vocal qualities across languages

[post-it]

its not really the DUB's as much as having FAT WOMAN trying to make a skinny and playful voice.

The average Anime trys to focus on kids 7th thru 11th grade in the US and Peeks at events which could taken place durring those years. Most of us remember those years vivid-ly oooh-yeah! 5/5

but how can someone who never had those years being good possibly ever relate to situations that they, themselves, never encountered??? -- by making fat whiny queels and other things which made they, themselves, repulsive when THEY were growing-up!

Examples of FAT trying to be cute were all over the place in dub's like Love Hina, Hand Maid May, AKO & CKO, HellSing, Ramna, InuYasha, Canidate for Goddess, VanDread series 1 - 4, Galaxy Angels, Kiddy Grade, Ghost Stories, all the .Hack series including Roots, and the list goes on and on!

As far as getting the Words right, there's never any excuse for a transliteration when the translation is Given Directly to the Script Controller when they recieve the Rights to Dub the series. Sailor Moon, anyone remember DiC from Canada, just totally distroying That series and Cutting episodes to FIT what THEY wanted the series to look like? -- They told everyone that, "they were updating the series" when infact they desided to Hire a translator instead of paying the $50.00 per episode for the Scripts! . . . it was a bad move on WTBS Atlanta's judgement!

Any time someone trys to cut corners in scripting a series/episode Everyone can tell that IT WAS WRONG ... except those who were part of the Scamm.

[Otohiko]

Wait, FAT?

...cue in hawt pictures of American voice actresses in 3, 2, 1...

[post-it]

yeah, its not a pretty picture to see in the studio's either X_X

[BasharOfTheAges]

Otohiko - so, are you suggesting that the same degree of expressiveness is in both English and Japanese vocalizations in anime and we're just predisposed to find fault with the English ones? English dubbers are attempting to emulate Japanese personalities' fake enthusiasm? (this was one of the possibiities i had theorized when coming up with this thread - the dub-hater in me argued othewise)
It's kind of like how the "BBC" British accent was actually manufactured for radio and television and can't not be traced to any area of England.

Lyrs - insiteful as always, but this kinda only was about the whole dubbing thing; Whether or not overzelous interpertations in English dubs were accurate to the characters portrayed or whether the voice actors grew up hearing over-acted cartoons and followed a conformist mentality to churn out the same garbage themselves if they could get away with it.

As a note, this coversation is far more mentally stimulating that the vast majority of threads that pop up here, so I welcome further discussion with an open mind.

[post-it]

ok, I'll quit slamming the English dub's as soon as they stop making British translators voices instead of Italian and or Texas accents sound as if everybody from southern japan has a slow-drawl in their speakings.

as far as other language dubs, the Spanish ones I've heard in Mexico df were fantastic and the Italian ones are `just plain funny

speaking reading and writing nine different languages has its draw-backs but, I know what sounds right in most languages.

just my opinion. I'll stop now.

[Greggus1]

Whatever you're comparing them to, french dubs are worse.

[ZephyrStar]

They probably just thought of it as a cheapo cartoon.

Agreed. In the early days, they underestimated their audience here I think. They still do to certain extents, but are starting (well maybe) to pay a little more attention to what fans want. A little.

But you have to look at budget as always, the licensing company has to pay a big licensing fee, and then usually manage to translate/dub/author on a pretty tight deadline. It's a business. It'd be nice if it wasn't, and if you had hardcore sub elitists translating and finding the dub actors for everything, but reality is a little different. I think some of the companies do a remarkable job for what they have/time they have/people they have.

As far as the VA's trying too hard, I think that might be some of it, the over enthusiasm, etc., but I always wonder, do the people voice acting the shows actually sit and watch them subtitled? A lot? to get the idea of their character? Or do they just get their cues from the director? "ok, this is how Haruhi sounds"? I noticed FLCL being brought up...I think it's a good example of people really paying attention. I love that dub...and that's unusual coming from me. As far as VA in anime sounding different in the native language, yeah I think this is definately true. I've never met a Japanese girl who squeaked the way some of the characters do, or a guy who uses kisama over and over again with such distaste. Then again, I'm a fairly untraveled American >_>

I'm still a sub elitist >_> and will rarely watch dubbed anything, and I do think they could pay a hair more attention to their market, especially for the "niche" type of shows. I mean, Lucky Star, love it or hate it, will it ever get licensed? How many of the original jokes would get preserved? How much of it gets replaced with REALLLY bad americanized jokes for the R1 release?

I think dubs are headed in a positive direction...I find myself really curious every time I buy an R1 to see how they cast the VA's and what kind of job they did...some I turn off immediately, but some I will sit through.

[Sereenie]

Whatever you're comparing them to, french dubs are worse.

Not necessarily. French dubs used to be really well-done (I watched those shows on TV growing up, and I now own a lot of the older series on DVD). They were done in a realistic manner (no exaggerated squeals!), and characters were properly played and sounded their own age. Which, I think, is the most important thing. It's what makes the whole thing believable, it's what allows the viewer to get lost in the show.

But since the end of France-Japan collaboration projects era, dubs have gone down the drain. CCSakura?? *shudders* It seems to me that as US dubs get better (not always, but you know, there's some progress!), the French ones keep getting worse and worse. I don't know what went wrong along the way. It's really sad. Where has all that know-how gone? Certainly, people just didn't retire all at once, no?

As far as English dubs go, I think the problem is that there is still this whole mindset that anime=comics=for kids, and kids need cutesy characters with cutesy voices, no matter if it's appropriate or not. Yes, there has been an evolution on that front, but that mindset is still ingrained. So you end up with lots of fake-sounding, high-pitched and and overacted characters. They're not believeable. And as I said above, if it's not believable, you can't get lost in the show.

S.

[Sereenie]

I always wonder, do the people voice acting the shows actually sit and watch them subtitled? A lot? to get the idea of their character? Or do they just get their cues from the director? "ok, this is how Haruhi sounds"?

That's an excellent point. I remember being totally astounded when I listened to an interview with the guy who voiced Akio in Utena. He more or less said that he found it interesting and intriguing to play him because, since he only had his own lines (out of context), he never knew what the guy was doing, or why, nor where the story was going! How can anyone do a proper dub job working like that? If time is that short, they should *at least* be able to read the whole script beforehand, no?

S.

[Greggus1]

I always wonder, do the people voice acting the shows actually sit and watch them subtitled? A lot? to get the idea of their character? Or do they just get their cues from the director? "ok, this is how Haruhi sounds"?

That's an excellent point. I remember being totally astounded when I listened to an interview with the guy who voiced Akio in Utena. He more or less said that he found it interesting and intriguing to play him because, since he only had his own lines (out of context), he never knew what the guy was doing, or why, nor where the story was going! How can anyone do a proper dub job working like that? If time is that short, they should *at least* be able to read the whole script beforehand, no?

S.

And yeah, I'm not much of an old-timer, so the french dubs may have had better days. But today, I feel like I'm watching it in slow-motion.

"I THINK THAT. I DON'T LIKE. YOU. VERY MUCH.

...

...

GOODBYE."

Just freaking talk already!