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English Dubs

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Aneroph:

--- Quote from: Zalis116 on August 04, 2009, 09:22:27 AM --- (click to show/hide)
--- Quote from: Havoc10K on August 03, 2009, 01:59:11 PM ---wich is all the more reason to avoid english dubs since they often avoid using honorifics.

--- End quote ---
  Question, though: have you tried watching an English dub that does use honorifics? Like Ai Yori Aoshi, for instance. See also Lucky Star. The problems with honorifics in dubs are:

1) they're often mispronounced -- like "-san" as in "Santa" and "-chan" as in "channel." (IIRC the AYA dub pronounces them right, but others don't.) In a way, it's better not to hear them at all than to hear wrong versions of them.

2) they can worsen the overall performance. Much has been said in this thread and elsewhere about English voice acting sounding fake or unnatural. That's debatable, but giving the actors a bunch of name suffixes that they're not used to saying in everyday conversation is not going to help anything.

3) they can detract from the entertainment value. You may find it hard to believe, but people who watch or favor dubs aren't always concerned about getting an exact perfect translation of the Japanese version. They want something enjoyable and entertaining, and that usually means something that sounds natural and believable in English. Sure there are issues that will always be there, like the mouth flaps, but throwing a bunch of honorifics in there is bound to make dialogue sound less natural in English. Especially if it's a show like Last Exile, Vandread, Solty Rei, Noir, Scrapped Princess, etc. that aren't set in Japan.

I've even heard dub fans complaining about honorifics in dubs, saying "get them out of there, I don't want them." If you were trying to sell a product, would you take simple measures to please people who generally like your products, or bend over backwards trying to please the haters who will find faults no matter what?
--- Quote from: aznZephyr ---Another problem with dubbing is the loss of or misinterpretation of emotions. Once again, because of the cultural differences, certain emotions will be lost in the dubbing process. For example, in Great Teacher Onizuka, Onizuka is an ex-Bosozoku member. He has a very distinct tone of voice of a typical Japanese delinquent. In the dubbed version, they could not, or were too cheap to even consider that tone of voice, so after translating and making a script proper for an American audience, they took a voice actor and dubbed over the anime without the tone of voice. Without that tone of voice, the character's emotion is lost in the process.
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People who pick the show up and watch it dubbed won't care about that. It's been awhile since I've seen any of GTO, but IIRC they used a tough-guy/wise-guy voice for Onizuka. Him being an ex-gang member was believable, given the tone of voice they used. Was it the exact same typical-delinquent voice as the Japanese version? No, but it still worked. Acting is interpreting a character, not imitating someone else's interpretation of it.
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You've just described the fact that dubs and subs are basically two entirely different shows for two entirely separate groups of people. I tell you one thing, subbed anime on American television is always going to fail. It's too complicated, too much work for the watcher, and too cultured for people to pass by the show and enjoy it. I mean, if you don't understand any Spanish do you stop by the Telemundo channel for more than five seconds to see the girls with the giant knockers? It would also be very unwise to place subbed anime shows for children on American television (ie. Naruto, Pokemon, Beyblade, etc.).

As far as the voice actors go, people who don't like anime easily hear the unnatural sounds from the English version, but they don't care enough about the show to read subtitles. My brother was always a big anime hater and the number one thing he always complained about as I watched was how stupid the sentences were sounding (besides the fact that none of it was particularly matching with mouth movements, but you get that with both versions). He would always repeat the stupid sounding sentences and laugh (boy would he have had a blast seeing "people die when they are killed" in FSN :P).

In the long run, dubs serve their purpose. Those who never torrent anime are barely even given the chance to enjoy the subbed version since they most likely watched the show in dub before buying the DVD containing the sub.

Timdog:
About the mouth flap stuff, can't they just reanimate it so that the mouth movements fit the dub?  You can't do this with live action movies since you can't reanimate a person's mouth so dubbed live action stuff usually sucks (except for the hilarity) but animated stuff... can't they change it?

Scudworth:
can't they "fix" someones art to make it easier for Americans to watch?
no I don't think that would be a great idea.

zorena86:
Finally got around to watching this clip, was quite hilarious indeed!

ett:
 Gantz Spoof FanDUB - Dubs VS Subs Nishi's Rant

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