[Syca]

Ah yes the sub or dup p you kinda get that alot when it tells you one word and then another in translation.

@ spectre I agree with you. It really does bother me when they say the names or stuff in Japanese and it don't sound right. THat's why for now on when I buy anime off of ebay they Japanese version where the american or canadain companies don't touch them.

Houshi sama ------- Miroku....... has anybody noticed that from InuYasha?

[Commander 598]

I guess it would not be so bad if Kazuma Kuwabara did not sound like a complete retard.

I could see how that might be a problem, if he ever managed to find something intelligent to say.


My biggest problem with any of them, is that Japanese VA's all seem to sound the same. There is little difference between Generic Old Geaser #1 and Generic Old Geaser #2, much in the same way that there isn't much difference between Generic Female Main Character #1 and Generic Female Main Character #2.
There are only rare instances when this doesn't happen. I think its rarer in older anime though...

Another is bad choices. Fifteen year old Edward Elric sounds like a girl in the Japanese version of FMA. It's probably because he's voiced by one...

You can probably tell my stance on this issue.

[InsaneSith]

Most male characters under the age of 18 are voiced by women. Hell, even some elderly male characters are voiced by women.

[spectre]

To fairly good effect in many cases (Shinji from NGE I thought was done very well...)

[Lynk Former]

This is definitely true... but I think seiyuu are usually more dynamic with their different voice acting roles, whereas most English dub voice actors will use the same gosh darn voice for every character... I mean, Sumomo from Chobits was played by the same seiyuu who did Syaoran in Cardcaptor Sakura =P I honestly had no idea until I saw the credits.

Again, you can get a lot of english voice actors who are also dynamic with their voices just as you can get a lot of japanese seiyuu's who sound the same with everything they do. It's too wide a field of actors to point out one or two and say "this is how it is."

I think a huge gripe I have is how young children in anime are usually given these scary adult voices when dubbed. It just doesn't make any sense... Like, why does "Ash Ketchum" in Pokemon sound like a chain smoker? The entire cast of Digimon sounded like 35-year-olds - the 8-year-old "Kari Kamiya" sounded like someone's mom. Y'know?? It just doesn't make any sense...

Pokemon and Digimon were dubbed by 4Kids and Saban, they don't count XD lol. The irony is that the voice actors themselves aren't bad. The cast of Pokemon were also in Kare Kano (His and Her Circumstances) and they absolutely ROCKED. But dub studios actually do use children when they get the chance. Again I point to ROD the TV. The voice of Anita King was 12-13 years old when she recorded her role and she was one of the highlights of the show. But she wasn't the only child casted in the show, there were A LOT of them and they all did a wonderful job.
But yeah, Ash does sound pretty bad in the english version of Pokemon, buut mark my words, anyone who says that Veronic Taylor (voice of Ash) is a bad actor will feel my wrath cause ROCKS as Yukino in Kare Kano. I will defend her till the very end and beyond. *nods*


@ Rebel: I hear ya. Just look at Azumanga Daioh, GREAT anime, so damn funny... my nieces didn't think so. Why? Too Japanese for them. While they enjoyed ROD the TV which has very little Japanese cultural reference, they just couldn't grasp Azumanga Daioh.

@ Digital Dreamer: Maybe if you actually listened to a dub that everyone considers to be a quality dub... like, say Last Exile, or RahXephon, or Fullmetal Alchemist. By your last few posts you seem to pick all of the extremely bad english audios which NO ONE likes.

Which reminds me, damn Aaron Dismuke, who plays Al in FMA, is a champ. That kid has some serious talent and the overall english audio for FMA has earned FUNimation a hellova lot of respect from me.

Oh and Gillian Anderson and Claire Danes were great in Mononoke-hime, but Billy Bob... he should've been shot before he was let anywhere near that movie. I'm sorry, he just sucked, he was completely out of place.

but I'll notice crummy acting way more in english.

QUOTED FOR EMPHASIS. This is what most people suffer from. The fact that they're more familiar with english therefore they're able to spot imperfections in the acting than with a foreign language.


As for the Japanese names spoke in English, the only time it bugs me is when it's pronounced incorrectly. For example, Koaru in Samurai X: Reflection prounounced "Sanosuke" incorrectly and in Trust and Betrayal... It's one of my favourite english audios, but they pronounced Tomoe incorrectly lol. Other than a few moments like that I find a lot of modern english audios are very true to how a Japanese name should sound.

However on the flipside... English names said by Japanese people... I don't need to say anymore.

[Shannon]

Again, you can get a lot of english voice actors who are also dynamic with their voices just as you can get a lot of japanese seiyuu's who sound the same with everything they do. It's too wide a field of actors to point out one or two and say "this is how it is."

Well, it is. ._. English dubs will never be as good as the Japanese, imho. They have to time their speech according to lip movements, so they can't really say it how it would sound good in English, so a lot of the time the speech is just... blah. There's also the big part about English in general, about how we don't have a formal way of speaking like almost every other language, so a lot easily gets lost in translation!

Pokemon and Digimon were dubbed by 4Kids and Saban, they don't count XD lol. The irony is that the voice actors themselves aren't bad. The cast of Pokemon were also in Kare Kano (His and Her Circumstances) and they absolutely ROCKED. But dub studios actually do use children when they get the chance. Again I point to ROD the TV. The voice of Anita King was 12-13 years old when she recorded her role and she was one of the highlights of the show. But she wasn't the only child casted in the show, there were A LOT of them and they all did a wonderful job.
But yeah, Ash does sound pretty bad in the english version of Pokemon, buut mark my words, anyone who says that Veronic Taylor (voice of Ash) is a bad actor will feel my wrath cause ROCKS as Yukino in Kare Kano. I will defend her till the very end and beyond. *nods*

Then look at every other dub in history... Momiji went from absolutely CUTE in Furuba to... sounding like a 15-year-old girl. A lot of the time, I feel like maybe the English voice directors don't *get* the character, or maybe there isn't a wide enough range of voice actors out there to find that 'perfect' fit for roles. But, yeah, I've never really heard a dub I liked. Chi in Chobits sounds like a -retard- in the dub, not a cute little girl. Like, she just sounds plain stupid, like IQ -10.

Actually, I think one dub voice I semi-liked was the one picked out for Kero-chan in the second Cardcaptor Sakura movie. That was pretty right on, but like I mentioned with the language barrier stuff.. when Kero-chan can't say "Wai! Wai!" like a little kid whenever food is involved, I weep inside.

And for kid voice actors... rofl. Look at the voice actors casted for Syaoran and Sakura by KidsWB. I believe they were like 12 or 13 at the time...

http://v1.nelvana.com/cardcaptors/html/m..._14_T1.mov
Mind you, that isn't the Kero-chan I was talking about earlier

I try to listen to dub voices on DVDs, but they're never up to par with the original Japanese.. I guess most of this 'prejudice', if you want to call it that, is in the fact that I'm really familiar with the mannerisms and um... language xD so it just doesn't get better than that for me!

[Analog]

I have a feeling this thread will cause a holy war one day.

We must protect this mosque!!!!

[Rebel]

Well, it is. ._. English dubs will never be as good as the Japanese, imho. They have to time their speech according to lip movements, so they can't really say it how it would sound good in English, so a lot of the time the speech is just... blah. There's also the big part about English in general, about how we don't have a formal way of speaking like almost every other language, so a lot easily gets lost in translation!

are you kidding? Sure, you dont hear formal speech in your every day travels, but there is a correct way to speak formally in english. It accounts for useing lots of big words and sounds like your quoting from a great text. But there is a formal way to speak in english.

However, what you point out is not the lack of a formal speech, but the lack of formal words. Much of english is based on emphasis and the general way you SAY the word. We have accented letters and such things that change the way one word comes out, and how the listener interprets that word.

This differs from Japanese because japanese actually HAS formal words. While there is some letter and character emphasis, there are few languages that compare to the pronunciatory complexity of English(say that 3 times fast).

In addition to this Japanese is a gernally faster spoken language, it lacks alot of little things that English retains(such as "I" "you" and "we") which are included in the version of the word you choose. So while the Japanese can fit very "correct" and formal speech into a given frame of mouth movements, English often had to "common" english in order to fit it inot the same amount of time. Formal english is even slower, due to it relying greatly on pronunciation.

Furthermore, words are not timed to lip movements. In older animes, yes, they attempted to flatly redub something in another language. now the actual frames are extended, shortened and digitally altered to math the english voice more correctly. However, I have seen some anime's where even Japanese does not fit the mouth movements. it's as though the mouth was drawn to fit a hybid of timing between English an japanese.

Then look at every other dub in history... Momiji went from absolutely CUTE in Furuba to... sounding like a 15-year-old girl. A lot of the time, I feel like maybe the English voice directors don't *get* the character, or maybe there isn't a wide enough range of voice actors out there to find that 'perfect' fit for roles. But, yeah, I've never really heard a dub I liked. Chi in Chobits sounds like a -retard- in the dub, not a cute little girl. Like, she just sounds plain stupid, like IQ -10.

Actually, I think one dub voice I semi-liked was the one picked out for Kero-chan in the second Cardcaptor Sakura movie. That was pretty right on, but like I mentioned with the language barrier stuff.. when Kero-chan can't say "Wai! Wai!" like a little kid whenever food is involved, I weep inside.

And for kid voice actors... rofl. Look at the voice actors casted for Syaoran and Sakura by KidsWB. I believe they were like 12 or 13 at the time...

http://v1.nelvana.com/cardcaptors/html/m..._14_T1.mov
Mind you, that isn't the Kero-chan I was talking about earlier

I try to listen to dub voices on DVDs, but they're never up to par with the original Japanese.. I guess most of this 'prejudice', if you want to call it that, is in the fact that I'm really familiar with the mannerisms and um... language xD so it just doesn't get better than that for me!

I must, for the record state that the anime's you refrence here are dubbed by companies who are more concered with pumping out LOTS of anime and not interested in ensuring high quality in their dubs. EX: they look at the bottom line(profits) and not the viewer enjoyment.

And please, just refrain from watching KidsWB. It will in the end fry your brain.

[Lynk Former]

Well, it is. ._. English dubs will never be as good as the Japanese, imho. They have to time their speech according to lip movements, so they can't really say it how it would sound good in English, so a lot of the time the speech is just... blah. There's also the big part about English in general, about how we don't have a formal way of speaking like almost every other language, so a lot easily gets lost in translation!

I believe English dubs will never be the SAME as the original, never be as good? That's another thing entirely because I've heard one or two English audios that are very much better than the Japanese and it's because they weren't the same as the original that allowed them to be better.

The English and Japanese audios are recorded the same way (almost), the full animation is done first and then the actors come in to record from that. The big difference is that the Japanese do it the radio drama way where they all get in a big recording room together while the English actors do things separately unless there is an exchange between two characters that needs two of them to be there at the same time. I don't understand this thing you have about timing because I've seen plenty of animes where the Japanese cast has made some blatent timing errors which were left in. Card Captor Sakura being one of them XD

But I do agree on one thing, English as a language doesn't sound as good as Japanese, just as I find that Hindi to me doesn't sound as good as English.

Furthermore, words are not timed to lip movements. In older animes, yes, they attempted to flatly redub something in another language. now the actual frames are extended, shortened and digitally altered to math the english voice more correctly. However, I have seen some anime's where even Japanese does not fit the mouth movements. it's as though the mouth was drawn to fit a hybid of timing between English an japanese.

Actually they don't do that anymore, altering the frames I mean. They did it for the VHS releases of animes and mainstream animes such as Pokemon still do it, but that's because there isn't any Japanese version included in Pokemon DVDs. All animes with a English and Japanese version included in the DVD remain untouched, everything is done the oldfashioned way... retakes.

Then look at every other dub in history... Momiji went from absolutely CUTE in Furuba to... sounding like a 15-year-old girl. A lot of the time, I feel like maybe the English voice directors don't *get* the character, or maybe there isn't a wide enough range of voice actors out there to find that 'perfect' fit for roles. But, yeah, I've never really heard a dub I liked. Chi in Chobits sounds like a -retard- in the dub, not a cute little girl. Like, she just sounds plain stupid, like IQ -10.

I find it surprising that you're picking out Fruits Basket of all things as an example of a bad English audio. I've heard from those who are very critical of English audios that it's actually got a very good English version. As for Chobits, I have no complaints about either the Japanese or English, in fact both were done wonderfully. The performance that Rie Tanaka gave and the performance that Michelle Ruff gave were different, there's no doubting that. But when I look at it, I find that they're both just interpretations of this character that originally doesn't have a voice, but does have a created personality. These two voices are both Chii, but they are at different levels of her personality.

Actually, I think one dub voice I semi-liked was the one picked out for Kero-chan in the second Cardcaptor Sakura movie. That was pretty right on, but like I mentioned with the language barrier stuff.. when Kero-chan can't say "Wai! Wai!" like a little kid whenever food is involved, I weep inside.

And for kid voice actors... rofl. Look at the voice actors casted for Syaoran and Sakura by KidsWB. I believe they were like 12 or 13 at the time...

http://v1.nelvana.com/cardcaptors/ht...s/CC_14_T1.mov
Mind you, that isn't the Kero-chan I was talking about earlier

And as for mentioning KidsWB, Nelvana, 4Kids and Saban... NO ONE likes the English audios created by those companies. They shouldn't even be allowed to breath near those animes let alone touch them.

I know the child voice actors for Cardcaptors sucked badly, but I have to ask, have you actually listened to the English audio of ROD the TV and heard Aaron Dismuke in Fullmetal Alchemist?

And please, just refrain from watching KidsWB. It will in the end fry your brain.

Listen to Rebel, he'll save your life one day lol

I try to listen to dub voices on DVDs, but they're never up to par with the original Japanese.. I guess most of this 'prejudice', if you want to call it that, is in the fact that I'm really familiar with the mannerisms and um... language xD so it just doesn't get better than that for me!

In the end I really do understand where you're coming from since I agree that the English audios will never sound the same as the Japanese and I totally agree with you on that level. On the other hand, I don't agree when someone says so simply that all English audios will never be good simply because it's never going to sound the same.

I have a feeling this thread will cause a holy war one day.

You should've been there when the geeks in LF were arguing over whether Anakin Skywalker actually brought balance to the Force or not.... This on the other hand must be done simply because there are a lot of talented people out there being taken for granted.

[Rebel]

Actually they don't do that anymore, altering the frames I mean. They did it for the VHS releases of animes and mainstream animes such as Pokemon still do it, but that's because there isn't any Japanese version included in Pokemon DVDs. All animes with a English and Japanese version included in the DVD remain untouched, everything is done the oldfashioned way... retakes.

really? wow, I would think they would HAVE to to do it. Or use craptacular slang.

[Lynk Former]

Yeah I know, but with certain animes you get to take a look behind the scenes with how things are actually done and there is a lot of effort put to match everything up. It is hard to believe because a lot of animes in recent years have the English voices matching the mouth movements freakishly well but I guess it's just years of exprrience finally building up to a point where things are really getting good.

[Rebel]

Yeah I know, but with certain animes you get to take a look behind the scenes with how things are actually done and there is a lot of effort put to match everything up. It is hard to believe because a lot of animes in recent years have the English voices matching the mouth movements freakishly well but I guess it's just years of exprrience finally building up to a point where things are really getting good.

I really thinkg alot of newer animes are "innaccurately timed" from the beginning, even with the Japanese dub. Just so that dubbing from either side matches and dosent match enough to they look rightish.

[Lynk Former]

Really? I haven't seen any newer animes where the Japanese was off sync.

[Rebel]

Really? I haven't seen any newer animes where the Japanese was off sync.

I think it might have been Seed or Seed Destiny...I havent watched any subbed anime aside from those and Zeta Gunda in a while....and Zeta is too old to have bad original dubbing(it has pretty good english dub too).

[Lynk Former]

Oh, that explains it then.

[harutomo]

Dub Because i hate readying subtitles it take to long

[Exofluke]

I go Dub all the time if I can. Dub makes it easier to watch fast anime. lol, that really makes no sense until I give my example: FOOLY COOLY.

Reading what their saying in Sub then having to go back to see what happend because everything is going so fast. Like when they have those Manga splash moments in fooly cooly. To fast to catch all the images after I read what they just said. Maybe I'm a slow reader

Another point though. I love hearing what voice actors they get for anime. Like hearing spikes voice when watching samurai champloo. YES!

[kyubichan]

I prefer dubs ONLY if locally done. Our local dubbers are fairly good, probably because the translations match the original Japanese closely, unlike English which is entirely different.

Otherwise, I go for subs, since I read fast and can focus on the whole screen even while reading.

[Lord Enigma]

I usually prefer subs due to the fact that I can get a better feel of the anime when watching it with the original voice acting, and since I can't understand japanese, I'd go for fansubs... Also, I think that some anime can be understood better with the presence of subs... All the culture references and all, as well as some puns...

What bothers me about dubs is that at times the dubbed voices may not be accurately synchronized with the visuals of the series itself... Another peeve I get from dubs is that sometimes the voice dubs may not be well suited for the character to be dubbed...

I can talk all day, but I guess this'll do...

[kyubichan]

>.> Right, that too. The cultural references and injokes thingie. Dubbed stuff don't explain them.

[Chimasterwang]

I tend to watch subs due to YouTube XD
Ill probibly watch Evangelion and GiTS in English first when i get them though =P

[Rebel]

>.> Right, that too. The cultural references and injokes thingie. Dubbed stuff don't explain them.

because it would take half an hour to explain why a joke about some shrine and some warlord is funny.

[Lynk Former]

@ kyubi: That's a big call to make, most English dubs choose to follow the Japanese EXACTLY to the letter too you know. There are actually very few English dubs that don't match exactly anymore, the ones that are like this are back in the past or are the uber popular mainstream ones such as One Piece...

[Kiai]

I guess I'm a person who really doesn't care. I love dubs because it takes me eyes off the readin, but I love subs because alot of times it saves the acting and feeling. Both have their qualities, and I'll keep favoring both equally.

[kyubichan]

@Lynk

I didn't mean translations meanings, but when they say them. Our language is also based on syllabication, like Japanese, unlike English that is >.> Ah see the example:

AOI - in both Japanese and Filipino, we'd read this as "a-o-i", some English speakers would read it as "A-wi".

-_- I hope I explained that well...somehow.

@Rebel

Yeah, that is why I go for subs 'coz they can just write little captions somewhere there.

[Black Howling]

Always a dubber for me and always will be

[Lynk Former]

@ kyub: Oh, well the way you phrased it kinda suggested that it wasn't good cause it was english XD lol

[Eva]

People tend to group a bad script with bad voice acting. Voice acting usually a preference, there's bad voice acting, like CCS and how they made the voices completely change the characters' personality. Then there's bad scripting. Bad translation script and bad voice acting tend to get group together.

[Lynk Former]

And classifying a bad translation is extremely difficult sometimes.

[Stormfalcon]

I actually prefer the dubbing like Black!

In some animes, the Dub is actually pretty good. Take Laura
Bailey in Blue Gender and FMA for example. She was good at emphesizing
various emotions of her characters.

In Bible black, though, the Dubbing absolutely sucks! Someone on
youtube even thought it sounded like someone auditioning for Sesame Street.
Plus, the babes sound like really old women.

Here's a sample of what I mean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVYhi5CDq...ed&search=

[Lynk Former]

lol Bible Black... there's a very good reason why the voice acting sucks in Bible Black, it's cause no legitimate voice actor wants anything to do with that end of the spectrum.

[Stormfalcon]

lol Bible Black... there's a very good reason why the voice acting sucks in Bible Black, it's cause no legitimate voice actor wants anything to do with that end of the spectrum.

There must have been a lack of enthusiasm for that anime.

Anyway, Blue Gender is one of the best dubs that I've heard in a while.
Behind FMA that is.

[Lynk Former]

Probably cause it's a hentai...

Speaking of which, in Mezzo Forte they couldn't get the girl playing the chick to do the sex scenes so they cast some porn 'actor' to do the voice for those parts...

[Stormfalcon]

Probably cause it's a hentai...

Speaking of which, in Mezzo Forte they couldn't get the girl playing the chick to do the sex scenes so they cast some porn 'actor' to do the voice for those parts...

LMAO, now that's funny. I can just picture them talking normally, then
the director says, "Okay, cut! Bring in PORN STAR! Remember, you're having orgasm with this guy, okay? Okay, and...ACTION!"

"Oh....oh...."

Director: "Yeah, this bitch has got it down." XD

[Scar da Kookee]

well FMA sounds right to me, speaking of when falcon mentioned about it upthread, becuase if you think about it the characters themselves are supposed to be speaking english or at least a eurpoean-native (english,german,french, etc.) language anyway mainly by the geolocation of where the anime takes place...


but thats just my opinion ^_^

[GabeXorn]

I actually prefer the dubbing like Black!

In some animes, the Dub is actually pretty good. Take Laura
Bailey in Blue Gender and FMA for example. She was good at emphesizing
various emotions of her characters.

In Bible black, though, the Dubbing absolutely sucks! Someone on
youtube even thought it sounded like someone auditioning for Sesame Street.
Plus, the babes sound like really old women.

Here's a sample of what I mean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVYhi5CDq...ed&search=

So we have a Sesame Street reject, an old lady and a guy who sounds like they cut and paste his speech from something and speaks like that guy from "All Your Base Are Belong To Us".

Who put this together?

[Chimasterwang]

What you say?
Lol that realy was a bad dub when i watched Bible Black i watched it subbed

[Stormfalcon]

Here's a non-anime dub that is AWESOME!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4SmBFGqenE

[Morpheus]

I'm in the dub/sub camp. I could care less which version I watch as long as its not horribly bad on either version.

[milo]

I just watch whatever I can get, but I prefer dubs.