anime dubs are usually bad.
especially the old ones.
bad re-writing, bad editing, bad intros, bad characters, bad voices, bad target audience etc.
i dare you to say "4 kids" on an anime forum.
also i hate how they pronounce names in english. if you want to keep the original name, at least say it right for fucks sake! it gets really annoying sometimes.
anime dubs are usually bad.
especially the old ones.
bad re-writing, bad editing, bad intros, bad characters, bad voices, bad target audience etc.
i dare you to say "4 kids" on an anime forum.
also i hate how they pronounce names in english. if you want to keep the original name, at least say it right for fucks sake! it gets really annoying sometimes.
Depends on your definition of "old." If you mean mid-late 2000's, then yeah, they were especially bad. If you mean 60s-mid 80s, then those were bad too. On the other hand, the ones I've seen from the late 80s to the early 2000s (Akira, Ranma 1/2, most of the old Toonami shows [Lupin III in particular]) have been consistently good. If I had to guess, I'd say it was because at the time, the dub was the main release, and if it wasn't good, nobody would watch it on TV, and the VHS tapes wouldn't sell.
I've seen the dub. The voices were absolutely terrible, and I'm sorry, but JAPANESE PEOPLE SHOULD NOT HAVE A BROOKLYN ACCENT UNLESS IT'S YU-GI-OH ABRIDGED!!!
Depends on your definition of "old." If you mean mid-late 2000's, then yeah, they were especially bad. If you mean 60s-mid 80s, then those were bad too. On the other hand, the ones I've seen from the late 80s to the early 2000s (Akira, Ranma 1/2, most of the old Toonami shows [Lupin III in particular]) have been consistently good. If I had to guess, I'd say it was because at the time, the dub was the main release, and if it wasn't good, nobody would watch it on TV, and the VHS tapes wouldn't sell.
i consider everything pre-2004ish to be "old"
dubs were either complete re-writes (like saber rider), complete removal of everything remotely japanese (pokemon) or just horribly done (EVERYTHING 4KIDS)
sure,some of them became classics (speed racer), but that doesn't excuse what the americans did to the show just to make it "acceptable for american audiences"
I have yet to watch an anime with better dub voice actors than the original. Naruto is especially awful. When did Naruto take up smoking? Oh god, just every character in that show is horribly dubbed, but I feel like Orochimaru suffers the most. His Japanese voice actor is awesome. Totally fits the character. The English dub ruins that.
Hentai/H-anime. From the terrible rewritten dialogue to the nasty habit of casting porn stars as the some of the girls (and guys) therein, it's enough to make you wanna kill yourself.
Don't look at me like that - I'm dead fucking serious. Never watch hentai/h-anime in English. You'll risking enough fatal injuries even the cast of Jackass will cry in outrage of you doing that to yourself.
So me and my brother were scrolling through the anime on Netflix when we came across Clannad and he's like didn't you watch this? And I went on a rave about how amazing the show was how it was hilarious and made you feel for the characters in a way that I had never gotten through an anime. After this he decided that he would watch it. A few days later he says to me that the show is kinda stupid and annoying and I'm like yeah it's stupid but its funny stupid and he says No its awkward stupid. And i ask what's annoying and he says the voice acting is loud and obnoxious. So later I see him watching it and it is in English. Everyones voice is so different than from how it should be, I'm freaking out because nothing is right so we finish the episode and I say "You're not allowed to watch this anymore." He asks me why and I say "If you're going to watch this show it has to be in the correct way, these voices take away all of the good qualities of this show." So we go on the computer and actually watch an episode in Japanese and I say alright how was it? He just goes "Wow...Holy Shit that was so much better."
TL;DR My brother was watching Clannad in English, it sucked, so i made him watch it in Japanese.
Discussion: Do you know any shows that are terrible to watch in English but great in Japanese.
It's most of them but for me some that were good in English regardless were Death Note, and Claymore. Soul eater is great...if you just mute black star. Besides that there is some great voice talent there and i dont think the Grim Reaper would make as much sense in Japanese to me because of his silly voice.
Old Boy was decent in English, but it made it kinda meh
Also Bleach (not a good anime) is very well voice acted in Japanese. Not in english.
OP, do you have any anime you like better in English?
Toonami and Adult Swim got English voice acting right.
Dragonballz is terrible in Japanese. Goku's voice is all wrong. It is annoying and whiny. The English voice cast of Dragonballz is great, much better than Japanese in my opinion.
The same goes for the Japanese voice of Naruto.
Any anime adapted on Adult Swim seem to have a great English cast. Like Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, FLCL, and Samurai Champloo
I have yet to watch an anime with better dub voice actors than the original. Naruto is especially awful. When did Naruto take up smoking? Oh god, just every character in that show is horribly dubbed, but I feel like Orochimaru suffers the most. His Japanese voice actor is awesome. Totally fits the character. The English dub ruins that.
I don't know, the Sailor Moon intro always struck me as particularly odd.
Still, almost all German intros were awesome back in the 90s when Thomas Anders and Andy Knote did most of them.
I'd even say that most of their music easily rivaled the original American and Japanese intros. All Digimon songs (at least the early seasons) in particular were impressive indeed.
I don't follow the local dubbing industry anymore, so I don't know much about its current state, but what little I've seen really hasn't impressed me.
you know I've seen clips of the English sub on YouTube and in my mind I know it's horrible but for some reason I can't help but think it's not that bad.
Depends on your definition of "old." If you mean mid-late 2000's, then yeah, they were especially bad. If you mean 60s-mid 80s, then those were bad too. On the other hand, the ones I've seen from the late 80s to the early 2000s (Akira, Ranma 1/2, most of the old Toonami shows [Lupin III in particular]) have been consistently good. If I had to guess, I'd say it was because at the time, the dub was the main release, and if it wasn't good, nobody would watch it on TV, and the VHS tapes wouldn't sell.
i consider everything pre-2004ish to be "old"
dubs were either complete re-writes (like saber rider), complete removal of everything remotely japanese (pokemon) or just horribly done (EVERYTHING 4KIDS)
sure,some of them became classics (speed racer), but that doesn't excuse what the americans did to the show just to make it "acceptable for american audiences"
Aside from Pokemon, the ones you listed fell into the 60s-early 80s period that I stated was terrible. Pokemon, like all 4kids dubs, was aimed at very small children, and dumbed down as a result. Other dubs from the time period, however, were not. Have you ever seen the Streamline dub of Akira, the 90's dub of Ranma 1/2, or the dub of Lupin III that aired on Toonami's Midnight Run? There was a time when anime dubs were actually quite good, and it wasn't post 2004.
Edit: Some examples
The first clip is from 2001, the second from 1989. While the 1989 one doesn't have perfect pronounciation of the names, the acting is much more natural than the 2001 version.
It's mild enough that youtube doesn't have it flagged as 18+, but it's not entirely safe for work -- which is a sign that it wasn't as badly censored as you suggested. It also wasn't Americanized at all -- Japanese signs have English subtitles next to them, instead of digital paint replacing them.
I couldn't find any examples of Lupin III on youtube, but here's a clip from Ninja Scroll, which was dubbed in 1995 and very much uncut.
These may not be the best examples of voice acting on the planet, but compared to the stuff that has come out in the last 5 years or so, it's pretty darned good.
The newer dubs just have this "I'm not a serious actor, I'm going to do a silly voice because I'm bored" feel to them, while the older ones felt like they were at least trying to do a good job.
Subs most of the way. In most animes I've seen, the English dubs have been horribly miscast; I mean, have you compared Frieza from Dragonball's voice in the original japanese to his english dub?
The only anime I watched in English was Trigun. Frankly, Richard Cansino's casting as Legato Bluesummer was like having my ears made love to... He was amazing in the PSOne game 'Silent Bomber' too, his half amused, half bored, all suave tones really give the characters an evil edge
Problem with Trigun was the breakdown of the source material towards the end of the anime... I know the last ten or so volumes of Maximum weren't out yet at the time, but it was still ridiculousy mishandled
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