Your favorite dubs?

[Recon 5]

I know that many anime purists resent dubs, but it must be said that a good dub can lend a new dimension to a show which wasn't there in the original.

Do you believe that dubbing is a good thing if done properly? If you believe that any dubbing is an unforgivable sacrilege of anime, what are your reasons? However, if you believe in such things as good dubs, then which dubs do you consider good? EDIT: Why?

My personal favorites (speaking on a purely subjective basis):

1. The Big O (the Adult Swim dub, I think)
Seriously, when I saw the undubbed version, I was mildly disturbed. Hearing characters who look like they stepped out of the animated Batman speaking in Japanese is quite jarring, almost as if it was an English show dubbed in Japanese. Roger and Norman are almost spot- on as alternate versions of Bruce Wayne and Alfred, while Dorothy's VA is... entertaining to say the least. The rest of the character dubs aren't too shabby either.

2. Ghost in the Shell: GITS/ Second GIG(the one I saw on Animax, dunno who did it)
Motoko and Batou sound almost exactly like their original seiyuu (as I discovered when Animax accidentally broadcast undubbed episodes) and I find the original Tachikoma seiyuu just plain irritating.

On another note, Animax seems to have a regular pool of dub VAs working on multiple series, so I keep hearing 'Motokos' and 'Batous' everywhere...

3.Yu Gi Oh: The Abridged Series(LittleKuriboh)
Seriously the funniest dub in history, even if you omit the vulgarity and innuendo.

[His Divine Shadow]

Anything that uses Ocean Group's talent is a good dub, IMO. That the majority of anime don't just serves the premise that most dubs stink and the subtitle is the way to go. Yes, it's elitist, but I prefer good dubs to be rare and special and stick to subtitles for the majority of my collection.

[YazanGable]

For my votes on good dubs (re-edited to explain myself:

-The Big O - Alongside just the fact in general this is well-cast (while most people would be first inclined to noticed Roger, I think the two best pieces of casting in this were in the cases of Beck Gold and, during season 2, Alex Rosewater) it helps that Paradigm has indeed been confirmed to be New York, which makes it feel more right in English.
-Hellsing - Much like Big O, the fact this one takes place in the English speaking world helps this dub. While there's a few rough spots in the casting, overall, the cast fit their roles fairly well.
-Now and Then, Here and There - Honestly, I'd say this dub surpasses the original Japanese language track in several regards. Ed Paul makes a rather heartfelt effort as upbeat protagonist Shuzo, Dan Green gets probably the most underrated role in his career as the well-meaning but misguided child soldier Nabuca, but the best reason to hear this dubbed goes to Jack Taylor as the disturbingly insane King Hamdo. A performance that, while effective in its own right, also rather manages to surpass Koji Ishi's turn at the role.
-Gundam 0080: War In the Pocket - This is quite possibly the best Gundam dub out there. It's kind of a shame David Hayter doesn't get involved in as many dubs, cause he does a good job with them, this role being no exception. He manages to get Bernie's friendly big brother aspect, but can get serious when the scene calls for it. Similarly, the rest of the cast all come through in spades, Al's VA, given a role that could potentially be a challenge (given sadness in dubs seems to be a hit or miss prospect) comes through quite well. The actress's performance during Al's prayer in episode 5 alone manages to show she did this role justice. The rest of Cyclops Team also are fairly well cast (even if Misha's Russian is a little odd at times.)
-Akira (newer Pioneer dub) - Admittedly, this dub is kind of an exception to my location rule. Even though this one takes place entirely in Japan, the solid effort from the cast all around makes this one good to watch in either language (most notably Bosch and Seth keeping up the rivalry between Kaneda and Tetsuo (played respectively), and Jameson Price, in a break from many of the characters played cool and casual, manages to give several scenes a much needed boost of seriousness in his performance as Colonel Shikishima.)
-Cyborg 009 - To keep it simple, this is a dub that works well because it's an ensemble piece, and everyone is both fitting in their roles as well as playing off of their cast members (which, given everyone records their lines separately, is pretty impressive.)
-Ghost in the Shell - The overall cast in this fit their roles surprisingly well. Not just in the cases of Motoko and Batou, but even Togusa, Aramaki, Ishikawa at all fit their roles without any sort of awkwardness. Which, in turn, makes it rather nice that they've managed to keep everyone on for subsequent releases.
and
-Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro (newer Manga dub) - This is probably one of the best dubs Manga has ever been involved with. Once again, I have to hand it to David Hayter. While Tony Oliver makes a good performance in Pioneer's dub, Hayter still takes the prize for best Lupin dub, fusing the Miyazaki version of the thief with appropriate levels of mischief and kindness which make this a great one to enjoy in English. This isn't to sell the rest of the cast short either, Ivan Buckley definitely sounds like he's having fun with the somewhat gruff gunman Jigen (about the only drawback to this dub being that, in true Manga tradition, the script is padded with excess cursewords, many on Jigen's part), Richard Epcar plays Goemon with the proper stoicism, but still able to deliver some lines with a subtle sarcasm. Dorothy Melendrez and Dougary Grant also play off the cast well in their respective roles as Fujiko and Inspector Zenigata, and finally, Sparky Thornton plays the antagonist Count Cagliostro with an appropriately villainous flourish that thankfully never really feels over the top.)
(...wow...didn't expect to have that much to say for that one...)

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

I do think that if the dub is done right, it can be just as good as the original and frankly, some of those Japanese voices are a bit on the high-pitched side for me.

Although I do think there are also times when it DOESN'T work. Personally I don't like Johnny Yong Bosch's Ichigo Kurosaki. Something about it just doesn't work for me.

[Zero Revenge]

Cowboy Bebop
Trigun
Fullmetal Alchemist
Devil May Cry
Yuyu Hakusho
Hellsing Ultimate
Big O (Schwarzwald esp.)

[ShadowCell]

Can y'all put some explanations behind your choices, so this thread isn't just a bunch of lists of dubbed anime? Thanks.

[Recon 5]

Spot on. I should have asked for reasons earlier. Thanks, shadow.

[Kavik Ryx]

Well if Shadow Cell didn't lock it then I guess this thread is okay. For me the answer is as simple as Cowboy Bebop with every character's personality being perfectly captured. Steven Blum was the most appropriate person for Spike's voice.

Suzumiya Haruhi also had a decent dub. This time it was Crispen Freeman who was just right for disinterested and sarcastic Kyon.

Come to think about it, Bandai Entertainment is the best out there for finding good dubbing groups IMO.

[Seraphic]

I have to agree that the Big O dub was great. Lia Sargent is awesome. <3

An English dub I also felt was very good was the Porco Rosso movie. They pulled off the sense of humor very well, but seemed to add in dialogue where the Japanese dub just had silence. It made things feel more complete, anyway. Also, whoever wrote the subtitles for that movie was terrible. I tried watching the movie in the original Japanese, but the subtitle work just ruined it for me. It was awkward, and not funny at all.

And as a sidenote for bad subtitles, I was watching the Samurai X OVA online. Wasn't sure if this was a fansub or whatnot, but one particular line really threw me for a loop. It was the end of Betrayal, and Kenshin has dealt the deathblow on that Tokugawa agent, and as he's struck, he exclaims, "I don't understand women!!" Holy god, I could not stop laughing. Best dying words ever.

Sorry, it's just something I can't get over. "It's the weakness of the heart!" ??

[Lans]

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.

[Aegis]

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.

I recall a certain Macross dub featuring a certain seiyuu named Mari Iijima having to do the English dub of Minmay... yeah... Let the Japanese stick to Japanese, and the English do the English. Mix and mingle, and you'll likely have bad acting no matter what.

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.

If the voice direction is good along with the translation, then why not dub? My issue with dubs in the past has been all about bad voice acting more than anything else followed by questionable translations. Now, there's anime out there where I can actually watch and not cringe from the voices. Sometimes there are actors who actually sound better with the English VAs than the original seiyuus (like Heero of GW, or Dante of DMC).

And if Bandai Visual is any indication, pure subtitling does not always equal cheap.

Now, while technically not dubs in the sense of this topic, Blood: The Last Vampire, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, and most of the Animatrix come to mind as far as English voice overs are concerned. In the case of the Animatrix, the English is definitely superior to the Japanese with maybe only one or two exceptions. The production there was clearly more an English one anyways, thus the Japanese sounded more stiff in comparison. Blood had both English and Japanese mixed together and for the actors who portrayed the American agents, they were done VERY well. The only bad spots were the seiyuus who voiced the teacher and Saya. In their case, they were great when speaking Japanese, and flat when speaking English. And Vampire Hunter D was just great from beginning to end. These are proof that when you give proper direction, English voice acting can be just as good as the seiyuus used.

I also agree that Devil May Cry sounds good, along with Cowboy Bebop, and Ghost in the Shell. I also found Full Metal Alchemist to be fine, along with Trigun, and Witch Hunter Robin is at least passable if not great.

[Recon 5]

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.

There are a lot of mature adult fans (and we're talking 20+ and 30+ here) who prefer dubs over subs, if only for the reason that they want to watch a show as opposed to reading it. Regardless of whether or not dubbing spoils an anime, the fact remains that dubbed animes sell better than subbed ones and therefore companies everywhere will continue to dub most animes they import (as evidenced by the outstanding Arabic- yes, Arabic- and Spanish dubs of many classic super robot animes).

On another note, its appropriate that the man behind Solid Snake would do a good job as a VA . He's one of the best, I guess.

I'd totally forgot about Cowboy Bebop and Porco Rosso. As for the Haruhi crew, well... I don't really like Haruhi's VA that much, and that spoils the dub for me (THIS IS PURELY MY OWN OPINION). No one can match Aya Hirano's genki level, I guess.

[mcred23]

Do you believe that dubbing is a good thing if done properly?

From an American's perspective, there is no answer to this question for me but yes. For a show to appeal over here, it's not going to make kids read as they watch it, that's like homework for them and nobody likes it (Which is why you'll never see subtitled anime on major TV). Dubbing is a major, if oft overlooked, part of what can turn a show into a success over here, and that's almost always a good thing (I know that personally, at the age I first saw Gundam Wing, I'd have gone away instantly if it was subbed, and I know that's probably the way a lot of it's original young fanbase would have felt).

However, if you believe in such things as good dubs, then which dubs do you consider good? EDIT: Why?

To be completely honest, I've never really had a problem with any dub being particularly bad or worse than any other, I simply don't see or get half the little problems that make people hate one dub or another. Now I'll admit there are some VA's over the course of a show that may be annoying or cause a character to seem odd (Sarah's English VA in Zeta being the only one I feel like mentioning), but I can easily get around that if I want to.

[Gai Daigoji]

I really like the Nadesico dub, but i also enjoyed Full metal alchemist and panic, And i agree on the big O one too.

[Wingnut]

I really like the Nadesico dub, but i also enjoyed Full metal alchemist and panic, And i agree on the big O one too.

Again, why?

People, you must give reasons why you like the dub you post. Even if you end up repeating what someone else already said, otherwise we end up with just another topic of anime lists.

[AU_Gundam MK II]

Fullmetal Alchemist is a dub that I find somewhat outstanding. My main highlights are Al and ED. Reasons? Cause the Dub VAs sound their age (Ed) and gender (Al). The Japanese ones made Al sound too much like a girl at times and the one of Ed only worked for his size.

Though this doesn't state an exact series, I seem to prefer the Southeast Asian dubs (I think they're singaporean) of anime over a good say of the American ones. The SEA dubs of Yu-Gi-Oh and Card Captor Sakura were awesome whilst the US ones were a little too corny (Actually, my main gripe with the US dub of Card Captor is how much they whacked the whole thing up.)

[Strike Zero]

The funny thing is, most of the shows that I prefer to watch in english are the ones I grew up watching on Toonami and Adult Swim. Shows like Cowboy bebop and the older Gundam series. I've gotten so accustomed to the english voices, that whenever I try to watch them with the original audio, it feels as though I'm watching an American cartoon that's been dubbed into Japanese. It's just really odd.

Anyway, here's some of my top favorites:

Cowboy Bebop -- Steve Blum. 'nuff said.

But, just in case that's not enough, all of the voice acting in Cowboy Bebop is just outstanding. As I said above, it's one of those animes that I find weird to watch in Japanese.

Big O -- Once again, Steve Blum makes everything more wonderful. He did an excellent job with Roger. Just about everybody else did too. I don't know, the english here just feels right.

Samurai Champloo -- Here's another one I prefer to watch in english, mostly because the english acting is so good that there's no point to watching it in Japanese. Also, Mugen's english voice is twice as good as his Japanese one (probably because he's also voiced by Steve Blum).

Most Gundam Dubs -- This includes the first Gundam, G Gundam, Gundam 0080, and Gundam 0083. The VAs were all excellent actors and they made their voices fit pretty well.

[Genese Gundam]

I like the Neon Genesis Evangelion, because i find the voices are quite convincing (well, in an 'no-one-would-ever-really-sound-like-that-but-you-can-still-relate-and-respond-to-them' kinda way) especially Spike Spencer as Shinji, amongst others who you can really tell the VAs put their best into it, even Allison Keith whose voice i don't think suits Misato makes it work to a believable standard.

And it is the same when it comes to Fullmetal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell. Superb Voice acting in all three.

kinda off topic (which is why the size is reduced, don't want to swerve this in to the ditch of off topicness), but I hope Gundam 00 will be dubbed by ADV, Funimation or Manga Entertainment(They did dub GITS right?) I think they would probably make it stand out more...

[Bright Noa]

kinda off topic (which is why the size is reduced, don't want to swerve this in to the ditch of off topicness), but I hope Gundam 00 will be dubbed by ADV, Funimation or Manga Entertainment(They did dub GITS right?)...

The day Bandai lets a Gundam series go to another company other than Bandai USA or Bandai Visual will be marked as a sign of the apocalypse. In other words, it ain't happening.

That said, the top 4 good dubs for me are:

Cowboy Bebop--This is a case of a company casting the right people for the main roles. Beau Billingsea has a voice that comes across as an older, mentor-like person, which fit Jet Black. Steve Blum did probably his best work as Spike, contrasting between his lazy, comical side and his serious, violent side. Wendee Lee was perfect as Faye; like Blum, she was able to perfectly contrast between the serious and the comical. I forget the actress who played Ed, but she was a good choice as well because she was able to present Ed's very comical nature to the letter.

Vandread--This series got some good choices for characters as well that made the dub enjoyable. There were a few choices that I--at first--didn't like. For example, both Hibiki and Bart's dub VAs came off as loud and annoying. However, they grew on me and slowly began to fit the roles.

Nadesico--ADV has had good experience with mech-related series and Nadesico was another success. ADV was able to coach the cast in such a way that they were able to capture the very thing that made Nadesico a success: the (almost) instantaneous switch between serious and comical at a drop of a hat. Sure, they reused some of the actors that ADV cast for Eva (Spike Spencer and Tiffany Grant, for example), but they were able to blend them with the new talent (Jennifer Earhart, for instance) that they cast for Nadesico.

Hellsing--Hellsing is an interesting series in that it is set in England for the most part. Also, many of the characters are British, which lead to unintentionally funny dialogue for the Japanese seiyuus (Jack and Mary King, two American characters from the Getter Robo universe are examples of this). However, the dub cast for Hellsing was cast using not only British actors (Victoria Harwood and Ralph Lister), but American actors as well (Crispin Freeman, K. T. Gray, Patrick Seitz, and Josh Phillips). The Valentine Brothers were especially well cast, with Phillips presenting the very wild and foul-mouthed Jan very nicely, and Seitz presenting the calm, calculating Luke as well as his original seiyuu did. Add in Yuri Lowenthal as the eccentric Pip Bernodette and Steve Brand as the bipolar Alexander Anderson, and you have a perfectly well cast dub.

[High Garud]

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