The misinformation comes mainly from one source: Steven Foster, who was ADR director for “Ghost Stories”. When it comes to anime voice acting, the ADR director’s job is to interpret the original Japanese script into another language, such as English. During this process, the ADR director can locate aspects of the show in the new storyline, which means some details are changed to better appeal to specific cultures and regions. An example of this is the way Pixar changes things in their films for international audiences. In Foster’s case, he liked to go further.
Foster served as ADR director for various anime shows, building a reputation for his habit of making strange changes to the story, tone, and dialogue of the English dubs he oversaw. This habit eventually became so well known that anime fans began to call these changes “Fosterizations”. It’s not exactly a flirty term, but one Foster himself is incredibly proud, as evidenced by this blurb from the “About” page of his site:
“My liberal approach to anime made me famous with millions of people, while also making me infamous with a few others, mostly trolls. Now I’m not 100% sure which side is responsible for it. , but I’m … in the Urban Dictionary! See, the critics who were looking at my shows found a word for my “technique” and someone put that word in the Urban Dic. Now “To favor’ has sort of a sarcastic definition and although I think it should read “f *** ing something because it was not perfectly well at all, in fact it’s a bit sucked, ‘I’m still strangely proud of this weird little accomplishment. And, yes, I bought a mug with the definition on it. “
So there is that. Even before the dubbing of “Ghost Stories,” Stephen was already taking some interesting liberties with the anime shows he was tasked with dubbing, sometimes even going so far as to change things without the consent of the original owners, which sparked controversy and a backlash from fans. The YouTuber anime and self-proclaimed “Truth of Ghost Stories” MercuryFalcon reviews some of these issues and controversies in his own video regarding the bizarre myth and legacy of Foster’s “Ghost Stories” dub. In it, he mentions two shows of which Foster was the ADR director before “Ghost Stories”. Either way, he made major – sometimes completely absurd – changes to the tone and script of each show. One of those shows is the English dub for the anime “Sorcerous Stabber Orphen”, which drew criticism and negative reactions from fans unhappy with the severe change in tone and dialogue from that of the Japanese version with English subtitles. These sentiments are summed up in a review of the show Anime news network:
“Unfortunately, there is still a lot to be desired with the English track. The dialogue had virtually nothing in common with the Japanese dialogue, and worse yet, the words were spoken long while there was complete silence on the Japanese track. The actors themselves performed well, but the voices were poorly expressed, leaving characters with their personalities poorly hacked and betrayed. […] if you decide to watch Sorcerer Stabber Orphene, I beg you, stay away from the English track if you value your sanity. “
Additionally, in Foster’s book “The Last Alias” he describes the drastic changes he made to another anime, “Super Milk Chan”, going so far as to shoot and paste into his own action scenes. real that had nothing to do with the original. Pin up. ADV Films also produced another English dub of “Super Milk Chan” which was free of additional Foster scenes and altered dialogue. Both dubs were featured on Cartoon Network, and the network chose to broadcast the faithful adaptation of the series, rather than the “Fosterized” version. Obviously, Foster was already doing what he wanted with the series under his control. before he got his hands on “Ghost Stories,” which sort of flies in the face of the implication that a studio suddenly gave him unprecedented power by a studio that desperately wanted someone to save their show. failing.
