Comments on: On English Dubs

By: BrendantheJedi

BrendantheJedi — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:56:35 +0000

I still watch Dubs on occasion, out of curiosity mostly. Personally Dub quality usually doesn’t phase me that much, unless if it a series I’m really fricken into, the Japanese version includes seyiuu I care about (Tomokazu Seki, Aya Hirano, Shuchi Ikeda, etc). When given the choice of Japanese vs English, I’ll usually choose the Japanese version, but my tolerence for dub is higher than most sub fans.

Now the LS dub trailer half pisses me off and half doesn’t. Some of the voices I actually approve, in fact I would have demanded that they use Wendee Lee for Konota since she voiced Haruhi in the Haruhi dub (same goes with Sam Riegal voice Minoru Shirashi), however Tsukasa doesn’t sound childish enough, and Miyuki doesn’t sound smart or moe enough. Kagami’s Dub VA isn’t that bad, but I shudder to think at what they’ll do with Akira or the Anime Tencho. I also shudder at what they’ll probably do with the ending themes, if the treatment of the “God Knows” scene in the Haruhi Dub may be used a precedent.

By: Link

Link — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 18:24:42 +0000

For some reason, once I was conscious that anime was Japanese (past my very early Sailor Moon days, which don’t count), English dubs never sounded right to me. Except for Cowboy Bebop.

By: kojioe

kojioe — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:59:47 +0000

Oh, yeah, and you just HAD to put Hazuki at the top there. Makes me want to give Tsukuyomi a second try just because Hazuki is so damn cute. orz

By: kojioe

kojioe — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:56:08 +0000

I briefly read over your story only to realize that we basically have the same exact story. Whoa. But my conversion from dubs to just subs happened 5 years earlier during the time Love Hina was coming out on DVD. lol I was so tired of waiting for the next DVD to come out I just decided to download the fansubs. The rest is history.

By: GuardMonkey10

GuardMonkey10 — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 14:44:32 +0000

This is a subject I have a LOT of experience on. I got into anime just a year or two before it started to really leak into our mainstream culture. I had my go with some subs at a local video store and I was hooked. But subs cost some cash back then. I spent $35 usd to buy a 35 minute episode of Bubble Gum Crisis, Gunbuster was a better deal at 1 hour. The most dubbed anime was out there courtesy of Streamline pictures, and they had the best prices $20 a tape. I admit to liking subs better by then, but dubs were so much cheaper. Then bits of anime started leaking onto TV. I remember when Sailor Moon first came on USA! I watched it because it was free anime! I taped Robot Carnival and Vampire TV off TBS. I bought all of Evangelion dubbed one by one, as they were coming out. I also sent money to fansubbers and got my anime by mail order, though that was not so many. It was really hard to get anime back then and we took what we could get. It is wonderful to get decent subs for just the monthy cost of high speed internet. I only knock dubs that are just horrible. Like escaflowne on FOX or the bubblegum crisis dubs. Those still fill me with loathing. I remember the lean times kids. Just because its dubbed doesn’t mean its horrid. Besides, 4 year old nieces can’t really read subtitles on Totoro.

By: Dop

Dop — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 10:38:57 +0000

There’s a reference in Lucky Star to how odd it is when the anime voice cast is different to the drama CDs. It would be quite funny if they changed that line in the dub to say how weird it is because the dubbed version sounds so different from the original Japanese.

I usually watch subs. Sometimes I’ll play a game of ‘How long can I watch the dubbed version before it hurts my ears’.

quite often that’s not very long.

By: IcyStorm

IcyStorm — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 07:43:33 +0000

I just usually find the English dubs annoying because the voices don’t seem to match the characters and… the actual voices are annoying themselves, not necessarily because that it doesn’t compare to the original Japanese audio.

By: Calawain

Calawain — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 07:29:02 +0000

I pretty much agree with what you said and followed nearly the same exact road to otakudom as you (except Air wasn’t what I watched at the start hah). Just kinda shows that dubs are necessary to a degree for really popular shows because people just starting out wont want subs. So if they want to add fans they kinda need it, however it’s not like they need it on a show that’s niche. That being said I think the Lucky Star dub is terrible but that’s because I’m a rabid KyoAni fanboi and have watched the TV version like 4 times through.

By: Generic_Mistake

Generic_Mistake — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 07:03:22 +0000

Geh. I just went back and read my comment and saw how horribly it was written. All tho I can not wright for shit to start, I was watching kaiji 17 while writing that so i guess I was not Paying much attention.

FORGIVE ME!

By: K

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 06:57:37 +0000

I thought some dub actors usually start in theater acting

By: Generic_Mistake

Generic_Mistake — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 06:52:55 +0000

Lots of people care *cough* about 4 others *cough*

-personally I can understand why some people turn too dubs it nice to not have to see Subs. They are draw your attention and take away from the video aspect and lets face it, it’s nice not to have to read them, listen to the audio, and watch the show(never mind translation notes).

But the fact of the matter is I too like to view the show it was originally intended. The last show i watched through and through Dubed would be Trigun the first time i watched it about 3 years ago. You see here in Canada we Teletoon and YTV for our local cartoon stations we have to pay extra for cartoon network. YTV is only more recently picking up more then the odd anime (still no Trigun) and Teletoon is starting to get anime movies . So for the longest time the anime I came to knew was shows like gundam wing, dragon ball (z), pokemon, and sailor moon. The real turning point for me to heavily get into Subed anime was after i finished Trigun i wanted more “animu” so I stumbled upon a form called Slopeanime(sadly dead now) and was recommended to a show i now see as very superficial called bleach. Even tho i no longer care for such sugar coted candy I am still greatfull to it for starting me on the path to a life of money spent a 2D and plastic women instead of real ones.

Did not mean to rant sorry.

By: GreatSG

GreatSG — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 06:47:38 +0000

I agree with a few of your points, and I too evolved into preferring to seeing most anime in it’s Japanese language over the english. GitS and Cowboy Bebop are definitely English highlights and I admit I prefer both shows in english over their Japanese counterparts. Granted I admit a lot of dubs even today are mediocre, it’s still 99% better than dubs that were made 10 to even 20 years ago, most dubs from the early to mid 90s are insanely unbearable, especially ones back in the day when Dub directors tried to karaoke insert songs.

See this wonderful ANN Buried Treasure article all about that: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/buried-treasure/2007-12-27

By: 3x as random

3x as random — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 06:37:24 +0000

I forgot they were doing Lucky Star dub… ahaha…

I’ve heard worse, so meh, Don’t really care. Not like its gonna come down here in NZ for a while >.> (I’m still waiting for Madman to License the original Gundam series, come on.)