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[pez]

I grew up watching dubs. Cantonese dubs, but dubs nonetheless. I don't mind them. Actually I kinda like them. I love Japanese originals, of course, but I like my Cantonese dubs too, even though they use the same 5 voice actors for all the anime they had on TV XDDDDD And obviously they butchered the original a bit because manners of speech can't be translated exactly. But I like them. Thinking about it makes me a bit nostalgic.

I bet some of the people are complaining about it for fun, but I laugh at those moaning about badness of dubs and actually feel the need to have a discussion on the badness. I laugh for the obvious reasons (you don't have to watch if you don't want to; you've got ones with subs; at least dubs make it available to more people who may eventually discover more about anime, etc etc). These people are so amusing. Didn't a lot of them discover Gundam Wing (and anime) when they first showed it on American TV or something? I'm pretty sure dubbed Pokemon and Digimon brought some people into anime too.

These people are just too funny XDDDD

Comments

[sharona1x2.livejournal.com]

I was just discussing this with my husband over supper. ^_^

In the case of GW, I know one of the big reasons why some people don't like the dubs is because of the different characterization. Duo, in particular, is a lot different dubbed than he is subbed. It makes it tougher for people wanting to write in character fiction to decide just which is more in character, Seki's Duo or Scott McNeil's. A lot of people blame much of the bad Duo fanfic on Scott McNeil's performance.

Personally, I don't like dubbed anime, so I just never watch it. What other people do is their decision. *shrugs*

[elyndys.livejournal.com]

I agree about the different characterisation - funny, though, I wouldn't have liked Heero nearly as much as I ended up doing if I'd seen him in Japanese first - I think he's a better character in the dub! *awaits bricking* The GW dub is one of the better ones out there, I have to say. I've caught a few eps of Pokemon again recently, and that one's not bad either! And Ghibli's recent high-profile ones have been largely excellent. But there are definitely some bad ones out there (I've tried to watch Yu-Gi-Oh dubbed, but Yugi's voices make me want to cut my ears off). Makes me wonder how they can get it right sometimes, and yet so wrong other times...

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

The difference is money, I suppose. Aren't Ghibli ones bought by Disney for dubbing or something?

[sharona1x2.livejournal.com]

I think some of it depends on the person directing it. From what Mark Hildreth said at one of the cons I was at, the director told him how he wanted Heero to sound. It wasn't what Mark originally intended.

I actually like dub Quatre's voice about a million times better than his original seiyuu's. I don't think her male characters sound enough like guys. Some women can pull that off well, but she never sounded right to me. Guess we'll both be bricked! ^_^

I keep thinking about Hakkai, and how the dub director wanted him to have a potty mouth. I remember Saiyuki fans being extremely upset about the early dub. I don't know if it improved or not.

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

In a sense that's like a well-known author writing a fic with her characterisations, and that fic somehow got circulated so much that people start getting confused what is fannon and what is cannon XD Also, some people may say "I like her Tez better than the original Tez, because he sounds more human" and others may say "she butchered Tez totally, he isn't supposed to sound like that."

I remember reading a Japanese girl, who can read English, saying she finds English subs and fanfiction weird and totally out of character compared with Japanese ones. A lot of the things that define a character can't be done properly in English - Oshitari's accent, Momo's tendency to say "something-nee na, something-nee yo", Kenshin's use of old-style words, etc. Of course, there are other ways to make the characterisation right, but a lot of us forget that the way we write them doesn't even actually /sound/ right to begin with. For people who know what they're supposed to be like, it's like seeing a friend suddenly talking with a different accent. They still behave the same way and say the same things but it's just /wrong/.

To a certain extent, who Japanese people feel about our interpretation is like how sub-lovers feel about dubs, I think. The plot ends up the same but the details are wonky and it makes sub-lovers twitch. But they should just all lighten up. Nobody's doing it right anyway!

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

Not liking it is fine, it just gets tiresome when people start hating and bashing it. And sometimes people forget to question the accuracy of subs, as well. For example, DB's Bleach subs are flaky in so many places :/ a lot of the time, subbers miss out on the little details that define a character as well. Dubs are often worse, but people should stop waving their holy sticks and beating it to death.

[sharona1x2.livejournal.com]

I'm used to looking at Anime News Network, where the majority of people seem to be pro-dub to the point of claiming anyone who says they don't like something in a dub is anti-dub. People who are fanatic on either side need to lighten up. ^_^

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

XD People do need to realise "not liking" something is different from "disliking" it.

[lechaco.livejournal.com]

One thing I like about dubs is that: guys who have women's voices in Japanese will have male voices. *_____* Here's hoping for a good Yuki MALE voice. XD

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

XDDD Wonder how that'd sound!

[seraphim-grace.livejournal.com]

dubs are okay in their own way, but they can be hilarious. I remember dubs being on the tv for things like monkey and the water margin (maybe in repeats) and watching HK films with dubs.
I was burned with them though, with a set of really bad dubs that have turned me into a bit of a snob but if I'm doing something else at the time, like writing, I'll bang the dubs on.
I won't watch films with dubs, unless i can't figure out the menu system (happens more often than i care to admit, i import a lot of dvds)
but then you get the famously awful ones, like Sailor Moon. I watched it dubbed and didn't recognise it subbed because they took out all the references to anything, lines like "I should do it because i have the biggest breasts", or "it seems Mamoru is as popular with the boys" all vanished in the dub. I enjoyed the series far more as a sub, because the dubs were that bad, they called Usagi Serena giving away her secret identity as princess Serena (not serenity) and Prince Endymion became Prince Darien.
I thought it was that bad till i learnt about the absolute mess that dic had done, and now it just amuses me.

but i love the angel sanctuary dub - i am wierd, i am abnormal, it's awful, and the weiss dub amuses me too. You just accept it, laugh and carry on knowing that no matter how much you want him to the guy dubbing aya will never say "shi-ne Takatori".

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

no matter how much you want him to the guy dubbing aya will never say "shi-ne Takatori".

......I think I would totally be like "I reeeeeally want to know how that'd sound like but I also reeeeeally don't want to hear it." XD

[seraphim-grace.livejournal.com]

judging by how they mispronounced everything else japanese it would be "shine" not shi ne.

for which i get the most amazing image of a sparkly takatori
i do like that dub though, it's wonderfully bad.
If I'm watching to have something on, I'll have the dub, if I'm fact checking for a fiction it will be subbed.

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

*laughs and headdesks*

[lelola.livejournal.com]

I bet some of the people are complaining about it for fun, but I laugh at those moaning about badness of dubs and actually feel the need to have a discussion on the badness. I laugh for the obvious reasons (you don't have to watch if you don't want to; you've got ones with subs; at least dubs make it available to more people who may eventually discover more about anime, etc etc). These people are so amusing. Didn't a lot of them discover Gundam Wing (and anime) when they first showed it on American TV or something? I'm pretty sure dubbed Pokemon and Digimon brought some people into anime too.

I watched Gundam Wing, Digimon, Pokemon and Sailor Moon dubbed. I don't know. I actually like the Naruto dub. Maybe I'm in the minority, but dubs don't automatically suck.

It's annoying when people complain for the sake of complaining. In the giant dub vs. sub debate, there are those that believe genuine fans only watch the original, which is bullshit. The fact that something is dubbed doesn't automatically mean it sucks. The fact something is different doesn't make it bad. And new fans in a fringe fandom isn't a bad thing either.

Besides, it's not really fair to judge only on the basis of a single episode. If nothign else, 90% of the characters haven't been introduced.

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

genuine fans only watch the original

That's like saying real fans will always pay for things instead of download... oops, my bad, I shouldn't mention that :3

Hong Kong's Yu Yu Hakusho dub was the best dub I've ever watched. I know the original had Megumi Ogata and everything, but I can seriously say the dub was faaaar better than the original.

These... purist? Fundamentalist? Zealots? ....whatever the word is for them, they need something better to do than sitting in front of a computer and whinging about something they don't need to watch.

[tongari.livejournal.com]

I watched a couple of Mandarin Slam Dunk dubs at a friend's place once. EAR TRAUMA. I don't understand Mandarin xD so yea, it was more of a weird VA thing.

[vforvera.livejournal.com]

I'm really divided on the whole dub vs. original issue. Because I'm one of those that got my anime kick through CN or KidsWB ie Pokemon, Cardcaptors, DBZ, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu Yu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin, Outlaw Star etc etc and it was because of CN/AS that I was able to enjoy good dubs like Bebop, Wolf's Rain, and Trigun. It's because of CN/AS that I was introduced to Inuyasha, Gundam SEED, FMA, Samurai Champloo and more, so for that I appreciate dubs. But of course, when I hrd the original Japanese dubs for shows like SEED, FMA, Champloo, Trigun, etc. I realized why there are staunch fans that support the Japanese over American. I could hear in the seiyuu's a different approach and feeling in the way that they brought their characters to life, it was like the character became them. But for most american dubs, it sounds like script reading and not acting. And a lot of the times the Japanese connations/traditions are lost and the show becomes "Americanized" like when they call rice in a bento with red pickles, cottage cheses and strawberries xD

So for me, I appreciate the dubs because they've introduced me to great anime series, but I do like the Japanese dubs much much better, because I feel the Japanese dubs have much more soul in them.