Discuss Anime and Mang

[Necropolis 763]

Jojo is one of those things, like Getter Robo, where its got that bombastic Japanese cheese, that's hard to duplicate in english

[Sahaqiel 1232]

"Why don't you watch dubs?"

As a person who has some kind of idea about Japonspeak, I would say yeah, on average Japanese voice actors do a much better job. I've only heard a couple bad Japanese dubs, like Kenya Boy's MC, or certain kuudere archetypes. Even Mars of Destruction's Japanese dubbing was decent. In addition to being a more important part of the culture, the animation is also designed around Japanese dialogue. In other languages, the VA has to sync their native languages with a whole different language's mouth movements. I read an article once about the dubbing of Voltron; the VAs had to get split-second timing for lip sync. If your voice actor isn't very good or isn't very skilled at this, it's going to come out weird. I would think that's a problem with pretty much any international dubbing. Even in good dubs, they sometimes let slip a conflicting lip flap, or insert an awkward pause because Japanese works differently. English voice acting is typically much more professional-feeling and higher quality in English animations. The most recent animation I saw, Frozen, was very well-dubbed. Pretty much anything Disney does is well-dubbed.

 

As for telling whether or not the JP dub is bad, I would say that you can pretty much tell as far as you can tell if the English in something is bad, after awhile. Emotional intonation in Japanese is just about the same. For-honest. When I first learned that "ka?" at the end of a sentence denoted a question, the book also mentioned that you don't have to say it if you have a questioning tone. Japanese query tones are the same English ones. Raise your intonation near the end and you're good to go. As for what makes a particularly good Japanese VA performance... watch Steins;Gate or something. Or read the VN. Okabe's performance is one of my favorites.

[Necropolis 763]

As a person who has some kind of idea about Japonspeak, I would say yeah, on average Japanese voice actors do a much better job. I've only heard a couple bad Japanese dubs, like Kenya Boy's MC, or certain kuudere archetypes. Even Mars of Destruction's Japanese dubbing was decent. In addition to being a more important part of the culture, the animation is also designed around Japanese dialogue. In other languages, the VA has to sync their native languages with a whole different language's mouth movements. I read an article once about the dubbing of Voltron; the VAs had to get split-second timing for lip sync. If your voice actor isn't very good or isn't very skilled at this, it's going to come out weird. I would think that's a problem with pretty much any international dubbing. Even in good dubs, they sometimes let slip a conflicting lip flap, or insert an awkward pause because Japanese works differently. English voice acting is typically much more professional-feeling and higher quality in English animations. The most recent animation I saw, Frozen, was very well-dubbed. Pretty much anything Disney does is well-dubbed.

 

As for telling whether or not the JP dub is bad, I would say that you can pretty much tell as far as you can tell if the English in something is bad, after awhile. Emotional intonation in Japanese is just about the same. For-honest. When I first learned that "ka?" at the end of a sentence denoted a question, the book also mentioned that you don't have to say it if you have a questioning tone. Japanese query tones are the same English ones. Raise your intonation near the end and you're good to go. As for what makes a particularly good Japanese VA performance... watch Steins;Gate or something. Or read the VN. Okabe's performance is one of my favorites.

 

Hey, you don't have to sell it to me. That whole sequence of responses was just me taking the piss out of that eternal argument. The western anime dubbing industry is pretty small, so of course there is less focus on certain aspects of it. I think I like listening to dubs for different reasons though. There's a certain studio for instance, Ocean, which did the dubs for all of the Gundams.  They actually don't have all that many actors, or didn't when they started, collectively for all the Gundams probably not more than like, 20. So a lot of the actors have to do multiple parts. This starts out being kinda silly, but over the years they got better at it and it sorta started being endearing. That's just a fun thing you can miss out on if you never watch dubs.

[Sahaqiel 1232]

Yeah I gotcha', but the lip sync thing is just something that not many folks pay attention to when arguing for dub. But it is cool when a localization pulls off lip sync and does a great job and everything. The whole "I can't tell if it's bad because I don't speak Japanese" thing is something I wanted to give input on.

 

But yeah, English VAs that git gud are p. cool, and general dub silliness is a welcome side-effect to our lack of VA culture.

 

[T1g 1503]

That example is bad because the dubbers just asked family members to voice characters, so literally everyone was a miscast

[Cascade 741]

Forget about that old, boring, pointless dub vs sub argument, here's the REAL important issue this thread needs to think about:

 

 

This has been a PSA, thank you.

[Necropolis 763]

Darn.

[pheonix561 2080]

well shucks

[emsomniac 239]

If anyone here isn't watching No Game No Life at this point you need to reevaluate your priorities. 

[Knuckle 484]

good thing I only watch Kamen Rider

[Sahaqiel 1232]

@T1g yes I completely know that ... I'm just saying that the dubbing process, particularly with foreign sensibilities, can be hilarious.

 

I can't find it, but the Portugese dub of Dragonball had a completely hilarious scene that was Chaos Wars tier.

[Teto 2609]

Ping Pong

 

ENTER: PECO STAGE THREE

 

Also, some things added in the adaptation which are good:

Kazama's girlfriend for one. If she was in the manga she wasn't around much.

Christmas episode too, I'm not sure it was ever mentioned what the home lives of Smile and Peco were like, though maybe it did.

Ota's family business I don't remember any of either, but it's nice developing his character too, he's a really good guy.

Kong's mother as well; I'm not sure if she had a mention in the manga at all and if it was then it wasn't an appearance, and just a mention in some inner monologue.

Also the drifting guy who Smile thrashed in the finals just to say that he could; I think he only goes "maybe I'll go to the sea" and that's that - but it's nice to see him failing at the sea, going to the mountains, failing at the mountains, then deciding to go overseas. He's a nice character to glance back at; someone who just can't find his place.

And also a small condensation of Peco's storyline. Originally he jumps off the bridge while hanging out with a stranger, and then his Sakuma conversation happens at some other point while Peco's sitting on the beach, and then Peco acts out by just walking into the sea. Essentially all the same feelings in the show, but nicely condensed into one scene instead. It works.

[T1g 1503]

something cool that Mushishi's japanese version does that I don't think I have mentioned here: all one off characters, unique to a story arc, are voiced by people they get off of the street. Only the reoccurring characters, like Ginko or that Doctor, get regular voice actors. This just further adds to the amazing experience that is Mushishi

[Teto 2609]

Assuming Madoka 1 and 2 were pure recap movies, I'm going to watch that 3rd one tonight.

[Necropolis 763]

I'm surprised by the lack of jojo talk in comparison to last season