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Macekre: Difference between revisions
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A strongly held opinion that a [[Cut and Paste Translation]] of an [[Anime]] is a mockery of the original work.
Pronounced similarly to "massacre", the term was coined by anime fans from the name of the late producer/writer [[wikipedia:Carl Macek|Carl Macek]], whose early "free adaptations" of [[Anime]] frequently bore little or no resemblance to the original Japanese stories. His usual procedure was to dispose of the original script entirely, and write his own from scratch—but this was no ''[[Samurai Pizza Cats]]''. Often he would combine two or more unrelated series simply in order to have enough episodes to fulfill a syndication deal. He is particularly reviled for the seemingly xenophobic ruthlessness with which he purged any hint of Japanese culture—what he euphemistically called "ethnic gestures"—from the series which he adapted. (Macek later claimed that many of these changes, including his having to splice together three different series to create ''Robotech'', were a case of [[Executive Meddling]]; he was required to force the show to fit syndication-length guidelines, without having complete scripts for any of them, while still making it compelling enough to [[Merchandise-Driven|sell the accompanying toy lines]]. Trying to tie the three shows together by giving them a unified script was his attempt at meeting these conditions; obviously, this didn't work as well as he hoped.)
Fans (with some justification) feel that this practice is disrespectful to the creators, as the series is being treated as a pure marketing product rather really "getting" the draw. The practice has fortunately dwindled since the eighties because of the utter hatred modern fans hold for it, as well as the greater accessibility to the original product (although [[Dub-Induced Plot Hole|consistency can flounder]] at times). The importing companies have hopefully realized that the [[Widget Series|quirks]] were what attracted many viewers in the first place. The increasing number of import companies born from fan groups (like [[ADV Films]]) may also have something to do with it. The practice has also largely faded, however, because ironically doing things like what Macek did—replacing whole scripts and renaming whole casts, writing entirely new musical scores, having to spend days editing and re-cutting a show—is actually ''significantly more expensive'' and time-consuming than a straight dub, especially now that the original source music and the like can be stored digitally and easily layered back into an English track. With the margins of the Western anime market being fairly tight, it simply makes more sense to give the fans what they want.
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