Concerning dubs

[Kilgamayan]

While reading through the retardation that is YouAreAwesome's latest thread (I cannot honestly say I have ever seen anyone gay up their own thread with only the assistance of those who share their opinions), I would like to clear up a very much incorrect sweeping generalization that was made in it.

Not everyone here hates dubs, and not all dubs are bad. FLCL is the immediate obvious example because it's more or less required viewing for any self-respecting anime fan. Other worthwhile dubs are Outlaw Star and Big O.

To add a personal touch, Galaxy Angel is one of the best dubs I have ever seen, with great voice acting all around (one of the few shows where the under-18 characters actually sound like they're under 18) and a supreme lack in changing content. They even made the VAs sing the Grand Cross insert song in Season 2 (albeit in English) instead of just making up something random and out of place. The only thing it suffers from is the occasional lapse in directing, and those instances are few and far between enough that they're ignorable.

Dubs do not directly equate to crappy quality. While it's true that many of them are (hi there One Piece), don't take the state of the majority and generalize to everything, because you'll deny yourself plenty of gems.

[Squeek]

Having only seen three full dubbed episodes of three different series since I've begun enjoying Japanese anime, I cannot say much for whether or not it sucks entirely. Two out of the three dubs were actually quite good: Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell were done spectacularly in my opinion. These shows were both Adult Swim shows with dubbing done in-house. Then again, Fullmetal Alchemist, although true to its story, had some pretty pathetic voice acting.

Dubs of other shows I saw long ago seemed decent at the time, but when compared to the original versions, the difference was almost laughable. Cardcaptors vs. Cardcaptor Sakura? Dragonball? Sailor Moon? These shows lost their jokes, character development, plot (well, not in DB's case...), and so on. They lost their soul as a show. They lost what made them good. And since then I've just had a general dislike of dubs.

It seems since the age of Adult Swim that the industry has gotten better. We just have to keep 4kids away from our beloved series so that we don't have to stop watching them as they decrease in popularity from ten year old viewership of the show (lol naruto).

[SethSquall]

If there's the option to watch an anime with dubs then I will have a look. I'm not narrow minded about it, I will have a go at watching dubs first at least when I can. I've never really been happy with dubs. I agree with Squeek. I watch an anime with dubs and sometimes (not very often) I think" that's not too bad" then I watch the original versions and it so much better. I get the feeling that im missing quite a lot when I watch a dub. Feels like something's not right. I prefer the original language. I feel like when they translate the original script they make cuts to it.

[Chromer]

As an anime fan, I have to take ALL dubs with a grain of salt. Yes, that even meant FLCL and GTO, etc. When I'm viewing anime for the first time, I always watch it in original Japanese to get the full original version of the anime. Then I watch it again in English to see how well it was transcribed into English and to see if the translation was lost. Let me say that MANY anime I've watched suffer from this. Examples:

-Saikano
-Love Hina
-RahXephon
-Full Metal Alchemist
-Naruto
-One Piece
-Lunar Legend Tsukihime
-Tenjho Tenge
-Gantz (1/2 and 1/2)
-Tenchi Muyo


However, those anime that go beyond the call of duty and produce high quality dubs are the anime that deserve thier acclaim and credit. Examples:

-GTO
-Samurai Champloo
-GetBackers
-Genshiken
-FLCL
-Outlaw Star
-Ah! My Goddess!
-Big O
-Ghost In The Shell
-Lupin the III

The list could go on and on but you get the gist of it. The quality of the voice acting does not necessarily kill a high quality anime, but it can either detract heavily from the overall experience or enhance it to a whole new level.

[vashthestampede0987]

I found the FMA dub to be better than most other "bad" dubs. Tenchi Muyo's dub was just downright hilarious. It added to the hilarity imo.

[Afrobean]

FMA is automatically better than most ****ty dubs simply because it's not sugar coated for little kids and is still aimed at a more mature audience.

[Kilgamayan]

Um, a lot of shows that get "dumbed down" were intended for little kids in the first place.

Yes, stuff like Naruto and One Piece are kids' shows.

[sjoecool1991]

My favorite dubbing job is Kung Pow

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by Kilgamayan

Um, a lot of shows that get "dumbed down" were intended for little kids in the first place.

Yes, stuff like Naruto and One Piece are kids' shows.

Yeah, but the dubs exaggerate the target audience and aim for even younger, it seems.

[Squeek]

The age that shows are aimed for in Japan is numerically different in America. Other countries are much more mature than ours and can handle "graphic" content at a younger age. That's why I think Naruto really could be aimed at thirteen year olds in Japan, which is like 15-16 in America.

But what they do is assume the thirteen-year-old demographic and say "well it's too violent for them" and tone it down even lower. Because blood is totally bad. No human body has blood in it. Guns don't exist. BUT there's lots of painless violence!

[Kilgamayan]

Blame American society for that one, not the dubbing companies. Any dub company that wanted to appeal to the mainstream and took a "**** the societal norm" approach toward doing their job would find their asses sued and/or fired thanks to boatloads of soccer moms and other uptight pricks.

Not only are Japanese children more mature than their American counterparts, but Japanese parents are as well.

[Moogy]

The Hare+Guu dub is surprisingly good. Honestly, with a show like Guu, you'd think a proper dubbing would be impossible to pull off. I bought the first volume and watched it in English, expecting to be disappointed. However, to my surprise, the dub was great! Everything is just as funny as the original, and both Hare and Guu's voice actors do a great job.

So yeah, good dubs both exist and are still being produced.

[cC@Zz]

the age handling of violance in america ruins alot of things for anime.

some anime in america is toned down so much its not worth even watching. I mean there taking shows that in japan 12 year olds watch but taking it over to america they have to edit the crap out of it to make it appropriate by americas standards for kids. most kids nowadays in america watch violant things on television all the time and swear constantly. i see 8 year olds saying the f word and playin grand theft auto.

[FoJaR]

the naruto dub

i still cant talk about it....