Are all dubs shit?

[Archangel]

One Piece, Naruto, Blach (kinda) , Samurai X, etc. all got butchered by theire dubbed counterparts. Honestly i cant remeber of any anime that looked decent dubbed. Anyone?

[animus]

Cowboy Bebop and the new One Piece Funimation dub.

[bagandscalpel]

Honestly i cant remeber of any anime that looked decent dubbed. Anyone?
Now, I'm generally a proponent of subs-n'-shit, but I must say that Hellsing Ultimate is win regardless of the audio track you choose.

[Archangel]

I havent seen the new one piece dub. How is it? Pls tell me that luffy doesnt sound like a 10 yr old anymore.

[Ryllharu]

The Cowboy Bebop dub is better than the original track. More people than not will agree with this.

Equal to the Japanese track: FLCL, Evangelion, Black Lagoon, all the Slayers (movies, series, ovas), Iria: Zieram the Animation, any Makoto Shinkai film, any Miyazaki film, and there's some others here and there.


There are plenty of good dubs out there, but it's the bad ones that get all the recognition. Try watching less shonen garbage, and you'd find some of the better ones out there. Generally, I've found that whatever one you hear first will be the one you like better. It took me a long time to accept the Slayers and Evangelion Japanese tracks.

[Archangel]

Im a fansub junkie so i dont really have to worry about dubs. But you're right now that i think of it the FLCL dub was pretty good

[DDBen]

I'd like to toss Berserk, Record of the Lodoss War and Those Who Hunt Elves as good dubs.

Some dubs are great the bad dubs usually come from big companies who just use reuse the same cast of voice actors over and over again without even making them change the voice they are using. I Don't dislike the Ranma dub for instance but the Inu Yasha dub is unwatchable because I watched Ranma's dub way earlier. On the other hand Love Hina and Kenshin both contain TERRIBLE dub casts and are unwatchable dubbed.

[Ryllharu]

I forgot about the Beserk dub. The original track can't even compare to that one. They did such an amazing job, they blew away the Japanese track. That, and the outtakes. Can't beat those.

[Assassin]

the FMA dub is pretty good...its almost spot on. give that a try.

[XanBcoo]

Oh goodie, it's this topic again!

Basically Ryllharu's already summed it up as neatly as can be said. 1.) The average English dub is actually quite good, and it's the bad ones (usually Shounen series) that get a bad rap, and 2.) You will probably prefer whatever language you watched the show in first.

Currently I'm watching Blood+ and Death Note on Adult Swim and they're dubs are by and large without flaw. I don't care if you think L's voice is too deep, that's the way Alessandro Juliani sounds and it's made of Goddamn win. Also as Bagandscalpel mentioned, Hellsing Ultimate's dub cast is pretty great. Walter sounds like a poor man's John Hurt, and even Norio Wakamoto meets his match in a Scottish Anderson. Gives me chills it does.

On the other hand I can't stand the Berserk dub aside from Sean Schemmel (Goku/Gaston) and the Outtakes.


It took me a long time to accept the Slayers and Evangelion Japanese tracks.
It took me a long time to listen to the Evangelion original audio as well. Eva in English was the first anime I ever saw, and for a long time was flawless in my memory. It wasn't until about last year that I realized it wasn't without sin.

Also no one's mentioned GITS:SAC. It really is so much better in English.

[Ryllharu]

It took me a long time to listen to the Evangelion original audio as well. Eva in English was the first anime I ever saw, and for a long time was flawless in my memory. It wasn't until about last year that I realized it wasn't without sin.

Also no one's mentioned GITS:SAC. It really is so much better in English.
The reason Evangelion's english is so great is almost entirely due to Tiffany Grant and Amanda Winn's directing. In the Eva manga, Asuka speaks in German quite a bit, but in the anime Japanese track, she nearly never does. Tiffany Grant under Amanda Winn brought that all back, and added a lot of authenticity back to Asuka's character, my favorite to this day. Though you can't leave out Spike Spencer for making Shinji an incredible pussy in English just like in the Japanese.


Sorry, but no one beats Atsuko Tanaka as Motoko. Mary Elizabeth McGlynn is very good, way better than Mimi Woods in the original movie. Still Atsuko Tanaka did it first, and still does it better. She adds the right amount of sexiness to Motoko that isn't caught in the English.

[XanBcoo]

Yeah, I was gonna mention that about Eva's dub too. Tiffany Grant obviously brought a lot to the role, and apparently it never left. She seems to have a weird sort-of-obsession thing going with Asuka.

I think my favorite snippet from the dub is Amanda Wynn Lee's poem-reading as Rei. I can still hear it in my head after 6 years.


She adds the right amount of sexiness to Motoko that isn't caught in the English.
I must be catching everything you miss then, 'cause daaaaamn...

[Abdula]

I agree with Xan and Ryllharu. People seldom acknowledge when they do a good job with a dub but everyone is quick to complain about a bad one. I don't know about you guys but Samurai X and DBZ were some of the best dubs I've ever seen/heard in an anime. They didn't cut or edit any of the scenes and the language and dialogue were as close to a verbatim translation as you could get, obviously I'm not talking about those that aired on American television.

[Idealistic]

I thought Rurouni Kenshin's dubs were pretty good. I first saw this show as a dub so I guess I got more use to it? When I decided to download all the episodes with subs and watched it, I wasn't use to Kenshin's Japanese VA because he sounded more like a kid.

I eventually got use to both. But still, the dub seemed pretty good even though I only saw a few episodes of the dubbed version.

Hmmm, I do have the Berserk dvd, maybe I should rewatch the english version. It has been quite awhile, and I have nothing to watch nowadays.

[bagandscalpel]

Huh, Ruroken, eh? I remember that being my first anime series that I fully embraced as a young, impressionable anime watcher. That said, I found the concept of Japanese characters in a Japanese setting NOT speaking Japanese rather unsettling- needless to say, that notion has clung to me and evolved to cover most other animes to this day.

[Board of Command]

Princess Mononoke dub was very good. It's been around 6 years since I watched it but I still remember it as being a decent dub job.

[Shinji Ikari]

My best experiences in dubbing comes from Ranma ½ where I actually like the english dub better than the japanese... Then there is Escaflowne (the movie) where the dubbers also did a fantastic job.

[6Zabuza9]

i only watched dubs on YTV like DBZ, sailor moon, monster rancher, pokemon, etc. when i was like 7 (when i didnt have access to a computer) and they were pretty enjoyable. But, then again i was 7 years old. The only dub which I followed when I was older was Inuyasha.

[Sapphire]

I already answered this question on another forum, so you guys won't kill me if I quote myself right?


American Naruto dubs do suck though, but British ones are worse. So much worse that it's humorous.

Either way I don't care, I don't have a TV and I download and stream all my anime.

The only good dubs I've ever seen on Cartoon Network are the Samurai Champloo ones, Cowboy Bepop movies ones. I think the Naruto ones were really bad at first but they got better. For example not trying to throw together their own theme song, which I am sure pissed thousands off. Also, I didn't hear Naruto say believe it during the marathon, unless I just blocked that out. Or maybe I was too entrapped in the awesomeness that is Itachi to notice anything else? I made my dad watch that show for a few hours. Eh heh. Eh heh. I also think they cut less out of Naruto. Because before it was cut so much everyone thought they would cut Jiraiya going to the strip club and getting crunk every day, but they didn't.

Trinity Blood dubs suck, Bleach dubs suck, but then again, maybe they will get better in time like Naruto ones did.

Oh Pokemon dubs and DBZ dubs aren't that bad either. If we could higher the quality of VAs, dubs would be much more enjoyable IMO. I've rarely seen a badly dubbed Hentai, but you didn't hear that from me.

Back in 2004 or something when Naruto came out, I had the same opinion as [Archangel]. But I've seen way, way too many anime to have a pure opinion like that anymore. Sadly, I can't say all dubs suck without loosing all my street creds as an experienced anime watcher. I can say most dubs suck though, at least most of the ones on Cartoon Network, and that if someone thinks they suck the obvious and slightly logical conclusion would be to watch it subbed or learn Japanese. Well, it's less ignorant than just saying you hate all anime from just watching it on TV.

Samurai Champloo dubs are awesome, got me to download the origianal series. <3 I love any Miyazaki dubs.. They did a pretty good job with Death Note & Cowboy Bepop from what I remember. DBZ/Pokemon dubs haha ok not that bad. The Simpsons dubs aren't too bad either. I think the dood who does Barney is okay even though he scares me.

Anyway, moving aside from jokes, my friend would bust a cap if she saw this thread. She'd most likely say:


Here's the big thing about Dubs, and speaking as someone who prefers watching her anime in Japanese, but loves some American VA's and is close friends with some...

I respect those who work had to dub over anime. It's NOT easy. Especially when you have to cater to a certain audience. Hence why a lot of the anime 4Kids and Dic dubbed was aimed towards kids. It's their target audience.

However, you have things like (The now almost de-funct) Genon, and ADV Films who not only dub "family-friendly" anime, but also anime geared to a more mature audiance.

Japan's laws on TV "ratings" (i.e. PG, PG-13, etc.) are pretty much non-exsistent compared to ours. Hence why so many people complain when an anime with "questionable content" is brought over to the states, dubbed, and "watered down", so to say...

Honestly, your idea of calling American Dubs "Evil" is foolish. Yeah, sure, some may not be the best quality in the world, but that doesn't make them "evil".

And don't get me started on the whole "Western-izing" of all the Japanese culture references in anime and manga... @_@

/postrape

PS - I agree with bagand, H-U dubs are pretty cool

[Junior]

I've seen some good dub in my time. =)

Hellsing, Full Metal Alchemist, Ghost in the shell (Mary <3), Tenjho Tenge (WENDEE LEE IS <3), Bleach, Evangelion was alright...anyway, DBZ, Pokemon, Solty Rei, Speed Grapher, Black Lagoon (Revvy kicked ass), Elfen Lied (Lucy <3), .Hack/sign, Eureka Seven, Negima...*is out* @_@

I think I had more...

[AbstractTheorem]

One Piece, Naruto, Blach (kinda) , Samurai X, etc. all got butchered by theire dubbed counterparts. Honestly i cant remeber of any anime that looked decent dubbed. Anyone?

title of this thread = truth

Eureka Seven......... Its a Freakin work in the English language... do they use it .. nooooo they call her..


EUUURRRr - riiikkk-ughhhh ....

99% of all dubs suck, one exception is probally Princess Mononoke, and the rest of the director's films (of course they all have big name actors actually doign the voice overs so it helps... and even though those dubs don't suck, the Japanese track is still better)

[saman]

yeah, because all the sub fans would've been really happy if they had called her "yuur-reek-aah". seriously, are you actually putting the dub down for pronouncing a character's name the same way they did in the sub?

i enjoy most dubs. mostly because i tend to evaluate things like movies and shows in a stand-alone capacity. to me, just because something isn't like the original doesn't mean it's bad

[Shadow Skill]

I really enjoyed the English dub of Samurai Pizza cats (I think was originally released in Japan).

The English version was all Ad-libbed and Improv, cause they didnt make transcripts back then lol. I never did see a Japanese version of the show. :(

[Junior]

title of this thread = truth

Eureka Seven......... Its a Freakin work in the English language... do they use it .. nooooo they call her..


EUUURRRr - riiikkk-ughhhh ....

99% of all dubs suck, one exception is probally Princess Mononoke, and the rest of the director's films (of course they all have big name actors actually doign the voice overs so it helps... and even though those dubs don't suck, the Japanese track is still better)

it sounds better that way. Afterall, it was a name, not a word. They obviously wanted to change it a bit and make it their own.

I thought it was cute.

[Everon]

I've watched a few dubs, its rare to see both a faithful translation coupled with talented voicework. I think it boils down to three things really: familiarity, translation, and the voice talent. While we're all familiar with the latter two, the first is a personal thing which I'll explain.

The biggest problem I have with listening to dubs is that fact I've gotten used to their japanese counterparts . Its hard to suddenly listen to a character that doesn't have the same inflection or voice structure. Its something that the dubbing company can't affect, and its often the reason why I skip dubs.

[Death BOO Z]

I don't know about you guys but Samurai X and DBZ were some of the best dubs I've ever seen/heard in an anime. They didn't cut or edit any of the scenes .

uhhm, No.

they took out 16 episodes from DBZ, and those 16 episodes were from the first 50 episodes, they edited out entire charecters and some "improtant story" scenes (not really important, not really story).

Edit: if you haven't watched the american version, which version did you watch? the french, swedish, hebrew?

never cared much for watching dubs, unless i really had no choice.


. I Don't dislike the Ranma dub for instance but the Inu Yasha dub is unwatchable because I watched Ranma's dub way earlier
.

they have the same face, same charecter, same perssonality, and same voice actor in the original version. why shouldn't they have the same VA in english?

also, it's not like the japanese studios use new voices for each show, they simply have a bigger crowed to select from, and we (the non-japanese viewers) don't notice it that much, since all japanese look and sound the same to us..


Benjamin, A rumiko fanboy and a DBZombie since 2003.

edit: responding to abdula's post below, apparntly I jumped to conclusions too fast, sorry.

[Abdula]

uhhm, No.

they took out 16 episodes from DBZ, and those 16 episodes were from the first 50 episodes, they edited out entire charecters and some "improtant story" scenes (not really important, not really story).

never cared much for watching dubs, unless i really had no choice.


Um didn't I say it wasn't the American version I watched.

[Y]

Dubs > Subs for animation. The only reason I've ever watched subtitled animation is the fact that dubbed is unavailable at that time.

[bagandscalpel]

Dubs > Subs for animation. The only reason I've ever watched subtitled animation is the fact that dubbed is unavailable at that time.
Isn't that really only if you truly intend to absorb everything in one go, though? Or perhaps it is that you really despise any visual hinderance to the artistic subject matter on-screen?

[XanBcoo]

title of this thread = truth

Eureka Seven......... Its a Freakin work in the English language... do they use it .. nooooo they call her..


EUUURRRr - riiikkk-ughhhh ....

99% of all dubs suck, one exception is probally Princess Mononoke, and the rest of the director's films (of course they all have big name actors actually doign the voice overs so it helps... and even though those dubs don't suck, the Japanese track is still better)
Why did anyone dignify this with a response??


The biggest problem I have with listening to dubs is that fact I've gotten used to their japanese counterparts . Its hard to suddenly listen to a character that doesn't have the same inflection or voice structure. Its something that the dubbing company can't affect, and its often the reason why I skip dubs.
I think it's important to try and do away with the idea that the Japanese dub is somehow inherently better because it's "original". I mentioned this in the other Dub/Sub thread, but if it's a work based on an existing manga, then both sets of voice actors are giving their interpretation of a character who has thusfar only communicated through text.

And no, if you don't speak Japanese, then don't try and tell me you think the Japanese voice actors do a better job. I consent that it's nice to watch a show in a different language that you like the sound of, but that does not qualify you to judge the skills of the actors. "inflection" and "emotion" can only go so far.

[Ryllharu]

I think it's important to try and do away with the idea that the Japanese dub is somehow inherently better because it's "original". I mentioned this in the other Dub/Sub thread, but if it's a work based on an existing manga, then both sets of voice actors are giving their interpretation of a character who has thusfar only communicated through text.

And no, if you don't speak Japanese, then don't try and tell me you think the Japanese voice actors do a better job. I consent that it's nice to watch a show in a different language that you like the sound of, but that does not qualify you to judge the skills of the actors. "inflection" and "emotion" can only go so far.
This is the heart of the argument, and the real reason, whether people are aware of it or not. You hear a character one way or the other, and you associate that voice with that character. Anything else sounds...wrong. There have been plenty of times where I've been reading the manga, created some form of voice for a character in my head, and then pick up the anime. Sometimes, I'll decided "He/She are so wrong for the part. I didn't imagine them with such a deep/high-pitched voice. [characters's] voice should be so much higher-pitched/deeper."

But you still heard it first with them, and sooner or later you attach their voice when you're reading the manga.

The second part of your post is also dead on. That's part of the reason for the near-universal acceptance of Cowboy Bebop's English dub as superior. Spike is cooler and even more laid back (Steven Blum is excellent), Jet is played by a black guy (Billingsly) and gives Jet street-cred as well as a bit more suaveness. For all of Megumi Hayashibara's skill, she isn't able to convey both parts of Faye's personality as well as Wendee Lee. Megumi Hayashibara gets all the sexiness down, but she can't portray Faye's outbursts and vulnerabilities as easily or as dramatically as Wendee Lee can.

(Unfortunately for Wendee Lee, she is often overcast, and my brain can never disassociate her with Faye or the little boy from Kenshin, so most of her characters either sound "too old" or "too boyish" to me. Her voice will always be aged 11 or 30-something.)

[XanBcoo]

(Unfortunately for Wendee Lee, she is often overcast, and my brain can never disassociate her with Faye or the little boy from Kenshin, so most of her characters either sound "too old" or "too boyish" to me. Her voice will always be aged 11 or 30-something.)
It was bad enough she was cast as Haruhi Suzumiya, but when I heard her as Yoroichi in Bleach, I just facepalmed. She's already in that show as Tatsuki, using her "too boyish" voice. Over-cast indeed.

Yeah, she'll always be "Faye's voice" to me as well.

[EpyonNext]

What, no love for Rah-Xephon in here? That was another one with a pimp English cast. And as for GiTS, english or nothing for me.

[AbstractTheorem]

it sounds better that way. Afterall, it was a name, not a word. They obviously wanted to change it a bit and make it their own.

I thought it was cute.

But The Way Japanese people say Eureka .. is what they were saying in the show Eureka Seven... yeah it was a name and her name was Eureka.

I mean Seriously They still call a Restraunt ...a RESTRAUNT instead of "Les-tu-lan"

you think they should start calling T-Shirts "Tay Shitzu" ?

I just think they make Piss poor choices about what to "americanize" / "replace with american english" and what to leave alone.

Like all of the Jitsu names in Naruto..... better left alone...

Of course then again I am the type of person that gets annoyed as hell when english is used in RANDOM places in japanese music (esp the pop stuff...)

Good example of Kick ass blending of english and japanese in music.... the Theme song from Murder Princess, and most anything from Samurai Champloo (since its used for comedic elements mostly).

[XanBcoo]

But The Way Japanese people say Eureka .. is what they were saying in the show Eureka Seven... yeah it was a name and her name was Eureka.
I read this four times and still couldn't make any sense out of what you're trying to say.



Like all of the Jitsu names in Naruto.....
Jutsu.

[Ryllharu]

I believe what he was saying is the dub in Eureka 7 mispronounces "Eureka" because the original Japanese track does in the first place. They are only "mangling" her name by saying it the exact same way.

Renton in particular uses "ooyu-RAY-ka" in the Japanese, and "yu-RAY-ka" in the English.

If spoken correctly, it should have been "YU-ree-ka"

[XanBcoo]

Renton in particular uses "ooyu-RAY-ka" in the Japanese, and "yu-RAY-ka" in the English.

If spoken correctly, it should have been "YU-ree-ka"
Ok, I understand now.

And I had noticed that too in the Eureka dub (and also thought it sounded funny), but I had assumed that Eureka's name was meant to be pronounced that way, and it wasn't originally a mispronunciation.

If it was a mispronunciation, and the dub had corrected it, I think a situation like Saman imagined would have happened. Sorta damned if they do, damned if they don't I think. They probably made the safe choice by being faithful.

It's not like that over-faithfulness is extended to all dubs. Just look at Death Note, and how Light is not pronounced "rai-to" since it's obviously a pronunciation of "Light" in Japanese.

EDIT: On the other hand, "Kira" is pronounced the same way in English, and not as "Killer". Huh...weird.

[AbstractTheorem]

Ok, I understand now.

And I had noticed that too in the Eureka dub (and also thought it sounded funny), but I had assumed that Eureka's name was meant to be pronounced that way, and it wasn't originally a mispronunciation.

If it was a mispronunciation, and the dub had corrected it, I think a situation like Saman imagined would have happened. Sorta damned if they do, damned if they don't I think. They probably made the safe choice by being faithful.


It's not a mispronunciation, in Japanese English words which are adopted by the culture are ... well I dunno exactly how to say it.... "Japanese-ified" (?sure..shy not?).

The other two examples I gave are correct, Restaurant is an example of an English word adopted into Japanese, they say it like "resutoran" with the r's sounding like "le"'s , T-Shirt in Japanese is "te shatsu" but in english its a T-Shirt.

The way they say Eureka in the original Eureka Seven is probably their best attempt at doing so, considering that nothing (at least that I know of) in the language starts with a similar "Eu" sound, so they just replaced it with a "ur" sound which is prevalent in the language.

A lot of dubs struggle with the translated version fitting the cadence of the animated characters...and they add words or do crappy translations to fit the animation, they could at least cycle the frames differently or do SOMETHING to make it fit better.

As for the quality of voice actors in japan? Hell yeah they are better, just like quality of live action actors is better in Hollywood then in Japan. Voice acting isn't as much of a high profile job in the US as it is in Japan, so of course they have a larger pool of talent to draw from; of course with the scripts being as terrible as most of the dubs seem to have its hard to tell if any of the American voice actors that perform in the low quality dubs have any talent.

[shinta|hikari]

Eureka can be easily said in Japanese with the correct pronunciation.

In fact they have a name that sounds a lot like it. Yurika. Extending the ri with a - is easy enough.

They just made a mistake in that one if they say it like Ooyu-ray-ka.

Eu = Yu.

[XanBcoo]

It's not a mispronunciation, in Japanese English words which are adopted by the culture are ... well I dunno exactly how to say it.... "Japanese-ified" (?sure..shy not?).

The other two examples I gave are correct, Restaurant is an example of an English word adopted into Japanese, they say it like "resutoran" with the r's sounding like "le"'s , T-Shirt in Japanese is "te shatsu" but in english its a T-Shirt.
Oh wow, thank you for explaining all that to me, I was so confused!! Thank you for clearing up my misconceptions about Japanese!!

:rolleyes:

1. Eureka is not a word, it's a name.
2. The word you're thinking of is not even an English word, though that's beside the point.
3. As shinta|hikari, it's completely within the Japanese language to be able to pronounce it correctly.

If anything happened, it's that the Japanese voice actors/directors did not understand that "Eu" in English is a dipthong. They either mispronounced it, or it was intentional.

[Archangel]

Actually this doesn't just happen with english dubs, i'm portuguese and i can tell u that the dubs around here especially suck.

Here it is, first part of episode 1 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW66ZKSIpw8

At least we didn't get the 4kids edits but the voices are terrible.

[Y]

A lot of dubs struggle with the translated version fitting the cadence of the animated characters...and they add words or do crappy translations to fit the animation, they could at least cycle the frames differently or do SOMETHING to make it fit better.


As far as I know the standard licensing agreement nowadays includes the clause that the foreign party licensing the show can't change any of the animation. When ADV did this for the Evangelion TV show by translating the title cards and some text that appears onscreen they lost the license to someone else for the movie.

Also, of course Eureka should be pronounced like it is in English in the dub. Do you think Cowboy Bebop's dub should have called the main character Spaikuu Spiegeruu or whatever the fuck? God no.

[darkshadow]

DBZ dub was great, actually, i cant stand japanese DBZ >_>, i only like vegetto/gogeta's jpn VA's.
Rurouni kenshin the motion picture was MUCH better in english, the added sound effects just added so much more atmosphere, plus the va's did a really good job too, shigure's va was great.
Black lagoon's dub, although i like revy's jpn VA more, the other characters sound much better in english, especially Shenhua, man her VA kicks major ass.

[Archangel]

Well the thing about goku was that the japonese didn't want to change the original voice actor so he kept the same voice he had when he was a kid goku.