We don't seem to have an all-purpose dub thread, so I figured I'd start one. (We do have a subs vs. dubs thread though, so keep that discussion there.)

So anyway, how are the Full Metal Panic and Samurai Champloo dubs?

edited 14th Jul '09 11:23:35 AM by Nyktos

I dislike the Samurai Champloo dub quite a bit, although I've been hearing people say good things about it. The characters have such an american accent, it doesn't really fit.

That being said, I entirely prefer the German dub. The japanese audio is fine, but the German one is even better. Of course, you probably won't have much use for a German dub.

Yeah, unfortunately I only speak English (for now).

The Full Metal Panic dub is brilliant; I haven't actually listened to more than a few seconds of the sub, because every time I've tried it I've pretty much instantly thought "The dub is so much better" and switched back over.

I completely disagree with the Samurai Chaploo dub comment - although the accent dissonance is there, Samurai Champloo prides itself on being weirdly anachronistic and such. The dub voices were highly reflective of their characters' personalities. Besides, seeing ancient samurai have discussions about whether it's still cool to use the phrase 'little bitch' to describe a rival is hilarious to me.

Whether or not a dub is good depends mostly on which language you first heard the show in. Granted, there are some exceptions, but for the most part, if you watched the show subbed first, you won't like the dub.

That being said, since I mostly only watch the English dubs, I can tell you that I enjoyed the Full Metal Panic voice cast quite a bit. I haven't seen much Champloo, though, so I have no opinion regarding that one.

Wow Lizard Bite, you're like...the first person besides me who I've ever heard say that about "whatever you watch first". For me, I don't quite understand how people can tear a dub apart and bitch about "how wrong this voice for this character is" because the first time I'm watching an anime, I'm just kind of in the moment and whatever the character's voice happens to be, I just think "well that's their voice" because in real life, people just have a particular natural way that their voice sounds. The language aspect of it is also jarring. Trying to watch characters who I've seen speak Japanese suddenly start speaking English feels off, and the same goes for if I've seen a dub first. I just wish this sort of thing got talked more about in the fandom, but I guess that's impossible with the eternal dinn of asinine purism and overblown worship of how "exotic" Japanese culture is.

As a native English speaker, I appreciate dubs most for shows that don't take place in Japan. One of my current favorite shows, Blassreiter, takes place in Germany, and its just recently been licensed, so I really hope they get some good actors who can pull of subtle German accents.

edited 15th Jul '09 11:01:58 AM by THX1138

I can't get through an episode of FMP! subbed. I'm so accustomed to the English voices and English dialogue that whenever I try it's like I'm watching a completely different show.

Really? I thought it was a well-known effect. Basic psychology.

Well of course basic psychology doesn't matter when the Sacred, Flawless Beauty Of Glorious Nippon is at stake with every new licensed property.

THX: When you keep posting things like that, it's kind of hard to keep reminding myself that you're trying to be funny. It's pretty insulting-by-splash-damage.

On-topic: I've been trying to learn the names and specialties of the various dub actors who are apparently Big Names in the industry. It's an interesting experience: my unfamiliarity with the English voices must be what other people feel when they listen to the Japanese voices.

But learning the names and the little individual quirks is kind of fun.

I wonder how Monster would work with a German dub.

I don't know about the "you like the thing you heard first" thing. I wouldn't really agree because that's saying you can't even try to form objective opinions about it.

When I can, I download dual-audios and choose whichever I like more. Like in the case of Shana, where I immediately stuck to the dub.

Or Cowboy Bebop. While I may be prejudiced here since the dub is so hailed, I did check out both voices and had to agree. The dub is superior. But I think a major part of the reason is that the japanese audio sucks. The dub isn't just better, the japanese voice are fucking crap. Same goes for Ghost In The Shell. I had dual audio but the English track had some extremely shitty sound quality (like someone talking too close to his microphone, that effect I mean) and I still watched it with that track because it's beeeetter.

I've watched Baccano in japanese, but this dub clip seems great to me. Death Note is another case where I watched the japanese audio first but like certain dub voices more. Unfortunately, I can't remember which they were. I only remember that Ryuk was better in the dub.

With Haruhi, it changed over time, first I totally preferred the dub, but later I found some japanese voices better. It's pretty much equal now. I find Haruhis, Asakuras and Mikuru's voices to be better in japanese while Koizumi, Tsuruya and the computer club leader are better in English. With Kyon and Yuki, I'm a bit torn. Both VA's for Kyon do an excellent job yet make Kyon sound a lot different. I think I'd go with Crispin Freeman though, just because his voice is sexy and Kyon is sexy.

With Yuki, it's like.. The japanese voice sounds a lot better but is mostly just a faint voice. The english voice has a strong monotone. That makes it sound a lot less "beautiful", but it actually fits because she's supposed to talk in a monotone. In that case, I lean more towards the japanese one though, simply because aesthetically pleasing.

Other than that, the wording of the dub is a lot better. Sentences are formulated in a waaay more awesome way than what I read from the subtitles. "No way!" - "Way."

There's enough stuff that doesn't even have a dub and I don't have to bother with this.

.*sigh* so much text even though I'm extremely tired.. Good night.

edited 15th Jul '09 4:15:44 PM by Smokie

THX: You should see some of the comments on You Tube I've seen. I saw a clip from a Pirates of the Caribbean dub in Japanese. One of the comments was "very good! better than the original!"

My reaction:

edited 15th Jul '09 3:52:00 PM by [AOD]

I'm throwing my lot in for the first version camp as well, with the exception of dubs with Blind Idiot Translations and Malay dubs, the latter due to extraordinarily inept Dawson Casting.

It's just a tendency. A bias.

Maybe "dubbed into the characters' actual language" should be a trope. Do you think the English dub of Code Geass would count? If the internal history is at all accurate, I wouldn't think Britannia's language would have much resemblance to English as we know it.

It's all in the direction. I hold FLCL as the golden standard as far as dubs go, but some of the actors in that dub put out substandard performances in other shows.

AOD: Yeah, its crazy how impossible it is to get certain people to understand that if you're watching a film or show in a language that isn't your native one, and the language of said film or show is very distantly, or not at all related to your native language on a linguistic level you're ability to accurately judge the performances drops significantly I can't tell you the number of times I've sat watch a Chinese movie and my friend George, who is nativly Taiwanese, comments about this or that actor completely hamming it up and over-acting, and I can't even catch that. Stunning how obstinate people can be when you point this out though. Personally though, I find the lack of lip-synch in dubbed live action films to be too distracting to watch them in English, with the exception of Oldboy, which captivated me to a degree that I sort of stopped noticing that it was dubbed.

edited 15th Jul '09 4:55:38 PM by THX1138

This. Sadly, few people seem to realize it. Most of how good a dub turns out depends on the director, not the actors.

Personally, if given a choice, I end up following whichever one has the better voice direction.

Sometimes it seems like the voice actors are just reading off a script, without caring about what the character is actually doing; there's no guide for them to follow, I suspect.

This happens with every language I've seen anime in (and other dubbed work, but since I've seen more anime than anything else, I have more experience there). The bad cases are especially obvious to me, whichever language it's in.

That's the thing about directors, they don't (always) do anything directly - but they create a whole feel.

About voice direction: I've read time and again how hard it is for actors, even with a good script, to turn out a performance to match thanks to how antiseptic and impersonal ADR dubbing can be. A bad ADR session doesn't give its actor(s) anything in the way of context or other actors to play off of, so they're basically flying blind in those situations with regards to what the hell they should sound like or should be going for.

I keep getting... whatever the term is. Someone else posts while I'm writing out mine.

I'm not sure who's responsible for choosing the actual voice actors. Occasionally the direction seems like they wanted a certain VA, but had to settle for someone else: Koharu Biyori always struck me as an example. Then there's another one I reviewed a long time ago where a certain VA (Mai Nakahara) would have been perfect for the role, and the way the character was eventually voiced felt as though the actual VA was trying to emulate her, but it didn't really work as well. Not bad, just... not as good as it could have been.

Ninja'd?

So who are some of the better voice directors in North America? Let's try Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, she's listed as "Director" for Cowboy Bebop and "ADR Director" for Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex. Wait, she voiced the Major, too? Didn't know any voice directors doubled as VAs. Great, now I'm in role-spotting mode... Motoko Kusanagi is Cornelia li Britannia is Kurenai is Jura is movie Urd...

Black Lagoon says "Voice Direction: James Corrigall." Nana and Gundams Zeta, SEED, and 00. The ADR director for Haruhi Suzumiya season one was Eric P. Sherman, who did Vandread, Chobits, and Samurai Champloo, and who's also done a lot of work as a producer.

Actually, a lot of VA actors in anime do direction too. Small market doesn't reward specialization you see.

Shin Chan's Laura Bailey also does direction at Funimation.