Japanese Appreciation of English Dubs

SnowWolf

Adventurer
What do the Japanese think of our dubs?

The only conclusion we can really come to is that some love them, some hate them, some think they're ok and others are completely indifferent to them: just like us.

Why do I bring this up? Because Bandai recently put episode 1 of Tiger and Bunny's Ebglish dub on their site and below is the Japanese fans reaction to it.

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2 ... nglish-dub

There also a forum thread on mania.co that addresses this and has some interesting tidbits.

http://www.mania.com/aodvb/showthread.php?t=81967

Here's some cliff notes from that forum:

-Kunihiko Ikuhara liked Rachael Lillis' performance as Utena in the movie, at least enough to name his car "Rachael".
-Hiroshi Nagahama "enthusiastically approved" of the English dub for Mushishi when he heard it.
-Vic Mignogna was recognized at a Japanese restaurant as the voice of Ed from some obscure show () when he paid with his credit card.
-Before we knew the initial release for Clannad would be sub-only, some members of a Japanese forum made some apparently well-informed English cast guesses.
-There have been episodes of the Lucky Star dub uploaded to Nico Nico Douga (Japanese YouTube) with a lot of positive, albeit surprised, comments. These uploaded episodes probably aren't still around.
-There's a couple interesting VA compilation vids on NND; one for Kari Wahlgren and another for Crispin Freeman. The vids include clips from various shows the actors have been in with Japanese fan subtitles. I don't know if those videos are still on there (EDIT: They are, and there's even new ones. So far I've found an interview with Wendee Lee [not subtitled] and a couple compilation vids for Michelle Ruff [subtitled].
-A group of Japanese anime fans interested in learning English have a wiki page (http://www1.atwiki.com/animetranscripts/) where users can upload transcripts of English dubs to help people with their English. The community still seems to be active, too.

What do you guys think?

I find it very uplifting, especially when I read through that forum thread, even if somethings may only be rumors.
 
Well, I personally dislike dubs, but I've experienced the phenomenon too. There are quite a few communities which use their love and knowledge of a show to try to get better language skills by watching it dubbed into English. If anything, it's becoming more popular now that they can all cheaply 'import' the US releases of shows on Amazon Japan for the price of a single disc in their own country, meaning people are getting the dub version for free as a side effect.

When I've debated some dubs with my friends I've found we agree on some points and disagree on others regarding how good someone sounds in a certain role. English translation scrips are often scrutinised as much as the actual acting.

It's worth noting that Japanese culture tends to encourage admiration of English-language material, so some of the reactions are reflections of that - the same way that a Japanophile here might squeal with delight over watching Star Trek dubbed into Japanese. Except that a lot of fans seem to have a massive hatred of Japanophiles here.

R
 
I'm all for dubs my self, I would assume that Japanese fans.......... Well a few Japanese fans would find English or other foreign dub fun to watch
 
I'm quite pro-dub as well. I thought it was funny that one of the dubs praised was Azumanga Daioh, an anime which most people tell me to watch subtitled.
 
All for dubs. If there weren't any I'd probably just walk away. I do watch subbed movies but I hate when something is happening on screen and there are subtitles at the same time. I've watched a few Jackie Chan movies where I've had to rewind it to catch everything that's happened. I was actually watching a trailer for an anime the other day where I couldn't read the subs and see what was happening before it flicked the the next sequence. This isn't me having a dig at subbed stuff I'm just saying why I prefer dubs.

Kinda interesting to see that they actually like the dub, I'd presume they'd have no interest in it with it not being in their main language.
 
Remember that they often get a lot of Hollywood films and TV shows dubbed in Japan, so the sub/dub thing is more well-known over there to begin with (as it is in most non-English-speaking countries). If you go to see a big film in the cinema overseas you can often get a choice between a dubbed or subbed showing, and kids are going to want to watch the newest Disney hits for sure even if they can't cope with subtitles yet. It's a luxury of the English-speaking world that people can expect things to be in their own language without falling back on subtitles from time to time.

R
 
Dan said:
All for dubs. If there weren't any I'd probably just walk away. I do watch subbed movies but I hate when something is happening on screen and there are subtitles at the same time. I've watched a few Jackie Chan movies where I've had to rewind it to catch everything that's happened. I was actually watching a trailer for an anime the other day where I couldn't read the subs and see what was happening before it flicked the the next sequence. This isn't me having a dig at subbed stuff I'm just saying why I prefer dubs.

Kinda interesting to see that they actually like the dub, I'd presume they'd have no interest in it with it not being in their main language.

Irony... it was watching a Jackie Chan movie dubbed into English that made me a fan of subs... I watched a film where the actor portraying him sounded like an accountant. An added irony is that all of the Hong Kong action films of the eighties were shot as silent and then dubbed into Cantonese and Mandarin by voice over actors. I think the first time Hong Kong movie goers actually heard Jackie Chan's voice in a movie was in Police Story III.
 
When it comes to live-action, I always have to watch it in its original language (with subtitles if said language isn't English). That's because matching the lip flaps and tones of voice in a live-action dub is near impossible, considering the complexity of the human face and expression. At least with animation, most of the time it's pretty much just a mouth opening and closing in a certain sequence.

I do remember reading the article about Tiger & Bunny and to be honest, I wasn't surprised that it was received so positively - it's definitely the best English dub in a long time, with a lot of the actors sounding a lot like the original Japanese (John Eric Bentley's Fire Emblem deserves a particular mention). If I remember correctly, Hayao Miyazaki has also said that he prefers that fans watch his films in the viewer's native language so that they aren't distracted by the subtitles and can focus on taking in the animation and such.

Personally for me, with anime it's always been something that depended on the individual series. For example, I cannot watch Cowboy Bebop as anything other than dubbed, but with a lot of recent FUNimation shows I will avoid the dub like the plague.
 
I thought I'd posted in this but I must have came out of it by accident :lol:

I'm case-by-case as well. So long as the voice matches the character and the emotion is portrayed well then that's good enough for me. There are a few anime that I enjoy both sub and dub and do a run through of each. Eden of the East for example, I really enjoy both equally.

Although I'm ultimately more prone to sub, I can appreciate a good dub when it comes along. Or at least a good individual performance.

I think it's nice to see the Japanese fans getting excited about dubs. It can be fun seeing another language's take on your favourite character.
 
Dan said:
All for dubs. If there weren't any I'd probably just walk away. I do watch subbed movies but I hate when something is happening on screen and there are subtitles at the same time. I've watched a few Jackie Chan movies where I've had to rewind it to catch everything that's happened. I was actually watching a trailer for an anime the other day where I couldn't read the subs and see what was happening before it flicked the the next sequence. This isn't me having a dig at subbed stuff I'm just saying why I prefer dubs.

Kinda interesting to see that they actually like the dub, I'd presume they'd have no interest in it with it not being in their main language.

Yeah I totally agree I would of just walked away from dragonball z if it was only subs so really thanks to dubs Im a anime fan
 
Just Passing Through said:
Irony... it was watching a Jackie Chan movie dubbed into English that made me a fan of subs... I watched a film where the actor portraying him sounded like an accountant. An added irony is that all of the Hong Kong action films of the eighties were shot as silent and then dubbed into Cantonese and Mandarin by voice over actors. I think the first time Hong Kong movie goers actually heard Jackie Chan's voice in a movie was in Police Story III.

The English dubs on JC movies were awful haha. Accountant, that pretty much sums them up, lol. Yeah I remember reading that about Police Story 3 and I also remember reading about films being dubbed after and thought wtf. I still can't get my head around it lol!

Funny enough I imported the Police Story boxset from Hong Kong to get 3 on DVD and Armour of God Boxset to get 2 subtitled coz we have/had a really bad English dub only version.

This all takes me back a bit..... Ah nostalgia :lol:
 
PandoraHane said:
I think it's nice to see the Japanese fans getting excited about dubs. It can be fun seeing another language's take on your favourite character.

Funny you should mention that coz i was flicking back and forth between the Japanese and English dub for Rin, Daughters of Mnemosyne coz I wasn't sure about Rin in the eng dub (its Mangaranga's fault, he's got me thinking, do I like that voice for that character, haha) and it was like watching 2 different anime's, it changes the whole feel. I did end up watching it dubbed, of course :lol:
 
Joshawott said:
When it comes to live-action, I always have to watch it in its original language (with subtitles if said language isn't English). That's because matching the lip flaps and tones of voice in a live-action dub is near impossible, considering the complexity of the human face and expression. At least with animation, most of the time it's pretty much just a mouth opening and closing in a certain sequence.

I do remember reading the article about Tiger & Bunny and to be honest, I wasn't surprised that it was received so positively - it's definitely the best English dub in a long time, with a lot of the actors sounding a lot like the original Japanese (John Eric Bentley's Fire Emblem deserves a particular mention). If I remember correctly, Hayao Miyazaki has also said that he prefers that fans watch his films in the viewer's native language so that they aren't distracted by the subtitles and can focus on taking in the animation and such.

Personally for me, with anime it's always been something that depended on the individual series. For example, I cannot watch Cowboy Bebop as anything other than dubbed, but with a lot of recent FUNimation shows I will avoid the dub like the plague.

Miyazaki is also quoted as saying "All animation is dubbed", which is true.
 
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