creative the dubbers were before BW with the episode titles. Kind of cute, if a bit silly and immature.
 
I'm still bitter "Weekend Warrior" wasn't called "Rock Star In Contest". Seriously, so many other season 9 episode titles are references to game/reality shows, why not that one? Sure, it would possibly be the worst episode title pun ever, but still.

There are merits to both approaches, but as with many things I think the best approach is somewhere in between. The best titles are just clever enough that they fit the episode without coming off as too cheesy.
 
Mr Palpitoad said:
Battling Authority once again. What does that even mean?
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Even if it was a lame attempt for one, that was used as an metaphor to the episode's plot.
Even though Dragonite is battling Mamoswine, it is also having a battle with Iris who's supposed to be in authority over Dragonite, but it (at that point in the arc) refuses to listen to her even though she kept begging for it to do what she said. So Dragonite was battling its opponent and at the same time "battling" Iris (and of course, it dominated both of them).
 
I'm not really a big fan of unimaginative episode titles, but it's still way better than lame nonsensical puns.

DP had some really wacky episode titles, while BW had some really boring episode titles. At least with the boring ones, you can tell a bit what's going to happen in the episode, which is important I think. Though I also think they could've put more thought in some BW titles. Ash and Trip's Third Battle is a good example, and the recently announced Capacia Island UFO is also a boring and unimaginative title, IMO.
 
I'm perfectly content with straightforward localization of Japanese titles (minus the fact that some episodes have near-identical titles, such as the many episodes titled Something something Rival Battle!)

Granted, how many shows use "Stocks and bonds" as the basis for an episode title?
 
Ambipom666 said:
I'm perfectly content with straightforward localization of Japanese titles (minus the fact that some episodes have near-identical titles, such as the many episodes titled Something something Rival Battle!)

Granted, how many shows use "Stocks and bonds" as the basis for an episode title?
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I actually thought that one was pretty unique and clever myself for the dub, at least as far as the pun-based titles go.
 
Yari said:
I definitely missed the rhymes and puns. :(
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THIS. 4kids had great titles! The puns were entertaining. Then TCPI took over and got rid of the puns and the Dub Titles got so uncreative, I stopped wanting to copy Ash saying the title: that's how much of a snore the titles are now. I mean, they're so... unlike the dub. Closer to the Japanese, sure, but, that's boring to me. I like the originality of the 4kids titles--the kind of translating ish version of the Japanese title. But I guess it was worth a try, TCPI. =\
 
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