Good Dub vs. Bad Dub: What's the difference?

[whitelye]

I just watched "Run Lola Run" with the English dub on and had a sinister realization. "Those voice actors are the same schmucks that do all those anime dubs!" It made me feel a little extra nerdy that I'd actually seen enough anime to be able to identify those particular actors and recall their body of work. I went online to confirm my suspicions and found a particular reviewer say that the dub for RLR was worse than an old "Godzilla" dub. Not having seen "Godzilla" dubbed in English, I can't really compare the two, but I didn't think that the dub was that bad. I've seen some monotonously dubbed stuff before. I find German voice actors emote about as much as deconstructed cardboard boxes. Anyway, moving on.

I've heard people denigrate dubs that I myself thought worked rather well and praise dubs that... well, actually, now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever heard somebody praise a dub. Whatever, that's the question, my gentle snowflakes.

What would you say constitutes a good or a bad dub? Use examples or whatever. Make your point.

 

[Mariena]

I've seen parts of Star Trek Voyager dubbed in French. Now that is awful, and not just because it is in French.

In fact, I think just about any dub from English to [other language] just doesn't fit. Many a time an English phrase just doesn't have the meaning it has in a different language and it will have to be twisted in very odd ways to get the same result.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Good dubbing: The lips move in time with the words, and the voice fits the character

Bad dubbing: The opposite of the above.

 

[coldfrog]

for me, any time I can tell someone is reading lines is a bad dub. It happens a lot I notice when they try to match lines with the mouth movements, and it makes the dialogue sound full of unnecessary pauses. I can't really give any examples of bad dubs because generally I try to watch in the original language anyway, not because of any purist notions or anything, just because it almost always seems more natural that way, and I don't mind a little reading (unless I'm watching excel saga, then those words better go straight into my ears, otherwise I won't know what's going on).

 

[TheBluesader]

Best dub I ever heard was on Ghost in the Shell. And Disney's releases of Miyazaki's stuff is very well done. But neither are as good as the original Japanese voice acting, with subs. You just don't get the same emotional power for some reason.

Of course, maybe that's just that way to me because I feel like I'm stumbling across a secret treasure every time I play the Japanese voice acting. Which is unwarranted. But that goes back to the early days of anime when sub tapes were hard to find, and I'm old.

 

[rottenbutter]

Good dub: No cuts, VAs which convey the correct emotions, no unnecessary editing, finding ways around tricky translations, making certain things relevant to a western audience, while still having respect for the original material.

Examples: Cowboy Bebop, FLCL, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Bad dub: Unemotional VAs, unnecessary editing, character personality changing, forced westernization, VAs that don't match the characters.

Examples: Any 4kids dub ever.

Note: I'm only talking about anime, since there is no such thing a good live-action dub.

 

[The Iron Ninja]

The difference?

Good Dubbing: Boring.

Bad Dubbing: Hilarious.

Subtitled is the way to go in my experience if you want something serious, dubbing hardly ever captures the feel of the original voices, it always seems weird.

 

[minoes]

American and Canadian voice actors are good, but they tend to over act their parts.

 

[Brotherofwill]

Everything Japanese i usually watch with subtitles(Miyazaki's stuff is the only exception), even though i hate to miss a large part of the picture by reading.

German dubs are horrible, but by far the worst i've seen are Chinese ones. The synch was so off it became painful after a while.

 

[zoozilla]

I hate when dubs try to match the voice with the mouth, and you get these weird, completely unnatural intonations and pauses...

"He-llo....what..is the mat...ter?" kind of thing.

A good dub is no dub.
If you can read, subtitles are usually the better choice.

 

[Marv21]

Well it can lead to such abortions as Naruto, and the such, Bleach was kinda screwed over on the dubbing part. All the voices don't match 100%, got Uryu, Chad, right, Rukia is almost their.

However, from that point on its the person whose putting it on the markets fault.....4KIDS!!!!

 

[dieseldub]

It is a bad annoying, but I must admit it has gotten at least a bit better over time. Remember all the jokes about kung fu movies getting dubbed. The guy would be mouthing things that looked nothing like what the dubber was saying. It was terrible. I just try to accept that it is hard to find someone that can translate and capture the moment. They aren't pro actors so I give them some sway. It can be down right hilarious though. For me it beats reading sub-titles at least.

 

[Ancientgamer]

A bad dub mostly consists of editing the footage, and VAs that can't act, or at least not well. If a dub is done well, it should be a better viewing experience than using subs, especially if the show has alot of action in it. Also note, a big part of the reason people think dub acting is worse, is because you really can't differentiate how good or bad a japanese VA is other then by how loud they scream.

It all mostly boils down to which version you see first, I'll never be able to easily watch ghost in the shell or miyazaki subbed. And try as I might, I'll never get the 4kids one piece voices out of my head.

 

[coldfrog]

Good dub: No cuts, VAs which convey the correct emotions, no unnecessary editing, finding ways around tricky translations, making certain things relevant to a western audience, while still having respect for the original material.

This is a good point, I didn't think about that. There's always that one where they make what is clearly intended to be a japanese pun and it makes no sense because you don't understand the words it is, er, punning off of. At least the baseball episodes still make sense in America without much tricky translating. (Yay FLCL)

 

[[Gavo]]

Good Dubbing: Cowboy Bebop, FLCL, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Ghost in the Shell
Bad Dubbing: Naruto, Bleach.