I thought the dub was exceptional, it's not my favorite dub, but it's very good, the only one that really sucked was Laura Bailey as Dragon Kid, she does do a good child voice, & shes usually a great actress...but it sounds like she's phoning in her performance, like she just didn't care about the role.
Liam O'Brien & Steve Blum(Spike Spiegel) KILL it as Lunatic & Jake Martinez. Wally Wingert is pretty awesome as Kotetsu, Yuri Lowenthal does a solid job as Bunny & my personal favorite, whoever voices Fire Emblem, he's a newer voice actor, but he's damn good, & that voice is hilarious! Those are the standouts for me, personally.
I know this is somewhat off topic, but if you ever give dub a chance Spooky, here are some of my personal favorite dubs...
Yu Yu Hakusho - NOBODY could convince me the sub is better, ever. Go listen to the 4 leads in Japanese & English then come back. The chemistry brought to life by the 4 leads, Justin Cook(Yusuke), Chris Sabat(Kuwabara), Chuck Huber(Hiei) & John Burgmeier(Kurama), is nothing short of spectacular. John Burgmeier as Kurama is one of the single best dub performances ever. Also, Chuck Huber freakin rules as Hiei. The creator says the dub beats the original in every category, that's pretty special.
Bebop - Even the creator prefers the dub, thats gotta tell ya something lol. Steve Blum was perfect at capturing Spike.
DBZ(FUNi dub) & DBZ Kai - No disrespect to Masako Nowaza, but I'll never listen to girl Goku. Won't happnen. DBZ was a great dub for an early one, & for Kai, Every one brought there A game for it.
Black Lagoon & Death Note - Brad Swaile is a total badass. He plays Rock & Light, respectively. Honorable mention goes to Maryke Hendriske as Revy in BL, she OWNS that show.
FMA Brotherhood - This one is always brought up in the best dub of all time topic.
Code Geass - Just go look at the cast list, the sheer quality of actors they were able to get is astonishing. They pulled out all the stops for the dub.
Baccano! - While i didn't particularly love the show, it was solid, but not amazing, the dub was absolutely perfect. Same goes for Durarara!!
Samurai Champloo - Another dub where the creator has said it's leagues better than the original.
Trigun - While at first i didn't care for it, but over time i grew to love it. Johnny Yong Bosch & Richard Cansino NAIL it as Vash & Legato.
Toriko - The cast clearly love their roles, they are so over the top & it fits the tone of the show perfectly.
There are your fair share of painful to listen to dubs.
Tenchi - SOOOOOOOOOOOOO fn bad, the lead actor sounded like a horrible imitator of Kermit the frog
Outlaw Star - Cheesy acting
Elfen Lied - Only because the guy that plays Kohta = WORST DUB ACTOR EVER, maybe with the exception of the Kermit the frog imitator. I guess there is a reason these 2 only worked on 1 or 2 shows. The other actors for the most part were solid.
Most say Naruto as well, i don't watch it, but when i read comments, the most popular one is the dub actress for the lead is "ear splittingly bad"
99% of 4kids dubs.
reply
share
Martin_Stett
11 years ago
The whole Bunny/Barnaby thing was predictable and cheap. And Kotetsu is a nice guy, sure, but I'd rather watch a show about Ben. Or Mr. Lloyds. Or Kaede. Or Agnes. Or anyone but the heroes (although Blue Rose and Sky High are cool).
My rule is watch the first episode dubbed, and if I don't like it, check out the sub. Which means Death Note, Durarara and Madoka Magica were all subbed for me; I didn't like Light in DN, I didn't like Mikado or Masaomi in DRRR, and I didn't like anyone in MM. although I'm willing to give it a shot in English if I watch it again. My truly exceptional dubs are:
Baccano -- This rivals Bebop for me. Everyone is perfect, which is a big deal in a show that has roughly 25 lead characters. The only misstep was Eric Vale as Huey -- zhee Fraunch awksent wazh zho over the top. Several other characters sport accents as well, some of them quite heavy, but they all seemed authentic. To my untrained ears at least.
Bebop -- Even the extras nail their parts. I can't think of a single line that doesn't sound right.
Kino's Journey -- Kino and Hermes are played with depth by their actresses. And Kelli Cousins has an amazingly ethereal singing voice. I feel transported to another place when she starts up a song... In fact, I'm singing a song from this show right now.
Madoka Magica (Japanese) -- A case where the Japanese is not only far superior to the English adaptation, but managed to steal my heart away. Chiwa Saitou is heartbreakingly effective as the cynical bitch Homura and Emiri Katou is simultaneously charming and chilling in her role. Everyone else is very good as well, but the script of MM doesn't lend itself to scenery chewing acting. Suffice it to say that they succeed all the way around.
Anyway, I won't be around this weekend, so I'm off to watch the finale now.
I'm just an old fashioned cowboy
reply
share
MrsSpooky
11 years ago
I would like to see links to statements where the creator is saying that the dub is better than the original. :) I've seen Shinichiro Watanabe say that he thought the Cowboy Bebop dub was very good and he liked it a lot, but better? I've had a number of people tell me that (for Ghost in the Shell also), yet I have not been able to find where they've actually said that, so I do know that the belief is fairly common. If you don't mind, I'm going to suspend belief on that till I see their own statements to that effect.
The only dubbed part I heard of Trigun is that video someone uploaded of Vash stating his "whole name" on the train to Wolfwood. I agree, Jonny Yong Basch knocked it out of the park, at least in that speech. xD Dang, wanted to link the video but can't find it now. :(
One of my biggest problems with dubs is the approach that seems to be taken to the whole activity of voicing animated (cartoon) characters is that to my hear, the dub actors sound like they're talking for cartoons. I'm thinking Saturday morning children's programming. The Japanese actors seem to approach it like doing live action dubbing - they sound more like people talking and not Saturday morning cartoons. I also hate some of the liberties they take with the dialog translation to get the English voices to match the Japanese language mouth flaps. On more than one occasion, the change has COMPLETELY changed the meaning of a scene, character and show. I'm not saying subtitles are perfect (I've caught some errors), but I think the voices and (for the most part) performance style were more to my liking.
I don't want anyone to think I'm cutting down the American dub actors because I'm not. That's a difficult job and they are very good at what they do. Like I said, it's the "style" or approach that's taken to voicing the characters. It just sounds Saturday Morning Cartoons to me when I hear dubbed anime.
I DO want to hear Blum's Jake Martinez though - I'm betting he had a BALL doing that character and I can almost hear his voice. I loved Jake anyway, such a scenery chewer. LOL
Three... two... one... Tiger & Bunny Over and Out.
http://mrsspooky.net/bebop
reply
share
Martin_Stett
11 years ago
One of my biggest problems with dubs is the approach that seems to be taken to the whole activity of voicing animated (cartoon) characters is that to my hear, the dub actors sound like they're talking for cartoons. I'm thinking Saturday morning children's programming.
In the past that was definitely the case, but dubbing has become more respected now, and the actors and directors take their jobs seriously. I think changes really began happening around 2003-2004 -- someone saw the success of dubs like CB and tried going for it, and now most of them are very good. Mary McGlynn should get honored for being the lead pioneer in English anime direction. CB, Wolf's Rain, even children's shows like Digimon Tamers (which I still remember from watching as a kid -- didn't know until recently that McGlynn was involved, or that
Steve Blum played Guilmon. I'm still laughing over that thought). Other directors have followed in her steps and those like her, making anime much more accessible.
As for liberties, most of them I'm fine with; sometimes they get out of hand, but things have been getting better here, too. And yes, you need to hear Blum's Jake. He made me laugh out loud on several occasions.
So, I finished the show. It was an okay ending, but it didn't mean anything to me. Agnes stole my heart away with her feats of kickassery, my favorite part of the finale. But the rest of it was kind of dull and predictable. T&B is basically a "Saturday morning cartoon," as you put it, but I didn't develop the attachments to the characters that I did in the best shows. I was emotionally distant and didn't really care about what happened. I watched it, and I'm sure I'll forget about it within a week. Not to say that it was bad, per se, just that I found it predictable and didn't suit my fancy.
I'm just an old fashioned cowboy
reply
share