Author Topic: Worst Dubs?  (Read 63509 times)

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Offline Higuma

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #50 on: June 15, 2010, 10:01:35 pm »
All Viz dubs!

Offline emasik

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #51 on: June 19, 2010, 05:51:41 pm »
I have to say OHSHC. I adore that series. And the Japanese voices are wonderful. But when I heard the English actors for the first time, I honestly died a little inside. I:

Offline Shiro.Kitsune42

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #52 on: June 28, 2010, 03:15:44 pm »
The dub for Ouran absolutely angered me. For me, I think the worse would be a tie between that and Gravitation.

Offline Romo

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #53 on: June 29, 2010, 10:54:56 pm »
Ouran, Nabari no Ou, and DN Angel have to be the worst I've ever heard.
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Offline NARUNIK

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #54 on: June 30, 2010, 11:50:48 am »
Worst dub for me was Pokemon when the voice actor for Ash went to do Dinosaur King. Also Jesse and James went to Dinosaur King also. ( Dinosaur King is some Viz Kids anime on 4kids.)

Otherwise I like lots of Dubs. One Piece is my favorite so far. ( Funimation dub )

I think Funimation has great voice dubbing for lots of their shows. I get there dvd's. 4kids really screwed up on One Piece though. Allthough 4kids makes fair theme songs.

Offline Naruchan

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #55 on: July 10, 2010, 05:08:37 am »
Nabari No Ou hit me so hard when it sucked. ugh
I heard Funimations dub for Hetalia, I didn't like it very much. Xp
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Offline Jacob_Blackfeather

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #56 on: July 10, 2010, 05:09:54 am »
I was really little but now that I watch sailor moon again, well it's just terrible

Offline flyinvee11

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #57 on: July 12, 2010, 12:50:41 am »
The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi.
The only VA that even came close was Haruhi (Wendee Lee).
Kyon (Crispin Freeman) was 'meh' ok, but Itsuki (Johnny what's-his-face) made me want to eat dynamite and jump into a fire.

Offline thesirensings

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #58 on: July 16, 2010, 01:10:06 pm »
SAILOR MOOOOOOON~!
Seriously, the english was so bad. "Hi, I'm Rini~ I have the most annoying voice! And Serena sounds WAY TOO OLD for this role~! Teehee!"
Made me want to shoot myself.

What else...
Saikano's english dub wasn't too great. So much crying from Chise... Dx

Princess Tutu's english dub had one bad one. Mytho's voice was too deep for someone his age. o-o
Really early onset of puberty maybe?
Isn't he about a bazillion years old though? xD
But he didn't age at all!

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Offline korin

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #59 on: July 22, 2010, 04:56:22 am »
Yami no Matsuei had a horrible, horrible dub. It's one of my all time favorite series, and I couldn't stand to watch an episode.

On a somewhat related note, I think Gundam Wing had a good dub.

Offline Saki-the-cat

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #60 on: July 23, 2010, 03:57:35 pm »
Well, the Funimation websight just released the first 4 episodes of the Hetalia English dub...I'm sort of disapointed. Pretty much the only voices that sound somewhat ok are France(although, the only thing i like about his English voice is his French sounding laugh), Russia, Chibitalia, and Poland. The other characters they failed on pretty hard...well, at least the internet still has original Japanese virtion.

Offline Kimiski

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #61 on: July 24, 2010, 12:25:02 am »
Sailor Moon.


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Offline Coconutty93

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #62 on: July 24, 2010, 11:55:59 am »
Sailor Moon.

WHUT? Which season? D:

Offline StarryShay

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #63 on: July 25, 2010, 11:44:58 am »

Offline @random

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #64 on: July 25, 2010, 12:47:59 pm »
It'd be a lot shorter for me to list the dubbing I enjoyed, to be honest: Kare Kano, Fruits Basket, Gunslinger Girl, and Crest/Banner of the Stars. (The last one says a lot, because I adore Kawasumi Ayako.)  But one thing really stands out to me... why, oh why did Funi fail to learn Viz's lesson about trying to make voice actors redub songs?

(If you have a strong stomach, here's the Viz example from years ago, and here are a couple of similarly cringe-inducing examples from Funi. Keep in mind the characters are supposed to be middle-schoolers, not their parents.)

The Fruits Basket OP redub was a rare exception that sorta worked - it was a slow, emotional song which primarily focused on the lyrics. They faithfully translated it rather than trying to force rhymes or flat-out rewrite the song, and they didn't try to pretend they had seiyuu who have trained to hit a wide range of notes without their voices cracking. Break more than one or two of those criteria, and you're pretty much asking for disaster.
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Offline thesirensings

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #65 on: July 25, 2010, 01:20:08 pm »
Man, everyone's hatin' on the Hetalia dub. I kinda liked it. There are some things about it that were just better in Japanese (Austria and the Chibitalia segments come to mind), but overall, I thought they did a pretty good job.
« Last Edit: July 25, 2010, 01:20:24 pm by thesirensings »

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Offline Kimiski

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #66 on: July 25, 2010, 05:01:08 pm »
Sailor Moon.

WHUT? Which season? D:
Every season. xDDD

Lol, pretty much!
Especially the ones done by DIC

Jupiter to Kunzite (a.k.a Malachite wtf??) "Dream on Surfer Boy!!" ..... seriously?

I still like the sub of Hetalia better, but I didn't think the dub was too bad :O
« Last Edit: July 25, 2010, 05:12:05 pm by kimiski »


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Offline Coconutty93

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #67 on: July 25, 2010, 11:09:09 pm »
Sailor Moon.

WHUT? Which season? D:
Every season. xDDD

Lol, pretty much!
Especially the ones done by DIC

Jupiter to Kunzite (a.k.a Malachite wtf??) "Dream on Surfer Boy!!" ..... seriously?

I still like the sub of Hetalia better, but I didn't think the dub was too bad :O

;o;

Offline Imposer12

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #68 on: July 26, 2010, 09:04:09 am »
Everything adapted from Rumiko Takahashi's work, then dubbed is the absolute worst. . .dubbing in general should stop. And no more subtitles either. I hate having to pause to read some totally mistranslated text. Raws are the best way to go. . .Just kidding. But I agree that many dubbings are poorly done. There are 3 anime titles I would like to see dubbed (but good dubs)-Rosario+Vampire/R+V Capu2. Sekirei/Sekirei Pure Engagement and Ramen Fighter Miki.
« Last Edit: July 26, 2010, 09:38:19 am by Imposer12 »

Offline Kimiski

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #69 on: July 26, 2010, 02:23:43 pm »
It'd be a lot shorter for me to list the dubbing I enjoyed, to be honest: Kare Kano, Fruits Basket, Gunslinger Girl, and Crest/Banner of the Stars. (The last one says a lot, because I adore Kawasumi Ayako.)  But one thing really stands out to me... why, oh why did Funi fail to learn Viz's lesson about trying to make voice actors redub songs?

(If you have a strong stomach, here's the Viz example from years ago, and here are a couple of similarly cringe-inducing examples from Funi. Keep in mind the characters are supposed to be middle-schoolers, not their parents.)

The Fruits Basket OP redub was a rare exception that sorta worked - it was a slow, emotional song which primarily focused on the lyrics. They faithfully translated it rather than trying to force rhymes or flat-out rewrite the song, and they didn't try to pretend they had seiyuu who have trained to hit a wide range of notes without their voices cracking. Break more than one or two of those criteria, and you're pretty much asking for disaster.


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Offline xSmallBombsx

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #70 on: August 06, 2010, 10:08:44 pm »
I have to admit, I have a serious soft spot for the Sailor Moon dub (PLEASE DON'T TRAMPLE ME), since I grew up with it <3 Not saying I prefer it to the sub though, cause I definitely, definitely don't .-.

Higurashi is the worst dub I've seen, though. Oh my godddd, made my ears bleed.
See first two clips here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4GxHEW4sJg Rena whaaaat. Lol oh god Keiichi: "...Stop that!" FFFF
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Offline @random

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #71 on: August 08, 2010, 08:38:56 am »
I have to admit, I have a serious soft spot for the Sailor Moon dub (PLEASE DON'T TRAMPLE ME), since I grew up with it <3 Not saying I prefer it to the sub though, cause I definitely, definitely don't .-.

Higurashi is the worst dub I've seen, though. Oh my godddd, made my ears bleed.
See first two clips here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4GxHEW4sJg Rena whaaaat. Lol oh god Keiichi: "...Stop that!" FFFF

I feel your pain. Aside from her habit of pronouncing "Akane" as "Uh-Connie" and "Sasuke" as "Suh-Sukey", American Kodachi's first VA has perhaps the worst laugh in all of anime.
« Last Edit: August 08, 2010, 08:41:36 am by randompvg »
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Offline luvan1me

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #72 on: August 08, 2010, 07:17:24 pm »
Do u guys know a manga called kekkaishi? ._. Well funimation destroyed the dubbed... It was TERRIBLE!!! I watched it for literally 30 seconds and I deleted it off of the tv. That has been the worst voice picking EVER!! TT_TT

Offline Saki-the-cat

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #73 on: August 08, 2010, 11:42:25 pm »
I think that we can all agree that Funimation sucks.

Offline luvan1me

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #74 on: August 09, 2010, 01:34:57 am »
i KNOW! ;A; i was like OH NOEZ! MY FAVORITE SERIES! T___T

Offline Hawk_Gyrl

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #75 on: August 10, 2010, 04:12:14 pm »
every naruto ever ><

Offline Animeman73

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #76 on: August 17, 2010, 06:52:24 am »
Interesting subject you got here. Let's see, the worst dub ever made.  I've got one Yu-Gi-Oh GX, Boy did 4Kids T.V. drop the ball on this one. Maybe it had to do with the fact that they caved in to all the ideological parents groups and politicians rather than leave with it's original storylines, and the worst thing of all is then they tossed it aside like an empty can of beer. Can you say "EPIC FAIL" sure I knew ya' could.
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Offline UnderTaker

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #77 on: August 22, 2010, 01:27:08 am »
Before I even say this, I want you to know: No, I'm not one to Watch Hentai for the porn of it.

This is the only Hentai i've seen, and I ended up laughing so hard at the dub, I was in tears.

Bible Black.


I swear, if by god chance you come across it, you'll end up pissing yourself in laughter on how bad the dubbing is in it.

Offline flyinvee11

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #78 on: August 22, 2010, 01:46:47 am »
Before I even say this, I want you to know: No, I'm not one to Watch Hentai for the porn of it.

This is the only Hentai i've seen, and I ended up laughing so hard at the dub, I was in tears.

Bible Black.

I swear, if by god chance you come across it, you'll end up pissing yourself in laughter on how bad the dubbing is in it.

Youtube ftw. And wow. You were absolutely right.

Offline spyke180

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #79 on: August 23, 2010, 04:43:31 pm »
I really hate the english dub of Deathnote,
It sounds like they used the same guy for everybodies voice.

Offline @random

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #80 on: August 24, 2010, 02:24:56 pm »
Before I even say this, I want you to know: No, I'm not one to Watch Hentai for the porn of it.

This is the only Hentai i've seen, and I ended up laughing so hard at the dub, I was in tears.

Bible Black.


I swear, if by god chance you come across it, you'll end up pissing yourself in laughter on how bad the dubbing is in it.

Is it just the voice-acting, or the dialogue?

I'm no fan of dubbing, but at least in my very very limited experience (half of La Blue Girl before I stopped laughing and started cringing), the dialogue may not be completely their fault. Kinda hard to blame the dubbers if the dialogue was atrocious to begin with, though God knows they've "Americanized" a lot of good dialogue into dreck.
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Offline DancingDemyx

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #81 on: August 26, 2010, 09:42:35 am »
Kodomo no Omocha.
I was so disappointed...I adore the actors, but it was done terribly! The voices didn't fit the characters well at all.

Hetalia...I died inside. So much. There are some bits that I find quite nice, such as Germany, but...Italy. ITALY. Not okay with me, dude...

Offline @random

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #82 on: August 26, 2010, 10:27:53 am »
Kodomo no Omocha.
I was so disappointed...I adore the actors, but it was done terribly! The voices didn't fit the characters well at all.

Hetalia...I died inside. So much. There are some bits that I find quite nice, such as Germany, but...Italy. ITALY. Not okay with me, dude...

That makes me very, very sad. Kodocha's easily in my top 5 favorites of all time, but I've never heard the dub.

I guess that might be why one of the friends I've loaned the discs to didn't care for it, given their preference for dubs. I really couldn't fathom why, as weird-but-adorably-hyperactive as Japanese Sana-chan is.

(Edit: typo kurrekshin)
« Last Edit: August 26, 2010, 11:42:06 am by randompvg »
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Offline DancingDemyx

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #83 on: August 26, 2010, 10:30:25 am »
Kodomo no Omocha.
I was so disappointed...I adore the actors, but it was done terribly! The voices didn't fit the characters well at all.

Hetalia...I died inside. So much. There are some bits that I find quite nice, such as Germany, but...Italy. ITALY. Not okay with me, dude...

That makes me very, very sad. Kodocha's easily in my top 5 favorites of all time, but I've never heard the dub.

I guess that might be why one of the friends I've loaded the discs to didn't care for it, given their preference for dubs. I really couldn't fathom why, as weird-but-adorably-hyperactive as Japanese Sana-chan is.
Yeah, it was incredibly disappointing...Sana-chan's voice got a bit better as the show went on, but Akito's voice was terribly off. Jerry Jewell has an amazing voice, but...It was way too deep.

Offline Washougal_Otaku

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #84 on: August 26, 2010, 12:44:44 pm »
Before I even say this, I want you to know: No, I'm not one to Watch Hentai for the porn of it.

This is the only Hentai i've seen, and I ended up laughing so hard at the dub, I was in tears.

Bible Black.


I swear, if by god chance you come across it, you'll end up pissing yourself in laughter on how bad the dubbing is in it.

I didn't think it was that bad, in terms of the dubbing, at least on a hentai level.  I'd give it a 6 out of 10.  Either way, not really sure if this is the best place to be comparing hentai-related comments.
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Offline Zangetsu

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #85 on: August 27, 2010, 11:42:13 pm »
I usually really like dubs, all the ones you guys mentioned, from what I saw, I really enjoyed.
One I didn't like at all was Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Maybe it's because I was really into the
Subbed, then finally bought the dvd and watched it in english from beginning to end. Hated it.
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Offline @random

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #86 on: August 28, 2010, 12:43:21 pm »
I usually really like dubs, all the ones you guys mentioned, from what I saw, I really enjoyed.
One I didn't like at all was Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Maybe it's because I was really into the
Subbed, then finally bought the dvd and watched it in english from beginning to end. Hated it.

Careful there... that's how you'll become one of the subfans. (^_~)

Until I listened all the way through a couple of subs and then compared them to the dubs, I thought it was too annoying to read the subtitles. After, when I realized 1) how much more talented and emotionally expressive seiyuu are on average and 2) how much they screw with the dialogue in a dub, I rarely watched anything but sub versions.
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Offline kalagei

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #87 on: August 29, 2010, 05:15:34 pm »
I wasn't terribly impressed with the Wolf and Spice Dub...

could just be that the subs were what I watched when I was falling asleep every night back in 2008 ^^;
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Offline Washougal_Otaku

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #88 on: August 29, 2010, 09:57:04 pm »
I usually really like dubs, all the ones you guys mentioned, from what I saw, I really enjoyed.
One I didn't like at all was Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Maybe it's because I was really into the
Subbed, then finally bought the dvd and watched it in english from beginning to end. Hated it.

Careful there... that's how you'll become one of the subfans. (^_~)

Until I listened all the way through a couple of subs and then compared them to the dubs, I thought it was too annoying to read the subtitles. After, when I realized 1) how much more talented and emotionally expressive seiyuu are on average and 2) how much they screw with the dialogue in a dub, I rarely watched anything but sub versions.

You're forgetting three main factors, though...

1) Seiyuu tend to be really terrible at their job when it comes to sounding like they're foreigners.  My favorite example of this is Slayers, because it also has some that are rather good at it.  I've seen & heard many people say Amelia's name is really Ameria, simply because some of the Japanese voices say it like this.  However, if you listen to Megumi Hayashibara (Lina Inverse) and Hideki Midorikawa (Zelgadis) you can clearly hear an "L" rather than an "R".  At least with English dubs, (especially over the past decade or so), they work on accents and pronunciations.

2) People watch anime to watch animation, not read.  Subtitles make things hard to follow the storyline when you're reading something that often times is typed so poorly, you're left wondering "what the heck is THAT supposed to mean?" or "why aren't they proofreading their texts?"  I've seen some incredibly poor subtitling, both by the pros and the fans.  I don't care for it.

3) Do you realize how hard it is to get the English language to fit Japanese lip movements like that?  Sometimes, the Japanese dubbing is quite off!  From what I've been told by someone in the business, thsi is because sometimes there's such a time crunch that the seiyuu have to guess how fast the characters are saying each syllable, which tends to be off from time to time.  This sometimes makes things even more challenging for the English dubbers.

Something else to think of...

Pick an American animation, any one of them.  Now, if you can find the official Spanish dubbing of it, that'd be great!  I've seen many examples of these on Telemundo.  Their voice actors are terrible!!!  Unlike English dubbers, they don't even try to have their voices line up with the lip movements of the characters.  They just try to shove things in quickly enough so that the dialogue isn't lost.  Reason: different language structures.  We aren't that bad at this.
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Offline Zangetsu

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #89 on: August 30, 2010, 08:06:44 am »
I agree completely. I was stating that I had preferred the Japanese actors over the English ones (At least in Higurashi). I know a few voice actors from the anime actually. Keiichi is played by the same guy that does Izuru Kira from Bleach and Mion/Shion is played by the english voice of Rangiku Matsumoto. They have great talent, that's for sure, but I didn't think they're voices matched for the Higurashi characters.
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Offline @random

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #90 on: August 30, 2010, 02:55:26 pm »
I usually really like dubs, all the ones you guys mentioned, from what I saw, I really enjoyed.
One I didn't like at all was Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Maybe it's because I was really into the
Subbed, then finally bought the dvd and watched it in english from beginning to end. Hated it.

Careful there... that's how you'll become one of the subfans. (^_~)

Until I listened all the way through a couple of subs and then compared them to the dubs, I thought it was too annoying to read the subtitles. After, when I realized 1) how much more talented and emotionally expressive seiyuu are on average and 2) how much they screw with the dialogue in a dub, I rarely watched anything but sub versions.

You're forgetting three main factors, though...

1) Seiyuu tend to be really terrible at their job when it comes to sounding like they're foreigners.  My favorite example of this is Slayers, because it also has some that are rather good at it.  I've seen & heard many people say Amelia's name is really Ameria, simply because some of the Japanese voices say it like this.  However, if you listen to Megumi Hayashibara (Lina Inverse) and Hideki Midorikawa (Zelgadis) you can clearly hear an "L" rather than an "R".  At least with English dubs, (especially over the past decade or so), they work on accents and pronunciations.

2) People watch anime to watch animation, not read.  Subtitles make things hard to follow the storyline when you're reading something that often times is typed so poorly, you're left wondering "what the heck is THAT supposed to mean?" or "why aren't they proofreading their texts?"  I've seen some incredibly poor subtitling, both by the pros and the fans.  I don't care for it.

3) Do you realize how hard it is to get the English language to fit Japanese lip movements like that?  Sometimes, the Japanese dubbing is quite off!  From what I've been told by someone in the business, thsi is because sometimes there's such a time crunch that the seiyuu have to guess how fast the characters are saying each syllable, which tends to be off from time to time.  This sometimes makes things even more challenging for the English dubbers.

Something else to think of...

Pick an American animation, any one of them.  Now, if you can find the official Spanish dubbing of it, that'd be great!  I've seen many examples of these on Telemundo.  Their voice actors are terrible!!!  Unlike English dubbers, they don't even try to have their voices line up with the lip movements of the characters.  They just try to shove things in quickly enough so that the dialogue isn't lost.  Reason: different language structures.  We aren't that bad at this.

1) I agree about seiyuu having trouble sounding like a native speaker of English... even my beloved Ayako Kawasumi painfully butchered her English scenes in Genshiken. But in the vast majority of anime I watch, their English pronunciation isn't an issue.

And our VAs are no better with Japanese than theirs are with English. I don't even speak the language, but it makes me cringe to hear an American VA pronounce Sasuke as suhSUkey, Asuna as essYUnuh, or karaoke as CArryOHkey.

2) I could understand if someone else feels differently, but for me personally that's not an issue. I speedread, so reading is rarely a distraction unless it's a really bad sub. (Or if it's Sana-chan from Kodocha talking. ;)) And while it's just my individual experience, the instances of script butchery by dubbers have been much more frequent than those by subbers.

3) I do, but I look at it from a different POV - I think that it's a terrible mistake for dub companies to have become slaves to WordFit. If it requires making noticeable changes to the original script, then they should stop being so obsessive about the number of mouth flaps.

The main reason that asynchronous mouth-flaps became a joke is that they used to make no effort whatsoever when they dubbed live-action kung fu movies. They would frequently overrun or underrun by several syllables, they had voice actors who went to the William! Shatner! School! of Enunciation! (which called sharp attention to any mismatches), and mouth movements can be perceived very clearly in live-action (so much so that you can even lip-read).

In anime, not only are syllables (mouth flaps) usually no clearer than the difference between O and 0 or o, most of the voice actors are subtle enough to not Emphasize! Every! Syllable!. If the writers sometimes ignored WordFit and let sentences be off by a syllable or two, it would be a lot easier to keep the translation accurate and avoid stilted language. But instead, for the sake of exactly matching mouth flaps that you have to pay attention to notice, they continue to make very-noticeable changes to the dialogue.  :'(

I agree completely. I was stating that I had preferred the Japanese actors over the English ones (At least in Higurashi). I know a few voice actors from the anime actually. Keiichi is played by the same guy that does Izuru Kira from Bleach and Mion/Shion is played by the english voice of Rangiku Matsumoto. They have great talent, that's for sure, but I didn't think they're voices matched for the Higurashi characters.

The problems with American voice acting certainly aren't limited to lack of talent or training, and it's rare that the problem is lack of heart or trying their best. IIRC, one actually did serious damage to her voice trying to match the phonic contortions of the original Excel Saga seiyuu. A voice actress did this to herself because she was trying so hard to try to do the part justice. You just can't say that's lack of heart.

The problem is that there are only a few handfuls of American VA's, and almost none that I've heard have a wide vocal range. By contrast, there are hundreds of seiyuu for any given project, many with a wide range. One of them is bound to have just the right vocal qualities for a part.

By contrast, American dubbers tend to rely on a dozen or so VA's at most, sometimes only a few, for all of their projects. When Funimation dubbed Negima!, which features a class of thirty-one students, they reached well outside their normal stable but still had to get VA's to voice two or three different students at a time, because there just weren't enough of them. Or for a different example, the same American VA was expected to play parts that were originally voiced by Mamiko Noto, Megumi Hayashibara, Ayako Kawasumi, and Rie Kugimiya. (If you're not familiar with these seiyuu, don't worry about it. Just trust me that they have very different styles.)

Without a wide selection of different voice types, how can American VA's possibly be expected to match the part every time, or even come close?
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Offline Washougal_Otaku

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #91 on: August 31, 2010, 09:50:49 pm »
1) It's not just their English characters that lack a foreigner's sounds and accents, and many of them ARE that bad.  Honestly, I think they need to have better training, (if they get any at all) when it comes to sounding like a non-Japanese character.

I can see your point with mispronouncing some names, but you don't find it equally painful hearing simple American names sounding like they were spoken by a jawless hillbilly?  Some of them sound THAT bad, maybe even worse.  Sasuke & Asuna are offen mispronounced because the dipsticks who chose to have the Romanji-style of Japanese thought that a "u" made more sense than an " ' ".  Karaoke is a weird word, one that most Americans can't pronounce right, especially since they don't know any better.  I personally don't care; I'll say that how I want to since 90% of its singers don't belong near a mic.

2) I can speedread just fine myself.  However, for me, there are three main reasons why subtitles aren't that great.  a) With both fansubs and pro-dubs, the quality of the translations &/or the type-work often sucks.  b) I wear contacts, so focusing on a lot of words on a screen in front of images that move causes a strain on my eyes, so I miss something.  c) I watch anime to watch anime, not read!  That's what books are for.

3) Dialogue isn't that heavily altered.  The most that I've seen, in cases where I've seen both English & Japanese, were in small and irrelevant details, such as culture jokes and reactions to an action.  I understand that 4Kids did a lot of storyline changes to shows like Pokemon & One Piece, but I don't care about those shows.  they were brought over to get kids into anime, which means it's logical to make some changes to fit our cultural perspectives, to an extent.  Like I said, I could care less what sort of changes 4Kids made to these shows.

As for the stuff that I do like, which is what got me into anime, there aren't any "dialogue" changes, nowhere nearly bad enough to raise an issue of it over lip-syncing.  btw, that was the MAIN reason why many Americans didn't like or respect martial arts movies back in the day, because of a lack of lip-syncing.  I think it's great that there's such an attempt to do this with many anime companies.  I'd rather have insignificant details cut out for the sake of somewhat decent lip-syncing over matching every joke that the average American wouldn't get for the sake of "dialogue."
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Offline LittleKarasu

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #92 on: September 01, 2010, 11:13:09 pm »
I didn't care so much for the wallflower dub. everyones voice was so high pitch and what was with Hiroshi's voice?????
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Offline CheshireStray

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #93 on: September 03, 2010, 01:47:58 am »
Out of curiosity (and not to invite a flame war or anything...) what EXACTLY is it about the Ouran dub that makes it unanimously hated around here?
Maybe it's because i first watched the show dubbed, but i never really had a problem with it the first couple of times i watched the series. Even when i went back and watched it in the original Japanese, while i noticed the differences (like Tamaki having a much deeper voice) I never really thought of the English dub as being BAD... In fact, given a choice, I'd watch the show dubbed.
Im not lazy about reading subtitles, Im a fast reader, and for the most part can watch and read seamlessly (experiance 8D), so it's definitely not that that stops me from adoring the original Japanese...
Is it just that everyone grew accustomed to hearing the Japanese seiyuu, and it was so different?
After all, I think I'm one of the only ones here who got on the Ouran train late enough to even be ABLE to watch it Dubbed first, so maybe it just has to do with a first impression?
Sorry if the question isn't valid, or if no one wants to explain. Im just genuinely curious as to why it gets so much hate XP.

Offline flyinvee11

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #94 on: September 03, 2010, 02:10:48 am »
Out of curiosity (and not to invite a flame war or anything...) what EXACTLY is it about the Ouran dub that makes it unanimously hated around here?
Maybe it's because i first watched the show dubbed, but i never really had a problem with it the first couple of times i watched the series. Even when i went back and watched it in the original Japanese, while i noticed the differences (like Tamaki having a much deeper voice) I never really thought of the English dub as being BAD... In fact, given a choice, I'd watch the show dubbed.
Im not lazy about reading subtitles, Im a fast reader, and for the most part can watch and read seamlessly (experiance 8D), so it's definitely not that that stops me from adoring the original Japanese...
Is it just that everyone grew accustomed to hearing the Japanese seiyuu, and it was so different?
After all, I think I'm one of the only ones here who got on the Ouran train late enough to even be ABLE to watch it Dubbed first, so maybe it just has to do with a first impression?
Sorry if the question isn't valid, or if no one wants to explain. Im just genuinely curious as to why it gets so much hate XP.

I think it mostly has to do with Vic Mignogna. Personally, I prefer the dub, but I can also see why some people hate it. Vic's just got one of those voices (personas) that you either love or hate.

Offline @random

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #95 on: September 03, 2010, 09:39:57 am »
Sasuke & Asuna are offen mispronounced because the dipsticks who chose to have the Romanji-style of Japanese thought that a "u" made more sense than an " ' "
One of the things I love about the Japanese language is that it's almost always pronounced just as it's spelled. AFAIK, there's only one notable exception - the "u" sound. String two of them together, and you get a long "u". But in most cases, a standalone "u" simply elongates the sound preceding it. Bad enough with Sasuke, but downright outrageous with Kyou. Looks like "Kyow", but pronounced as "Kyoh".  :-\

But that's simply what I as a native speaker of English have noticed. There are probably a LOT of subtleties that would make a native Japanese speaker laugh or cringe, given how often word meaning depends on inflection. For one example, I still can't reliably tell the difference between "ojii-san" (grandpa) and "oji-san" (uncle) to save my life.

Apply the same standard of inconsistent pronunciation to English, and it's a wonder that any seiyuu can ever sound aught but ridiculous to native speakers. Instead of one notable exception, you have dozens depending on where the word was originally borrowed from. (Fun exercise: Try figuring out a systematized explanation for how to pronounce "ough" - i.e. "bough", "cough", "rough", "through", and "dough".) That, and English is a lot stronger on long vowel sounds than Japanese. I would imagine that there are voice coaches who simply tell a seiyuu who's getting a crash course in English pronunciation, "Just pronounce every vowel as if it were doubled, and you'll be right more often than not." I suspect that's behind a lot of the reason it sounds silly to us as native speakers - overstretching vowel sounds like someone reading to a child and overenunciating.

Quote
As for the stuff that I do like, which is what got me into anime, there aren't any "dialogue" changes, nowhere nearly bad enough to raise an issue of it over lip-syncing.  btw, that was the MAIN reason why many Americans didn't like or respect martial arts movies back in the day, because of a lack of lip-syncing.  I think it's great that there's such an attempt to do this with many anime companies.  I'd rather have insignificant details cut out for the sake of somewhat decent lip-syncing over matching every joke that the average American wouldn't get for the sake of "dialogue."

In terms of stuff I like, I tend towards the shoujo and josei anime and manga myself. A slight change in meaning can make a lot more difference when talking about a nuance of communication than it can when talking about a nuance of a fight. "For the sake of 'dialogue'" is a lot more important with respect to "I love you" versus "I care about you" than it is for "I will crush him!" versus "I will defeat him!".

I'm not sure I understand why you contrasted kung-fu movies to making every syllable match, then inferred that I prefer the former while you prefer the latter. My point in bringing up kung-fu movies was that they grossly overdid it in terms of bad lip-sync, often being off by several syllables. In addition, they had the additional factors of horrid voice-acting and live-action mouth movements to make it screamingly obvious. Since anime doesn't have those factors working against it, being off by one or two syllables won't be nearly as noticeable as atrocities like "Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub".

I wasn't suggesting that kung-fu movie dubbing is better, only that it's the opposite extreme of changing dialogue every time WordFit says so. Taking the middle ground would be far better. The Naruto dub wouldn't have earned half the hate it did if they had just used ", you know" (a semi-common interjection indicating uncertainty, much more accurate) to replace -ttebayo instead of "Believe it!" (an uncommon and very noticeable exclamation). "Believe it!" matches the mouth flaps perfectly while ", you know" wouldn't. But it's become just as much of a joke and an example of what NOT to do in dubbing as kung-fu style.
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Offline @random

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #96 on: September 03, 2010, 10:16:43 am »
Out of curiosity (and not to invite a flame war or anything...) what EXACTLY is it about the Ouran dub that makes it unanimously hated around here?
(snip)
Is it just that everyone grew accustomed to hearing the Japanese seiyuu, and it was so different?
After all, I think I'm one of the only ones here who got on the Ouran train late enough to even be ABLE to watch it Dubbed first, so maybe it just has to do with a first impression?
Sorry if the question isn't valid, or if no one wants to explain. Im just genuinely curious as to why it gets so much hate XP.

Perfectly valid question, and you're almost certainly right. It's the same as if someone reads the manga first and is disappointed by the anime, or vice versa. If two versions cast the characters you love in different lights, you're very likely to prefer the one you saw first - even if it's true that you would have loved the other even more had you seen it first.

When I watched Maison Ikkoku as a dub, for example, I came to love the character of Kyoko and by extension the voice actress. So it was grating to hear the original seiyuu later on as a very young and sometimes flighty woman... even though it was a lot more true to the original story, the character's age, and the theme of not giving up on life too soon than the no-nonsense mature Kyoko I heard first.

Sometimes it's possible to equally love two different stories about the same characters - for me, Kashimashi and Negima are great examples. And sometimes it's even possible to dislike the first one you saw because it derailed the characters - Full Metal Alchemist or the end of Mahoromatic, for example. But usually we perceive the first one we see as the "true" version, and the later one as a derailment.
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Offline Washougal_Otaku

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #97 on: September 08, 2010, 05:33:00 pm »
Apply the same standard of inconsistent pronunciation to English, and it's a wonder that any seiyuu can ever sound aught but ridiculous to native speakers. Instead of one notable exception, you have dozens depending on where the word was originally borrowed from. (Fun exercise: Try figuring out a systematized explanation for how to pronounce "ough" - i.e. "bough", "cough", "rough", "through", and "dough".) That, and English is a lot stronger on long vowel sounds than Japanese. I would imagine that there are voice coaches who simply tell a seiyuu who's getting a crash course in English pronunciation, "Just pronounce every vowel as if it were doubled, and you'll be right more often than not." I suspect that's behind a lot of the reason it sounds silly to us as native speakers - overstretching vowel sounds like someone reading to a child and overenunciating.

A major reason for the inconsistencies in our language is because, unlike Japanese, English has had several languages impacted upon it.  Those words you’ve provided have different routes; that’s a big part of why they’re different.

If that were the reason why they suck at sounding American, or British, or German, or anything other than Japanese or Chinese, then they need to find someone who can make a decent attempt, or at least get an accent expert who actually does their jobs.



I'm not sure I understand why you contrasted kung-fu movies to making every syllable match, then inferred that I prefer the former while you prefer the latter. My point in bringing up kung-fu movies was that they grossly overdid it in terms of bad lip-sync, often being off by several syllables. In addition, they had the additional factors of horrid voice-acting and live-action mouth movements to make it screamingly obvious. Since anime doesn't have those factors working against it, being off by one or two syllables won't be nearly as noticeable as atrocities like "Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub".

I wasn't suggesting that kung-fu movie dubbing is better, only that it's the opposite extreme of changing dialogue every time WordFit says so. Taking the middle ground would be far better. The Naruto dub wouldn't have earned half the hate it did if they had just used ", you know" (a semi-common interjection indicating uncertainty, much more accurate) to replace -ttebayo instead of "Believe it!" (an uncommon and very noticeable exclamation). "Believe it!" matches the mouth flaps perfectly while ", you know" wouldn't. But it's become just as much of a joke and an example of what NOT to do in dubbing as kung-fu style.

I think you’ve misunderstood what I was getting at…

I WAS AGREEING WITH YOU THAT KUNG FU MOVIES WERE BAD AT VOICE DUBBING!!!

What I was disagreeing with you about is the general public’s viewpoint on dubbing.  People wanted better dubbing work, and still do.  If something is off enough to be obvious, people complain.  Most anime companies attempt to match things to the best of their abilities.  Remember, two completely different language styles; there’s going to be some issues.

Also, at least we try.  Remember what I said about animations translated into Spanish?  They don’t even try.  We do.  Are we PERFECT at it?  No.  The “Believe it!” reference makes sense, but you know what?  Naruto was just annoying!  Even if he said “You know!” it’d still be annoying, and anti-dubbers would’ve wished he said something more logical, or a sound effect, or something else.  It would’ve been wrong, no matter what.

Another example I like using (if I haven’t already) is Chrono Crusade.  When it was translated into English, it was 1920’s American English.  Why?  Because that’s when it was set!  Unlike Japanese, American English has gone through many changes in the past 100 years.  There’s different cultural references & slangs that, nowadays, have different meanings than Sister Rosette would’ve known.  Like, instead of “Damn it!”, they would’ve said something like “Applesauce!”  This is nowhere near the closest translation to the Japanese term that was used, but it’s what would’ve been used back then.

And still, your dialogue examples aren’t strong enough to prove a point, except that the producers & directors could try using different terms that would still fit the lips better while having an “accurate” translation.

I’m still waiting for someone to explain why some subtitlers are as bad as they are…
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Offline @random

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #98 on: September 08, 2010, 09:31:25 pm »
And still, your dialogue examples aren’t strong enough to prove a point, except that the producers & directors could try using different terms that would still fit the lips better while having an “accurate” translation.

You know, this has kindasorta come full circle.

Your first response to my post earlier in the thread included "3) Do you realize how hard it is to get the English language to fit Japanese lip movements like that?" I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment, but we seem to have reached opposite conclusions about what this means in terms of mouth-flap matching.

I don't think they can try harder and get both perfect translation accuracy and perfect mouth-flap matching; I think the two are to some degree mutually exclusive. And I think that in fifty years' time at most, people will look at extremely literal mouth-flap matching the same way they do now at extremely literal translation (i.e. translating 頭にくる as "it comes to the head" instead of "get angry / pissed"). Actually, I think they already do to some extent.

I respect the fact that you think that they should try even harder to match the mouth flaps. But I think that we've reached the limit of civil discourse, because I don't think either of us is likely to change our minds in the absence of evidence which somehow agrees with our already-formed perspective while also disproving it. And I think we should probably step back and let the other forum residents resume talking about the subject - dubs they hated - rather than making them listen to us argue about whether dubs or subs are better.
« Last Edit: September 08, 2010, 09:35:10 pm by randompvg »
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Offline Washougal_Otaku

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Re: Worst Dubs?
« Reply #99 on: September 09, 2010, 02:16:09 pm »
And still, your dialogue examples aren’t strong enough to prove a point, except that the producers & directors could try using different terms that would still fit the lips better while having an “accurate” translation.

You know, this has kindasorta come full circle.

Your first response to my post earlier in the thread included "3) Do you realize how hard it is to get the English language to fit Japanese lip movements like that?" I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment, but we seem to have reached opposite conclusions about what this means in terms of mouth-flap matching.

I don't think they can try harder and get both perfect translation accuracy and perfect mouth-flap matching; I think the two are to some degree mutually exclusive. And I think that in fifty years' time at most, people will look at extremely literal mouth-flap matching the same way they do now at extremely literal translation (i.e. translating 頭にくる as "it comes to the head" instead of "get angry / pissed"). Actually, I think they already do to some extent.

I respect the fact that you think that they should try even harder to match the mouth flaps. But I think that we've reached the limit of civil discourse, because I don't think either of us is likely to change our minds in the absence of evidence which somehow agrees with our already-formed perspective while also disproving it. And I think we should probably step back and let the other forum residents resume talking about the subject - dubs they hated - rather than making them listen to us argue about whether dubs or subs are better.

But you've gotta admit, it was a pretty fun circle, right?  ;D
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