The List

8 Horrible Anime Dub Opening Songs

There once was a magical time in Anime Dub history where North American anime licensors dubbed over Japanese opening and ending songs, regardless to whether the show was heading to American television or not. The American audience can look back at this time period with horror and bemusement, as actors with little to no singing experience did their best to match the original tempo with hammy translated lyrics. If that seemed too much, the opening was entirely reinvented for a techno-pop or rap number to make it more "current." These eight songs represent the very worst the English anime song genre has to offer.

8. Pokémon: Destiny Deoxys to sing Mew Mew Power opener "Team Up!" The song is pretty cheesy, with phrases like "if we band together like birds of a feather, we'll be friends forever!" To Sharp's credit, the song is the type of things little girls will eat up, but older magical girl fans are likely to hold their nose.

You can watch the English dub opening here.

7. Escaflowne (Yōko Kanno's score with techno themes, someone had a heyday with Apple Final Cut Pro, mashing every overlay in the program on the opening footage. The only thing that keeps the song from being further down the list is that whoever worked on the theme at least had enough sense to keep a "fantasy" feel to it, at least on top of the bad techno beat.

You can watch the English dub opening here.

6. Kristine Sa's English version of "Sakura Kiss" for Ouran High School Host Club. My opinion didn't change after listening to the track, which falls flat for a number of reasons. Half the time you can't hear what Sa is saying, and when you can hear her, you can't understand her because of the song's pacing. She doesn't sound particularly energetic either way.

You can watch the English dub opening here.

5. Pokémon, but Pokémon got an iconic theme. Monster Rancher got shafted.

You can watch the English dub opening here.

4. Ronin Warriors (Thundercats. In the background, the audience gets the chanting theme "Ronin War'yas!" and other sing-song narrating reminiscent of those radio "Real Men of Genius" Bud Light radio ads.

You can watch the English dub opening here.

3. Funimation took over the series.

You can watch the English dub opening here.

2. Cardcaptors (Yu-Gi-Oh!

You can watch the English dub opening here.

1. Media Blasters from using her for all of their covers in the English dub of Magic Knight Rayearth. "Unyielding Wish" is one of the most grating things I've ever had the unfortunate task of listening to, and her cover of "Still Embracing Light and Dark" isn't any better. Both songs sound like they were performed by one of the original My Little Pony characters. That might actually make either one better. Someone make a video of that.

You can watch the English dub opening here.

Watch this space for a new poll next week!

---

Alright everybody, see you all next week! I look forward to your input in the comments and feel free to follow me on [email protected].