Reasons never to watch English-dubbed Anime

[StardogChampion]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4zSLwMshR4

 

[highlander]

i dont get it.

 

[Icarusintel]

The Eva dub was enough to convince me. The english voice actors for that one were atrocious.

 

[Asuka]

NGE and almost all anime in English is a joke. I HEARD and im not speaking out of exp that Hellsing is good in english. If someone can confirm hey theres one...

 

[AmishSlayer]

*shudders*

This is a big chunk of the reason why people generalize about how bad anime is. I only really like a few shows but I only started watching the shows a couple years ago. I bet if I grew up on it I'd be way more into it.

EDIT: Not to mention these actors just sound horrible when they say any Japanese name.

 

[xcellerate]

It always seems like everybody says that...'oh <insert show here> isn't anime, <insert show here> is anime!'

...it doesn't matter what I’ve seen, when I tell them I hate it, they always say something like that. "well <insert show here> isn't a good example of anime, you need to first take 10 years of Japanese, live in the country another 10, then buy every season ever created of <insert show here> and sit down and watch them all in succession with no breaks anywhere for anything."

 

[CyberPitz]

Hmm, I guess I don't mind the Enlish dumbs. They suck, but don't take away anything...

 

[Lucid]

The only anime that I've ever watched was Dragonball... when I was 12.

 

[Venmoch]

I HEARD and im not speaking out of exp that Hellsing is good in english. If someone can confirm hey theres one...

I was rather good. Plus they get extra points for using/attempting to use English accents. I was getting fed up of Americans playing English people so it was a nice suprise. Plus London looked like London

Also Elfen Lied's dub wasn't that bad if I recall. But also worth mentioning is Stand Alone Complex and the rather well mentioned Cowboy Bebop.

 

[Laivasse]

Point well made in that vid. Every single one of the American voices are laughably overdone. I swear it's a problem of mentality, that when a voice actor in the West records some lines for an animated piece, they have a totally different idea of what's required of them. The only anime dub I've ever been able to stand was Ninja Scroll, precisely because the film itself was so cheesy that it didn't matter that the voice actors were relying totally on cliches as the smarmy wisecracking good guy, or crackly mystical old man - that's kind of how they're meant to sound.

Slightly unrelated, but I disliked the voice acting in Oblivion for similar reasons. Many of the lines are read out so strangely, you can't ever imagine that the person acting it would use the same tones and word emphasis in everyday life. Example; 'I saw a mudcrab yesterday' becomes 'I saw a mudcrab YESterday', totally screwing up the emphasis of the sentence.

There might seem to be no connection, but IMO it's related to a prejudice in the way we still see games and animated media in the West. Tell a voice actor that they're doing it 'for a game' or 'for a cartoon' and you can be damn sure they'll ham it up far more than they ever would if they were just acting before a camera. The guy who did Jon Irenicus in Baldur's gate 2 is a fantastic example of how to do it properly.

 

[Gray Fox]

Akire was dubbed ****ing good.
Cam clarke did the voice of Kenada and he did sound dammed good.

 

[nutcrackr]

i watched a dubbed ghost in the shell episode once, never again.

 

[StardogChampion]

Tell a voice actor that they're doing it 'for a game' or 'for a cartoon' and you can be damn sure they'll ham it up far more than they ever would if they were just acting before a camera.

Exactly. It's like Japanese voice actors are acting as if they're in a movie, but western actors act as if it's a cartoon.

I can't believe I used to watch DBZ dubbed all the time.

 

[Glirk Dient]

Good post, that video alone was enough to remind me why I don't watch anime. Oh man, I almost threw up if I wasn't laughing at its ridiculousness.

 

[_Z_Ryuken]

ALl the dubbed anime I've watched is good. Mostly because it was syndicated, Robotech, DB-DBZ, Pokemon, whatever. Trigun has to be one of the best along with Street Fighter anything. Samurai Champloo is waaaaay better in Japanese. DBZ is worse.

You can't generalize dubbed anime like this. It isn't fair to the good ones.

 

[StardogChampion]

Pokemon was badly dubbed too, and so was most of DBZ.

 

[_Z_Ryuken]

Pokemon was badly dubbed too, and so was most of DBZ.

That may be, but I loved it. I loved the voice actors in DBZ. They were perfect. Better than that prepubescent guy that did Goku in Japan.

 

[Sulkdodds]

But also worth mentioning is Stand Alone Complex and the rather well mentioned Cowboy Bebop.

I watched GITS in english because the animation is so engaging that I didn't want to look away from it to read subtitles and because the dialogue is so verbose that I'd often spend more time reading the titles than watching the visuals. And because it wasn't, astoundingly, all that bad. And I was very impressed with the Bebop movie dub.

 

[Revisedsoul]

oh flcl dubbed

 

[Vegeta897]

oh flcl dubbed

is the win

 

[63]

Why do the characters in DBZ all sound like 10 year old girls :| (Non-dubbed, original)

 

[kupocake]

Hmm... The english voice actors in those clips aren't so bad. Sure no anime series dubbing is ever actually good, but I've heard far, far worse. I think I was focusing on reasons why I wouldn't be watching Naruto more than the quality of the voices though.

Watch some ghibli movies in English though, and 90% of the voices are a good job, so you get to appreciate the art rather than having to wrestle with subtitles. Interesting how many of the people they get along for a production such as Howl's Moving Castle are proper actors rather than Voice-only actors. I think that reflects on the professionalism of the American industry versus the Japanese. Most American VAs are just failed actors who don't want to do normal jobs like other people without talent

Good post, that video alone was enough to remind me why I don't watch anime. Oh man, I almost threw up if I wasn't laughing at its ridiculousness.

You don't like Anime. We get it already. You do not need to post in every single anime related thread to say so.

 

[Sulkdodds]

Why do the characters in DBZ all sound like 10 year old girls :|

Because they're all 10 year old girls?

 

[Angry Lawyer]

Just to spite you all, I'll tell you all that I also hate Anime. The amount of anime you watch is inversely proportional to the amount of sex you get.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Sulkdodds]

How come many of the most promiscuous girls in my school watched anime then?

 

[Angry Lawyer]

Because the graph only applies to blokes, and as this is a forum dominated by males, I didn't think I need to state that.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Laivasse]

Interesting how many of the people they get along for a production such as Howl's Moving Castle are proper actors rather than Voice-only actors. I think that reflects on the professionalism of the American industry versus the Japanese.

More like they just want some flash names to put on the billboards for the Western release. I think that for the average non-Japanese viewer, unused to 'serious' animated film fare, the cast is still a major factor in deciding whether they go to see a film, regardless of whether they're going to see that actor onscreen or not. People want some familiar names, too, to shepherd them through their experience of the unknown - if none of the names are recognisable then the film will seem even more of a geeky, niche-interest proposition.

I tend to hate the dubbing in Ghibli stuff just as much as standard anime, part of the reason being that the Japanese performances tend to be even better in the blockbusters (plus you get a real effort to match up lip-syncing), and you end up sacrificing a lot for the english. And I just don't think the fact of someone being an established real-life actor makes much difference to whether they'll turn out to be a good VA, and certainly makes no difference to whether they'll pull off a performance that is in the spirit of the original (as opposed to their own tried and tested style).

I remember watching a bit of the Mononoke dub where Billy Bob Thornton was doing the voice for that old government guy. I shook my head at how bad it was because he was mumbling at an unnatural speed in an attempt to fit all his lines in (veeeery common in dubbed serial anime). Then in one of the special features, some arsehole was gushing about how fantastic a choice Billy Bob Thornton had been because he was a drummer and he knew all about rhythm. What garbage. English dubbing for non-animated movies has long been regarded as clumsy and irritating, and it's the same for anime.

 

[kupocake]

More like they just want some flash names to put on the billboards for the Western release.

Sure, but my point is that such "proper" actors are sometimes in fact, better actors. And yes it's a little more hit and miss than that (Laputa had James Van Der Beek and Anna Paquin and induced bleeding in the ears), but at least some good acting manages to creep into movies rather than the uniform badness of whatever is in the anime series. Anime voice acting is the graveyard of bad actors who can't make it as proper movie stars, until production teams take a chance and use proper movie stars.

I tend to hate the dubbing in Ghibli stuff just as much as standard anime, part of the reason being that the Japanese performances tend to be even better in the blockbusters (plus you get a real effort to match up lip-syncing), and you end up sacrificing a lot for the english.

Whilst i'm yet to meet a anime movie cast that is better in English than Japanese, I think the extent to which some English dubs are worse than the Japanese is small enough to be forgiveable when Japanese always has the handicap (for me, and probably 90% of most anime watchers) of requireing subtitling. I can't properly appreciate a film if i'm reading its speech instead of its art. Not a problem with Series where the art is rarely much to write home about.

I remember watching a bit of the Mononoke dub where Billy Bob Thornton was doing the voice for that old government guy. I shook my head at how bad it was because he was mumbling at an unnatural speed in an attempt to fit all his lines in (veeeery common in dubbed serial anime).

Blame Neil Gaiman. His script is kind of conflated (comes across with the dubtitles on the old Buena Vista UK DVD). Personally, I actually tolerated Billy Bob. I'm told this is because i've no idea who the hell he is , but it still surprises me because I usually find broad accents in Anime incredibly out of place. Still, i'd rather watch Mononoke in Japanese... if only my DVD didn't have those crappy dubtitles! I love the way they just pop up in total silence to remind me that silence never went down well with Disney

The amount of anime you watch is inversely proportional to the amount of sex you get.

Well I won't deny it, but this is a PC gaming forum and the exact same is as true with PC gamers. Sure some of you will claim to be exceptions, but there are exceptions among Anime fans. And liars habitual liars among PC gamers

Because the graph only applies to blokes, and as this is a forum dominated by males, I didn't think I need to state that.

I was about to point out that they probably seek people with their own interests, and then I realised that most female anime fans i'd met over the net were Lesbians and probably not female anyway

 

[Pesmerga]

Just to spite you all, I'll tell you all that I also hate Anime. The amount of anime you watch is inversely proportional to the amount of sex you get.

-Angry Lawyer

I should be a ****in sex machine. Your logic is flawed.

 

[oldagerocker]

lol. I've seen 2 anime movies, grave of the fireflies and spirited away. Im going to get them on dvd to read the proper subtitled translations. It seems in dubbing in english, a hell of allot of the story, emotion and plot elements are missing.. and the things voiced out like a kids disney cartoon.

 

[AmishSlayer]

Just to spite you all, I'll tell you all that I also hate Anime. The amount of anime you watch is inversely proportional to the amount of sex you get.

-Angry Lawyer

Untrue. By your theory I should be getting more action than a buddy of mine that gets chicks on an almost daily basis. He watches more anime than anybody I know. He also wrestles for his school and fights in UFC matches...so that's where the chick factor comes in for him.

 

[Razor]

Ghost In The Shell is very good in English.

 

[Azner]

I only watch Anime is its original voice hate english anime... i know this stuff...