Superlative Dubbing / English Dubs: Anime/Manga

Examples of English Superlative Dubbing in anime and manga.

The following creators have their own pages:

• Funimation
• The Ocean Group
• ADV Films
• Sentai Filmworks

A-D

• Akage no Anne: The South African English dub, while it does have its issues such as getting some names and terminology wrong^note Such as referring to Anne's imaginary friend Katie Maurice as Kathy Morris, not having Anne call Diana her "bosom friend," and changing the song Nelly in the Hazel Dell to Nelly in the Hazelnut Bush, likely a result of using the German dub as its basis rather than the Japanese and casting all British actors for a show set in Canada, the quality of the voice acting and scripting was found to be surprisingly good for a dub made in the eighties or nineties, something that was very uncommon back in that time period. YouTube comments on some of the dubbed episodes regularly praise the dub for its care and attention to detail.
• Aggretsuko's English dub has gotten a ton of positive reception from anime fans, thanks to a solid localization, to the point of being outright beneficial to listen to the English dub in many respects, in particular as the death scream Retsuko does has intelligible lyrics, as opposed to the original Japanese version's incomprehensible Angrish.
• Ah! My Goddess has had no fewer than three separate English dub casts over the various parts of its franchise, and all of them are considered "good" by somebody - rare for this sort of situation. Fans will still argue over which of the casts is best, but each one has defenders. The TV series dub cast, being the latecomer of the franchise, is by far the most divisive.
  • An amusing comment from Scott Houle, writer/director of the OAV series dub, regarding its casting: "We were going for magic on this one." Most fans agree he succeeded, and the OVA had one of the most acclaimed anime dubs of all time before Bebop. One notable tidbit: Scott Simpson and Juliet Cesario, the voices of Keiichi and Belldandy respectively, were actually dating in real life at the time the show was recorded.
• AKIRA (2001): Many people think it sounds cartoony, but having seen the entire film in both languages, the English version actually sounds less so. This is particularly unusual, since the Japanese dialogue was prerecorded and the animation crafted to fit it—something that normally only happens with high-budget American cartoons. Joshua Seth and Jamieson Price, the English voice actors of Tetsuo and Col. Shikishima, respectively, deliver particularly notable performances, but the real star of the show is Johnny Yong Bosch as heroic punk Kaneda.
• The Animatrix, if you can really consider that a dub, or for that matter any dub directed by Jack Fletcher (whose portfolio also includes most major Final Fantasy games and spinoff media, the majority of Team Ninja games, and the Miyazaki films Kiki's Delivery Service, Castle in the Sky, and Princess Mononoke).
• Probably one breakout example is Bakugan. The original was considered another ripoff of Pokemon, while the dub is considered excellent. To the point where many people don't realise it's an anime at all.
• The English dub of the Berserk TV series was a decent dub in its own right. In fact, it was popular enough that, when the Golden Age Arc movies were licensed ten years later, fans begged Viz Media to hire the original dub studio (NYAV Post) so that the original lead actors—who had all gone on record as loving the TV series and were more than willing to return if asked—could reprise their roles. Viz obliged, and it's good they did, because the dub of the movies blows the original series out of the water. Compare the performance of the original voices for Guts (Marc Diraison), Griffith (Kevin T. Collins), Casca (Carrie Keranen), and even Adon (Mike Pollock), and see how far they have come in the last decade.
  • The third movie is the best yet. Not only do the main three mentioned above give the most emotional and heart rending performances of their careers, we also finally get an English voice to place with the Skull Knight provided by Jamieson Price. His deep baritone not only is perfect for the Skull Knight, but is probably one of the few voices that can match John Avner, whose reprisal of Void is deliciously evil.
  • As could be expected of any franchise that underwent a full decade's worth of hiatus, director Michael Sinterniklaas wasn't able to get back all the original actors (he was able to get back pretty much everyone important and even some secondary roles), so he used the opportunity to fill the gaps in the cast with seasoned veterans he'd been working with in Los Angeles, making what was already set to be a good dub that much better.
• Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo as a Quirky Work and filled with Japanese pop culture and untranslatable jokes and puns should be near-impossible to dub, but the English localization took one look at it and went "Challenge accepted". The whole script was basically rewritten from the ground-up to better fit an English-speaking audience without betraying the original spirit, and the wackiness worked. (As it was written by Jeff Nimoy who also worked on the script for Digimon, this was to be expected, but taken up to eleven.) The voice-casting is as ideal/surreal as it could be, with Richard Epcar as the titular character portraying what could only be described as Batou if he was channeling Etemon, Philece Sampler as Beauty, Kirk Thornton as Don Patch (cited by fans to be his best role to date), Jamieson Price as Jelly Jiggler, and many, many others. If it hadn't been for the fact it was done by Phuuz Entertainment Inc. with Cloverway Inc., it could easily be mistaken for a Saban Entertainment dub.
• Chainsaw Man has an excellent English dub even by the high standards of modern English anime dubs. While the Japanese voice actors for the two leads (Kikunosuke Toya as Denji and Tomori Kusunoki as Makima) got some criticism in their home country for sounding too depressed and too gentle, respectively, their English voice actors address those complaints and otherwise nail their characterization. Ryan Colt Levy as Denji mostly stays faithful to the Japanese original but with a slightly more upbeat tone, along with lots of quirky and colorful swearing that highlights how dry the subtitles are in comparison (using equally strong language but in a much more rigid way). Suzie Yeung as Makima, likewise, conveys most of the same soft, creepy tone of the original, but in a slightly deeper contralto register and with a sexier, "siren-like" tone that also has a cutthroat edge to it (according to the actress herself). Sarah Wiedenheft also does a rather memorable bratty performance as Power that veers into Shakespearean-esque whenever she uses her pretentious Antiquated Linguistics, which helps to define her boisterous personality. Going back to the point about Denji, the dialogue in general is snappy and charming especially when it comes to swearing, such as Aki's "You motherfucker" when he sees Himeno's Ghost Devil being used against him. While the original Japanese version is fantastic in its own right, the comparatively stiff official subtitles don't do it as much justice as the exceptional English dub dialogue does.
• With Code Geass, many fans of the show - even in Japan - praise Johnny Yong Bosch's performance as Lelouch Lamperouge. Even on this very wiki, some editors contend that Japanese fans agree that Bosch's Lelouch sounded more natural, while Jun Fukuyama's sounded more "acted" (YMMV, but still). The fact that the director had a hand in choosing the English actors for the two leads probably has something to do with it. And that's just Lelouch we're talking about - everyone in the English dub did a fantastic job in capturing the essence of their characters and matching the tone of the show exactly as the Japanese set it. Yuri Lowenthal as Suzaku, Karen Strassman as Kallen, Kate Higgins as C.C., and so many others, and you have yourself a well-adapted English version of one of the most popular anime in the past ten years. Seriously, not a single voice would disappoint you. Even Nina sounded great.
• Cowboy Bebop. Ever since its U.S. release in 2000, it's been considered the gold standard for anime dubbing. To this day, many Western anime fans who prefer subs cite this as the only English dub they'll watch. What makes it work so well, in addition to a near-flawless script, is the perfect casting of the four leads. Special mention goes to Wendee Lee, Faye's English voice actress, who's sometimes said to one-up Megumi Hayashibara, Faye's Japanese voice actress. Yoko Kanno herself has expressed appreciation for the English dub, singling out Steve Blum's performance as Spike.^note She's reported to have said, in rough English, "Our Spike, good. Your Spike, sexy!"
• Dead Leaves is one of the strangest anime ever released (even rivaling FLCL), but it features some amazing dub work, especially on the part of husband-and-wife VAs Jaxon Lee and Amanda Winn-Lee, the respective voices of Retro and Pandy.
• Dubs related to Digimon:
  • The voices now fit the bodies (IE, War-Greymon, Aldamon, ETC are not voiced by a woman doing her best little boy impression), the jokes are pretty funny, the banter witty, and the new image songs just fit. The only real problem is the extra sound effects and poor choice of putting what music where.
  • Though for some the silence-filling is part of the fun as it gives the series a sense of humor and self-awareness, rarely does it actually ruin anything (the Apocalymon battle and the Dark ocean episode in Zero Two being the only real offenders).
  • The dub in general actually sticks fairly close to the original dialog often times being word for word, the only major difference is humor is interjected in the dub, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
• Digimon: The Movie, particularly the Our War Game! (Bokura no Waa Geimu!) is one of the best examples of how much the English dub did right: Izzy actually points out that Keramon/Diabolomon is being affected by a computer virus, explaining why he grows and digivolves abnormally fast, as well as making him a real threat than just some online Digimon; you have all of the Digimon calling their attacks which is just plain cool (as opposed in the original where they don't say anything):

  Agumon: (to Tentomon) Let's sneak up on him (Keramon) quietly.
  Tentomon: (Attacking Keramon) Super Shocker!
  Agumon: That's quietly? (Attacking Keramon) Pepper Breath!

  Agumon, Tentomon and Gabumon have very clear, expressive voices that are actually not painful to listen to (read: the Japanese voices) and Tai gets a voice actor that matches his gender; all of the dialogue has an added level of humor to it, for instance when Matt and T.K are at the barbershop to use the computer:

  Barber: You kids have fun, usually I just use that thing to play solitaire on that thing, but-
  Man being shaved: Careful, Floyd, you almost cut my ear off!

  Whereas in the original, the dialogue is quite different:

  Barber: Man, why do I have to let these kids use it here?
  Man being shaved: Just let them use it already!

  There is a whole level of humor that the dub adds and in doing so, the dialogue becomes more enjoyable, memorable and the characters become more multi-dimensional and interesting. The dialogue also fit the scenarios better than the original Japanese. For instance, after WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon are defeated (temporarily) by Diabolomon, Izzy begins to insult them, saying:

  Izzy: Your Digimon's a loser. How could two Mega level Digimon lose to a single bug. WarGreymon went out like a coward-
  Tai: (grabbing Izzy by the collar) You take that back or I'll-
  Izzy: I was reading an email from another kid!
  Tai: Well you didn't have to read it so well.

  In the original, Izzy says that he is reading emails before reading each one, as well as noting their country of origin, but Tai gets mad at him even though he knows that Izzy is just reading them. When Infermon takes over the phone companies and calls every phone number connected, in the original there is a computerized voice that asks "Moshi Moshi" over and over again, but in the dub, he asks "Did you create me?". Here he is actually trying to find the person responsible for making him what he is, whereas there he is just trying to prank call people. This is more of a dub thing as it connects Our War Game! with Hurricane Touchdown (the next movie) which were originally not connected in Japanese, but were connected in the English release. Even though it is mainly an aspect of the dub, it adds to Diabolomon's character as it shows that he isn't just any malicious Digimon, but one who is looking for his creator, and thus more tragic as well as multi-dimensional.
  
  Finally, the dub added much more sound effects and dramatic background music (sometimes a bit over-dramatic though), which can especially be seen towards the end, right before Omnimon kills Diabolomon, which was mostly silent in the original save for Izzy being the only one counting, thus making Tai's open-mouth scream silent and looking like some sound should be heard, but isn't. And Diabolomon gets to say his Last Words, "Willis", which reminds the viewer of his search for his "Creator" and his tragic existence, where as in the original, where he just dies. In short, the dub of Our War Game! used better voices, better dialogue and better sound effects and background music to make the characters more realized, multi-dimensional and interesting and the movie memorable, funny and entertaining.:

  • Having an extremely good Evil Is Hammy dubbing in Adventure 2 for Daemon actually makes him entertaining to watch, even though he's a Diabolus ex Nihilo that shows up, fights, gets sealed away in the Dark Ocean having contributed nothing to the story.
  • It's to the point that when the dub acts more like the original, nobody's happy (no, not even the purists who wanted it—they're purists and it's still an English version of a Japanese thing; it's against their religion to not hate it and always will be). Digimon Tamers does give us Mons keeping their Ridiculously Cute Critter forms' voices even as they digivolve to their highest levels, and it's total Narm, except in the case of Renamon's smooth sexy voice (her Rookie form is human-sized, so she sounds like an adult, and it's appropriate for all her higher forms).^note Coincidentally, Dukemon (Gallantmon in the dub) was voiced by Masako Nozawa, who voiced the adult version of Son Goku for the exact same reasons.
• Despite their infamous history of bad dubbings, even 4Kids has a few good ones here and there. Specifically, Dinosaur King, which is considered by anime fans to be one of their best.
• Although Pioneer cut 10 minutes of footage out from their release of the 1997 anime movie A Dog of Flanders, even though it never aired on TV, the awesome voice acting makes up for it. Some of the original Japanese voices had sounded too scratchy or raspy. The English dub makes them sound so much more natural and much more convincing. Heck, Alois is voiced by Debi Derryberry and she sounds great.
• When it was announced that the English dub for Doraemon would be edited, many fans were convinced they would hate this dub. But Bowdlerization aside, everything else about it is pretty amazing. The voice actors are spot on, the original background music has been left alone, the edits actually don't hurt the episodes in any way^† (some edits would count as pragmatic translations, such as replacing Nobita's test covered in check-marks [indicative of a wrong answer in Japanese but a correct answer in English] with "x"s, or yen with dollars; however, there was one sequence where a cross-shaped bandage used to ward off a vampire was edited out [there was a pizza in the scene so the dub simply made it a garlic pizza]), and best of all, unlike Saban Entertainment, who feels the need to insert pointless and unfunny jokes in every anime they dub, the dub for Doraemon is completely clean of this, and the scripting is pretty faithful for the most part. Mona Marshall steals the show as Doraemon, but nobody expected Johnny Yong Bosch to be cast as Nobita, even more so when they heard the voice he used for Nobita, which is nothing they've ever heard before. Many people hate the edits but find that they love the voice acting.
• Duel Masters: Like Ghost Stories this is a case of the original show not being very memorable or well-regarded (with quite a few deriding it as a Yu-Gi-Oh rip-off) and getting a superior Gag Dub that has lots of Breaking the Fourth Wall jokes and Lampshade Hanging at all of the cliches, but still also having a compelling story.
• Much like the English dub of its predecessor, Baccano!, Durarara!! also brings out an excellent dub. Kari Wahlgren portrays Celty with a dark and bold personality while also bringing out an Adorkable side at times. Crispin Freeman gives his typical snarky sounding voice for Shizuo that can also pull off a massive outburst of rage. Bryce Papenbrook appears as if he's having lots of fun when playing the outgoing Masaomi. And finally, who could not forget about Johnny Yong Bosch's manipulative yet sometimes cheerful performance as Izaya Orihara that could possibly be one of his best roles yet. Due to the large nature of the cast, it's impossible to list all of them. But needless to say, all of them did a splendid job.

E-H

• The producers of El-Hazard: The Magnificent World consider the English dub the definitive version of this series and no wonder with great voice acting and canny Western media jokes like Jinnai naming his immediate Bugrom flunkies after the Marx Brothers and their straight woman, Margaret Dumont.
• Many Western fans who are otherwise skeptical or outright hostile towards anime dubs love the dubbing of FLCL. Many thought that the series was un-dubbable due to its use of Japanese puns and pop culture references. Synch-Point,^note The short-lived North American arm of Japanese media company Broccoli, which was on the FLCL production committee. the American dubbers, instead replaced those instances with comparable English puns and cultural references. As for the cast, original creator/director Kazuya Tsurumaki hand-picked the English voice actors himself, because it was vitally important to him that they have the same "essence" as the Japanese voice actors. He was particularly impressed by Haruko's voice actress, Kari Wahlgren.^note  Who at this point was a complete newbie that had never recorded a dub before.
• Ghost in the Shell:
  • The original anime film's English dub, courtesy of Manga Entertainment, was one of the very first anime dubs to aim directly at an adult audience, contain excellent acting all across the board, and have a script that was extremely faithful to the original Japanese with minimal use of extraneous profanity.^note A practice that was all too common back in the early-to-mid '90s, often used to make the product seem "edgier". The British refer to this practice as "fifteening". Its dub still holds up extraordinarily well today despite the general industry-wide rise in quality that has occurred since.
  • Among some GITS fans, the only real sticking point with the casting of the original movie was Major Kusanagi. Fortunately for them, when Stand Alone Complex came out several years later, the Major was recast with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, who immediately owned that role.
  • That dub cast and crew^note  (the staff at the Animaze recording studio) became so beloved by the fans that there was half-serious discussion about burning down DreamWorks when that company sniped the license for Innocence, the second movie, from Manga Entertainment and decided to release it to DVD without any English dub at all (and SDH subtitles), citing the "integrity of the original language". Manga's UK branch, which retained the license in Europe, heard the grumbling from America loud and clear, and commissioned Richard Epcar, Batou's voice actor and a huge GITS fanboy, to make a dub of Innocence with the Stand Alone Complex cast. It immediately became their their best-selling DVD ever, due at least in part to American and Canadian fans importing it as a giant Take That! against Dreamworks. A few years later, Bandai Entertainment managed to pry the movie away from Dreamworks and dubbed it again, this time with the TV series' cast and crew.^note  Bandai included both dubs on their release and it immediately became obvious why they commissioned a new one. Since the first dub was for the UK and Australian markets, Epcar was given a master tape that had been pre-converted to 25 frames per second (the standard for European and Australian TV broadcasts). When it was back-converted to its original framerate of 24fps (the standard for theatrical releases but also occasionally used instead of 30fps in some Asian and American countries), it sounded distorted.
• Gurren Lagann's dub succeeds quite well by giving out the most over the top performances yet. Kyle Hebert brings out a brash and outgoing performance with Kamina, while still sounding like a cool mentor type; Yuri Lowenthal gives out his wide range by playing Simon with a meek but determined voice which would later evolve to be as hot-blooded as Kamina himself; Michelle Ruff plays Yoko with a feisty yet kind personality; and even Steve Blum manages to pull off the Camp Gay Leeron quite fine.
• Haibane Renmei deserves a mention. The dub is amazing. All of the voices fit perfectly, none of them are forced and, if you can believe it, all of the main characters are voiced by total newbies. Even this person who reviewed the first DVD on Anime News Network long ago agrees that the dub is awesome.
• The studio that did the Haibane dub is LA-based New Generation Pictures, the same group that went on to dub R.O.D the TV and Hellsing Ultimate.
• If there's a "second place" as far as "gold-standard dubbing" is concerned, it probably goes to Hellsing and especially Hellsing Ultimate, which has an English dub that is almost universally hailed as one of the best ever made, coming very close to Bebop in terms of praise. Special mention goes to Crispin Freeman's chilling performance as Alucard, the role that made him a household name among anime enthusiasts. The supporting cast players are tremendous as well, many of whom are actually British expats and deliver performances that need to be heard to be believed. The dubbing, as mentioned above, is handled by New Generation Pictures, a company that, arguably, has never put out a disappointing dub.
• The English dub of Haré+Guu features a cast of longtime veterans of the dubbing scene for nearly every character, with Stephanie Sheh delivering one of her best performances as Guu. The script of the dub also manages to make the jokes much funnier while still keeping faithful to the original content. Well, most of the jokes—the "kumo" pun doesn't work in either language, and writer/producer John Opplinger didn't even try to adapt it (actually, it's kind of amazing the dub turned out as well as it did considering John is known to hate dubs).
• Haruhi Suzumiya has a very well received dub. Crispin Freeman manages to outdo Tomokazu Sugita on Kyon's voice, Michelle Ruff captures both Yuki's quiet emotionless tone, AND her shy Disappearance counterpart perfectly, Johnny Yong Bosch sounds almost exactly like Daisuke Ono as Koizumi, and the rest of the cast overall does a great job on the characters, so much so, that when Funimation got the rights to The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan, fans were especially worried that they would get recast. Luckily, they brought the old cast back.
• Hunter × Hunter fans had to wait a full five years before the 2011 anime was licensed and dubbed, and that wait was worth it. When the news came that Viz, the same company that licensed the 1999 anime, picked up the license, everyone did not want the sub-par Blue Water cast back. Viz listened, and brought in a fantastic cast from BangZoom instead. Erica Mendez, for example, nails Gon's personality as opposed to the rather miscast Elinor Holt. But a prime example of where this dub shines is during Gon's fight with Hisoka in Heaven's Arena, where Keith Silverstein's performance truly adds another bump to the Animation Bump.

I-K

• Let's face it, The Island of Giant Insects is a terrible, poorly made movie. Ironically, it wound up getting a Kickstarter-funded English dub produced by Sound Cadence Studios, and while it's unfortunately not available outside of those who backed the Kickstarter, those who have seen it reported that it was fantastic, with punched up lines and great voice acting that make the movie much funnier and more enjoyable than the original product. It helps that the added cursing isn't necessarily out of character for certain characters. Just watch this compliation clip of some of the movie's funnier lines as an example. Also, how can you go wrong with a dub where Lanipator plays the resident Hate Sink and Kayli Mills using her cutesy moe girl voice while dropping curse words like cunt, shit, and fuck in a comically casual manner?
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has a fantastic English dub, fan division of the accents in Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency aside.
  • In Phantom Blood, Johnny Yong Bosch puts a lot of energy into his role as Jonathan Joestar, and it shows. Patrick Seitz nails the hammy Evil Brit that is Dio Brando perfectly. Keith Silverstein also manages to capture the essence of badass keet within Robert E.O. Speedwagon with grace.
  • In Battle Tendency, Ben Diskin portrays Jonathan's grandson, Joseph Joestar. It's like hearing Numbuh One as an older, and even more clever and Hot-Blooded version of himself. Bryce Papenbrook nails the role of Caesar Zeppeli, while keeping up a convincing Italian accent. Dan Woren portrays Major Rudol von Stroheim with an exaggerated German accent that, while the most divisive within the fanbase regarding the accents, captures the wackiness that JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is known for.
  • Stardust Crusaders drops the accents entirely, allowing the voice actors to really put forth their best performances. Matthew Mercer plays Jotaro to near perfection. Richard Epcar is a perfect match for old Joseph, capturing the character's qualities while maintaining his goofy traits and keeping every "OH MY GOD!" and "OH NO!" from the Japanese version. Doug Erholtz performs the role of Jean-Pierre Polnareff perfectly, capturing the man's tragic past and repressed anger with raw emotion. Patrick Seitz returns as DIO, capturing his Affably Evil way of talking and even managing to outdo his Japanese voice actor Takehito Koyasu in terms of emotion during his fight with Jotaro and shouting every instance of "MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA" with frightening accuracy to the Japanese version. The latter is most notable in that Dio in Phantom Blood used the translation "Useless! Useless! Useless!"
  • Diamond is Unbreakable is widely considered to be the best out of all the series' dubs up to that point. The late Billy Kametz managed to perfectly embody every aspect of Josuke's character, from his mellow Nice Guy attitude to the dynamic shifts towards passionate fury. Jalen K. Casell's rendition of Okuyasu has also received high praise, capturing his gruff but goofy personality and really giving his more emotional moments like his brother Keicho's death a lot of earnesty (also for the absolute hilarity of his performance in the Italian food episode). The standout performance of the dub, however, is widely considered by many to be D.C. Douglas as Kira, who manages to make an already-terrifying character even more chilling, contending with Toshiyuki Morikawa's also stellar performance.
  • Golden Wind's English dub has been highly praised for its all-star cast, expressive dialogue, colorful inserts of fluent Italian, and for doing many of the characters and most iconic scenes justice, even outperforming the Japanese version for some. Kellen Goff's violently intimidating portrayal of Diavolo is considered to be the MVP of this dub.
  • Stone Ocean's English dub has received tons of praise for how well the personalities and raw emotions of the characters are able to be captured within the English talents. It also helps that, like the Japanese version of Stone Ocean, its English dub is filled to the brim with Promoted Fanboys who have had years of experience with JoJo, and thus know the characters they're playing by heart. Jotaro and DIO are once again performed phenomenally by Matthew Mercer and Patrick Seitz, with the latter not having voiced DIO in over 3 years yet still nailing the role, and even some talents who haven't had work in years were brought on, such as Dino Andrade playing the role of Yo-Yo Ma. On top of all that, since the series had transitioned from [adult swim] to Netflix, there were no longer any concerns of having to appease network censors, meaning the cast got to swear all they want in accordance to the original manga. Special highlights in the way of performances go to the actors playing the main characters, including Tiana Camacho as Ermes, Howard Wang as Anasui, Brittany Lauda as F.F., and in particular, Casey Mongillo as Emporio, Stephen Fu as Weather Report, and Kira Buckland as Jolyne.
• K: Sam Riegel's Shiro is perfect, crafty and charming in the most wonderful ways. Johnny Yong Bosch is amazing as always. Benjamin Diskin's Misaki Yata sounds more authentic to the character than he did in Japanese - the maturity of that actor's performance worked against the character's skater-kid charm. Patrick Seitz, Matthew Mercer, and others also seem to have given their characters more depth than the Japanese actors did.
• The English dub of Kemono Friends is very well done, especially considering that the good majority of the voice actors were complete newbies in the industry (Suzie Yeung, Michelle Marie, Dani Chambers, Melissa Sternenberg, Madeleine Morris, Amanda Lee, and many others), with some of the more well known names such as Caitlin Glass, Alexis Tipton, and Kayli Mills playing minor characters. But every single role is well cast and well acted, save for one (African Wild Dog). It helps that many of the staff who worked on the dub were confirmed to be huge fans of Kemono Friends and did everything they could to make the dub as good as possible, even going as far as hiring actual zookeepers to narrate the educational eyecatches (Save for a select few). This is a cute, fun dub that perfectly captures the spirit of the show.
• The Kill la Kill dub is incredibly well-done. All the voice actors put in all their effort, and you can tell they're having a ton of fun playing their characters. Erica Mendez as Ryuko Matoi just exudes hot-blooded passion, and Christine Marie Cabanos as Mako Mankanshoku delivers spot-on comedic timing with her lines. Carrie Keranen perfects Satsuki's fervent monologues, Patrick Seitz practically screams all of Gamagori's lines with equal passion, and Stephanie Sheh delivers the perfect balance of being cutesy but not nails-on-a-chalkboard annoying in her role as Nui Harime. Oh, and Benjamin Diskin as Kaneo Takarada will have you in absolute stitches. Sarah Anne Williams as Nonon is often regarded as better than the original (though some lament that Nonon's original, more squawk-y voice was part of her charm; NANI SORE?! indeed).
• The BangZoom dub of K-On! received mixed reviews from fans, who had grown used to the original Japanese, but there are some who love it mainly due to having English dubbed Moe voices done right. It has a very good cast with some wonderful scripting. From Stephanie Sheh pulling out possibly the most adorable English dub performance as Yui; to Cassandra Lee Morris' outgoing, childlike nature of Ritsu; as well as the more mature, yet meek personality of Cristina Valenzuela's Mio. After the sub-par Animax dub, it's about time the show got the dub it deserves.
• Konosuba has a dub that's a complete laugh riot. The main cast essentially nails the personalities of the main characters: Arnie Pantoja captures Kazuma's loser Otaku and asshole-ish personality; Faye Mata captures the essentials of Aqua the useless goddess; Erica Mendez captures Megumin's "explosive" chuunibyou tendencies; and Cristina Valenzuela upholds her duties as Darkness the crusader... especially when she's in masochist mode. And who would forget Patrick Seitz as Verdia the dullahan? Some even comment that the English dub's funnier than several abridged versions of the original that came before.

L-O

• Lucky Star has a spectacular English dub! Wendee Lee does such a snarky and adorkable Konata, Kari Wahlgren gives Kagami a real edge to her mild tsundere personality, Michelle Ruff makes Tsukasa sound so adorable, and Karen Strassman makes Miyuki sound wonderfully soft and lady-like. Hynden Walch as Yutaka has such a cute yet realistic-sounding little girl voice.
• Geneon's dub of Lupin III: Part II is often held in high regards by fans, with its oftentimes hilarious rewrites (bordering on Gag Dub), and well-cast voice actors, especially Tony Oliver and Richard Epcar as the title character and Jigen, respectively.
  • The dub of Lupin III: The Italian Adventure and Lupin III: Part 5 also deserve a mention here! They're incredibly well acted and the English voices fit the characters very well especially Tony Oliver as Lupin who got the very essence of the character down to a T.
• Lycoris Recoil. One would think it'd be hard to find someone who could match the voice work of Chika Anzai (Chisato) and Shion Wakayama (Takina), but Lizzie Freeman and Xanthe Huynh do a great job with the roles in the English dub. The same goes for Bob Carter voicing Mika, Jennifer Losi voicing Mizuki, and Lisa Reimold as Kurumi.
• Magic User's Club has a dub that is better acted than the original Japanese version.
• The long out-of-print 1994 English dub of Mega Zone 23: Part I from Streamline Pictures deserves a special mention. The characters are all exceedingly well-cast, delivering realistic, subdued performances and bringing life to the film. Shogo and Yui's sex scene is particularly well-done; the two characters sound genuinely in-love and in the heat of passion, not like two actors TRYING to sound like they're having sex.
• Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket has an amazing English dub. For one, David Hayter as Bernie Wiseman as came out perfect. Two, all the characters lines convey the emotions that come with them to the audience, which is very important considering the show's message that war is bad.
• Monster. The fine folks at Viz Media and Salami Studios actually pulled it off, with every voice fitting very well even when it sounds nothing like the Japanese one (Reichwein and Grimmer most noticeably). Nearly every one of the countless characters is pleasant to listen to, and never is the mature, complex storyline compromised by amateurish voice acting. All the main cast are excellent, but the real stars of the show are Karen Strassman, who gives the performance of her life as the deeply conflicted Nina Fortner opposite Keith Silverstein, who is absolutely bone-chilling as the titular monster, who may have the scariest mundane-sounding voice ever.
• Naruto: All the main characters are cast perfectly; standout performances include Kate Higgins as Sakura (woman can do a damn good cry), Dave Wittenberg as Kakashi, Yuri Lowenthal as Sasuke, Stephanie Sheh as Hinata, Steve Staley as Neji, Skip Stellrecht as Guy, Tom Gibis as Shikamaru, Liam O'Brien as Gaara, David Lodge as Jiraiya, and Maile Flanagan as Naruto himself (perfectly capturing the essence of the immature, loudmouthed, lovable brat).
  • Some people say the villains have the best voices in the Naruto dub, and with impressive performances like Steve Blum as Orochimaru (taking Creepy Awesome to a whole other level), Henry Dittman as Kabuto, Micheal Yurchak as Obito, Neil Kaplan as Madara (and how!), Chris Edgerly as Hidan, Fred Tatasciore as Kakuzu, Roger Craig Smith as Deidara, Johnny Yong Bosch as Sasori, Kirk Thornton as Kisame, Crispin Freeman as Itachi Uchiha, Dorothy Elias-Fahn as Konan, Vic Mignogna as Nagato and Troy Baker as Pain (particularly once he's properly introduced, where his voice takes on a much more regal, conceited edge) it's not hard to see why!
• Neon Genesis Evangelion dubs:^note  Listed here, despite relative stability in its cast, due to being handled by three different studios.
  • ADV Films's dub of the TV series. It's so well-done, and nothing is really left out. But ADV was started by fans, so what did you expect?
    • The Eva dub, recorded fairly early in ADV's lifespan (1996 to be precise), is probably the most polarizing dub they ever did. In fact it's probably the most polarizing dub ANYONE ever did. For every fan who praises it, there's probably an equal number who despise it. The consensus seems to be that the dub does indeed have some strong performances, especially for quite a few of the main characters, but this is "balanced out" by several moments having turned to downright Narm in the transition and more than a couple really awkward and tone-breaking performances by some of the extras here and there. ADV also took a couple of minor "liberties" with the material (most prominently adding a touch of slapstick to a scene that didn't have it originally), which also split the waters a bit.
  • Even those who didn't like the original ADV dub or the Manga Entertainment-produced Death & Rebirth and End of Evangelion dubs, probably did enjoy FUNimation's dubs of the Rebuild movies. All but one of the four original English leads reprise their old roles^note  Amanda Winn Lee (Rei) is the one replaced, and they clearly benefit from the extra years of experience. In addition to the returnees, the new voices are also impeccably cast.

P-S

• Special Props to the English dub of Patlabor 2: The Movie (original Manga Entertainment dub). While dubs for most Patlabor works tend to be hit and miss, and the English dub for the original tv series is downright So Bad, It's Good, the original dub for the second film is excellent, probably one of the best for a Mamoru Oshii film. In particular, Peter Marinker (who you may remember for voicing two certain Primordial Lizards from Dark Souls) as Keiichi Goto. Despite Oshii turning Goto into his personal mouthpiece, Marinker manages to make Goto sound witty, intelligent, and interesting in both this film and the first with his dry delivery, and adds a bit of levity to the long scenes of monotonous talking. Definitely the best of all the Patlabor dubs and one of the most beloved among fans.
• Persona 4: The Animation sees the return of most of the voice actors from the original (and also very well-dubbed) game in their respective roles. Even the other Darrins fill in their roles excellently, with Sam Riegel taking over the role of the adorable and eccentric Teddie, Erin Fitzgerald as the perky and tomboyish Chie, and Matthew Mercer taking on the rough and rowdy Kanji around halfway through the series's run. Johnny Yong Bosch also performs very admirably, pulling double duty as Adachi and protagonist Yu Narukami, and showing off his impressive versatility with Narukami's voice bordering on baritone, a near-perfect impression of Riegel's Teddie in one episode, and a rather convincing falsetto in another.
• Pokémon: The Series' English dub has always been a favorite, to the point where you really have to go out of your way to even find ANY Japanese episodes (aside from the ones that got banned in the USA), and the Japanese character names are only known among hardcore fans. The voice actors were also very distinct and iconic in their roles, especially Veronica Taylor as Ash and May, Eric Stuart as Brock and James, Rachael Lillis as Misty and Jessie, and the late Maddie Blaustein as Meowth, all of whom put so much enthusiasm into their roles and admit the show is a highlight of their careers. The cast were so beloved that, when Nintendo yanked the license from 4Kids and moved the dub to a different (cheaper) studio and replaced them, the controversy it stirred continues today.
• Pokémon: The First Movie: Phillip Bartlett's voicing of Mewtwo. Admittedly, his performance is a tad over-dramatic at times (his departure from Giovanni's hideout being one notable example), however, he actually makes it work, especially given Mewtwo's backstory, personality and motives. A special nod goes to Ash's Viking joke.
• As good as the original anime's dub may be, the dub for Pokémon Origins blows it out of the water. Bryce Papenbrook as Red, Johnny Yong Bosch as Brock, Jamieson Price as Giovanni, and other amazing voice actors such as Cristina Vee, Laura Post, Kirk Thornton, and Kyle Hebert breathe life into this Truer to the Text adaptation.
• When watching Puella Magi Madoka Magica in English, it's recommended to watch the films instead of the TV airing, since it is considered a significant improvement over the dub of the original anime series (while the actors remain the same, the extra experience and familiarity with the characters help their portrayals bucketloads). Rebellion Story (despite being a controversial film) takes the cake on this, being widely considered one of the best english dubs of 2015. This dub was nominated for lots of awards and even won some.
• The Read or Die OAV deserves mention on this list. Of course, it's one of those shows where the characters explicitly inhabit a mostly English-speaking world. Every part is well-cast and well-acted, and even after a recent rewatch, it still holds up; none of the parts sound off.
• The dub for Read Or Die's follow-up, R.O.D the TV, is even better. This show makes up for the totally different cast^note  Tricia Dickinson is the only actor to appear in both dubs, albeit in different roles—Wendy in Read Or Die and Nenene in R.O.D, the latter under an alias, by bringing in actual British expats for the British characters (not shocking considering another title this studio dubbed). Special props for using actual kids—that can actually act—for the kid parts, including lead character Anita (an extremely challenging role even for the best VAs; that's why the original Japanese version used a seasoned veteran). These two things give the R.O.D dub a layer of authenticity that's rare in pretty much any cartoon, let alone a dub.
• The Record of Lodoss War OVA deserves mention as it happens to have been the debut lead role for Lisa Ortiz (who voices Deedlit). For someone inexperienced at the time, she manages it quite well and arguably carries the whole dub. In truth, though, the dub holds up surprisingly well for a 1996 effort. The occasional awkward sounding take and iffy minor roles notwithstanding, the principal characters, from Parn to Ghim to Ashram to Karla and Wagnard are all well cast and grow into their roles as the dub goes on. The subsequent TV spin-off dub Chronicles of the Heroic Knight unfortunately suffers from some painfully bad performances and is overall weaker than the OVA dub. Despite this, Crispin Freeman—as well as most of the returning cast and Debbie Rabbai—turn in solid if unspectacular work for their roles.
• That said, Record of Lodoss War's dub has divided many viewers, often receiving flak today. Which is almost curious, because the creators of the OVA have stated that they prefer the English voices to their Japanese counterparts. For its time, though, the OVA dub was an above average effort from Central Park Media.
• The Rozen Maiden English dub has become something of an alternative for fans of the show who refuse to sit through the endless "desu"-talk of the Japanese version. It helps that the English cast consisted almost entirely of industry veterans like Mela Lee, Sherry Lynn, Mona Marshall, Rebecca Forstadt, and Julie Ann Taylor. As a result, its general reception is considerably above-average. It was enough for Sentai to have the OVA prequel dubbed with the entire original cast years later.
• Sailor Moon: The fanbase had given up hope for a faithful re-dub of this anime long ago, due to the series's well-known place in licensing hell.^† Naoko Takeuchi had gained complete control of the franchise, and since giving Toei the okay to license the anime outside Japan again starting around 2010, had not allowed any new dubs to be made, only re-releases of the original dubs. Unfortunately, her other requirement was that any anime release had to be 100% uncut. Since DiC's English dub is one of the most infamous Macekres in existence, that meant there was no way for any American licensor to satisfy Takeuchi's requirements (at least for the first two seasons; the third and fourth were uncut even if the dialogue was Bowdlerized). Complicating matters further was that Takeuchi allegedly also demanded a TV deal as a condition for home video release… but American TV networks hate anime and really hate girls' shows (there's a reason Girl-Show Ghetto is a trope). All of this, plus the likely absurdly high license cost, added up to a nearly-insurmountable mountain for American licensors. But somehow, Viz Media managed to make it happen. And the reviews have been glowing. The staff shows clear reverence for the franchise, and this is reflected well in the cast choices (who Word of God states were given the final greenlight by Takeuchi herself).
  • Stephanie Sheh is the spunky, energetic, ditzy lead for Usagi fans could have hoped for. Though slightly shaky in her battlecries on occasion, this is only a slight flaw and there are far more positives. She gracefully walks the line between her crybaby wails, vulnerability, and the kind of enthusiasm any teenaged girl has, and nailing the tone of a clumsy if passionate heroine finding her footsteps. Kate Higgins gives a great performance as Mercury, a little reserved but strikingly intelligent and insightful just as she should be. Fan favorite voice actress Cristina Valenzuela^note  (credited as Cristina Vee) is the brash, charismatic soldier of passion that is Mars. Robbie Daymond delivers a soft-spoken yet confidently charming Tuxedo Mask, cool and reserved yet clearly caring for Usagi. Michelle Ruff is the plucky and responsible Luna, with a playfulness and warmth befitting her mentor role. And Danielle Judovits (credited as Danielle Nicole) gives a surprisingly strong voice to Naru, emphasizing her everygirl status as Usagi's best friend, adding a layer of chemistry and compassion that endears the character greatly. Ben Diskin really nails Umino, with his nerdy voice and really funny ad-libs (such as mocking Naru's (Molly in the DiC dub) Brooklyn accent in episode 7 when he's crossdressing), adding a new layer to the character that wasn't present in the original.
  • As for the villains, Cindy Robinson is excellent as the coldly strict and imperious Queen Beryl. And Todd Haberkorn brings an air of sophisticated superiority and theatrical smugness as Jadeite, making all of his scenes a joy to watch. Fans were very happy that Lucien Dodge didn't give Zoisite a stereotypical gay voice. In short, fans can rejoice, for this is the English dub we should have had from the beginning. Oh, and for fans of Dr. Tomoe's voice, it's been poked fun at here.◊
  • Viz and Studiopolis seem, if anything, to have stepped it up a notch for R. Chibi-Usa (Rini in the old Canadian dubs) is played by veteran voice actor Sandy Fox, whose résumé largely consists of little girls, and nails the part right out of the gate. For Sailor Pluto, they got Veronica Taylor, who's already appeared multiple times on this page.
    • And for a while, fans were not sure if Sandy Fox, who has a pitched voice, would be able to lower her voice for when Chibi-Usa becomes Black Lady, and surprisingly, she managed to pull it of.
  • They would also continue stepping up with casting the rest of the Outer Sailor Guardians for S and Sailor Stars. Erica Mendez, known for potraying tomboy-type characters, plays Sailor Uranus. Lauren Landa has been cast as Sailor Neptune. And for Hotaru Tomoe/Sailor Saturn, they turned to Christine Marie Cabanos.
  • Some would argue that the DiC dub was pretty good in it's own right as it had some pretty epic music(especially Serena's transformation theme and using "Carry On" during the finale battle with Beryl as opposed to just using the theme tune like the original anime did) and while not all of the voice-acting was spot-on, some of it really stood out. Both Terri Hawkes and Tracey Moore were praised for really getting across Serena's bubbly personality and Susan Roman (the only VA to stay on the dub from beginning to end) really gave it her all as Lita. If nothing else the DiC dub deserves for pretty much single-handedly kickstarting the Anime boom of the 90s and it's not an exaggeration to say that without the existence and success of this dub, it's very likely most if not all of the dubs on this page would never have existed in the first place.
    • Chibi-Usa's second voice actress, Stephanie Beard, is also quite well regarded by most fans. It also helps that she sounded quite a bit like an actual little girl (Beard was in her late teens/early 20s at the time).
• Sasami: Magical Girls Club (a Tenchi Muyo spinoff). In the Japanese version, all the voices of both the main characters and their friends are just downright horrible and ear-grating, the worst of them being Kozue, who sounds like a 40 year old with vocal chord paralysis! Funimation took this series and gave it over 9000 levels of improvement! In the dub, all the girls actually sound believable, like real girls, and the voices actually match too!
• Slayers: Now THIS is a good English dub. Despite a very rough start due to its origin early in modern dubbing history (CPM started on it in 1996) and a couple of questionable secondary casting choices, the dialogue from the two leads in particular was the perfect combination of faithfulness and liberalness—credit goes to Neil Nadelman's excellent translation work for that. Props also go to the now-legendary English voice cast: Lisa Ortiz (a perfect match for Lina's crazy energy), Eric Stuart as Gourry, Crispin Freeman as Zelgadis, and Veronica Taylor as Amelia—the latter two joining up after a 20-month hiatus following episode 13 necessitated a recasting of every single role in the series except Lina and Gourry. The chemistry between these four is among the best you'll find in any English dub. These four actors were beloved in their roles enough that when FUNimation licensed the fourth season nine years after CPM had finished the third, fans insisted that Funi get the old cast back. So they did.
  • Other English VAs who have worked on this franchise at some point over the years include notable names like Rachael Lillis (Martina), Dan Green (Gaav and Wizer), Wayne Grayson (Hellmaster Phibrizzo), Greg Abbey, Tara Jayne Sands (Filia ul Copt), Scottie Ray (Valgaav and Duclis), Chris Patton (Gourry, Premium), Jessica Calvello, Stephanie Sheh (Sylphiel, Revolution), Tiffany Grant, Michael Sinterniklaas (Xellos, Revolution-R), the late Maddie Blaustein, Luci Christian (Amelia, Premium), Colleen O'Shaughnessey (Pokota), Troy Baker (Zuuma, Radok), Jason Griffith (Abel), Liam O'Brien (Red Priest Rezo, Revolution-R), and THE Wil Wheaton!
    • Even the voices that weren't popular ended up being replaced with better actors at some point (such as the original Zelgadis, Amelia, Sylphiel, and Xellos—though there are fans who liked David Moo's Xellos; his performance in particular falls into divisiveness).
  • While the prequel movies and OVA's dubbed by ADV do get some flack for using a different voice for Lina^note  ADV did actually try to get Lisa Ortiz, but she proved unwilling to go down to Texas, prompting a last-minute casting call to replace her, they're actually quite good, and Cynthia Martinez's Lina voice appropriately sounds like a younger version of Lisa Ortiz. Everything else about these dubs goes through fine, easily as well as the TV series. Plus, who could forget Kelly Manison's Naga laugh? It was actually kind of a shame that Manison couldn't reprise her role in the Evolution-R dub (which was being recorded in a different city by a different studio and she likely wasn't even asked).
    • In addition, the Slayers Premium short film's English dub caught flak for recasting Gourry, Amelia, and Xellos (it was also dubbed in Houston by ADV with Martinez as Lina). It's a look at what could easily have been had Funimation not gone back to the original cast for Seasons 4-5. Though even for Premium, ADV was able to get back Crispin Freeman (he loves playing Zelgadis and was going to be in the area anyway).
• Star Blazers, a.k.a. Space Battleship Yamato, is arguably the Ur-Example of good English anime dubs. By modern standards, the translation takes too many liberties (although a few of these changes are considered improvements even in Japan), but it was really the first Japanese animated series that American translators really put some effort into getting right, meaning it's leagues better than anything that had come before. Moreover, the voice acting is absolutely top notch, even by today's standards.
• Steamboy: Many of the actors are actually British, and those that aren't can at least pull off a British accent convincingly. More importantly, it has Patrick Stewart and Anna Paquin. It also breaks what the expected sacrosanct rule of anime dubs: it makes a bratty, 12-year-old female character actually sound convincing. Thank you, Kari Wahlgren!!
• Disney's dubs of Studio Ghibli films are fantastic. While they do have their occasional weak points (occasional extra sounds and sometimes eccentric casting choices for select characters), the voice acting, writing, and direction on each of them is top notch. Particularly outstanding performances include Phil Hartman as Jiji in Kiki's Delivery Service (incidentally his very last role before his death), Mark Hamill and Cloris Leachman as Muska and Dola respectively in Castle in the Sky, Minnie Driver and Billy Crudup in Princess Mononoke, Suzanne Pleshette in Spirited Away, Kimberly Williams-Paisley as Fio in Porco Rosso… the list goes on and on.
  • As an added bonus, Disney's English dub of Castle in the Sky also contains a gorgeous reworking and extension of the original score. Provided, interestingly, by Joe Hisaishi himself, with the approval of Miyazaki! Sadly, if you're American or Canadian, this rescore is only on the 2003 DVD release; due to LOUD complaints from purists, all subsequent North American releases omit it. However, the rescore is included on the Japanese, UK, and Australian Blu-Rays, although the additional funny ad-libs present on the original US DVD are gone forever.
    • Luckily, the Shout! Factory and GKIDS rerelase of the film added the rescored dub as one of the audio tracks.
• Sword Art Online's English dub. The scripting is great, there are no stilted lines, and all of the actors are great at what they do, especially Bryce Papenbrook's take on Kirito. Plus, on the Alfheim side, there's Cassandra Lee Morris's Suguha, as she really gives her that edge that makes her sound like an actual teenage girl, albeit one with a forbidden thing going on. There are also veterans like Cherami Leigh, Stephanie Sheh, Kirk Thornton, Patrick Seitz, and Todd Haberkorn, among others.

T-Z

• Tenchi Muyo!'s English dub has also become quite a classic, and is very well received overall by the English fandom. Petrea Burchard's performance as Ryoko is particularly singled out as being very well-done, when fans learned that she would not be reprising her role for the third OVA, fans were quite vocal. Sherry Lynn also gets a lot of praise for her work as Sasami and Kiyone, as well as Jennifer Darling and KT Vogt as Ayeka and Washu respectively. Of the supporting characters, Jay Hopper's voice for Tenchi's Grandfather is often cited as a fan favorite.
• A sub-division of Sentai Filmworks called Maiden Japan made its first English dub, and what anime did they dub first? Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. And it was AWESOME. It does sound iffy in the first couple episodes, but the actors really hit their stride in episode 4, and after that, spot on performances all around! The best of them was Tiffany Grant as Yuuki. Once the good episodes roll in, she NAILS the kid! The only problems: Yuka's voice is WAY too low and lady-like for her, the teacher had a strong accent, and you can hear Greg Ayres in EVERY SINGLE EPISODE! He's even cast as Mari's late husband, and his voice really doesn't fit him. But that's about it. The rest of the dub is very superlative indeed.
• Toradora! has an outstanding English dub, to the point that IGN listed it as among the Best Dubbed Series in Anime. Erik Kimerer captures the cool, levelheadedness of Ryuuji, while Cassandra Lee Morris simply is Taiga Aisaka, capturing the character's spunky Tsundere personality with a Massive Heart of Gold. The two voice actors have amazing chemistry, and it makes their characters' relationship completely believable. The rest of the cast is also great, with Christine Marie Cabanos playing Genki Girl Minori, Johnny Yong Bosch as the diligent Kitamura, and Erika Harlacher capturing the Lovable Alpha Bitch persona of Ami. And that's just to name a few.
• The English dub for Wolf's Rain. It was dubbed by the exact same crew that did the perennially-praised Cowboy Bebop (except for the ADR scriptwriter, who was a voice actor in Bebop), and had a cast made up entirely of industry veterans—compare to the Japanese cast, which intentionally used newcomers for the leads. Special praise in particular goes to Tom Wyner's portrayal of wolf hunter Quent Yaiden, which manages to completely outshine Bebop alum Unsho Ishizuka.
• A lot needs to be said about the English dub of Yo Kai Watch. Not only does it faithfully translate the dialogue, but it also goes through the effort of localizing every Yo-kai's catchphrase and Verbal Tic. The opening and ending themes are also translated instead of merely using a different theme song. Granted, not all of the content can get by without edits, but most of the time, the edits are usually light and hardly affect the plot in any way. Surprisingly, the dub is actually able to get away with showing a lot of darker and riskier content that most kids' anime dubs couldn't, like Jibanyan dying by being hit by a truck, and the characters watching a fanservice show on an adult channel. The dub is so well handled that even fans who watched the Japanese version admit to enjoying it. In fact, when Netflix accidentally mixed up the Disney XD dub with the Toonami Asia dub, people actually complained that they preferred the Disney XD version because it had superior voice acting and put more effort in localizing the content for English audiences.
• AnimEigo's English dub of the You're Under Arrest! OAV's (courtesy of the now-defunct Coastal Carolina studio, which also dubbed the Oh My Goddess! OAV's) was so well-made that when Kodansha developed the movie a few years later, Etsuko Kozakura (who played Yoriko) was told to voice her character more like the English actress, Pamela Weidner, had done. This also happened with Natsumi (it's been said her Japanese VA, Sakiko Tamagawa, was shown a clip of her English counterpart, Tamara Mercer, and told basically "Do that.").
  • The dub of the first TV series, recorded by Coastal after a six-year hiatus, is even better—this is due in large part to the fact that they were able to get back every single member of the OAV's cast save one (Miyuki, and her replacement is just as good if not better). The YUA dub was so well-received and so embraced by the fans that when ADV Films announced they had picked up The Movie and some assorted shorts but were planning to dub them in Houston, fans screamed bloody murder until ADV relented and sent the dub to Coastal (sadly, Coastal themselves closed up shop in 2003 upon finishing the YUA Movie^note  However, Bandai briefly and inexplicably resurrected them in 2008 to dub Clamp School Detectives, and AnimEigo resurrected them again in 2012 to dub some Hello Kitty videos they somehow got hold of.).
  • It's no coincidence that this series has one of the very few anime fandoms—albeit a quite small one—where you're not likely to find many if any fans willing to bash the English dub. Fans of the series were genuinely upset when it was announced that the long-awaited 2nd and 3rd series would be released only in subtitled Japanese.
• Tiger & Bunny: The English dub is easily one of the best with Wally Wingert and Yuri Lowenthal play off of each other well for the main duo.
  • While it's up to debate whether Kotesu and Barnaby's English voices are better or worse than their original voices, many of the other heroes and side characters are very well casted and dubbed.
• Violet Evergarden is generally very good even dubbed, with the only real issue being a scene in Episode 3, where the translation is wrong, even in the official Netflix subtitles. Considering that said scene relies heavily on context that is only given in the original Light Novels, this mistake is easy to forgive.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: The 4Kids dub may be controversial, but it does actually improve on the original in number of ways, one that most people agree on is that Pegasus is a lot more interesting (Darren Dunstan's spot on voice acting really made him memorable). There are certain story changes that make more sense (i.e. Yugi doing poorly against Mai because of him refusing Yami's help after being tramautized by how far Yami was willing to go in his duel against Kaiba, as opposed to him just doing poorly because of being impatient and overconfident). Also this is one dub which makes the Never Say "Die" rule actually work in its favor, as when you actually think about it, the Shadow Realm is a pretty terrifying concept, being trapped in a place of eternal suffering is in many ways A Fate Worse than Death (plus it makes more sense for characters to come back from the Shadow Realm, as opposed to dying and being reborn). Even after the Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged series made fun of the dub, it still nevertheless has a lot of fans.
• As despised as 4Kids is, the general consensus is that their dub of Ultimate Muscle was one of their finest works. Believe it or not, 4Kids did remarkably well with this show, since the goofy, over-the-top voice acting and Hurricane of Puns fit the tone of the show perfectly. They even kept in a lot of the dirty jokes, and added in a few new ones (like Kid Muscle inviting Roxanne and her friends to "a foursome...for Golf", and Gazelleman being renamed Dik Dik Van Dik. After all, the series is an action-comedy, whose origins are from a manga that was originally a gag manga.
• Compared to other 1980s era English Dubs of anime during this period. The English Dubs for Sanrio Animation's film adaptations of Osamu Tezuka's Unico series (The Fantastic Adventures of Unico and Unico in the Island of Magic) is surprisingly decent when it comes to performances. Notably Barbara Goodson's performance as Unico since she's able to make him sound more endearing and charming increasing his cuteness factor. Special mention goes to Robin Levenson's equally cute performance as Chao/Chow ("Katy" in the English dub), Lara Cody's feisty and lovable delivery as Piro/Marusu/Mars (known as "Sphinx's Daughter" in the English Dub), and Cheryl Chase's bratty and endearing role as Akuma-kun/Beezle. The voice acting is so decent that western fans actually prefer the English versions over the original Japanese versions due to their performances.