[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.