For Filipino Tropers Only: Voice Actors

Um, question. What do you think of Filipino voice actors? I think they succeed in maintaining the original Japanese dub more than the English ones. However, there are many exceptions.

I cringed at the TV5 dubs of Azumanga Daioh and Suzumiya Haruhi. Da Capo on Hero sounded weird as hell too.

Code Geass was still manageable, but Hayate The Combat Butler on Q almost made me facefault because of how Nagi talked.

Honestly, the only Pinoy dubs I liked were Beyblade and Yu Gi Oh.

edited 8th Nov '09 12:13:48 AM by Mapi-chan

Yeah. I am surprised when they used "Jowa" in Azumanga Daioh.

I tend to judge voice acting not by whether it "imitates the original" or not; but whether they had succeeded in bringing out the needed "character" through their voices or not. The "Golden Age" of Filipino (Tagalog) voice acting in the mid 90s is proof of that; unfortunately, there seems to be a rather decline in quality; both from mishandling of the talents by whomever are in charge, and from the fanbase that seem to prefer (or rabidly support) subs, the copies of which can be easily accessed through our friendly neighborhood pirates. Which is bad news for the likes of me that openly support the local voice acting industry.

I don't speak a word of Tagalog (although I've heard enough of it to recognise it when it's being spoken), but I am curious about whether they keep the original songs...

The "Golden Age" of Filipino (Tagalog) voice acting in the mid 90s is proof of that; unfortunately, there seems to be a rather decline in quality; both from mishandling of the talents by whomever are in charge, and from the fanbase that seem to prefer (or rabidly support) subs, the copies of which can be easily accessed through our friendly neighborhood pirates.

I am curious about whether they keep the original songs...

Also, the rivalry between TV5 dubbers and Hero's dubbers isn't really helping. I don't know what TV5 was thinking when they dubbed Spongebob Squarepants in Tagalog.

edited 8th Nov '09 8:05:34 PM by Mapi-chan

Rivalry? Haven't heard of such a thing. For all I know, dubbers here are freelancers and can go to wherever they wish. The only real rivalry perhaps would lie in the broadcasters themselves (ABS-Hero vs GMA7)...wait, GMA7 doesn't even have its own dubbing outfit.

Keeping the OP and EDs has been the recent trend nowadays, unlike in the 90s when the songs were also translated (I missed those days); and were only changed when the, ahem, more "experienced" anime fans cried foul/massacre over the practice.

edited 8th Nov '09 8:37:57 PM by ladycoffee

It's all a matter of preference I guess. Concerning the rivalry between TV5 and Hero, it isn' t the VAs themselves, but the people employing them, IIRC.

It isn't publicized because I only found out when my friend told me about her interviewing those people for schoolwork.

edited 8th Nov '09 8:54:00 PM by Mapi-chan

^Dubbers are just human; they have different perspectives on the goings-on in the industry.

Also, I don't think there should be any reason for TV5 to have a rivalry with Hero though; the former's a free channel while the latter is a cable channel; they might be serving different economic demographics altogether.

Language preferences are always a highly subjective topic, although the preference of the majority of the place where the show will be aired must be taken into account. The Philippines is a Third World country and not many are literate or "educated" enough to appreciate and/or keep up with subs.

edited 8th Nov '09 9:00:33 PM by ladycoffee

Which is why Subbing Versus Dubbing, IMO should always be labeled as Your Mileage May Vary and be left as such. It's a waste of time debating which one is better, though there are occasional agreements between both sides, and the subject is often Macekre by Four Kids Entertainment.

edited 8th Nov '09 9:02:55 PM by Mapi-chan

It's a waste of time debating which one is better, though there are occasional agreements between both sides, and the subject is often Macekre by Four Kids Entertainment.

edited 8th Nov '09 9:18:34 PM by ladycoffee

Indeed. Any dub would suit best as long as it is well made.

In any case, Filipino voice actors have been known in Macekre-ing dubs for years.

Take for example, the first Gundam shows shown in the Philippines [meaning the first three alternate universe Gundam series]. These dubs somewhat sucked, because partly, they had no English dub to rely on the names of the characters. However, in similarity of voice actors to the Japanese original, it's kinda mixed. For example, the same Filipino voice actor for Heero Yuy [which personally I didn't like that much] is much more suited in playing Garrod Ran in Gundam X, which matched somewhat Wataru Takagi's performance. On the other hand, though, the Filipino VA for Domon Kasshu of G Gundam [whom I think is voiced by the same VA as Lelouch of Code Geass in the Filipino dub], didn't match Tomokazu Seki's voice, yet he got away with it because at least his Hot-Blooded personality is portrayed more faithfully.

In any case, this is usually up to the normal viewers, not the reviewers, who happen to be among the viewers, whether this dub sucked or kicked ass.

And Mapi-chan, I was shocked too at the dub of Hayate The Combat Butler. Filipino Version Nagi is voiced by Filipino Version of Ryoma Echizen? That's odd.

edited 9th Nov '09 5:27:37 AM by general_tiu

Filipino Version Nagi is voiced by Filipino Version of Ryoma Echizen? That's odd.

edited 9th Nov '09 5:47:43 AM by Mapi-chan

Macekre? As far as I can recall, Macekre is when you intentionally change the original to make your own story and "destroys" the original. I am yet to see a case of that outside the dubs of old anime.

The problem with most anime fans of today is that...oh bother, I had been saying the same thing all over again, but I'll say it again. They keep on comparing the original Japanese voices with the Filipino (or English dub) voices. The two can never be compared with one another, since they're two different languages with two different standards. Guess I have to blame the "what we're used to" mentality for this.

And oh, Domon's VA and Lelouch's VA are 2 different people.

edited 10th Nov '09 1:00:26 AM by ladycoffee

Maybe you are right. Macekre is usually motivated today by Political Correctness Gone Mad.

Makes me think of an article about Filipino voice actors, or as an appendix, in the site.

I was talking about the 4Kids version of Yu Gi Oh, no doubt it's Macekre.

edited 10th Nov '09 1:07:54 AM by Mapi-chan

^exactly what I was thinking. That's why I was surprised at the comment that Filipino dubs are Macekres. Say what you want about the old 70s dubs, but they did NOT change the story or added/subtracted anything; and still do so with today's Pinoy dubs; so I can't see how they were Macekres

edited 10th Nov '09 1:21:58 AM by ladycoffee

I didn't say that our own dubs are Macekre though; I'm just shocked at the occasionally egregious instances I saw like Azumanga Daioh and Hayate The Combat Butler.

@Mapi: Sorry, I was referring to general tiu's "Macekre" comment

Yes, a good number of dubs had their quality suffering from the *wrong* people put in charge of training the newbs.

I always thought the Yu-Yu Hakusho sub was ok, save for the names on the leads. Ah, the Denise/Dennis fiasco.

The only thing i can say is that when Philippines dubs it, it becomes corny. they use deep tagalog. AT WALA PANG NAGMUMURA!! P***NGINA NAMAN NYAN!!!

May MTRCB kasi...

Pero may standard kung gagamit ba ng malalim na Tagalog o gawing contemporary. Pag mga sina-unang panahon or 19th century ang settings, OK ang malalim na Tagalog. Pero pag modern o futuristic na, pwede nang haluan ng Ingles.

Most dubs right now are sprinkled with Taglish.

Correction: Gratuitous Taglish.

And despite not being anime I liked the older Super Sentai dubs since they actually used English. Geh, Nostalgia Filter.

Fil-English dubs are something I am almost ashamed to be showcasing to the Westerners (what with the constant complaints that we have heavy accents).

Actually, I personally prefer the local dubbers to dub in Tagalog since that's the language they grew up in.

@SevenNights: Bakit ka mag eexpect ng mura sa anime; e wala naman talagang tunay na pagmumura sa Japanese language. Rude words meron, pero wala ang mga yun sa level ng mura ng mga Westerners.

edited 18th Nov '09 8:33:53 PM by ladycoffee