To Dub Or Not To Dub
September 10, 2001
Written by:
Julie A. S.
So you sit down to watch a new anime that's being aired on T.V., sadly though, you can't get into it--why?� Because the dubbing sucks!
I know that the majority of us who speak strictly English, have run into this problem once or twice.� I love Japanese, and am in fact learning it, so therefore this really doesn't apply to me much anymore--or does it?� I think it does.� I think it's very wrong of us to snub our noses at the dubbed versions of anime, especially when they're good.� Examples of animes which I've seen that have excellent dubs are, Rurouni Kenshin, Cowboy Bebop, Fushigi Yugi (I'm going to discuss that "No Da" thing in a minute), Tenchi Muyo!, and Martian Successor Nadesico (I can't believe it but it's true there is an ADV release on my list!).� Basically anything that's been dubbed by any one of the following dub companies is good:� BangZoom!, Coastal inc., and Animaze inc.� Animaze is one of my favorites, with BangZoom! in second.� Animaze typically does all of the dubbing for Pioneer--hence the reason most in my list are Pioneer releases.� BangZoom! does everything (now) for AnimeWorks, and Coastal works for AnimEigo.
Okay so you're probably sitting there saying, "yeah, okay, so?," well, I'm getting to it.� If it's possible for these groups to do excellent dubbing jobs, then why doesn't the rest of the companies?� That was always my question.� I figure that the other companies are either lazy or just don't care that the story techincally belongs to someone else. --I'm going to try and not get on my artist's soap box here-- However, this changing the script really irks me!� Yes, but so far the only anime I've seen recently that's done that was Orphen--I tried watching the English, I laughed because it was so bad.� Sadly, though, I wish that was the only problem.� What happens in many cases is that either the ADR director is bad, or the voice acting is wrong for the character.� I have much respect for these voice actors, it's really hard to memorize your line and then try and recite it while trying to match the mouth movement of the animated character--especially since the character was originally speaking another language.� When the ADR director is bad, you end up with a poor dub.� Generally, the script is hacked *(gundam wing???)*, but then the voice acting can be superb, sadly though the script's bad or doesn't even get anywhere near what the character was saying in the Japanese version("Hei hei, zokkante yatsu ne."--this line could take hours to explain, but let's just say that I asked a Japanese friend of mine and she translated it for me by explanation--she didn't translate it directly into English--and it came no where near how they translated it in Endless Waltz).� These changes can cause plots to become blurry and fuzzy--Generator Gawl--or the very nature of the character will change--Generator Gawl(again) and BubbleGum Crisis 2040--� The changing of the character really gets on my nerves.� I refuse to watch BGC 2040 in English--the subtitling job is bad enough.� These shows were originally written by someone else, not by the ADR script writer, and I know that they have to be cut down so that it will match the mouth movement--but hasn't anyone ever heard of a thing called the THESAURUS!?!� That little invention is a life saver--and it won't change the meaning of the sentence! Ahhhhh wonderment!
The last thing I have to say is about Chichiri's "No Da."� Most people--if you've looked at other Fushigi Yugi sites--will know what this means, but for those of you who don't, allow me to try to explain.� In the Japanese language--like most foreign languages--have words, or phrases that cannot be translated into English.� In this case "no da" is used at the end of the sentence as a verbal form of underling what has been said.� Basically what the phrase does is shows that he truly means what he's saying.� Now that I've explained it, I'm sure everyone wants to know why he says, "you know?" at the end of almost every sentence.� It's really simple acutally, Animaze didn't want to expand on many of the sentences in order to fill in the mouth movement for "no da;" so what they did was they made him say the closest thing in English to "no da," which would be 'you know.'� In the first episode where Chichiri showed up they overdid it a bit, but it's only in that one episode.� Now why didn't they just leave it "no da?"� Well, people might think he's saying, "no duh," that's why. :)� Another thing I I've read is that people have a problem with the fact that Chichiri's English voice actor doesn't change his voice when he takes off the fox-face mask the way Seki Tomokazu does.� Well, if you are familiar with the Japanese version, you'd note that Seki-san sounds like he's got a permantent wedgy, or he sounds like he's two-years-old again.� Oh wait he still acts like that--teehee, he's a cool guy :).� So therefore, when the mask comes off, Seki-san drops his voice down to about the same level he uses for Van in Escaflowne.� Kinda hard to do that when your voice doesn't get that high to begin with.� Huhm I knew his name--I'll look it up and post it at the end of this article--but Chichiri's English voice actor's voice is a bartitone, meaning he can't get that high.� Oh, he gets pretty high, but no where near Seki-san.� My favorite character is Chichiri, and well, the thing is, that as much as I love Seki-san's voice, I don't like to drool over someone that sounds like they're two the majority of the time. :)
The evil Ocean Group dubbing company.
Heehee.� I just had to vent this here.� I love Gundam Wing, and I love all of the voice actors--except for Quatre's but that's because he did Quatre's voice and that's all I see when I hear his voice now--, but I was so excited to get the Gundam Wing DVDs, because I couldn't wait to hear their Japanese voices.� I was DISGUSTED to find out that the subtitling was taken from the pre-ADR script.� This is the script that is the "hacked down" version from the literal translation, it's the script they use to figure out what will fit and what needs to be changed.� I was expecting--although I don't know why, because of what the subtitled Endless Waltz was like, they used the final ADR script grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr--that it would be a literal translation, but no it wasn't, and I'm very angry about that.� Of course there's nothing I can do about it.� How do I know that this is the case, that it's not a literal translation?� Maybe the dub was just done extremely well.� No, I know because I know enough Japanese to know that what's being displayed at the bottome of my T.V. screen, is wrong.� This is highly unfair to think that the majority of people buying the DVDs would be watching the English version.� Yo, people!� You're version--and this applies to the lovely jobs done by ADVs subbing/dubbing company--is not the end all and be all of the anime world!� It's not even yours to start with!� You were simply making it easier for those who cannot speak or understand Japanese to be able to watch the show.� So why is it that it appears to be that you seem to think that what you've written should win a pulitzer?� I just don't get it.� I think that the company that ADV uses may just not double check and triple check themselves with subtitles but that doesn't explain their dubs.� So why does the Ocean Group do such bad dubs?� In Escaflowne they completely changed the personalities, and I'm kinda glad that Fox didn't air it all.� I like my subtitled version--done by the impeccable ZRO Limit Productions. (they work with Animze.)� The answer is--I don't know.� Maybe they need a new ADR director, maybe they need to come down south.� All of the good dubbing companies are down here. :)--exception being ADV's.
Well, I guess that's all for now.� If I think of more I'll put it in a different section.
Phew!� That was alot of writing! :)-