Gaming nds games not being dubbed?

[Shardnax]

It's one word posts. Also, I'm announcing the success of my post, so just because you can't think of a 1 page response why I'm wrong, don't bother trying to get me warnings, I doubt the mods even care about the thread. I managed to get 3 pages of the same BS rehashed that makes it look like there is actually something to this argument. Understanding something is the purpose of watching or reading it. So terrible it makes them bleed, hell yes, any day, I want to understand it. No one outside the Emo-crap genre is capable of such things. And what is this troll thing you're talking about?

Spelling LULZ.

 

[Ryukouki]

dunno about this but i liked final fantasy iv dubs it was kinda awesome

 

[ojsinnerz.]

Just ignore that Sharnax guy. He's being a ten year old retard saying some stupid shit.

 

[samuraibunny]

Like, would you watch shows like Spongebob Squarepants, Darkwing Duck, or Disney movies in Chinese or Japanese?

Yes, because that's the language I know. Outside of something that's so badly done that it completely alters the content into something so off target that it's bad in whatever language it is in dubs allow you to enjoy the animation and the action on screen instead of missing 1/2 of it having to read a bunch of crap at the bottom. If you just want to read, get the same story in book/manga format and have fun with the translation so you don't miss anything. In many cases subs take away from what you're watching and forces you to primarily focus on reading instead of enjoying the visual end of the program/movie so you don't fall behind and get lost.

Even if it is Chinese (a language I understand as well) I would NEVER watch it. It's simply too disturbing to even think about!

Like in a couple anime, (Cooking Master Boy and Legend of the Condor Hero) where they had Japanese in the beginning and then switched to Chinese half way through, it made me cringe. The fact that they would even CONSIDER switching to Chinese dubs... And in the middle of the show!

 

[darkfhang]

Doesn't have anything to do with being "Wapanese", or whatever.

When I watch a movie that was created by Germans, shot on German locations directed by a German director giving directions in German language to German actors speaking German then I goddamn want to listen to what those German actors have said in the language this movie was planned and executed in.

A translation is always an abstraction on the original intent and I want this abstraction to be as small as possible. By watching a movie with subtitles I at least can grasp what the actors and the director intended by listening to their act, even though I don't understand the language they talk in. Expression of emotions is the same everywhere - I will get that. In a dubbed movie, on the other hand, not only the actual dialog gets translated and thus changed, but also the voices of actual actors, thus adding another level of abstraction. Not only the voices get replaced, but dialog in another language has to be fit to the movement of an actors lips, thus altering the original even more

Think of a translation of a movie or a game like a game of telephone (or chinese whispers). First dialog gets translated -> then it gets changed to fit lip sync -> then a voice acting director adds thoughts -> and last, but not least a voice actor acts out his impression of the actual dialog. And on each iteration information gets lost.

By watching a movie with subtitles the only layer between me and the original movie is the translation of the subtitles and my reading skills. Not some stupid voice actor who may or may not be capable of speaking like the original actor or a director who has had nothing to do with the original movie and may or may not interpret scenes differently from the original director. Chance is that a dub will be very good, but there's chance that it will be a major disaster, too. Bad thing is, you won't know that it was the actual dub that was bad - you just see that you didn't like the movie. Subtitles can be bad, of course, too - but there's much less opportunity to fuck them up.

To get back to the original topic: it is the same with computer games that were created in a foreign language. If there is voice acting I want it in the language it was intended to be.

NOTE: I am German myself. If you are going to argue that I of course will understand German movies because it's my native language than you most likely haven't understood what I wanted to say (most likely due to my bad english skills). Please re-read this post, replace the word "German" with "French" this time and think about it again.

I can understand this viewpoint. My preference is generally for dubs, although I don't really watch much anime, so I typically don't have much exposure to horrendous dubs. But, that's a perfectly reasonable opinion. What annoys me, are the people who play video games or watch anime, complain about GOOD English VA, simply because it's not Japanese. Who act like the Japanese language is somehow superior, and nothing dubbed in English can even begin to compare. Who claim the voice acting is 'better' even if they can't understand it. It could be horrible voice acting, for all they know, but you can't tell nearly as much when you can't understand it. Now, with actual movies and such, yes, I think I'd prefer subtitles there. Movies are a bit of a different medium than voice acting, simply because the voices and actions tend to go more hand-in-hand. And if the movie has bad acting, it generally won't get enough attention to be watched in the first place. Also, there's some stuff that originated in the US, and has horrible voice acting. So, who can say that just because it originated in Japan, or wherever, that it also doesn't have horrible voice acting. Without understanding the language and the nuances and all that, you can't really say for sure.

Just my two cents.

QUOTE(ojsinnerz @ Sep 8 2008, 12:28 AM)

To those who say "Dub is good as the original", watch this, and tell me that.



There's more than just "Subtitles". American and Canadian studios butcher up the original dialouge, and censor all the things they find, "Inappropriate". Of course, it makes sense, but some of the American Studios take it to the extreme. For example, 4kids over there. They censored guns with this..... Weird thing, and removed cigars from a character, because he was smoking them.

I certainly don't mean there are no good dubs. It's just that the dubbed versions are so lacking, compared to the original. Most of dubs can't even have the characters pronounced right. In Ouren high dub, a character named Hikaru, which is pronounced Hi-Kar-ru in the original, is now pronounced Hi-kuru. Kira? It's originally Ki-ra in original. Now, it's Kii-ra, which makes it sound like something off of Mexico (No offense). They cut off half the swearing, and make it much more "Kid-friendly". Even so, they rate it over 14, yet, they never say anything over "damn it".

You definitely picked two of the worst examples of voice acting I've ever seen. Even Wikipedia says that game is known for it's atrocious voiceacting. Wow, I admit that's horrible. They didn't seem to do their research much either with character names, since the three characters from Shadow Hearts right at the beginning, all their names are different from what they are in the other games released here. (Yuri, Karin, Nicolai. I mean, c'mon, Nicole?) EDIT: Here's some more about it too: http://audioatrocities.com/games/chaoswars/index.html The voice cast consisted of mostly family members of the CEO.

And as for One Piece - all I can say, it's 4Kids. I don't even watch a lot of anime (though I watch some), and I've heard very, VERY, bad things about them. I do know that Funimation had gotten the rights for it, and did a complete retranslation and redubbing, with actual, GOOD voice actors from what I hear, rom following the Mother 3 translation efforts. Because, y'know, Tomato, the main translator over there, is a professional translator and does stuff for Funimation, and a lot of work for it. Still haven't watched it though. *shrug*

Most of the games I play, the voiceacting is typically decent to very good. I admit that I'm not overly fussy with voice acting however, and am probably a bit more tolerant than most. Anime, I really haven't watched enough to say much about, other than all of what I've watched had much better voice acting than that. I imagine if you watch tons of anime, you'd have run into a tremendous amount of horrible voice acting. But, a large part might simply be a result from when anime was really catching on over here and companies were churning out dubs for everything, worrying little about quality, and more about making $$$. But, that's how it is with just about anything. Some companies just churn out lower quality product to make quick cash, others strive for a better product. Can be applied to most things.

 

[kikuchiyo]

Movies are a bit of a different medium than voice acting, simply because the voices and actions tend to go more hand-in-hand. And if the movie has bad acting, it generally won't get enough attention to be watched in the first place. Also, there's some stuff that originated in the US, and has horrible voice acting.

Ninety-nine percent of anime is crap, so it probably doesn't matter anyway, but what's the difference between a movie and a Ghibli film - it's not really anime (only in the sense that its animated and then by that definition Wall-E or Finding Nemo is anime). The voice acting is integral to the experience.

I have also picked up a ton of Japanese phrases from playing games with Japanese voice acting. Recently in Namco x Capcom...
????(literally blood festival, a blood bath)
?????? (literally the spirit can't eat it - something that?bothers you, something that can't be stomached).

I might not have cared just reading it (and I can't always read all the kanji that come up) but when its voice acted I can type it into my phone and look it up later.

 

[cutterjohn]

I really don't understand the big deal with these things
People faithfully do undubs even when they don't know the undubbed language..
The voices aren't too bad.
Maybe this has to do with wapanese stuff, which is beyond me.

It's gotta be wapanese (should hook these people up the the I Think I'm Turning Japanese ... song) as they're also going spastic on PS2 (and other consoles) games as well.

Personally, I find it incredibly irritating to listen to what is essiantially blah blah blah v. an even crappy voice making relatively coherent sense. Failing that I'd rather play in complete silence.

 

[VmprHntrD]

I seem to look at the pictures to see what's going on (seeing as how things aren't usually narrated). So people would rather listen to something that is so terrible it makes your ears bleed just because you understand the language?

That's a pretty stupid statement and narrowminded. Perhaps to just you it is atrocious, but to someone who isn't so stuck up on the original voices and content because they're not a die hard import fan (or aware of it) would not likely think of it as sounding bad and be cool with it as is. Stop thinking of just yourself. The average majority holder of the media who isn't into what you are will just view and hear it for what it is and appreciate it or hate it, and it won't be because of the translation or a not squeaky enough voice. Your entire argument is too subjective.

 

[monogatari]

To those who say "Dub is good as the original", watch this, and tell me that.



There's more than just "Subtitles". American and Canadian studios butcher up the original dialouge, and censor all the things they find, "Inappropriate". Of course, it makes sense, but some of the American Studios take it to the extreme. For example, 4kids over there. They censored guns with this..... Weird thing, and removed cigars from a character, because he was smoking them.

I certainly don't mean there are no good dubs. It's just that the dubbed versions are so lacking, compared to the original. Most of dubs can't even have the characters pronounced right. In Ouren high dub, a character named Hikaru, which is pronounced Hi-Kar-ru in the original, is now pronounced Hi-kuru. Kira? It's originally Ki-ra in original. Now, it's Kii-ra, which makes it sound like something off of Mexico (No offense). They cut off half the swearing, and make it much more "Kid-friendly". Even so, they rate it over 14, yet, they never say anything over "damn it".

I agree with you and position on subbing and dubbing, however I don't think you should deliberately choose such an extreme sample of a bad dub. Luminous Arc (if that's what it is) has a BAD dub, I agree. I usually turn the volume down and play the Japanese one. And 4Kids One Piece is beyond horrid.

But doing this (choosing an extreme example) makes you looks bad and one-sided instead of proving your point

 

[hdofu]

To those who say "Dub is good as the original", watch this, and tell me that.

See sig

4kids view of ignoring everything the creators intended and americanizing the heck out of it isn't the primary goal of most other dubbing companies these days. Funimation has been pretty good on dubbing with their recent programing. The episodes they did of one piece were actually decent.

 

[LagunaCid]

I prefer subs over subs only with movies.
Cartoons, animes, games... Anything that doesn't involve real actors... Screw that, give me my dub. After all, even the original action IS a dub.

 

[Perseid]

I prefer subs over subs only with movies.
Cartoons, animes, games... Anything that doesn't involve real actors... Screw that, give me my dub. After all, even the original action IS a dub.

Actually, no. In the original the voices are recorded then the animation is drawn to the timing of the voice track. Dubs are voiced in after the animation and are forced to coincide with the timing of what's already drawn. This is actually part of the problem with dubs, particularly from Japanese to English because Japanese is often more terse.

 

[LagunaCid]

I prefer subs over subs only with movies.
Cartoons, animes, games... Anything that doesn't involve real actors... Screw that, give me my dub. After all, even the original action IS a dub.

Actually, no. In the original the voices are recorded then the animation is drawn to the timing of the voice track. Dubs are voiced in after the animation and are forced to coincide with the timing of what's already drawn. This is actually part of the problem with dubs, particularly from Japanese to English because Japanese is often more terse.

If the voice is not part of the filming, it is a dub.

 

[Zarcon]

This subject has to be one of the silliest arguments due to clash of opinion I've ever seen.
It's like trying to argue against eating a whole apple or eating sliced apples. Everyone is getting apples either way, why all the arguing?

In my own opinion, I'm of the party who prefers to watch and listen to the original track, simply because, often, the actors are more into their roles due to it being a starring role as opposed to just another voiceover job.

The quality of voice acting between your average western cartoon and English dubbed anime are night and day.
Likewise goes for your average anime and Japanese dubbed cartoon.
I actually first sought out subbed anime due to noticing the quality difference between cartoon voice acting and dubbed anime voice acting.

At the same time though, as Vampire Hunter D points out, the average person won't really mind or even notice.

My final words here though, are that...seriously, is this argument really happening?
Just go enjoy your dang apples.

 

[Naouak]

I'm one of the person who prefer subs over dubs.
In france, almost everything is dubbed and most of the time it's done badly. I agree that there is good dubs in france (like simpsons, south park or some american block busters) but there is something like 1 good dub for 100 bad dubs.
In french anime dubs, voice actors don't even try to play their part. They just read the text trying to be sync with the video (and most of the time they aren't).
I prefer having the original audio or the first dub(in case of anime) because most of the time there is a lot more work in the original release.

And one more thing, in japan dubbing is like acting in western countries. They do a lot of work for dubs (and a pityful jobs on acting but whatever).

For people who thinks of people that prefer subs over dubs are wapanese weaboo, I know a lot of people who don't watch anime and that prefer subs over dubs. Don't think that there is only anime that is dub in the world because most of big movies come from your country.