I wasn't even born when the French dub of Fist of the North Star aired, but watching it nowadays is an experiment.
For context, this was the time where French television was starting to buy Japanese animation en masse because it was cheap, except they didn't really... look at the content of what they were buying. Thus you had Kenshiro dissecting ennemies in morning programmes for kids, which was a bit... awkward. Thus, in addition to the visual censorship the voice actors demanded total creative freedom, resulting in ridiculous voices, a Hurricane of Puns and a lot of... liberties in the story. It was the most extreme example, but hardly an exception during the 80s and 90s (City Hunter had a similar treatment, notably).
It's funny to watch, but a broadcaster would be eviscerated by the fans if they did that today.
edited 27th Oct '17 1:47:46 AM by Lyendith
I'm pretty sure the Tokyo Mew Mew dub is what gave 4kids a bad rep. Some people like it, even unironically, but it doesn't have the positive reputation of Pokemon.
Apparently the current Yo-kai Watch anime fits this bill. I was watching a recent episode and noticed Komasan call a riceball a marshmallow. The games feature riceballs too! But, I can't help but really enjoy the English dub. It's funny, even if 99% of all background characters use the same two voices.
The thing about the Pokemon 4Kids dub is that outside of the japanese cultural references, there wasn't really that much for them to censor or Bowdlerize because it was a show meant for small children. So in that regard it wasn't particularly offensive.
The only parts of the dub that really get criticized are some of the films or a few of the specials, like the first movie.
The stuff they did in YGO was far more egregious, but thanks to the Abridged Series it's gained something of a "enjoyably bad" reputation and people aren't so hard on it outside of hardcore YGO fans.
One Piece definitely gave 4Kids a bad rep too. Mew Mew Power was the major other one. I've seen both, and while Mew Mew Power isn't actually destroyed as hard in some ways, as it's actually less censored(one of the characters still has sultry music, and they don't censor any clear romantic points), with mostly just swearing and any possible overviolence removed. It ended early.
One Piece took a simple pistol and turned it into a very crappy weird spring-loaded weapon. That was way worse because it didn't even look like a weapon. It also skipped multiple arcs. Now keep in mind I enjoyed both of these dubs, especially the theme songs, but they were still problemsome.
One thing I can forgive is the name Zolo due to timing. It's harder to license Zoro during the time Legend of Zorro was an active product. Copyright issues need to be taken into account. Zolo is a possibly translation due to the l/r thing, so it's not a big deal really. At the very least, the name fits well into the theme song itself, so it could be worse. There's way worse dub names that said.
Shadow?I think i saw an episode of Beyblade once. It was some anime on at 5 or 6 in the morning back in 2009 on Cartoon Network. It was like being transported back in time or like I was watching a Kung Fu dub. I almost felt like the dub was a joke or parody.
Also, I miss giving minor characters accents. It's still wildly popular so it isn't outdated but the Yu Yu Hakusho dub did this. It's probably the only dub that can get such praise while doing that in this day an dage.
There are plenty of people who have loved the old DBZ dub un-ironically before TFS ever came along. Hell, some parts of TFS don't even like the old dub. I know Kaiser Neko at least disliked Meredith Mc Coy as Eighteen, an opinion that utterly confounds me. There's definitely some Narm Charm that makes me still like Funi's DBZ dub, at least come the Cell Saga.
The Funi Dragon Ball dub though is great and i will defend it forever.
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Eh, I can kinda see why they'd dislike Mc Coy, her performance in the old dub did feel a bit flat in some parts, and not the kind of flatness that fit 18's character. Honestly while I do get a kick out of a shitty dub like the Ocean dub or some of the memetically awful dubs like the "Big Green" dub, the original Funimation dub teeters the edge between "genuinely good" and "not good" to me. Some parts are good. Faulconer's score did have its moments where it added a lot, and by the Buu saga the dubbing for some of the characters was a lot better than early on. I don't think Christopher Sabat really came into his own until the Buu saga, truthfully, and there's some parts in there where he shows why he's such a good voice actor.
Other times though, it was...not as good. Sabat was apparently kind of forced to try and imitate Brian Drummond's Vegeta and it showed in how his voice was raised much higher and his delivery seemed much more stilted. Now Sabat is one of my favorite anime dub actors because I love that damned baritone of his, so hearing him doing such an awkward, high voice just kind of feels as awkward as he probably felt doing it in the booth.
Also, tying back into Slayers for a bit (a series I really need to revisit), the dub actually got pretty damn good partway through. Once Veronica Taylor and Crispin Freeman signed on and the cast's dynamics were set in place, it became a pretty fun show to watch with a genuinely good, funny dub. Is the Slayers dub actually considered "outdated", though?
Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?Well a lot of people act like English dubs only got good in the 2000s. Wasn't Slayers from the 90s?
I don't even know anybody who talks about Slayers anymore anyway. I used to know a lot of fans but not so much anymore.
And yeah I loved Sabat's natural voice for Piccolo come DB Kai. Basically his Zoro voice or I guess his normal voice but maybe a it deeper. But given what a supremely forgettable performance Eighteen got in DB Kai, while she had that wonderful Deadpan Snarker thing going for her in Z, Mc Coy will always reign supreme for me.
Actually I couldn't really tell much of a difference between Mc Coy and Clickenbeard's performances outside of the latter having a slightly higher voice. Mc Coy got better in Super but I dunno, I'm mixed on her in the parts of Z I saw.
As for Slayers, I do believe the dub was made in the 90's, though it does seem to be beloved by people to some extent. They brought the voice actors from it back for the English dub of a new Slayers season about ten or so years ago, I think. I mean at the very least we can thank it for putting quite a few voice actors on the map.
Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?

I am referring to the types of works that are looked down upon nowadays. Anime that feature Dub Name Changes, Thinly Veiled Dub Country Changes, off-sounding voices, etc. Many non-Japanese anime fans grew up on things like Speed Racer and (the first) Beyblade. Dubbing, at least English dubbing, has come along way since the early 2000s so most of these issues no longer exist.
I realize TokyoPOP is very hit-or-miss in its translation department however I still like some of their translations, such as Miracle Girls one. I (ironically?) enjoy the 90s Sailor Moon dub. It's just so funny... Most pre-90s anime have really shoddy dubs but I still enjoy stuff like the 60s and 80s Astro Boy dubs or Gigantor.
edited 26th Oct '17 7:49:45 PM by Pichu-kun