Forum - View topicThe issue of accents in anime.
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abunai
Old Regular
 Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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Well, yes and no. You see, that's why there is a standard Japanese (chiefly based on Kantou dialect, btw). Like any standard language of a nation-state (think Castilian Spanish in Spain, for instance, or Rigsdansk in Denmark), it is a dominant form that is taught in the school system to all children. Thus, even though you might speak dialect in your own region, you would still be capable of speaking the standard language. So you can get along just fine in Japan with standard Japanese -- but locals would still chatter incomprehensibly among themselves, leaving you outside the loop. Some regional-dialect speakers, of course, will have trouble with the national language. I saw an interview once with Sonoda Isamu, the Olympic gold medalist judoka. He's from Fukuoka, and his accent when speaking standard Japanese is so impenetrable that Japanese TV added subtitles. The same is true of Natsukawa Rimi, the famous Okinawan singer -- but in her case, it is because she actually sings in Okinawa-ben, instead of standard Japanese. - abunai |
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6535 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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I've just been reading Andrew Osmond's Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist where he point out in Perfect Blue the main character, Mima, normally speaks with a mainstream Japanese dialect but reverts to her regional dialect when she speaks with her mother on the telephone. Something I would never have realised otherwise.
Regarding American accents - as an Australian I sometimes find it bizarre. I'm sure Americans would find it odd if all anime was dubbed with an Australian accent. |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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I personally do not like accents in anime dubs. Now, I think Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi was able to somehow pull it off due to two reasons: they only made two characters like that and second, it added to their personality quirk for me.
But for examples of where accents didn't work for me: Master Keaton. They only ever gave one-shot side characters accents, but dammit, they sounded so awkward trying to both read the lines well and pull off the accent that it felt half-baked in the end. It didn't ruin the show full stop for me as the non-accented voices were still good, but I didn't appreciate how awkwardly forced the lines sounded. Now, had they been read by a non-North American who really did speak another language as their first, that might've been pretty cool, but I highly doubt they did. Baccano!. Now, these were American accents and not foreign country accents, but I'll be damned, the accents here ruined the dub for me (and about 2% of other people it would seem because 98% of people adore this dub). We all know the voices were done by Texans, but that wasn't quite it for me either. The Japanese, at least to my ears, didn't sound very accented, and while I might be perfectly wrong on that, I couldn't tell and thus it didn't distract me. But the dub accents of all things, in part because almost every character had one, really distracted me from enjoying the story. It really didn't make the characters look any cooler to me either, they were perfectly awesome in non-accented Japanese to me. So, I prefer accents be kept to a minimum and if an accent won't add to the character, it shouldn't be there. I don't want strange accents distracting me from the story, it's the same as putting gaudy CGI in your anime to me, but it's awkward on the ears instead of the eyes. |
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7986 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Shakka, when the walls fell. 
Any rate, I don't mind accents in dubs. In fact I kind of like it as it helps add a further measure of believability, especially when the character(s) are not Japanese or English. I like how Le Chevalier D'Eon had characters that were French, actually use French accents or adequate approximations, and pronunciations. I also enjoyed Baccano! and that the dub actually sounded like the actors were from the 20's and even used old slang. Of course this is assuming that it's a good "reasonable sounding" accent and doesn't sound too forced like Tina from Ai Yori Aoshi for instance. Last edited by Kruszer on Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:22 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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ailblentyn
 Posts: 1688 Location: body in Ohio, heart in Sydney |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15505 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Well I understand that accents generally in a real life situation that the person has a past to some different place. In some anime (often in dubs) they want to decide to give characters accents to seperate them, example being Osaka in Azumanga Daioh who's accent has been discussed already is seperated.
Another interesting choice might be the Hellsing dub, especially the OVAs give us a large array of accents, as positioning them to different countries and societies. Yet Alucard was accentless to kind of seperate him alone. I also recently watched some of the dub of Negima!? and was hapily suprised at the inclussion of accents. Also I might say that me being an Aussie, I find most dubs with accents anyway and it can be just as strange to have all appearing American. |
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abunai
Old Regular
Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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You callin' me a failure, son? "Zinda, his face black, his eyes red".
I take it you refer to the US dub, which I haven't heard. Anyway, this sort of makes sense, since not everyone in the story was French -- a significant arc takes place at the Russian court (where the language spoken, historically, would have been German, though the court would have been equally capable of French, it being the diplomatic lingua franca of the era).
In the Japanese original version, there is nothing forced-sounding about Tina's voice. She speaks fluent Japanese, after all, with a regional (Hakata) dialect. The seiyuu who did the voice for Tina, Yukino Satsuki, is not from that region, but took lessons from one of the other seiyuu, Inokuchi Yuka (voice of Uzume the ferret), who is. - abunai |
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Kruszer
Posts: 7986 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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But in the dub, Tina has a forced English Southern accent.
Yes, they also do something similar for the Russian characters, I think, but it's been a while so I could be wrong.
*shakes head* Abunai and Kruszer, on the ocean. |
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ZakuAce
 Posts: 525 Location: SE Wisconsin |
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I love it when accents are put into a dub. As a complete dork who loves trying to imitate accents every chance he gets, hearing them in any sort of programming gives me a chance to try a new one out
It adds a fair amount of enjoyment to the viewing experience. For example, after hearing the Baccano! English dub, I doubt I could ever enjoy the Japanese dub...but maybe that's because the New York style accent is my favorite one to imitate
Aww, no Star Trek lines left for me 
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retty
 Posts: 118 Location: Cheshire, UK |
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I think the same applies to anime dubs as English language movies set in other countries, if all teh dialogue is in English what's the point of having them do an accent, it would sound silly and be very distracting. I would hate to sit through an English dub where all the voice actors are doing Japanese accents, that would be painful.
However when there are one or more characters that are not from the same place as the majority of the characters I think it's fair to give them an accent to help show that they are foreign or whatever, but I don't particularly mind if they don't have one. For example, the English Full Metal Panic dub, it's never bothered me that the Mithril lot all sound alike and sound the same as the Japanese characters. The Negima dub was just terrible...why do an accent at all if it's not right. |
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Ta-kun The Black Kitty
 Posts: 132 Location: Where the truth isn't hated. |
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I, for one, think that accents aren't necessary. Truth be told, what matters in a dub is clarity. To be able to understand what the VAs are saying. If they can pull off a decent accent, good for them, but for those who watch dubs and English is not their 1st language (yes, there is a world out there, North Americans), it comes as an obstacle to understand what they say.
In Spanish, though, some accents are somewhat more recognizeable and some VAs actually make use of them, such as in Pokémon, where the voice for James makes heavy use of accents, especially his more natural Mexican accent. It may be fun on occasion, but it's turned mostly obnoxious. All in all, less is more. |
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Dark Paladin X
 Posts: 268 |
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Okay, this is how I am going to summarize about the issue of accents in both Japanese and English soundtrack judging by the comments in this thread.
I'm guessing that the reason why the VA and seiyuus don't bother with accents is mainly because it would sound awkward for someone speaking in a foreign accent that is not related to your tongue (i.e. someone speaking English with a Russian accent). Another reason is because the audience assumes that the characters speak in the language relating to the setting (i.e. El Cazador de la Bruja where it takes place in Mexico and South America). It is just the characters speak in the viewer's tongue without any accents so that the viewers can connect with the characters more and understand what they are saying. However, Axis Powers Hetalia, is a different situation. First of all, the characters are moe anthropomorphism of countries. Second, there isn't really much of a definite setting like Monster or El Cazador de la Bruja. Finally, stereotyping is part of the main humor in Hetalia, and I think it would make the series more humorous if the characters are given accents that represents the country (or offensive, but that is the point of stereotyping humor). If this is the case of having characters with accents, then Yuri Lowenthal as Japan would be out of the question (who I personally think to be the best option for this character despite being legally impossible in some areas). Mainly because Yuri Lowenthal doesn't really bother with accents with the exception of Prince from the Prince of Persia game. Unless, if the ADR Director play around this have him speak a few Japanese lines with translated subtitles in the English dub (which Yuri is quite fluent in Japanese), then it would make Hetalia an interesting series. Then again, accents are really hard to accurately pull off. Particularly when speaking a non-English or non-Japanese accent in your own language. |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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If Hetalia is all about stereotypes then I don't think accuracy is all that important.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Allo_Allo and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_Your_Language for comedy steeped in cultural stereotypes and campy accents. |
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Showsni
 Posts: 641 |
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Um, no. Not really. And you'd expect Negi to have more of a Welsh accent, really, having lived there since he was pretty young; shame they didn't at least attempt a generic Welsh accent. It's probably easier to do in fact. (Though you do risk dropping into an Indian accent!) As for the Osaka = deep south, I quite like it. Now, me not being American it may sound as wrong to you as Negi does to me, but I liked the flavour it gave Abenobashi. Since dubbed anime are all basically in foreign accents for me anyway it doesn't really make much difference! (The amount of American accents in dubs is unsurprisngly large...) |
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