Why are English Voice Dubs complete crap compared to Japanese dubs?

TotalInsanity4

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Actually, I completely agree. It seems that original Japanese anime typically sounds more... um... Fluid? Energetic?... I don't know what the right word is...

English dubs, on the other hand, tend to sound s u p e r s l o w and expressionless



Maybe that's just the case with most dubs, anyway???
 

Futurdreamz

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Actually, I completely agree. It seems that original Japanese anime typically sounds more... um... Fluid? Energetic?... I don't know what the right word is...

English dubs, on the other hand, tend to sound s u p e r s l o w and expressionless
Maybe that's just the case with most dubs, anyway???
I think there's more emotion in the original audio. The original voice actors are working with the director who can better explain how the character is supposed to be acting and feeling, and are using the original script with the right wording. It's just really weird watching an anime that's set in Japan and has a heavy focus on japanese lifestyle and culture, then the voices have American accents and use American slang and wording.
 

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I feel like it depends on the Anime and the studio. Take DBZ, DBZ Japanese dub is just painful. Their voices are too high, the lip syncing is somehow worse, ect.
But the English dub is actually pretty solid. Everyone's voices match their characters, the lip syncing is a bit better (they try harder,) and much more.
Then there's some cases like Speed Racer...


Still, I feel like it's mostly an opinion saying that English dub is shit when it's pretty clear that English dubbing has gotten a lot better compared to the old days.
 

reiyu

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i usually dislike any sort of dubbing and prefer to listen to anything in their original audio. a few exceptions would be dragon ball z and metal gear solid series.
 

Sonic Angel Knight

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Still, I feel like it's mostly an opinion saying that English dub is shit when it's pretty clear that English dubbing has gotten a lot better compared to the old days.

PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE.

Practice makes perfect. :P
Can't be upset for people trying new things until they find what works. and oh dear god, why replaces snake voice in MGSV :(
 

FeverishJackal

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It depends. I watched Akame Ga Kill and Fate/Stay Night in dub, because the subbed voices sounded irritating. But I watched Soul Eater in sub, because the English voice choices for certain characters were beyond irriating. I prefer to go dub because I can better connect with what the characters are saying, if that makes sense
 
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pasc

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Several would feel that way, Various reasons
1) Voice acting (seiyuu) in Japan is a semi respectable trade, outside it and with the exception of a handful of European countries (Germany, France and Italy in varying degrees do it well) it tends to be a mix of random actor actor that is slumming it one day or some they rounded up down the local community theatre, especially if you are doing a cheap anime DVD or worse still a game. Bonus points if you are trying to find English speaking actors in Japan to dub in Japan from the get go.

2) Most games and anime are not high art. Presumably you don't understand Japanese so when the usually grade school writing and cringeworthy dialogue comes on you don't inherently understand it and can treat it a bit like some music or something.

3) Check to see what the dubs are mastered in --> your glorious 5.1 DTS Japanese track is likely not going to compete with 2 channel minimal bitrate AC3 that the dub often sports, and recorded in the kind of place that you hire when you are using actors you found in the community theatre.

4) To go with 1) and with the exception of those European countries it is not going to be rewritten that well to match timing in the shows, and most shows will not match timing to the English dub. Japanese in speech is not that much different to English in length to convey a point like it can be for the written side of things but it is not exactly the same all the time either. Also going by some stories from said community theatre types then it is often a factory process and might lack table reads, the option for the actors to go through the script and also do enough takes to get it done properly.

5) You are a filthy weab. It is an unfortunate affliction, you can often cure it by going to Japan and seeing that it is not all sunshine and rainbows (best not to go during the sunshine and rainbows festival) or you can finish going through puberty instead.

I'll add one reason:

6) Every new approach to an already existing source will undoubtly alter it... That said.... Death Notes dub was quite good (also Mirai Nikkis was rather well done... for the show...)
 

Sonic Angel Knight

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I remember my sister was watching Pokemon Indigo League, and as soon as she saw riceballs, or "donuts" in an episode, she paused and walked towards the TV to try and figure out what the heck those "donuts" were, and IIRC it was before anyone called them "donuts", so she wasn't confused because they didn't look like donuts, she was confused because she didn't know what the fuck they were.

I found this video not too long ago. It shows the 10 worst cases of censorship in anime, In the video close to the end, it shows the episode of pokemon when ash tried to catch mankey with "DOHNUTS" instead of rice balls. :P

 
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osaka35

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There are a few reasons.

- Japanese isn't your native language, so you don't pick up on weirdness
- Current japanese culture isn't your culture, so the "foreign"ness helps your brain categorize it as new norms, rather than compare it to your norms
- The above can also apply to the voice actors
- Japanese voice actors have a lot of respect (well, potentially)
- american voice acting has only really gotten any respect in the last 5-10 years (there's actually a voice-actor strike in the states, or in the works, because of how little they get paid). Not sure about other countries.
- Translations are hard, and a voice actor has to work with what they're given
- In japan, sometimes they'll record the voices then do the mouths to fit the voice. it's better now, but voice actors used to have to fit their voice to the way the mouths were drawn. I'm not sure how limiting this is nowadays, but something to keep in mind
- "hey, read these lines" "what's the story? what're my motivations?" "just be sad and read the lines, k?" = crap
- sometimes actors like to add their own spin/perspective/personality. Same holds for translators, or director, or whatnot

Probably loads of other things I haven't thought of. Probably already posted. Even with this, there's still some really good English voice acting.
 
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Condarkness

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it depends on the company doing the dubs, and also the talent of the dubber. Sometimes dubs come out great like the Hellsing anime, but other times they just suck. Also sometimes the dubs are better than the original (although that is a matter of personal opinion; dragonball I believe most would instantly recognize the voices).
 

Sonic Angel Knight

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2 words, XENOGEARS CUTSCENES! :rofl2:

Just to remind everyone, this game is Rated T for teens by ESRB in my country (Must be at least 13)
So awkward censorship by production IG for a Video game by square soft. :P

 

osaka35

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I feel like it depends on the Anime and the studio. Take DBZ, DBZ Japanese dub is just painful. Their voices are too high, the lip syncing is somehow worse, ect.
But the English dub is actually pretty solid. Everyone's voices match their characters, the lip syncing is a bit better (they try harder,) and much more.
I feel the opposite :P. The japanese voices sound brilliant to me. The english goku is a very different character than the japanese character. Though I grew up watching the japanese dragon ball, so the English dragon ball Z has always sounded...weird. Goku especially.

Though I think we can all agree DBZ abridged is the superior product XD
 
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Supster131

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It's just personal taste. I don't mind either, but I usually prefer dubs.
They aren't really bad, ya know?
You just have to give them a chance.
 

Sliter

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and one big problem of english "localization" is that this version is what goes to the world later for being easier to translate ... and the one sthatcome from englisg tend to be more close to english than the english was to the original :v some lasier nd others better ... like in pokemon on older times XD
german, freanch etc don't wanted to have it like the english and added their localization, using english as base, italian , spanish where lazy and kept more stuff, just translated (I wonder why they use the english pokemon names and change characters names ..... why peole change character names?? I mean, old times NES/SNES JRPG the character could only have like 4 chars in his name, so " Takashi", became "RICK" , ok acceptable or not, was a reason ... but now ?? lol in pokemon they are makin so much propaganda like "looks it's france tre bien", " look this tropical paradise ok hawaii here" but theystill wnat to deny that kanto-> Shinnoh is japan for some reason ... want t keep them as "generic pokemon world" lol

his is why I don't agree with " cultural" localization .. they should do more like brazilian dub yuyu hakusho that kept the charaters as they are but the acting was great, they sounded more " Brazilian" than actual Br shows XD (lol), but US localization is like : lets say i'ts los angeles and change everyone name so the people will fell confortable and understand stuff ... why???
anyway. if they do great with Disney, why not?
 
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Sonic Angel Knight

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Now tell me if you agree with this video in list of worst annoying voices in anime, the list is international, meaning English, japanese, or whatever localization it is considered bad, so just keep that in mind, when you watch. :creep:

 

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