Why Everyone Thinks The Cult Classic Anime Ghost Stories Bombed In Japan When It Didn’t – /Film

The misinformation comes primarily from a single source: Steven Foster, who served as the ADR director for "Ghost Stories." When it comes to anime dubs, the ADR director's job is to interpret the original Japanese script into another language, such as English. During this process, the ADR director may localize aspects of the show in the new script, meaning certain details are altered to better appeal to specific cultures and regions. An example of this is how Pixar changes things in its films for international audiences. In Foster's case, he enjoyed taking things a step further.

Foster has served as the ADR director for various anime shows, earning a reputation for his habit of making strange changes to the story, tone, and dialogue for the English dubs he oversaw. This habit eventually became so well-known that anime fans began calling these changes "Fosterizations." It's not exactly an affectionate term, but one Foster himself is incredibly proud of, as evidenced by this blurb from the "About" page of his website:

"My liberal take on anime made me famous to millions of people, while making me infamous to a few others, mainly trolls. Now I'm not 100% sure which side is responsible for it, but I...am in the Urban Dictionary! You see, the critics reviewing my shows came up with a word for my "technique" and someone got that word into the Urban Dic. Now 'Fosterize' has a kind of snarky definition and while I believe it should read 'f***ing something up because it wasn't perfectly fine at all, in fact it kinda sucked,' I'm still oddly proud of this weird little accomplishment. And, yes, I did buy a mug with the definition on it."

So there's that. Even before the "Ghost Stories" dub, 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, leading to controversy and fan backlash. Anime YouTuber and self-described "Ghost Stories truther" MercuryFalcon goes over some of these issues and controversies in his own video concerning the strange mythos and legacy of Foster's "Ghost Stories" dub. In it, he mentions two shows that Foster was the ADR director of prior to "Ghost Stories." In both cases, he made major sometimes completely nonsensical changes to the tone and script of each show. One of these shows is the English dub of the anime "Sorcerous Stabber Orphen," which drew criticism and negative reactions from fans who were displeased with the severe change in tone and dialogue compared to that of the Japanese version with English subtitles. These sentiments are summed up in a review of the show from Anime News Network:

"Unfortunately, much is left to be desired with the English track. The dialogue virtually had nothing in common with the Japanese dialogue, and even worse, words were spoken in length where there was complete silence on the Japanese track. The actors themselves performed well, but the voices were badly cast, leaving characters with their personalities badly hacked and betrayed. [...] if you do decide to watch Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, I implore you, stay away from the English track if you value your sanity."

Additionally, in Foster's book "The Last Alias" he describes the radical changes he made to another anime, "Super Milk Chan," going so far as to shoot and splice in his own live-action scenes that had nothing to do with the original show. ADV Films also produced another English dub of "Super Milk Chan" which was free of Foster's additional scenes and altered dialogue. Both dubs were presented to Cartoon Network, and the network chose to air the faithful adaptation of the series, rather than the "Fosterized" version. Clearly, Foster was already doing whatever he wanted with the series under his control before he got his hands on "Ghost Stories," which kind of goes against the implication that he was suddenly given unprecedented power by a studio that was desperate to have someone save their failing show.

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Why Everyone Thinks The Cult Classic Anime Ghost Stories Bombed In Japan When It Didn't - /Film