Funimation ("You Should Be Watching")

I'll concede on the Detective Conan dub then, but all the other points still stand.

And as for the Steins Gate dub, let's not forget Trina Nishimura being awesome as Kurisu.

edited 20th Jan '13 12:34:34 AM by fourteenwings

Oh, and he also directed it.

Wrong. Director's honor goes to Colleen Clinkenbeard for that one.

Oh okay. My bad.

With the exception of the opening song, the dub for Ouran High School Host Club is awesome too. And I think Colleen Clinkenbeard (that is a cool name) directed it too.

I don't think I've ever heard a bad dub from Funimation. Granted, I'm comparing it to some of Central Park Media's output, but at worst a Funimation dub is just okay.

That's part of the reason I'm annoyed at Sentai's dubs which average at just okay instead of good like Funimation. When they were ADV, their dubs were on roughly the same level, but when they reorganized, their dubs just dropped in quality.

I found the dub for K-On! very good, although I haven't heard all of it.

K-on Season 2 was outsourced to Bang-Zoom who did the dub for the first season. I'll clarify a little bit. Sentai's in-house dubs don't tend to be great.

And I think Colleen Clinkenbeard (that is a cool name) directed it too.

Um... Well, she did play Eclair (not the one from Kiddy Grade) in the last couple episodes, and Caitlin likely wouldn't mind too much being mixed up with her.

edited 20th Jan '13 11:13:46 AM by PikaHikariKT

Oops. Anyway, I think part of Funimation's dub quality is that they've managed to keep several very good ADR directors.

I saw some mention of Solty Rei back there.

To you guys. Nobody I know seems to have ever watched it.

Exactly.

And because I neglected this in the last post, here's Haruhi F. imitating Luffy.

I never see anyone talk about Solty Rei, not even at cons. Or even Oh Edo Rocket, which is such an underrated comedy that should be given more love too.

Oh Edo Rocket

HELL YES, loved that anime. Unfortunately, some of its lack of popularity can be attributed to a more popular show with some of its cast getting a couple releases around the same time as it.

@Shota The whole thing with Funimation actors moving to L.A. frustrates me. Funi both produces my favorite dubs and has my favorite actor pool for dubbing, so it kinda saddens me when one of their actors move to L.A., because of how anime isn't dubbed as much up there now anymore. I can't at all blame actors for the choice to move, since videogames and western cartoons pay so much more than anime, but as someone who isn't particularly interested in those mediums, I can't really care as much when they get a role in those mediums. Laura Bailey and Troy Baker are currently thriving in the world of video games and western animation, but their work in anime has slowed down immensely. I miss 'em. :( Even then, the only real studio still doing dubbing up in L.A. is Bang Zoom!, and I'm not really the biggest fan of BZ!, so...

I will say though, the one good thing that can come from it is that it makes room for Funi's talented fledgling actors, who need more prolific roles to have their awesomeness recognized. :) (To answer your original question Shota, while I can't gurantee it'll happen, I'd LOVE to see people like Tia Ballard and Mina Grelle become major players for Funi in the future <3)

edited 20th Jan '13 6:20:34 PM by Xelorei

That's one other thing I like about Funimation. They aren't shy about finding new actors, but they make sure that those actors are good enough.

Sadly, it seemed the entire point of Todd Haberkorn building and building his acclaim under Funimation...... was so he could move to California. He may have been planning that from the beginning. I just have that feeling about it. Look I know anime dubbing doesn't pay much to get by at all. I'm a professional artist and understand that you can't be picky about aiming for a particular project to work on- there are also video games, commercials, radio, and other avenues. But those fans who support Funimation also want to see their favorite actors there as well, even if they do understand that it's a great idea for them to climb to more jobs in LA where the pay could possibly be better, but in an over-saturated market.

edited 20th Jan '13 7:48:35 PM by Shota

I think part of the problem is mostly the Texas thing about unions. If Funimation could hire union actors, they probably would. They certainly use loopholes to hire Crispin Freeman occasionally.

edited 20th Jan '13 7:54:45 PM by Zendervai

@ Xelorei: Tia Ballard isn't a name I'm familiar with. What's she been in? And has Mina Marie done anything since her reassignment? Or is that even finished?

I always wondered why there seemed to be zero crossover between Funi actors and non. I guess that's it.

edited 20th Jan '13 7:56:23 PM by Discar

Texas has some law that prohibits union workers in some fields, which is stated on Funimation's page here. That would explain the lack of crossovers unless said crossover was on an actor's own means instead of a company's.

Mina is continuing to voice her male role in Toriko, because her voice didn't change. Other than that, I dunno. Tia Ballard was Eris in Cat Planet Cuties, Kusano in Sekirei, Xiao Mei in Fullmetal Alchemist BROTHERHOOD, Hibana Daida in Deadman Wonderland, Mizore in Rosario And Vampire, and Rin in Rideback. She's currently Happy in Fairy Tail.

edited 20th Jan '13 8:39:09 PM by Shota

Basically the way Funimation occasionally gets unionized actors in is to hire them for ADR direction, as there isn't a union for that. In anime, ADR directors tend to play a part, but get paid for the ADR job, so technically, the director could play a part without conflicting with the union. Unfortunately, that only works for one actor and it's kind of a hassle, so Funimation only really does it when a character did an iconic role and the fandom really wants them back.

x5

To be fair, Haberkorn, unlike Laura/Troy/Travis/etc, still has come back to do roles at Funi ever since he left in the summer of 2011, or I at least assume so since he had two lead roles for Funi shows last year (Aria and C Control) Granted, this might just be because Todd was in Texas to record Fairy Tail and got a chance to be in those two shows because of that...idk. (And I guess to be fair to the 3 actors mentioned above, they have at least come back to Funi to reprise old roles like for FMA:Brotherhood or in Troy's case to replace Chris Patton after he left)

Also, I just went to the Names To Know In Anime page to look at some pages for various voice actors and...and... what the, Cherami is going to?! D:>

And if they're dubbing the next Fairy Tail season, he'll need to revisit Texas anyway.

....wait. Cherami is going to California too!?!? I'd like confirmation on that.

Well that's good. We now have two of the 5 main cast members of Fairy Tail no longer living in Texas soon.

........ I take it it's customary for a voice actor never to think of traveling as a hassle.

edited 20th Jan '13 9:37:20 PM by Shota

I know there are a few voice actors like Steve Blum who have a studio in their house so they can record without having to actually travel anywhere. It's the reason he shows up everywhere.

edited 20th Jan '13 9:37:40 PM by Zendervai

Fun Fact: The actors voicing the characters in Team Natsu (the main 5) agreed that if they managed to dub up to 100 episodes of the show, they'd all get guild tattoos. How did that turn out? Well, of course they're nowhere near 100 and we have yet to see any news about them dubbing over 48 yet, but Todd already GOT a tattoo anyway, and the others have yet to confirm. Whoops.

x3

I'd like confirmation too. I only saw the info next to her name on that page, nothing more than that...dunno if it's true or false. Just thought I'd bring it up.

lol Didn't know all 5 of them agreed to do that. And I'm pretty sure Funi has confirmed that another 24 episodes plus the movie have been confirmed for dubbing.

Nothing like that is on her own tvtropes page. Nowhere else online so far on my searches too. Speak up, That Person!

- EDIT: Found who added that in History, who made the edit in October 24th! Apparently it's old news by now, and so far nothing's been heard of it since??? I sent a note to ask. .................. man I have a lot of free time.

edited 20th Jan '13 9:58:36 PM by Shota