Forum - View topicNEWS: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Dub Cast Announced
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DKL
 Posts: 1956 Location: California, USA |
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Doubt it... this is pretty popular, but it's not WII-popular, I'm assuming. |
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BangZoomEnt
Posts: 3 Location: Burbank, CA |
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Wow!!! What a thread so far. I'm tempted to write many things, but I will try my best to limit myself to making three quick points.
One: The actors who work a lot do so simply because they are the best in the business. We actually hold auditions constantly for new actors, and we're always open to helping people get their start if we feel they have talent. Two: All the studios working on anime professionally care a LOT about the adaptations. From ADV to Ocean... We all set out trying to create the best possible dub and subs that anyone anywhere on the planet could do. That's what we shoot for. The characters, the story, the themes, the dialogue, and subtext. And last but not least, the casting. Because it is mostly true that casting is 90% of the job. The casting can make or break anything. Three: If you want to see some sneak peek clips of the English Dub (and Lord knows my heart is racing like crazy as I write this) you can watch the premiere of ANIMETV next Thursday online - because HARUHI will be reviewed on it. I would love to hear your feedback. I especially like constructive criticism and best of all, POSITIVE FEEDBACK! Eric P. Sherman Bang Zoom! Entertainment Last edited by BangZoomEnt on Sat Feb 10, 2007 4:50 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Kriz
Posts: 5 |
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Kari Walgren shouldn't been snubbed for the role of Haruhi, nor Kate Higgins for the role of Yuki. their demos were far more fitting of the characters, and they were winning their respective polls; the fans thought they were better.
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MorwenLaicoriel
 Posts: 1617 Location: Colorado |
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Awesome. I've already been looking forward to AnimeTV, and now it's one more thing that makes me really want to see it. I'll definately tune in. Thanks for coming and addressing people's concerns as well--it's got to be pretty nerve-wracking to see a thread like this, and it definately takes a lot of courage to post here when some of us probably appear to seem really mad. |
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Meccanica
 Posts: 101 Location: Brookline, MA |
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I'm another in the "Kari Wahlgren should have been Haruhi" camp.
I don't follow the english VA's much, but the fact that I didn't recognize her voice in the auditions (but liked it the best) while I immediately thought Wendee Lee's sounded like Faye Valentine leaves me solidly disappointed with this casting. What were the polls even for, I wonder? Apparently it was just a way to get the fans exited. Hype, that's called, right? Oh, I wish it hadn't been so... I suppose I'll never hear Ms Wahlgren do Haruhi's voice again, will I? |
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yellow-hairedwarrior
Posts: 10 Location: Norwalk, IA |
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Once again, Crispin Freeman is cast as one of the characters. Not that I'm complaining though.
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MorwenLaicoriel
Posts: 1617 Location: Colorado |
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*shrug* They never promised the results of the poll would be what they eventually hired. I can't remember what I voted on the poll--although I do remember I wasn't totally thrilled with Lee's version. I would've liked to see Whalgren as Haruhi, too.But in the end, we've just got to trust that they hired the actors they did for a reason...it's their job to do this, after all, they should know what they're doing. Now, once I hear the AnimeTV episode--and particularly once I watch the first dubbed episode--I think I'll have a right to complain if it doesn't come out well, but I can't really say if it'll be bad or not because I haven't heard it yet. |
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LiuXuande
 Posts: 201 Location: Chicago |
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I too agree on this odd role reversal, and you'd think with the Western obsession with making Kansai-ben into a Southern accent they'd make the sacrifice and do the right thing...this is not going to be pretty, I too would have loved to see Kari as Haruhi.
I guess the biggest question on the fans' minds now is why they didn't pay much attention to the polls they themselves released. Either way though, we'll know for sure for better or worse once this first episode preview is out. I miss the days of the Tenchi dubs...where they'd censor 'sake' for "tea"  What a cast though...
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sakaguchi
 Posts: 3 Location: *insert real world location here* |
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Holy crap i want to work there..........
I'm not too excited... never watch dubs any ways... |
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coffee
 Posts: 170 Location: Florida |
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I didn't mean it as in there will be a a widespread shortage, just the rabid fans eager to get their DVD first. Sorry for any confusion. |
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CCSYueh
 Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
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One of the things I hate about America is our "new is better" attitude. Like when I commented on likeing Sean Connery to my (30 yrs older than I am) mother-in-law & her very negative reaction that he was too old & wrinkled-she liked Tom Cruise (this was the 1990's so I was in my 30's & she was in her 60's). I commented who cares what Connery looks like-he sounds wonderful & a good movie is a good movie. My personal opinion is Sean Connery could make adult diapers sound like something we all beed if they hired him to pitch for them. And I feel the same about Takehito Koyasu(at 265 titles last time I checked the most prolific cast over under ANN's encyclopedia). THANK GOD Japan doesn't have our attitude on the subject. Those who know me know a large number of the titles in my collection (over 1800 anime dvds. And I DON'T download. And the only Youtube I've seen is stuff the office secretary e-mails to everyone which makes everyone wonder if she's working or looking around on YouTube all day) are there based on who's in the Japanese cast. Koyasu, Yamaguchi, Miki, Midorikawa, Kosugi, & all the regulars that do yaoi (Okiayu, Morikawa, etc) Saiga, Ogata, Park are some of the gals I enjoy playing guys. But Koyasu's the only guaranteed listen in Japanese-most of the others I listen to in English (unless they're sub only), although I often back up & replay scenes to compare the performance. And guess what-the English tracks are usually acceptable--a few are like fingernails on chalkboard, & most of those come down to the director. One can find horrid performances out of every VA out there, I'm sure, but one can also find good ones. Remember when THE most reviled VA was David Moo for Xellos? I've seen his name in casts since & nothing stood out, so he must be competent. Then he did Sanji/One Piece. Wow. He must be one of those guys who feels any attention is better than none.Not that the One Piece dub was all that horrid. it suffered from the disappointment fans felt over the butchering & the fact the Japanese cast is so perfect with several vets as well as newbs. Bang Zoom tends to be my fav dub group. I have issues with some of the Ocean VA's who are proud the can do over 100 different sounding voices(and how many sound like they're coming from someone you'd meet on the street? And how many sound like a funny voice more suited to a cute something-or-other in a cartoon aimed at the under-8 market?) And Bang Zoom also sounds more natural to my SoCal ears. They seem to muck less with the script. The actually seem to LISTEN to the Japanese dub & sometimes cast VA's of a similar pitch in a role. The New Yorkers have been responsible for some of the worst dubs (When the director interview for Maze brags they paid absolutely no attention to the original Japanese track & any similarities are pure accident, there's something wrong with the picture. Like the whole USA knows better attitude) The director on Area 88 seemed VERY impressed with his vet VA's-they had fewer flubs to re-do & needed very little direction. If you look at the body of work by Japanese VA's, you'll notice an awful lot of typecasting going on. How often do we see Akira Ishida playing a seemingly nice. polite character who is possibly the most powerful character on the show, probably has a nasty temper, but will rip your heart out with a smile on his face? (Hakkai, Xellos). And the director of Samurai Deeper Kyo deliberately hired pro's with the hope each would bring their egos that they were the best & he would get an excellent recording which is why it's so sad the English dub went with accent of the week. I'm a bit hesitant about Wendee Lee because she can over-act sometimes, but I love Freeman. But I'm not really even interested in this title. It's one that IF I ever bother to pick up, I'll probably wait for the box set on. I'm hoping for a good dub on BTX, but I want the story. Yeah, ADV's giving manga dubtitles on Tactics, but after thinking we;d never see it, I'm just glad to be able to see a decent version of it. Except for a few titles, we always get the Japanese track. If the English dub is good, it;s just icing on the cake. If you don't like it, just scrape it off. |
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Malintex Terek
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As I might have implied, this "new is better" mindset you are referring to is most likely because people over-indulge in something like anime and become bored with it. Some television programming inherently does that by design; take soap operas. They're directed in a fashion so that people on busy schedules can tune in a week after they last saw an episode and learn everything that happened in said missed week. For someone watching the soap for all seven days, it's as if the show drags on and on, making only incremental progression in plot per day. At that, Japan's immunity to that is a vice for America, not a virtue. Since the days of Ranma 1/2, we've had many instances of harem anime, to the point of having shallow "gimmicks" to make the next new harem "interesting"; in this, originality (or percieved originality) in shows like Love HIna become seen as sterotypes, with each successive show more generic/bland. Love Hina was once one of the most highly rated shows on ANN, but since then it's fallen in favour; if newer stuff like School Rumble hadn't emerged to serve as a comparison, would people still value LH as refreshingly original? I'd say yes; Kentaro Miura's Berserk has no credible imitators, and unsurprisingly it's still the highest rated manga on this website. If a score of imitators suddenly appeared and flooded the manga market with "variations" on Berserk's formula, people would read those manga because they also love Berserk, but eventually become disillusioned as to the "originality" of that formula in general. I've observed this phenomenon in people who read shounen manga; they start at Dragonball, get into One Piece, Bleach, or Naruto, try something like Mahou Sensei Negima!, and then get bored and start criticizing the 'genre' in total. Isn't that why Haruhi is popular, though? It's full of clichés and stock characters, but that's not the draw of the show; the original elements, like Kyon's bitter sarcasm and the pulp philosophy/physics serve as a stronger draw. The 'spoofing' of the sterotypes is also considered to be a virtue.
Let me see if I understand properly; you purchase DVDs based on which Japanese seiyu are in the cast, yet you only listen to those seiyu (Koyasu exempted) on occasion? Okay...
This looks like a digression, but I agree fully.
I'm confused again; you feel that the actors/actresses who do work for Ocean Group are troublesome because they have impressive range? Additionally, what do you mean when you say "...tends to be my favourite dub group"? Perhaps you mean to say you prefer California actors working on dubs because they sound more 'natural' to your ears, being a California resident?
I'm not sure what you mean by "muck", but if in context it means "take less liberalities" I will testity that's frankly not the case; BZE localizes dialogue just as much as many other companies, but that's not a vice OR a virtue. It can be either; many people consider FUNimation's script for Fullmetal Alchemist to be more sincere and entertaining. In this, while not faithful to the original script, it's more faithful to the characters and spirit of the show. In that same vein, Ai Yori Aoshi tried to be close to its Japanese counter-part but became a terrible mess. Continuing onward, you're generalizing all of the companies in New York with 4Kids, which isn't really fair; New York companies don't exclusively use New York VA's, just like how VIZ Media is based in San Francisco yet it doesn't use MarcoCo. Studios for their dubbing. Heck, Media Blasters used BZE in the highly acclimed Rurouni Kenshin dub, which was California homogenous. Furthermore, much of what 4Kids licenses is difficult-to-obtain trash that, through their processing, gets "improved"; Fighting Foodons comes to mind. Who cares that the voices aren't "faithful"; it's a generic, formulaic shounen that a seasoned shounen fan would normally avoid, yet became good clean fun. Of course, One Piece is the exception, but you can't claim there was no effort to find simmilar voices in such an example; examining the main cast, Nami, Chopper, and Luffy are equivalent to their Japanese counter-parts. Robin would be perfect without her accent, I think Usopp is fine, Zoro isn't but Marc Diraison gives an impressive performance, and Sanji is...David Moo. OP's dub is the sad product of an old marketing formula being applied in a different era; it was acceptable for its time, but no longer.
My impression of you is that you possed a keen ear for distinguishing between seiyu; that's quite a feat, but it isn't an ability most people can claim to have. I myself could only point out Kugimiya Rie, Nakata Joji, Sugiyama Noriaki or Tanaka Atsuko, and only if they aren't modulating their voices. Not all Westerners are as attuned to Japanese voices as yourself, though; we can latch onto distinguishing voices, but those are in a minority. That's not the case in the West; not only do we have a decent-sized pool of recognizable voice actors, they're so prolific we can identify them without trouble. It's easier to get "bored" with that kind of casting.
I do not see the English dub as icing, but the cake itself; the Japanese track and the "extras" are the icing and filling. This is not an unreasonable view to take; there was once a time when shows were only released with an English track, since the primary market for the show were English speakers. The demand for a subtitled track isn't strong enough for me to say that paradigm has changed all that much; the central draw to an R1 DVD was and still is a dub, and if there's an enormus negative against that dub, like heavy censorship, a generic cast or just plain weak acting, it won't sell all that well. |
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CCSYueh
Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
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My usual method of watching is English dub, subtitles on to compare the 2 versions. Bang Zoom is either giving us false subtitles, or they tend to run closer to the original Japanese. ADV plays pretty fast & loose-sometimes not even the same city, forget the ballpark (Generator Gawl) . Yes, I undestand the need to take liberties with humor, but it's just sad Funimation felt they had to explain everyything in DBZ when the Japanese version left it unsaid.
I'm sure ADV is going to give us a competent dub on Sgt Frog, but I also dread their casting possibilities & the liberties they might take with the script. The Japanese cast is so perfect & there isn't a lot of vulgarity, but look what they did with Papuwa. I love that sort of humor(Bobobo, Hare+Guu), but so often in Papuwa they seem like they're trying too hard for the teen audience that wants to hear swearing or they think it's for kids. Luckily Papuwa's so messed up, it's funny overall. Yeah their Saiyuki dub was more lively than Bang Zoom's, but Bang Zoom cast closer & the script is sticking closer. How do you decide to see a movie? check out the cast? Time was one knew what kind of movie one was getting by the cast. People went to a John Wayne movie because they knew he had a certain style. We'd watch James Garner's new TV show because we knew what he's done in the past. Overall, we know what we're getting when we go see Jim Carrey. And when one looks at the Japanese cast, one can get a pretty good idea what kind of title it is since they typecast so often. If it has one or 2 pros in it, it's more iffy than if they're confident enough to or feel obligated because of the popularity of the property to cast 5 or 6 names in the recurring roles. If the cast is filled with newbs, it doesn't look like the studio has much faith in the product & is cheaping out. I loved Rich Little & impressionists as much as the next person. but at some point voices fall out of the normal human range, becoming something more fake & unnatural. Yeah, I have fun with their pronunciations, but I also see a certain arrogance in Ocean's VA's. Ryo Horikawa's Vegeta actually sounded more like a prince than Brian Drummond's dime-store thug (although I prefer Horikawa's softer toned Shun Andromeda) I pay little attention to 4Kids dubs. They are akin to American Cartoons & I tend to ignore the dub on those (Sponge Bob is the anti-Christ. His voice is like nails on a chalkboard to me). I refer to the dubs we get from CPM in thing like Maze, Shadow Skill Revolutionary Girl Utena, Slayers.....isn't NYAV Post in New York? They who did Samurai Deeper Kyo where eveyone in the main cast seems to have a different accemt? . And I really don't see how 4Kids "improved" Shaman King or Tokyo Mew Mew nor do I consider those titles trash. I love those generic, formulaic shonen titles. I still consider the title that brought me back into anime-CCS-to be one of my favorites & I do not ever see myself dismissing DBZ ever. There are enough underlying issues to debate the title's worth for years to come. Just because we have all this new technology for making movies doesn't mean the Marx Brothers should be forgotten because their work was in black & white & done yrs ago. The Love Hina manga is incredible. You can keep Negima. Love Hina is a classic while other stuff is just derivative & boring. A well made harem title is a well made harem title. Mindless jiggle is just mindless jiggle. One Piece-DBZ's Krillin as Luffy. Ranma as Usopp. Pikachu as Chopper. Guests Kazuki Yao ( times now? or 4?-Django, #2, Frankie...), Ryotaro Okiayu, Tomokazu Seki, Takeshi Kusao, Jyrouto Kosugi, Shiguru Chiba, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Daisuke Gouri, Kenichi Ogata, Nobuyuki Hiyama, Mika Doi, Yuji Ueda, Takehito Koyasu, Noriko Hidaka, Masaya Onosaka, Jouji Nakata, Jouji Yanami... One Piece hasn't slacked off the talent. My teen can pick out James Penrod(Dark Schneider/Bastard)/Dan Norris. She told me he was in Fairly Oddparents(she was right) & the live action title he's in where he plays the janitor. She even picked him out in Gatekeepers & Ghost in the Shell. Most people can regognize their fav singer. I always assumed most people can pick out John, Paul, George or Ringo when listening to a Beatles song. Yeah, there are the bored teen type who tire of bands every 2 weeks, but don't a lot of us have a bit longer of an attention span? I saw an interesting article interviewing American VA's & there was a comment made by one of them that voice acting in American cartoons is basically anonymous-the animation fans here follow the title for the studio, the artist, the writer, or the director. I believe it was the actor for Loony Tunes who commented the appreciation anime fans give their VA's was something the better-paid union actors wouldn't mind receiving-that anime fans here as in Japan appreciate the actors much more. One Piece's dub was a load of arrogance on 4Kids' part. They knew they had a popular title with a large following, but still believed they could run roughshod over it & people would roll over like we did on their abandoned uncut YuGiOh & Shaman King dvds. They're struggling now to find their place like Funi did when they were looking for direction when their DB/Z dub was winding down & they looked for their next big title. I was actually worried for them a few yrs back when I seemed to be the only one pushing Fruits Basket at the boards I haunt & no one seemed to know what Spiral was when they first released it., but they pulled their fat out of the fire & are doing extremely well. (I was also worried about CPM's ability to survive. It's a given someone's going to fall by the wayside) The cake should be the story. The basic product., so even if the dub reeks or is lackluster, the story makes us laugh or cry or whatever we're watching the title for. If the English dub reeks, at least there's usually subtitles. MediaBlasters usually doesn't even bother dubbing yaoi & realistically the casts usually are packed with the VA's we gals like anyway so we buy it anyway. I thought the subtitle group was still pretty dominant in anime. I know Comic-con only plays the English track when it's a dub-only copy provided by the studio (& I've overheard more than one parent ask them to put it over in English for their child & leave when their request isn't complied with.) The titles were mostly released sub or dub on videotape so one had to buy both if one wanted to hear both. I never even realized one of my favorite titles from childhood-Kimba-was anime because when I was 8 & watching it, it seemed like all the other stuff I was watching. (And 4Kids seems stuck in that era). One hears it in the comments on IGPX from the CN crew that they desire an era when the fans don't look at where the title's from, that the fans will just watch & enjoy everything CN chooses to air. I prefer the FMA manga to the anime which was such a mess by the end, it was just sad. And my daughter who has the remote always switched over to Japanese for Envy & complained bitterly at the anime artbook referring to Envy as female. She also refused to listen to Gravitation in English. Case Closed depends on her mood-some in English, some Japanese, but always Japanese for the songs. |
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Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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Ah, my account has been revived and I'm here to post!
First, basically everyone I voted for in the poles got the parts I wanted them to have, so I'm extremely pleased by this cast. I think Wendee Lee is going to rock as Haruhi and I'm a little surprised to see so many people acting hostile about it. Second, you guys are taking this whole thing with the dub cast way too seriously and, frankly, this is a case of being damned regardless of who was cast. If every winner of the poles had been cast, someone would complain that they only cast along the popular vote line and didn't even try to match the "right" voice with the charcter. If the cast had been unknowns, someone would have said "oh, they expect Haruhi to be a huge failure so they aren't even going to try." In other words, I don't think there's a thing Bandai or BangZoom could have done that would have pleased everyone anyway, so why not just accept that they are trying to do a good job and relax. If you hate the dub cast or you think it will be "boring" because it's all well-known names, you can read the subs and listen to the Japanese. I'm pleased with the dub cast so I can delight in my English dub and fall in love with the characters all over again. That's the beauty of choice. |
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LydiaDianne
 Posts: 5633 Location: Southern California |
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Please correct me if I'm wrong, but, since the first volume is coming out in May (I believe) wouldn't they have done all of the dubbing BEFORE they did the voice polls?
From what I've read here and in other places, dubbing does take a while and I don't believe that they would have been able to finish the series in between the time the polls first came out and when they announced the dub cast. So, to me, it sounds like our votes were 1) useless and 2) Bandai's way of seeing how close they may have gotten... Just my opinion. BTW - Welcome Back, Richard J. 
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