English Voices in Anime

[CephasWhite]

I've noticed in much Animes, that english dubs don't either have the feeling, the right emotion to it, and/or the right character to play it, for example:

In Advent Children, I thought that Aerith's voice was MUCH to..."ladylike" (I hope that's the right word). When I played FFVII I saw and pictured Aerith as being a little childish as well, so her voice could've possibly been a little higher, and more playful, like Mandy Moore's voice for Aerith in the first Kingdom Hearts.

Also, I thought that Sephiroth's voice in English was a little too low, don't you think? Along with that it had no feel to it; It was like the actor was speaking monotone.

[Dyne]

Ok, first, about Aerith. She was done Mena Suvari, and we all know she didn't do a great job . She does not speak for the rest of the English VAs out there...or at least thats my opinion

Now, back on subject...

This is a big debate in the world of Anime: Subbed or Dubbed.

It seems to be a fad to say things like "American VA sucks! Only Subbed anime is good!". I hear this all the time. At first I understood peoples' opinion on the matter; now, it seems that people just say it because thats what everyone else says.

To me, I find the majority of English VAs to do great jobs. Sure, there are some games and anime that have bad VAs, but I like most of the stuff I hear. Plus, like most American fans of anime, I do not understand Japanese. Thus, I have no clue whether or not a Japanese VA is doing a good job; did he or she use the correct emotion?, did he or she say that right?, did he or she...ect.

Anyway, this is just my take on it.

[RedMage]

Yeah, here goes the sub-v-dub debate...

[Radical Dreamer]

I agree with Dyne; while I think a lot of anime are great subbed, I think a lot of anime are great dubbed, too. Take Cowboy Bebop, for instance. The dubbing is so wonderful, that if I didn't know any better, I'd think they were the original voices. The voices match the mouths so well, I can't imagine anyone saying that Bebop has a bad dub. Though I've heard it. I've heard it from the kind of people that think that subs are the only way to go; there is nothing good about dubs, all dubs sound awful, and all English VA's are wasting their time. This is when Dyne's theory of saying dubs are bad just because it's widely agreed with comes in to play.

Another incredible dub (among many) is Howl's Moving Castle. But then, let's look at the actors: Christian Bale, Emily Mortimer, Billy Crystal, and several other stars. That movie was so well-acted, I actually never felt like I even wanted to watch the sub. XD This especially pertains to Billy Crystal's part; I thought he did an exceptional job as Calcifer.

Now before I start to sound like I think all dubs are better than subs, let me use another example: Sailor Moon. In order to make the Sailor Moon dub, the American company chopped it up, mixed in some bad acting, added a dash of name-changes, a tablespoon of musical changes, a teaspoon of gender changes (I'm not kidding), and tossed it around with some metaphorical salad tongs. XD I can't even stand to watch 5 minutes of Sailor Moon's dub, though I love the sub.

Whether or not a dub is good depends on the company and the actors hired to play the parts. With the growing popularity of anime in America these days, I wouldn't be surprised to see better dubs on the horizon.

[ChristianKitsune]

wow..this is such an overdone topic..^^;

will sometimes I watch both. I mean I like either. If the dub is better I watch the dub..if the sub is better I will watch the sub...

I think the Early ADV stuff like samurai X is a good example I HATED the dub version...so I watched it in sub..

The FB dub, imo isn't as good as the sub...monotone and me don't mix... ^^;

I guess in this case I watch it in whatever form fits it best artistically. In most cases, for me, the Sub fits that.. however, if I can't find a sub version, such as watching a show on Cable TV..then I will deal with dub.. ^_^

I know a lot of people who say "YOU AREN'T A REAL FAN BECAUSE YOU DONT WATCH IT RAW OR SUBTITLED!"

umm I am a fan...but not so obesses that I care if it's raw.. I do like subtitled...but dub isn't horrible..and if I can get a dub for free by watching cable...I am watchin the dub....

it just annoys me when people look down on others for their preference...and tries to act all superior...

[Nate]

It was like the actor was speaking monotone.

I don't remember the Japanese voice actor being any less monotone. But I guess it's just a difference in opinion.

Like others have said, there's good English voice actors, and there's bad ones. There's good Japanese voice actors, and bad ones as well. Sometimes it's not even bad, it just doesn't fit the character.

Kenshin is a prime example. In the TV series, Kenshin is an older man, yet he has a female voice actor. The voice worked well for the OVAs, when Kenshin was a young man (17 or 18 I think?). However, due to his age in the TV series, his Japanese voice, while the voice actor may not have acted badly, the voice did not fit him at all. In fact, I cannot stand to watch Kenshin in Japanese because his Japanese voice is so horribly miscast. On the other hand, the person who did his English voice, Richard Cansino/Hayworth, did a superb job.

Likewise, the dub cast for Ranma was exceptional. So much so that I cannot watch Ranma in Japanese, because Akane sounds like "generic high pitched Japanese girl" and Kuno doesn't have his haughty accent. Okay, maybe he does, but know what? There's a slight problem. I don't know Japanese. Maybe Kuno's Japanese voice actor uses an old archaic form of Japanese that is reserved for samurai or something to give an air of superiority. But know what? I'd never know, because I know nothing of the language.

The same thing is used as far as accents, for example, giving people who speak with an Osakan dialect a country accent. Which if you don't know Japanese, you wouldn't know Osakan Japanese from regular Japanese. I know I don't.

Truth be told, I'd rather watch anime dubbed than subbed. The problem is so few companies go to the effort to put together a good dub, so I tend to watch most anime subbed. But neither is really better than the other overall (sometimes one is better than the other in certain cases, such as the aforementioned Sailor Moon), it's all a matter of personal preference.

[Sakura15]

Truth be told, I'd rather watch anime dubbed than subbed.

Same here

To be honest the only anime I hate dubbed is DNangel, I know Vic mignogna plays Dark's voice dubbed, but...after hearing Darks deep voice in japanese it just didnt fit. Also Riku and Risa's voices make me want to rip my ears off

[blue elf]

I usually watch the dub of an anime, but if I don't like the dub, then I'll watch the sub. I watched the sub of Samurai X instead of the dub, but that was mainly because I had gotten used to the English voice actors on the TV series and I couldn't picture them with different English voices so I watched it in Japanese. Although, I had heard the Eng. dub of Samurai X was pretty bad, so I guess it's a good thing I watched the Japanese. Sometimes, I watch both the dub and sub of a series, so my DVDs last longer and also to see how the subtitles differ from the English dub script. Of course, in the case of fansubs, you have to watch them in Japanese. Personally, I usually watch the dub if one is available and decently done, but I also watch subtitled anime. I don't think one is inherently better than the other, it's just a matter of what language the anime is available in and, in the case of anime with both a sub and dub format, a matter of personal taste.

[Ashley]

It's like Kae said...good actors, bad actors. I don't think you can fairly say "subbing is better!" without losing some of the greats like Kirby Morrow, Vic Mignogna, Johnny Yong Bosch, and that David dude that did Spike whose name escapes me. And likewise, to jump on the "dub only" wagon means enduring some rather subpar series due to pride.

I usually try the dub first if I have a chance, and if I can't stand it (like in Angelic Layer) then'll I'll switch over to sub.

[Cap'n Nick]

I like watching subs because reading words on the screen while listening to a language I don't completely understand distracts me from any problems in the voicing. Or plot. Dubs have the unfortunate effect of forcing me to face the cheesiness of the premise head on.

Sometimes I get this feeling that there are only eight English voice actors on the entire American continent. American screen actors and Japanese voice actors overlap, too, but with English dub anime it seems especially pronounced. You end up getting crazy things like this:

These are all parts played by Steve Blum. Amazing range, or a closed market? Judging by the general dissatisfaction with English voice acting, I'm inclined to say the latter.

[ChristianKitsune]

What? I thought it's awesome that he can do that!! he also does American things too.. (BTW Steve Blum is Also David Lucas)

Steve Blum is a very famous Guy. I am sure it's the fact that he is is WANTED for the parts he plays. (like I said he also does a lot of American things)

He was Jamie in Megas XLR and he is TOM for toonami. I think it's pretty cool.

[RedMage]

Sometimes I get this feeling that there are only eight English voice actors on the entire American continent. American screen actors and Japanese voice actors overlap, too, but with English dub anime it seems especially pronounced. You end up getting crazy things like this:

These are all parts played by Steve Blum. Amazing range, or a closed market? Judging by the general dissatisfaction with English voice acting, I'm inclined to say the latter.

Closed market. Steve Blum is an excellent voice actor as far as he goes, but he never gets any parts that test his abilities. It's just the same voice or a slight variation thereof all the time.

I too have been frustrated with hearing the same voices in dubs over and over. That said, this probably happens with Japanese voice actors more than we realize because those of us who can't understand Japanese speech are unlikely to be able to distinguish between different Japanese voices.

[Arnobius]

[quote="Dyne"]OIt seems to be a fad to say things like "American VA sucks! Only Subbed anime is good!". I hear this all the time. At first I understood peoples' opinion on the matter]
Well the opinion rotates. Currently it seems the fashion to say the sub is worse than the dub in many of the circles I have seen. It all boils down to preference. I like subs, but I won't get into the reasons since you've probably heard it all before. I figure as long as the distributor doesn't skimp on one it should be fine

[Dyne]

[quote="Radical Dreamer"]

Another incredible dub (among many) is Howl's Moving Castle. But then, let's look at the actors: Christian Bale, Emily Mortimer, Billy Crystal, and several other stars. That movie was so well-acted, I actually never felt like I even wanted to watch the sub. XD This especially pertains to Billy Crystal's part]

About Billy Crystal...you are SO right. When I first watched that movie, I looked at the credits for VA work. I saw Billy Crystal's name, and to be honest, I had my doubts (I don't know why...I know he is a good VA, but I just had doubts). But when I heard his work...MAN WAS IT GOOD! Billy as Calcifer was seriously one of the best voice overs I have ever heard.

But anyways, back to the topic at hand

[Mr. SmartyPants]

For me, I don't really care if the subtitled version doesn't sound as good as the dubbed version. Yes there are shows with bad japanese actors. But I still perfer them over english actors. Simply because I like how it was originally created. (of course with subtitles so I can understand it of course) True the majority of the time the sub is better than a dub, but even if it wasn't, like I said, I'd perfer it subtitled.

A great example for me is Chinese Cinema. Now, I'm not a big fan of the language, to be honest I think it sounds weird. It's a bit "slurry" and less phonetic than Korean or Japanese. (Anyone, please don't take offense in this) But I still watch Chinese films in Chinese, because it retains the original feeling. When I'm watching Drunken Master, or Running out of Time, I watch them in the original language (Mandarin and Cantonese respectively)

[mitsuki lover]

The thing is that there are not that many actors making a living simply from doing voice work of any kind,it's rather specialized type of acting.This is why you see so many of the same actors in different series.It also depends on what company does the dub,each company most likely has it's own in-house list of actors that they use.
It's similiar to the old Hollywood studio system.This is why when you see something that Viz dubbed with Ocean Studios you will likely have actors like Kelly Sheridan,Richard Ian Cox,Janyse Jaud,etc.in it.
Oh,and let's be nice to our Canadian Cousins since a lot of the dubbing is also done in either Vancouver,BC or Calgary,Alta using Canadian voice talent,so it's not quite true that everyone in the English language dubs are American per se.
As far as it goes I have read too many of these subs v. dubs by now that I for one am very heartedly sick and tired of it.If you like the sub better than the dub you don't have to go around making another thread about how bad the dubs are in your opinion,I believe we have all seen too many of this type already.

[Nate]

the majority of the time the sub is better than a dub

That's not a statement of fact, that's an opinion. There are many out there who may feel dubs are consistently superior. These are the kinds of statements that prompt pointless bickering.

Sometimes I get this feeling that there are only eight English voice actors on the entire American continent.

However, this is not unique to America. If anything, I feel Japan overuses voice actors about ten times worse than America. Go look up Megumi Hayashibara, Aya Hisikawa, and Hikaru Midorikawa. Actually, look up most Japanese voice actors. Steve Blum's list looks tiny compared them.

Anyway, as I said before, I would rather watch a good dub than a good sub, for the simple reason that reading subtitles while watching anime is a skill I've acquired, that I'd rather not have acquired. I'm very skilled at reading subtitles and paying attention to the anime, but I wish I didn't have to use that skill. To that end, there's only two solutions. Watch dubs, or learn Japanese. The latter is too enormous of an endeavor, so that is why I prefer dubs, assuming the dub is good. However, if the dub is low quality, I am left with no choice but to resort to watching the sub.