Dubbing, Dubbing, Dubbing!

CaptBrenden · March 13, 2007, 06:03:04 PM

Negi: "Ill be rooting for both of you!"

Asuna: "You brat-! I go crazy wondering who I should root for and HE splites his bet!!!"

Chachazero "like his father I tell you"

Ryuko2 · March 15, 2007, 12:16:27 AM

I'm really impressed. I never thought that There would be such a thorough discussion on this.

Now, back ontopic, I see what both CaptBrenden and IanDanKilmaster are saying, but I really believe that the fact of "if the actor wanted that role" comes to mind. I mean, most screen actor get the lead voice character role off the bat, but do you think the actor wanted that? or what about a one-line voice actor; same question? The answer: Nobody will ever know except for the actor. Emotion outside of the show is just as important as emotion inside of the show.

On CaptBrenden and Nidas talk, I agree with your second discussion. Why do western actors have to sound japanese? and Just how can western actors do that? I'm at a loss to explain why their are such "rabid" fans.

On one more note, I really hate it when people say "Why does (Character 1) sound like (Character 2)? That voice\screen actor is why I hate (show where character 1 came from) and now I hate (show where character 2 comes from)? This just infuriates me to no end. I'll give an example: Me and a group of others were avid One Piece fans (even if the V.A. of Luffy freaked me out ;015) . But when we got to the part about that shark pirate, ALL of the other just gave up on One Piece. You know why? Because they predicted that bad voice acting was soon to follow. I inquired as to why, when one told me that the voice actor of goku was the voice actor for shark pirate. (WTH is that shark pirates name???) That is blatant, disregarding one show because of another. I just can't understand this! can anyone give me a bit of enlightenment?

CaptBrenden · March 15, 2007, 01:08:57 AM

because they are rabid fans? I donno... I love anime but sometimes there are undesierables in the fandom that make me want to distance myself from it -_- like guys that try to fit in a sailor moon outfit thats 5 times too small

SleepyD · March 15, 2007, 01:25:09 AM

or Man-Faye. lol

anyway, on those points, I agree. You cannot expect someone to sound Japanese and have it come off as something that's not annoying. Attempts at Japanese cute voices have largely failed in my opinion. I'd think any attempt to imitate the original 100% would be disastrous. Also, like you said, an entire anime cannot be judged on the name of one VA. They may do a good job (or be unbearable). Don't judge a book by its cover, I guess.

Oh, also, I'd like to bring up Phoenix Wright. If you haven't played it, it's like a quirky mystery/comedy visual novel based on lawyers. A lot of times the spirit of the game needs to be preserved and not the literal meaning. The main character's name in both English and Japanese are, respectively: Phoenix Wright and Ryuiichi Naruhodou.
Now, those who have listened to enough Japanese will recognize that his name, Naruhodou, is also "I see (what you mean)." A pun like that should be preserved, and hence, his last name is Wright, right? They even have mystical creatures as their names. (Ryu=dragon) Phoenix has a second meaning in that Phoenix (the attorney) has a knack for comebacks.

Why did I go through all that? If the dudes who translated Phoenix Wright kept the original names, a whole slew of jokes and puns would have been missed by the audience. If we kept trying to imitate the original voices, we'd feel separated from the characters in a way. Some Japanese girls actually do speak in that high voice, but I'd think that's a rare thing to hear in the US. Changes must occur if the dubbing is to be considered successful.

IanDanKilmaster · March 19, 2007, 12:48:33 AM

Quote from: "SleepyD"
Well, now that I have talked about that, I'll go a little bit on voice actors and screen actors. There are screen actors that do great voice acting. I thought the acting in Kingdom Hearts wasn't half bad, despite the Disney overtones. Of course, there are terrible SA => VAs too. I've heard others, but one I can remember off of the top of my head was Kiefer Sutherland in Armitage III. Terrible.

I read pretty quickly, so I'm not sure if I got all the details. Voice acting is a hard thing to do. It might explain how few of them there are. (Not to mention how little money they get compared to other acting/theater/other stufflikethat roles) For one thing, VAs don't interact with the other actors. They do it alone, with only the characters on screen to interact with. They also, along with their acting, must closely match the lip flap. Distortion from computers to match the flap must be kept to a minimum. And lastly, the translation must match. They're getting better, but I hated it when actors would be forced to run through a paragraph of stuff in the space of 5 seconds.

my two cents. ^^

I can agree with this. The only point I was trying make was that suggesting all VAs be fired and SAs be hired in their place was a bad idea. I suppose I made a mistake by debating from a more extremist position, but I feel very strongly (obviously -_-; ) that voice acting is a career that should be preserved within itself and not marketed with star power. Sure there are a few bad VAs out there, but I think the current crop of studio talent (i.e. Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham, and Kari Wahlgren) is pretty good. I'm also aware that there are screen actors who are capable of making the transition (the most recent example is probably Ron Perlman), but I really don't think it's something the screen acting community at large is capable of pulling off.

(btw. thank you for going more in-depth with this)

kroekoe · March 19, 2007, 05:03:04 AM

i just like to wait for the anime to come out in english or french
insted of haveing dubbs

CaptBrenden · March 19, 2007, 02:17:31 PM

... that is dubbing.... subbing is subtitles...

homemovies · July 09, 2007, 12:35:15 AM

i thik i may have heard crispin freeman vocie the frenchman
(forget his name). i know that he vocie for haji. but i can't find
any credit for the frenchman in the anime "BLOOD+". can some
one confirm this?

Icelilly · July 09, 2007, 01:18:48 PM

Canada has the same dubbing as the US. Or at least the English speaking areas do. Quebec get the French dubs from France.

IanDanKilmaster · October 05, 2007, 10:36:50 AM

Quote from: "homemovies"i thik i may have heard crispin freeman vocie the frenchman
(forget his name). i know that he vocie for haji. but i can't find
any credit for the frenchman in the anime "BLOOD+". can some
one confirm this?

The Frenchman to whom you are referring is named Van, I'm pretty sure all the credits for each actor are grouped together like this: Kari Wahlgren - Saya/Diva. So you would see Van's name right next to Haji's if he was in that particular episode (they actually change the credits per ep). Hope that clears things up ^__^.