Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Do Dubs Cast Men As Boy Characters, while Japan Casts Women?
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belvadeer
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Definitely. The problem I've always had with some "kids and their monsters" shows that contain evolutions as part of the package in Japan is the monsters that have female VAs retain them throughout all their evolutions. It's fine when they're small and cute, but it looks and sounds utterly ridiculous to see a huge sculpted male monster or a clearly male creature with a woman's voice trying unsuccessfully to sound masculine and powerful. This is definitely one major reason Digimon is something I prefer to watch in English. I can't take Greymon or Angemon seriously when they sound like that, and this applies to all similar cases.
I agree. I much prefer Johnny Bosch voicing Joshua than Mitsuki Saiga; she was really forcing a deeper male voice for him, and it doesn't work at all. And to top it off, Bosch is very good at sounding like a little boy, such as in the case of Nobi in Doraemon and Nate in Yo-kai Watch, so one can't simply state that all grown men can never voice younger boys properly. Yuri Lowenthal is another example of the same; the way he voiced Sasuke in his ninja child years was some very impressive voice work on his part.
No offense to the voice actress, but Gohan sounds too much like a girl in that clip.
I'm not sure what you're trying to say here or where you're getting this from, but it's very rude to refer to something as primitive when that really isn't the case at all. Not to mention, what you stated isn't even remotely true. Last edited by belvadeer on Thu Aug 23, 2018 8:56 am; edited 1 time in total |
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supersqueak
Posts: 194 |
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I have definitely wondered about this myself I guess it is probably just chalked up to cultural differences I mean other than Maile Flanagan and Sarah Strange I can't really think of many female voice actors playing male roles in dubs. I mean of course, women playing little boys is very standard practice but otherwise no. I don't know if it's an issue of vocal range or what to me Flanagan and Strange have very deep voices so I bet it's easy for them to play somewhat younger males easily but to me a lot of the Japanese female voice actors aren't super convincing as dudes to me. I don't know if thats just because of my american ears or if Japanese people notice it just as much and they are just more used to suspending their disbelief in order to immerse themselves in whatever they are watching. I mean I guess it's not super easy to get male talent with higher pitched voices either but they definitely exist and those guys get lots of roles because they are good at it.
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Re:SOUL
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Tara Strong voices Ben 10 and that's an original American show.
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Kadmos1
Posts: 13566 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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While I enjoy Maile as Naruto Uzumaki, they might have to get another VA to play him in the "Boruto" series as Naruto is 30-something. That is, a woman playing a guy that old sounds forced and unnatural to me.
For Nozawa-sensei, it doesn't help that there is a lack of great difference between her Teen Gohan and Adult Goku voices. |
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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Cause it's weird and I don't like it? *shrugs* It's a matter of personal taste. Just like how the show is so ugly-drawn that I refuse to look at it for three seconds. xD (WHY DO THEIR HEADS JUST MELT INTO THEIR TORSOS LIKE THAT) |
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Juno016
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Having seen Takarazuka in person, I'm actually more convinced it has to do with differentiating script in Japanese. Speech can be easily gendered in Japanese, so females wanting to sound like boys or men don't necessarily have to change their voice to "convince" their audience, as long as they use more masculine speech patterns and rough their voice to match the perceived behavior of boys or men (depending on the character). Sure, Goku may not sound like an older man, but he sure doesn't sound like a woman, either, and since he uses masculine speech, he is simple a man whose voice never changed from when he was a child. It's often how "tomboy"-like females are characterized, too.
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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I really think he does and so does Kenshin so yeah, dub tracks for me, please. Lol |
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Juno016
Posts: 2394 |
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Kenshin, maybe, but not really Goku. No woman naturally sounds like that (especially in Japanese). It's a "performance" voice, so it's not quite natural either way. (Not sure why my post showed up bolded) |
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Shiflan
Posts: 418 |
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I doubt Jose Cruz was trying to be rude here, he was just stating an observation. Frankly I think he is right. It's easy to miss if you live in the US and you don't have a foreign perspective, but it is very true that the US produces the majority of its own video content and imports relatively little. That is the opposite of the situation in most countries where a substantial part, if not the majority of the video content is imported from other nations and is dubbed or subtitled into the local language. "Primitive" might not be the best choice of words, but it's not very far from the truth. Dubbing is very much a niche thing is the US and is much more common elsewhere. And, of course, the opposite is also true: original production is more advanced in the US than elsewhere. That's not a statement of which is "better" or "good vs bad", it's simply descriptive. Nobody was insulting your favorite dub actors/actresses or saying there was anything "wrong" with dubs. Last edited by Shiflan on Thu Aug 23, 2018 4:13 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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belvadeer
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I'm belvadeer. You have the wrong guy. In addition, I never stated he was insulting anyone, just that what he posted isn't true and that "primitive" is a poor word choice. |
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Shiflan
Posts: 418 |
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[quote="belvadeer"]
You are exactly right, I meant Jose Cruz. I will edit my post and correct the name. My apologies for the error. Otherwise I stand by what I wrote; he is exactly right about the status of the dubbing industry here in the states. Dubs are a niche for us Americans. Elsewhere in the world they are normal, everyday, television. The word choice might not have been the greatest but the facts behind it stand. |
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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That's essentially true: Back before CN, local afternoon syndication showed the first (Emperor Pilaf) season of Dragon Ball--usually in a Warner-owned block next to Sailor Moon and/or Samurai Pizza Cats--and it did so well, they jumped directly to the first (Raditz) season of DBZ, starting with new-daddy Goku and Gohan arriving in a two-part edit of the "Tree of Might" movie. But the 00's "Anime craze!" didn't capture mainstream newbie attention until the dub took its place over on Cartoon Network, and the entire DB:Classic was only shown later, on Z's popularity. Also, deep teen-voiced adult Goku just SOUNDS the right kind of heroically dim/goofy. Not the same dub VA as Gourry in the "Slayers" dub, but definitely the same ballpark of character. |
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Spawn29
Posts: 551 |
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Before Dragon Ball was dubbed in English, no one cared if Goku sound like a woman or not. People will watch the DB series and not giving a crap if Goku is high pitch or not. It was not until the mid-late 2000s when I saw people being more critical on Goku's Japanese voice because the kids who watched Toonami are now old enough to be vocal on the Internet. To me, I don't care if a girl voices a guy. It is all about doing a good job on acting and pulling off the character. Gender should not matter when it comes to voice acting if you ask me. Not to mention, we in live in an era where people want more female actors having jobs and playing leading roles in movies, TV shows, etc. |
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Blanchimont
Posts: 3456 Location: Finland |
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I can assure you subs are the default here in the Nordic countries. Almost the only time you will ever see dubs is for children's movies or series... |
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Shiflan
Posts: 418 |
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[quote="Blanchimont"]
I was speaking in general terms, not specifically limited to anime. I live in the states now but I was born in and lived the early years of my life in Denmark. Easily half the programs on television were from other countries dubbed into Danish. Subtitles were prevalent as well but the dubbing really stood out to me because I found the change in voices so odd. Remember that many massively popular American TV shows going back decades have been dubbed into a huge variety of languages: old westerns, "classic" shows like I love Lucy or Dick Van Dyke, Happy Days, Partridge Family, Brady Bunch, Seinfeld, etc... all that stuff has been dubbed for release worldwide. Thousands upon thousands of episodes. Not to mention hollywood movies. Yet what does the US get dubbed for its domestic market? Niche things like Anime which would barely move the needle on popularity compared to those programs, and the occasional foreign movie that happens to get released here. |
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