Your favorite dubs?

[Recon 5]

Yu Yu Hakusho dub was brilliant, I perfer to watch all anime in dub and depends if the dub is good or not

Care to explain why it was brilliant? (Not disagreeing with you here, but the moderators want explanations for each choice of best/ worst)

Something just struck me: regardless of whatever aspects people hated on, SEED and DESTINY actually had pretty good dubs. Of course, the tired dialog and cliche storms really pulled the series all the way down the drain, but you can really tell that the VAs were earning their pay.

[AmuroNT1]

I think what makes a good dub isn't just the voice acting but the adaptation. A lot of the purist-types seem to think that anime should be translated word-for-word from the Japanese, but that yields clunky dialog that no human being would ever recite. At the same time, the dubbers should perform little tweaks and touches that make the dialog more natural and more like the sort of things you'd expect people to actually say.

For example, in YYH, we have the bit where Kuwabara is boasting about how his Reiken/Spirit Sword is stronger than Yusuke's Reigan/Spirit Gun. In response, Yusuke flips him off and trash talks him; in the Japanese, it was just a generic insult. In the English, he says "It all depends on which finger I use." It's little touches like that that make a good dub; not just translating the Japanese, but really making it work in English (or Spanish, or whatever language you're dubbing it into).

[Jak Crow]

I'm sorry for my rudeness but I prefer undubbed one. Because it's the original voice/sound/music, although it's maybe ugly and weird we must accept it as the whole integral part of the animation. I don't mind about slight alteration or change, but to dub is a huge change since most of the character personalization and conversation are done or at least highly related with the voice.

It's not the language that's matter but the voice itself which is vary from seiyuu to another. That's why I don't mind if the same seiyuu do the translation/ dub. But that's highly unlikely.

IMO, it's a waste of effort and capital to dub a movie/ series. I rather get a lower price on anime DVDs with sub only and not dub. This also make me wonder, why should be dub anime? I don't see anything good else than to support kindergarten children who still lacking the ability to read sub. But I don't see why we should dub Ghost in the Shell series or Hellsing for this reason.

Because you'll lose more than half the customer base if an anime is released to "the west" without being dubbed. Because not everyone enjoys "reading" an anime.

And if you think any cost savings made during DVD production will be passed on to the consumer, I have a bridge to sell you.


Moving along, I think Funimation has been doing quite a good job of dubbing in many of their recent releases. Samurai 7's dub and cast were superb and it was nice hearing voices from YYH in a different environment. And there wasn't an annoying voice or character to be found.

[Lans]

Because you'll lose more than half the customer base if an anime is released to "the west" without being dubbed. Because not everyone enjoys "reading" an anime.

Half the customer base in "the west", that's huge number of people. I assume you have a statistical data to back that up? or it's just a hunch?

And if you think any cost savings made during DVD production will be passed on to the consumer, I have a bridge to sell you.

Sadly no. They'll put the profit estimation first then added with any fix and variable cost before summing up for the price tag. And yes, they'll likely to cut price when cost become lower because lower price will attract more demand from consumer, it's a basic law of supply and demand. With lower price you could generate bigger volume of sales and thus more profit to make than staying at higher price.

Jak Crow, I saw several of your other post in different thread and I don't blame people for treating you negatively. and before you put any more of your "I have a bridge to sell you" and "I know more than you do" attitude, you may want to consider about your own understanding of the subject(s) in question.

[Wingnut]

Jak, lans*, if you must continue this discussion, please do so via PMs. This thread isn't the place for that.

[Quiddity]

I'm sorry for my rudeness but I prefer undubbed one. Because it's the original voice/sound/music, although it's maybe ugly and weird we must accept it as the whole integral part of the animation. I don't mind about slight alteration or change, but to dub is a huge change since most of the character personalization and conversation are done or at least highly related with the voice.

It's not the language that's matter but the voice itself which is vary from seiyuu to another. That's why I don't mind if the same seiyuu do the translation/ dub. But that's highly unlikely.

IMO, it's a waste of effort and capital to dub a movie/ series. I rather get a lower price on anime DVDs with sub only and not dub. This also make me wonder, why should be dub anime? I don't see anything good else than to support kindergarten children who still lacking the ability to read sub. But I don't see why we should dub Ghost in the Shell series or Hellsing for this reason.

Hate to break it to you pal, but there's nothing 'original' or 'pure' about the japanese voices. A significant time spent reading subtitles detracts from the viewer paying attention to the animation. If anything's more 'original' or 'pure' its watching the show while watching the animation and listening to the dialogue, not watching the animation and watching the dialogue. Your post reeks of arrogance and ignorance about how the industry works. Its one thing to explain a preference towards subs, its something completely different to come in here and call dubbing a waste of time and insult the intelligence of the people who enjoy them.

Anyway, my picks:

Cowboy Bebop - As many have already discussed. Perfect casting for the main characters and pretty much all the minor characters too. One of those rare instances where the dub far outdistances the quality of the sub.

Gundam Wing - Probably Ocean's equivalent of Bebop. Well, with the exception of General Septum, who has one of the worst voices in dub history.

Key the Metal Idol - One of Ocean's earlier dubs, and probably just below Gundam Wing for the fact that two significant characters have voice changes halfway through the show. While Gundam Wing also had voice changes (most notably Sally Po & Catherine's original VA, Monica Gemmer departing after episode 13), the second actor taking those roles did a better job, here the second actors weren't as good. That said, the casting was pretty much top notch; particularly John Novak (who outside of Seed has largely vanished from the dubbing scene, at least the shows I've watched) and Megan Leitch (in her only significant dub role, unfortunately). All the songs were dubbed very well too.

Big O - Another top notch dub, as already discussed significantly.

In fact I'd probably say pretty much every dub done by Ocean's Westwood Studio and Animaze/ZRO is top notch. Really the only one I disliked was Escaflowne, mostly due to the script, the continuous mispronouncing of Van's name, and the poor casting choice of Andrew Francis for Dilandau.

[Lans]

Jak, lans*, if you must continue this discussion, please do so via PMs. This thread isn't the place for that.

I'm done with it. Sorry to bother everyone else.

Hate to break it to you pal, but there's nothing 'original' or 'pure' about the japanese voices. A significant time spent reading subtitles detracts from the viewer paying attention to the animation. If anything's more 'original' or 'pure' its watching the show while watching the animation and listening to the dialogue, not watching the animation and watching the dialogue. Your post reeks of arrogance and ignorance about how the industry works. Its one thing to explain a preference towards subs, its something completely different to come in here and call dubbing a waste of time and insult the intelligence of the people who enjoy them.

Point taken. Once again I'm apologize for my rudeness.

[MechaGear]

The original, Manga Entertainment dub of Patlabor 2. It's absolutely amazing, they managed to get all the main characters down perfectly, and the writing was extremely strong. Still prefer the original Japanese, of course...

Unfortunately, the new dub on the Honneamise re-release is absolutely horrid by comparison.

[Mwulf]

Hate to break it to you pal, but there's nothing 'original' or 'pure' about the japanese voices.

Actually, there is. Well, I don't know what the pure bit means, but how can you claim it's not original?

On the topic of subs v. dubs I always prefer subs... be it anime, movies, or television, no matter the language. I prefer to view stuff in the original language. It's a big impact. For an analogy, think of subs/OL as shakespeare--then the dub/SL would be a modern-language interpretation--all of the poetry and beauty of the language goes away.

On the topic of good dubs, I'd say that YYH is, indeed, probably one of the best examples out there. Great stuff, for all the reasons already mentioned. I think that when it comes to dubbing, a literal translation is one of the WORST ways to go--though I also think that adding cultural things is bad, too. I think it's important to translate the gist of the language--the meaning of the words.

The Latter-part of DBZ also had a fairly good dub, as did Evangelion and, surprisingly, Chobits. When I first heard the Chobits dub, it felt like the American Hideki had the same tone and inflection as the JPN Hideki. Always nice to see.

I never saw the Seed/D dub, but from what I heard in NET, it was pretty bad. Mainly, Lacus. Ulgh. Part of that may be because Tanaka Rie had such a wonderful voice.

And let's not forget the Rurouni Kenshin anime and Samurai X OVA dubs... those were some of the best I've heard.

[Recon 5]

I don't know about the chobits dub- Chii's VA gives me mild nausea every time I hear her. There's like a ten- year age difference between the dub voice and the original voice for some reason.

Two things that are always difficult to dub are onomatopoeia, or 'sound- words' and catchphrases. The original Japanese versions of most animes have at least one character who uses them in every sentence ("nyaaa~", "ora", "desu", "-ttebayo" etc). How do you render those properly in a dub? Using timing equivalents (the infamous "-ttebayo" = "BELIEVE IT!") or linguistic equivalents doesn't always work and when gaijin VAs use the original words it just sounds weird. Even when they pronounce them correctly they sound out of place.

I guess thats what some people refer to as losing the spirit of the original language.

[Aegis]

The original, Manga Entertainment dub of Patlabor 2. It's absolutely amazing, they managed to get all the main characters down perfectly, and the writing was extremely strong. Still prefer the original Japanese, of course...

Unfortunately, the new dub on the Honneamise re-release is absolutely horrid by comparison.

Wings of Honneamise (the old dub anyways) and Patlabor 2... my gosh, how could I have forgotten about those two? Those two are amazingly well done, also some of the best I've heard.

[YazanGable]

After listening to it again, I've got another to add to the list.

The NYAV re-dub of Giant Robo: The Animation.
Not populated by a lot of well-known dub VAs (about the two most recognizable are Sean Schemmel as Tetsugyu, and Dan Green as Genya), but even with that aside, they rounded up a great cast all around. Admittedly, Kenji Murasame's French accent was a bit odd, but that aside, it was a solid job. The banter between Taisou and Tetsugyu is played with the impression the dub VAs might have actually recorded off of each other, the actress playing Daisaku gives him enough of a young boy voice without it coming across too much like a woman playing a kid and without being annoying about it.
And, while he's not in a lot of OVA, I have to give a nod to the actor they hired to play Franken von Vogler. The first ep could have easily been misplayed to just give the impression of a random mad scientist, but the actor they got for the part delivers the speech extremely well, truly giving the feel of a passionate genius on the verge of a breakthrough.
While there's some parts that are performed better than others, overall, this one really doesn't have much in the way of weak points.

It's one that's up there for the fact watching it in either language is still good.