The Anime Thread

[Larowyn]

Young boys are almost exclusively voiced by women, I believe. It was a big surprise for me when I found out that Ash from Pokemon was voiced by a woman, way back when I was still watching.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

As long as it says it is…

Though I have one or two DBZ DVD’s

The Japanese cast sounds like a bunch of kids…Goku does not sound manly.

But the subs have…lots of cursing…

In the english uncut version there isn’t cussing…but since this was the Frieza DVD, it showed Krillin getting blown up…its very sad to watch.

Though I don’t watch DBZ, when it comes to sub vs dub, most subs with original Japanese sound better in my ears. Though there are some good dubs, the rest are just… well… sigh :dts:

 

[Catholic_Kenpo]

Though I don’t watch DBZ, when it comes to sub vs dub, most subs with original Japanese sound better in my ears. Though there are some good dubs, the rest are just… well… sigh :dts:

I don’t even bother with dubs anymore. When I first started watching anime, I loved dubs. Then I watched Ranma. No more dubs for me. I don’t even know what the English cast sounds like on 80% of the anime I own.

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

There are now officially only two dubs that I like as well as the sub: FMA and RK.

YYH has a great voice cast but I can’t listen to American Hiei after hearing Japanese Hiei.

 

[Catholic_Kenpo]

There are now officially only two dubs that I like as well as the sub: FMA and RK.

YYH has a great voice cast but I can’t listen to American Hiei after hearing Japanese Hiei.

Interesting. I’ve got all of FMA on DVD, and I’m pretty certain I’ve never listened to the English version. I may have to give it a try.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

Interesting. I’ve got all of FMA on DVD, and I’m pretty certain I’ve never listened to the English version. I may have to give it a try.

I think my sister’s watched all of the english dubbed episodes. The voice acting was actually pretty good and it was really as funny as the original. XD

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

Interesting. I’ve got all of FMA on DVD, and I’m pretty certain I’ve never listened to the English version. I may have to give it a try.

I LOVE the work of the two leads, Ed and Al (can’t recall the VA names now). And Chris Sabat (who is also Kuwabara on YYH) is wonderful as Alex Louis Armstrong.

I forgot to mention Pokemon—the original English-speaking cast, not the really lame replacements. Now that was the best dub I had heard up to that point. Go Team Rocket!

 

[Nevarlander]

Though I don’t watch DBZ, when it comes to sub vs dub, most subs with original Japanese sound better in my ears. Though there are some good dubs, the rest are just… well… sigh :dts:

The only dub I can stand to watch is Fruits Basket, and I honestly prefer it to the sub. It was such a weird switch when I started watching Avatar because it’s like watching anime… but it’s not like watching anime at the same time. I kept reflexively looking down to read the subtitles until I realized “Ahaha, it doesn’t have any, it’s an American show and it’s in English”.

 

[Larowyn]

I prefer the subbed opening song for Fruits Basket, but I don’t remember which version had the voices I liked.

 

[patrick457]

Personally, I don’t get the whole sub/dub thing much.

On an unrelated note,whenever I watch (foreign) movies I usually have fun by watching them in the dubbed Japanese version (take for example, the Lord of the Rings).

One thing I’ve noticed is that the Japanese like adding sounds (onomatopoeias) where there are either none such in the original version.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

Personally, I don’t get the whole sub/dub thing much.

Allow me to enlighten you.

The thing about sub vs dub is that there also a lot of challenges besides getting a decent translation from Japanese to English. Sometimes, there are a lot of terms in anime that could only be understood in Japanese or are more relevant to Japanese culture. This is especially frequent if the story takes place in Japan or mostly has a Japanese background. That’s why if you noticed, most subs have an advantage over dubs cuz there are instances when the subbers put little footnotes in case they were unable to find an English alternative to what a character is saying.

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

Plus, I happen to love the sound of Japanese voices.

 

[patrick457]

Allow me to enlighten you.

The thing about sub vs dub is that there also a lot of challenges besides getting a decent translation from Japanese to English. Sometimes, there are a lot of terms in anime that could only be understood in Japanese or are more relevant to Japanese culture. This is especially frequent if the story takes place in Japan or mostly has a Japanese background. That’s why if you noticed, most subs have an advantage over dubs cuz there are instances when the subbers put little footnotes in case they were unable to find an English alternative to what a character is saying.

Okay. Thanks for the brief explanation.

Of course, there is also the complaints that ‘official’ dubbed anime would be edited or have some scenes cut in some way or form (such as One Piece, or so I’ve heard), leaving a mess.

Not that this is a uniquely American thing though; again when movies are shown in Television here they also make the liberties of cutting a portion or two (perhaps for pacing reasons). So at the time Shaolin Soccer aired on TV (The Japanese has this habit of promoting something by airing a movie related to it…take for example airing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to promote Prince Caspian), I was really bemused that they cut the barroom scene…

End of Rant.

 

[patrick457]

Plus, I happen to love the sound of Japanese voices.

Who wouldn’t?

Perhaps you’ve all guessed by now that I am a LoTR fan…which is why I wonder why the Rankin/Bass adaptations of The Hobbit (1977) and The Return of the King (1980) are not yet released in Japan (considering the animation is done as in some other Rankin/Bass cartoons, take for example The Last Unicorn, by Japanese studio Topcraft, whose members would later form Studio Ghibli). I am now wondering how Japanese Bilbo would sound like (I’m not really impressed with the guy who did Saruman in Peter Jackson’s adaptation. He’s trying really hard to speak in a deep voice, with some, IMHO hilarious results. By contrast, I liked Japanese Frodo’s voice better than Elijah Wood’s).

I’m very sorry if I talk too much about unrelated topics here…

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

Who wouldn’t?

Perhaps you’ve all guessed by now that I am a LoTR fan…which is why I wonder why the Rankin/Bass adaptations of The Hobbit (1977) and The Return of the King (1980) are not yet released in Japan (considering the animation is done as in some other Rankin/Bass cartoons, take for example The Last Unicorn, by Japanese studio Topcraft, whose members would later form Studio Ghibli). I am now wondering how Japanese Bilbo would sound like (I’m not really impressed with the guy who did Saruman in Peter Jackson’s adaptation. He’s trying really hard to speak in a deep voice, with some, IMHO hilarious results. By contrast, I liked Japanese Frodo’s voice better than Elijah Wood’s).

I’m very sorry if I talk too much about unrelated topics here…

Now that’s something I wish I could hear. As much as I enjoyed the Jackson trilogy, there were a couple of sticking points for me.

 

[patrick457]

Now that’s something I wish I could hear. As much as I enjoyed the Jackson trilogy, there were a couple of sticking points for me.

And one noticeable thing is that many characters use different pronouns than they do in the books.

Frodo, for example uses ‘boku’ in the movie (perhaps on account of Elijah Wood’s appearance) whereas the translation has him use the standard ‘watashi’, Gimli uses the rough ‘ore’ but he also, like Frodo, uses ‘watashi’ and speaks in a polite manner in the books.

Now Sam is an interesting case since the book has him speaking in a quirky and almost rustic manner (using the pronoun ‘ora’ or ending his sentences with ‘desu-da’ for instance) while the movie just had him speaking in normal speech (using ‘ore’ as his pronoun of choice). The book Sam addresses Frodo as ‘Frodo-no-danna’ (with ‘danna’ used in its older meaning-‘master’) while the movie Sam uses ‘Frodo-sama’.

At least I’m glad that the dub version retained Galadriel’s use of the archaic female pronoun ‘warawa’, just like the book (the sub, while closer to the books in some respects, had Galadriel use ‘watashi’ and speak in a more modern speech type, which IMHO somehow robbed her of her age and majesty).

P.S. If I could revise my former post:

…I’m not really impressed with the guy who did Saruman in Peter Jackson’s adaptation. He’s trying really hard to speak in a deep voice, with some, IMHO hilarious results…

Note that I’m speaking about the Japanese voice actor here and not Christopher Lee (who is really good and whose baritone voice is perfect for the part, in my opinion) The voice actor somehow wanted to try hard imitate Lee’s deep voice but he somehow came off as a poser.

Now back to the discussion…

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

Plus, I happen to love the sound of Japanese voices.

Ahh… yes from the awesome dialogue you hear when the main hero is fighting his best (e.g. Naruto, Bleach and other shonen) to the cutesy voices of high school girls (e.g. Fruits Basket and other romance anime.)

Mind is suddenly lost in bliss

 

[Larowyn]

I think the “strong, silent type” voice is way overused. One of the characters had it in Fruits Basket, but I don’t remember who it was or whether it was the sub or dub.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

I think the “strong, silent type” voice is way overused. One of the characters had it in Fruits Basket, but I don’t remember who it was or whether it was the sub or dub.

Oi… that’s gonna be tough… Fruits Baskets filled with ‘strong and silent type’ bishies. O_O;;

Ugh… bishies… hears his sister squealing like a fan girl in the distance

 

[Larowyn]

My problem is that a lot of character archetypes are way overused. Ouran High School Host Club made fun of overuse a lot.