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Why is dubbed anine frowned upon?
- Thread starter Sayter
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What does this even mean? There is no way that you can claim that anime reaches anything close to a mainstream audience, it just doesn't have that type of reach, and voice acting is not the thing holding it back from that. People don't sit and watch Family Guy or the Simpsons or movies like Frozen because they care about the voice acting, they watch it for the writing and story as well as because these shows are actually on a platform that is marketed and accessible to them. To think that a subtitled anime with the best japanese voice acting available could ever have a chance to truly go mainstream without an english dub is ridiculous.
Aaron-Lagann
Banned
I remember when My Little Pony got a JP dub a bunch of Americans were freaking out about how amazing it was, then a bunch of Japanese people were like "Really?" No idea if it's actually bad, though. The opening was pretty catchy.
They dub Boondocks in japan, I can only imagine how they translate some stuff.
One of the best examples I have is Tomokazu Sugita voicing Kyon in The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi. I could often tell what he was saying purely through the emotion in his voice, it's some of the best voice work I've heard. I don't even want to imagine what the dub sounds like.
Narutos English vo does a fantastic job of portraying emotion https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FHrM-_EYonY
Depends on the person. A lot are poorly done and terrible with voices that sound so exaggerated I can't continue to watch because no one would talk like that normally. There's a lot of ok->good->great dubs. I can see how some might find the dub of say Full Metal Panic grating but it's my person favorite. I think the best dubbed anime(in my opinion of course) is Ouran Host Club. Voices really worked for me for pretty much every character.
Wiktor
Member
There was one anime where I thought I would prefer english dub and it was Supernatural. I thought..hey..it's american IP, one of the tv show's actors is dubbing his character and all. But the end result was horrible. That one actor was actually great, sounding natural and emoting perfectly. But the rest of the english cast was just plain horrible. Having one of the leads actually do good only made it that much obvious just how much the rest of the cast sucked. In the end I watched most of the series in japanese.
Aaron-Lagann
Banned
He's by far the worst part of the Haruhi dub. I think he's Crispin Freeman, and he just sounds like a 30 year old man.
Didn't it have the actors from the show for half of it then switch?
Aaron Strife
Banned
I disagree that native English speakers can't tell when Japanese voice overs are bad. Anyone watch Soul Eater in Japanese? It was the first voice acting gig for the girl who played Maka, and uh, you could really tell.
To be fair they get paid like shit for the most part. Better paying gigs would mean a bigger pool of actors.
AnkiRendan
Member
This is what I'm talking about! Thank you!
I sometimes actually do that to see the differences >.>
For the most part they sound off or just not as good as their eastern counterparts, plus you miss out on the great engrish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ctynPSttxI
Also to add, dubs very often alter the script so dialogue suffers as well and I have to say that from what I've heard dub female voice actors generally just don't fit well with younger roles.
Also to add, dubs very often alter the script so dialogue suffers as well and I have to say that from what I've heard dub female voice actors generally just don't fit well with younger roles.
Aaron-Lagann
Banned
I did that for FUNi One Piece with English dub, official subs and the best of the best fan subs and was furious over the changes.
Nami in JP: "What's going on over there?"
Nami in Eng: "Looks like somebody's rockin' the boat!"
Disgusting.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Both my wife and I lost it when he went "....probably."
FlashbladeGAF
Member
I don't see the big deal, it gets the same point across and doesn't sound as bland.
I can't watch GitS dubbed, Atsuko Tanaka is just too perfect as Motoko. Also I gotta say that Gurren Lagann's dubbing was terrible, the already cringe worthy dialogue was amplified to new heights especially during the climax of the series or when characters would do their big speeches.
Personally, I always go for the original language track whenever I watch a foreign film.
Anime's kind of a special case, though, since I can understand some Japanese. Watching with subs helps me practice listening (in a small way - it's not great practice).
The only time I'll watch a dub is if it's literally the only option, like if only a dubbed version of a Ghibli movie comes out in theaters. Even with the good dubs, I tend to notice lines that seem awkwardly translated from the Japanese.
Anime's kind of a special case, though, since I can understand some Japanese. Watching with subs helps me practice listening (in a small way - it's not great practice).
The only time I'll watch a dub is if it's literally the only option, like if only a dubbed version of a Ghibli movie comes out in theaters. Even with the good dubs, I tend to notice lines that seem awkwardly translated from the Japanese.
Aaron-Lagann
Banned
It's just so needless and corny, it was also during a serious scene, so going to a weird pseudo-referential joke was super out of place.
It really doesn't, changes the tone of a scene completely unless it was already supposed to be comedic.
There are some really good dubs, and a lot of the time if a dub is good I'll end up preferring it to subs just because of convenience.
But there's so much shit. Some things I hate about dubs.
A lot of times there's that shy girl with a really small voice, and almost every damn time I see this character dubbed this shit is grating. For example Hinata dubbed. Just getting down the voice for the character is hard a lot of times, since in japanese that over the top voice is okay but in english it just doesn't work. This is more for action shows, but I also hate hearing those long ass attack names in english, hearing it said in japanese sounds okay (not really but better than english) but hearing "phoenix burning flame dragon uppercut slice!" is just gross. Also hate hate hate whenever they use senpai, san, chan, etc (please atlus, stop it, please).
But all those purists that frown upon every dub should be ignored. There's a lot of fantastic dubs that I'll choose over the original any day.
But there's so much shit. Some things I hate about dubs.
A lot of times there's that shy girl with a really small voice, and almost every damn time I see this character dubbed this shit is grating. For example Hinata dubbed. Just getting down the voice for the character is hard a lot of times, since in japanese that over the top voice is okay but in english it just doesn't work. This is more for action shows, but I also hate hearing those long ass attack names in english, hearing it said in japanese sounds okay (not really but better than english) but hearing "phoenix burning flame dragon uppercut slice!" is just gross. Also hate hate hate whenever they use senpai, san, chan, etc (please atlus, stop it, please).
But all those purists that frown upon every dub should be ignored. There's a lot of fantastic dubs that I'll choose over the original any day.
Wiktor
Member
Nope. Padalecki did the whole show. The only other actor from the show was Ackles and he did his character solely for two last episodes
AnathemicOne
Banned
Because dub is generally shit.
But serious answer (if the above wasn't serious enough for you), the original Japanese VAs have more passion in their roles evident from how they execute their lines, while the dubbed American/English voice overs range from not giving a shit to average at best compared to native American/English works.
But serious answer (if the above wasn't serious enough for you), the original Japanese VAs have more passion in their roles evident from how they execute their lines, while the dubbed American/English voice overs range from not giving a shit to average at best compared to native American/English works.
Steins; Gate dub is superior to the original. Or at least as good in its own way. Hell, I've seen plenty of great dubs for film too. So this is nonsense.
Aaron-Lagann
Banned
That's it. I knew I heard something about one of them not being there for all of it.
The one episode I saw had Dean as a creepy sex predator type guy, which seemed really weird.
This. I watch everything subbed: I really don't like dubs. I grew up watching dubbed movies and cartoons and once I started watching them in their original language (be it English or Japanese or whatever) I just couldn't go back.
Also, some dubs are actually atrocious (especially older ones). The french dub of Hokuto no Ken is notoriously terrible. The show was way too violent for the audience that the studio was targeting so it was heavily censored. They didn't even do that well, the voice actors would just improvise some stuff on the spot. It makes for hilarious dialogues but it just destroys what the show's about.
So a line that is done after a few seconds ruin the entire dub? I'm sorry having preferences is one but a lot of this seems like nit picking and over reacting to me.
Literally all I had to do was check the most recently uploaded video on Funimation's Youtube channel.
nsfw
Well, my problem with the english dub of the game Drakengard 3 really encompasses this. They tried very hard, and it's a great dub, but the english dub of Zero is a different character from the Japanese one.
Zero in JP comes across as disinterested and like she just wants to take the easiest route to get to what she wants. She is not necessarily angry all the time, she just doesn't have time for your bullshit. For example, a situation where a character is talking, she just wants to kill them so she doesn't have to put up with them anymore and move on.
In the ENG dub, they interpreted her character as a constantly angry, unlikable ass that just wants to kill everyone. In that version, that situation I mentioned before is interpreted as her being angry and bitchy, and the VA tries her hardest to get this particular attitude across.
Hell, I thought that dub was good, and even with a good dub shit like this happens. I want to experience characters as they were intended, not an 'interpretation' that ends up characterizing someone completely differently than they were meant to be viewed.
Thankfully I preordered the game so I got to play it with JP voices without having to shell out extra, and saw the differences for myself.
Zero in JP comes across as disinterested and like she just wants to take the easiest route to get to what she wants. She is not necessarily angry all the time, she just doesn't have time for your bullshit. For example, a situation where a character is talking, she just wants to kill them so she doesn't have to put up with them anymore and move on.
In the ENG dub, they interpreted her character as a constantly angry, unlikable ass that just wants to kill everyone. In that version, that situation I mentioned before is interpreted as her being angry and bitchy, and the VA tries her hardest to get this particular attitude across.
Hell, I thought that dub was good, and even with a good dub shit like this happens. I want to experience characters as they were intended, not an 'interpretation' that ends up characterizing someone completely differently than they were meant to be viewed.
Thankfully I preordered the game so I got to play it with JP voices without having to shell out extra, and saw the differences for myself.
This not only looks but sounds like a hentai ova, dubbing quality included of course.
Not available in my country. :l
Kitsunebaby
Member
Because I would generally prefer to know what the original dialogue is. The translations often end up getting changed up a bit in the dub to to fit better, and sometimes the changes dramatically affect my understanding of a certain character/relationship.
There're some good dubs out there but I usually prefer subs.
There're some good dubs out there but I usually prefer subs.
Brotherhood and bebop, as likely everyone else, are two i cannot watch subbed.
Now, something like Fate/Zero i wouldnt dare watch dubbed, or psycho-pass.
Idk, for the most part it varies but there's usually this artificial feeling in a dub IDK what it is, but with sub its less of an artifical feeling, if no artificial feeling at all.
Psycho-Pass Sub is damnnn good btw.
Now, something like Fate/Zero i wouldnt dare watch dubbed, or psycho-pass.
Idk, for the most part it varies but there's usually this artificial feeling in a dub IDK what it is, but with sub its less of an artifical feeling, if no artificial feeling at all.
Psycho-Pass Sub is damnnn good btw.
machemachete
Banned
I blame openings like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ1NcxAZUYk
DURAGON BORU ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ1NcxAZUYk
DURAGON BORU ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
DJ_Lae
Member
I've always wondered but never had it confirmed that all anime is animated prior to any voicework done. I recall seeing a behind the scenes on a Ghibli movie where the actor was recording their lines to a yet-to-be-coloured scene of their character.
It all made sense to me at that point, as even the most well done stuff always seems to have a bit of a disconnect between mouths and voices, even with the original Japanese dialog. Part of it might also be due to the more simplified mouth movements, too, where a lot of western animation over-enunciates word pronounciation. You also get some extra personality in that the animation is done after the voices.
But maybe most anime is recorded first, I dunno. There's certainly a wide range of quality in English dubs, which is probably my main reason for avoiding it in some cases. Others, like Cowboy Bebop or Ghibli's stuff, either just plain works better or has more care taken to it. I guess Ghibli benefits from Disney there.
There are also cases where I just can't take the female characters in the Japanese version, there's always one shrill voice that sounds like needles in my ears.
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