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Hey, Answerman! [2007-03-16]

The entire American anime industry should not, in my opinion, have an ounce of creativity in it. It should be only a conduit through which the Japanese creativity flows to the fan.

Another example would be 'Princess Mononoke,' wherein a clearly male voice becomes a clearly female voice (i.e. Gillian Anderson's).

Don't get me wrong, there are tonnes of lame Japanese VA performances (although they at least have the creators' stamp of approval, for what that's worth). But there are also lots of good ones, so why omit them by dubbing over them? Subtitles cause a lot less interference with the original production and what its creators want to convey.

I know several people around my age (mid-30s) who've shown anime to their parents, and used the dub because it's hard to read subs if you wear bifocals. "Interference" isn't the issue here so much as ""the techonology not working for everybody."

I half-agree, but more to the point, the English-language voice actors' creativity needs to synchronize more closely with that of the Japanese voice actors ... because what keeps getting lost in this discussion is that at least the Japanese VAs--good and bad alike--actually work with the behind-the-scenes creative forces (i.e. writers, directors, producers), have their stamp of approval and are therefore far more directly able to convey what is intended to be conveyed.

I thought he was just fine. C+ work all the way.

Elizabeth Berkley, on the other hand, was catastrophic. But approximately as annoying as the original Japanese actress, when I finally got a copy of the subbed version. Either voice could have ruined the show for me. So maybe that's a fine example of a lack of creativity tunneling mediocrity directly to the American fan? I don't know. Oops, strawman, sorry about that.

TheVok wrote:

Another example would be 'Princess Mononoke,' wherein a clearly male voice becomes a clearly female voice (i.e. Gillian Anderson's).

Unless this person is a cross-dresser, I'd say that the VA for Moro was a woman.

person#2045

First of all, the majority of DVD releases don't "omit" the Japanese performance."

Many seiyuu release posters, CD's and other items that have their face or voice on it simply as a means of making extra income to supplement their voice acting career.

Working in Los Angeles allows me the opportunity to work some actors from film & TV who are also celebrities. Believe it or not, there are a contingent of film/tv actors who are huge anime fans and have even asked me if they could do a little voice acting in some of my anime shows simply for the love of it (often uncredited). I can't say who they are but I've had Academy award and Emmy award nominated and winning actors in the recording booth and I can say one thing for sure; not every great actor can be a great voice actor.

I can't speak for every anime voice actor out there, but the ones I have worked with care deeply about giving the best performance they can when they play a role in anime.

True enough, but at least they have the CDs and posters. And if they are saleable, it means they have a fandom large enough to be a market. Do American VAs have them? Maybe a few, but I don't follow them. Certainly none to the Hayashibura level. It goes back to the idea that the Japanese anime industry engenders that sort of fandom for its people, but the American anime industry doesn't.

That may be true, but it doesn't mean that film actors can't be good VAs. It is generally the case that the A-list stars don't do well as VAs (although there's a small sample size), but I've heard great cartoon voice work from character actors like Roddy McDowall, Ed Asner, James Earl Jones, people who can't necessarily open a movie, but who can act. Moreover, there are several career voice actors for American cartoons, but little crossover with the ones who do anime voices. Dubbing quality might increase if those talent pools were tapped.

And therein lies the crux of my dislike of dubbing as it's currently done. The entire American anime industry should not, in my opinion, have an ounce of creativity in it. It should be only a conduit through which the Japanese creativity flows to the fan. And that's why I don't support the industry and why I lobby to have it alter its direction to one I would support.

Steroid wrote:
The entire American anime industry should not, in my opinion, have an ounce of creativity in it. It should be only a conduit through which the Japanese creativity flows to the fan.

Quote:

Steroid wrote: The entire American anime industry should not, in my opinion, have an ounce of creativity in it. It should be only a conduit through which the Japanese creativity flows to the fan.

So we should be robots? I honestly don't think you want there to be English dubs at all, not simply turn them to your liking. Because in my opinion your concept would be destroying them. Your words don't make much sense, because no actor would stand for being told they must be a conduit for the Japanese without putting even one ounce of their creative ability into the role.

But what I'm saying is that not every great actor on film & TV is a great voice actor, there are certainly some, but not all of them. The voice actors we use aren't 2nd tier simply because they aren't on TV or Film either, we chose them because they have a unique ability to give acting performances with their voices alone. Add to that they have to match an existing Japanese performance along with their timing and lip-flap and one might hopefully see they do have great talent. A talent that some sub fans will simply dismiss as never good enough than the Japanese. Unfortunately it is an underappreciated talent in the acting industry as well, because Hollywood, like you, thinks that slapping big celebrity voices into a project will somehow make things sell better. There was a time when Disney didn't use big names in their animation, today it's all about selling the celebrity along with the film itself. A lot of good voice actors have lost jobs for a name's sake.

Going on to another point. I think I should elaborate. I don't ignore the Japanese creator's intents and wishes when producing/directing a dub. In fact I have had conversations with several the creators & producers of the anime I've worked on, including Satoshi Kon, Yoshitoshi Abe, Hideyuki Kurata, Akio Matsuda and Kouta Hirano. I and my staff have used every opportunity to understand their original intentions and motivations behind the characters and story. And even when I don't have such conversations, my staff and I do everything in my power to research the series before going into a project by going over the original material. So can you honestly say that you know better than I do what the dub should sound like?

Am I going to change your mind? Absolutely not. But my point is, I'm not going tailor ourselves to your wants, because that would destroy what we work so hard to do, which is make a dub in English that is enjoyable to those who are open enough to want to listen to it.

So please continue to watch and enjoy anime in Japanese. I only hope that you continue to support the art form by legal and proper means.

JKNGP wrote:

Quote: Steroid wrote: The entire American anime industry should not, in my opinion, have an ounce of creativity in it. It should be only a conduit through which the Japanese creativity flows to the fan. So we should be robots? I honestly don't think you want there to be English dubs at all, not simply turn them to your liking. Because in my opinion your concept would be destroying them. Your words don't make much sense, because no actor would stand for being told they must be a conduit for the Japanese without putting even one ounce of their creative ability into the role.

Re-creating what was once made isn't much like being original, but I think it's still attractive to actors. And I'm not against all dubs, I just think they should take a different tack. Let me give you an example of a great dub. The Japanese version of Iron Chef that used to air on Food Network did nearly everything right, because when something came up that didn't translate directly from Japanese into English, they took the time to explain it, instead of altering it. Or if you want an anime example of what I'm talking about, go watch episode 5 of Azumanga Daioh, where Osaka and Sakaki are sitting on the beach, chatting about how kanji for sea life are counterintuitive. The same conversation is had in the dub, and if you don't know what kanji are or how they work, you're out of luck. (In this case, they pretty much had to dub literally, since the kanji in question were on the screen. My guess is that had the show aired on TV, they would have edited them out and translated to some English pun.) What I'm going for is that dubs shouldn't change Japanese elements because the audience might not get it, and they shouldn't change controversial elements because the audience might be offended, and they shouldn't change the nature of the characters because the production values don't allow them to be true. Make a good-faith effort and let it stand.