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Last edited by ingram_pilot on Fri May 09, 2008 5:14 pm; edited 2 times in total

Top Gun wrote:

There are plenty of series out there with mediocre or even downright atrocious dubs, but I've found that, in the vast majority of those cases, the original material was inane enough in its own right that a poor dubbing job doesn't really detract anything from it. There are those instances, though, when what's done to a dub utterly destroys the very real value a series has. Besides the aforementioned 4Piece and Cardcaptors treatments, I'm going to throw in a vote for Fantastic Children's dub, even though I've actually never heard it personally. I had the pleasure of watching the series subbed, and I found it to be utterly wonderful, but from what I understand, the dub was an utter garbage throwaway outsource to Odex.

Yeah, I also loved Fantastic Children, but the dub was a total trainwreck. Personally I'm a dub fan and I tend to be very forgiving of inferior dubs, more so than most dub fans; but even I have to admit that the Fantastic Children dub was horrible. It was the most unprofessional thing I've ever heard; and I've heard some doozies. But because the show was so engaging, I realized that if I didn't focus on the problems with the dub, I stopped noticing them almost completely. The same thing happened with Zipang; another Odex dub.

Alucalb wrote:

Wyvern wrote:

The Fox Kids Escaflowne dub is almost as bad as Cardcaptors, in that it tries to rewrite the story so a supporting male character is the hero. Van becomes the lead in this version, and any sort of romance between him and Hitomi is stripped out (nice trick when that's one of the major cruxes of the entire plot.)
....

Don't forget they replaced nearly all the music with their own generic score (cardinal sin if you ask me).

Apart from the opening and ending, none of the original music was removed. Check out the third paragraph from the bottom in this editorial article by Christopher Macdonald.
To quote the relevant part,

Christopher Macdonald wrote:

While there are a few more changes to be made Bandai has assured fans that no plotlines, no names, and none of the music within the episodes has been changed. In fact, Bandai stood up for Escaflowne on this last point, Fox wanted to change the music but Bandai refused.

skyesage wrote:

...However, I do like Haruhi Suzumiya, if only because Kyon is one of the funniest and driest characters I've ever seen in a series.

He's what we call a "plank". Rolling Eyes

Mohawk52 wrote:

He's what we call a "plank". Rolling Eyes

While I personally disagree, you are certainly allowed to think that Wink

.

skyesage wrote:

Mohawk52 wrote:

He's what we call a "plank". Rolling Eyes

While I personally disagree, you are certainly allowed to think that Wink

.

Isn't freedom great?

Last edited by belvadeer on Fri May 09, 2008 3:55 pm; edited 1 time in total

1. I saw the Ninja Turtles anime OAV. About the only thing awesome about it was Shredder turning into a huge dragon at some point (and actually making it look cool, unlike the stupid present day cartoon with its whole Lost Episodes garbage).

2. Detective stories just aren't as popular as they used to be. Back when I was in 4th grade, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys were very popular. Kids my age then couldn't get enough of young sleuths solving cases. Hell, even Scooby Doo was a smash for that reason. I guess Conan entered the running a little too late and most people didn't want to or couldn't stay up late to care. Most of us mystery-loving kids are adults now (though I still read Conan's manga to this day as it's the only Detective Conan related thing we still are allowed to have; bless your heart Gosho Aoyama). This also makes me think Detective School Q will never see the light of the day here (even though it's exceptionally good in its setup of cases).

3. I heard from a friend of mine in Japan, but our Powerpuff Girls cartoon is actually one of their most favorite shows there. As an homage, they made that PPGZ anime and they never forget who they have to thank for it (you can see Cartoon Network credited all the time in the ending themes).

Sheleigha wrote:

One of the more atrocious dubs that I don't think many people would realize is Digimon: The Movie. You know, it's fun to cram in a 20 minute movie + 40 minute one + a 3rd about 60 minutes long and making it around 1 hr 20-30 minutes total. Oh, and it's also REALLY fun when they decide to try and tie ALL 3 storylines together and make the 3rd one an absolute disaster. Although I agree that Hurricane Touchdown! The Golden Digimentals was a very... slow paced movie, was it REALLY worth changing the entire thing and chopping it up, ala Nausicaa first dub, and then adding in random scenes where the Digimon are 'dancing' to old pop music like Smashmouth's Allstar? Yeah, it's just wrong :/

...and the 3rd Digimon Movie gives me MY vote for 'worst dub'.
(And for someone who has been rewatching Digimon in Japanese, didn't realize HOW much of the dialogue, whether pointless or not, was dramatically changed :/)

To be honest, I've never seen any of the Digimon series or movies in Japanese (except for that X Evolution one, though only because it was never dubbed) and I have to say some of the Digimon sound really strange in Japanese. Have you heard Guilmon in Japanese? I know who his seiyuu was, but he didn't sound like a cute little reptile like when Blum voiced him, he sounded like an old woman.

Did "Johnny Quest" ever make it to Japan then?

You know, I never asked. I'll ask her and see. :3

belvadeer wrote:

You know, I never asked. I'll ask her and see. :3

Many girls named Johnny where you live then? Wink

Wyvern wrote:

The Fox Kids Escaflowne dub is almost as bad as Cardcaptors, in that it tries to rewrite the story so a supporting male character is the hero. Van becomes the lead in this version, and any sort of romance between him and Hitomi is stripped out (nice trick when that's one of the major cruxes of the entire plot.)

Oh, and the entire first episode is removed because it didn't have enough action. It later turned out that had the show not been cancelled after a few weeks, they would have removed and/or combined more episodes in order to cut out most of the plot in favor of more action sequences, bringing the total ep count to about 20.

I'm going to do something shocking here and actually disagree. I'm a huge die-hard Escaflowne fan who's seen all the versions too many times to count. The cut (not the DUB please, as the DVD contains the fully uncut dub and most of the actors are actually quite suited for their roles) does a lot of stupid things. It takes out very important scenes. It rearranges scenes. For anyone who was unfortunate enough to live in America at the time, only 9 episodes were shown and the first one was actually the 2nd episode of the real one. Those of us in Canada saw a version comprised of 23 episodes. But I'm going to cite two reasons why, despite owning the official DVD boxset and original VHS, I still cling to my YTV-taped episodes of Escaflowne. ***SPOILERS AHEAD****

1) The music. Yes, FOX threw in a bunch of their own music and rearranged Yoko Kanno's. No disrespect to the genius-God Yoko Kanno, but some of it actually works better in certain areas. When Van goes back to Earth to retrieve Hitomi, they played Epistle instead of Angel. Yes, a huge turnaround. But oddly enough, I much prefer Epistle. There's more... tension added, more wonder if he's actually going to make it. The second the angelic voices start ringing out in the original, you know he's going to. Another music example is the very last piece of the series. Story of Escaflowne was removed for something FOX-made, and it's utterly gorgeous. FOX introduced a little jingle that would occur in the bg of a few Van-Hitomi moments. It was subtle. In the end, as they say goodbye, a moment of nothing but a harp playing that jingle plays, before the music rises up powerfully and beautifully and it STILL makes me cry.

2) The ending itself. In the original we see Hitomi back on earth before she and Van bid farewell. In the cut, we go from the battlefield straight to Fanelia, and don't know she's gone home until we see her rise up and away. This was a brilliant move, even though I'm sure they did it just so the little kiddies wouldn't be confused by the play on time. Those who don't know what's going to happen are left guessing till the end and it makes her decision to go back that much harder to accept for the audience, which I think is thoroughly important.

Anyway I could go on forever in defense of the cut but I think I'll just get attacked. So I'll stop now and put up my shield. Razz

Mohawk52 wrote:

belvadeer wrote:

You know, I never asked. I'll ask her and see. :3

Many girls named Johnny where you live then? Wink

You goof

I meant I'll ask Yukino and see if they ever got JQ there Anime hyper

[Disclaimer: All opinions below are my own unless stated otherwise. I have written in a colloquial style which states opinions as facts, which may or may not be "accurate". The opinions stated are not necessarily shared by ANN, its staff, and its sponsers. You have been warned, assuming you bothered to read to read this at all, in which case you are considered not warned.]

Okay, there has been some very petty behaviour here, and even more misguided individuals.

Haruhi IS overrated, but not by much. Some episodes easily match the hype, but others fall short. However, the worst episode was as good as an average episode of most other series. I guess it was a show that catered to certain segments of fandom. Not everyone was going to like it, despite the solid technical and story-telling merits. And yet, without Kyon, it would have been a far poorer show. Have to slightly agree with Mohawk52 on this one. To conclude, I would rate Haruhi at around #30, not in the early teens, on the "best Anime" list.

Full Metal Alchemist was NOT overrated. I do not understand where that one came from. Now, the movie WAS, but that is a separate production (it is not considered part of the series - the ANN Encyclopedia lists them separately). FMA was a great show, that I unfortunately watched over many months (buying the individual releases has its downsides). But still, I could appreciate the way the series balenced an epic scope and the focus on the two brothers. It was - is - a great series. Though the movie let the franchise down, the series still stands as a great example of shonen story-telling. And by the way, comparisons with the Manga aren't very fair Just saying.

Evangelion is NOT overrated - as long as you refrain from saying that it is the best Anime ever made. It is the most influential, and perhaps the most well-known. But not the best. That said, it eats other series for breakfast, so to speak. The first two-thirds are incredibly well made, as long as you can stand Anno's style. It is my belief (and others have expressed this as well) that EVA-bashing has become popular, for no other reason than it is "cool". I have little doubt that those who attack its popularity do not appreciate what EVA did for Anime, and how awesome it was back then.

What do I think is the most overrated Anime? Without a doubt, Naruto. If given the unenviable choice of watching Pokemon or Naruto for twelve hours straight, I would watch Pokemon. Not only is Naruto overrated, it isn't in the same league as Bleach or Dragonball Z. It isn't as good as Pokemon. Whether we are talking about the dub or sub, the episodes with Gaara were mediocre at best. And those episodes were supposedly the best in the series. In other words, it ain't just hyped, it belongs in the trash.

skyesage wrote:

Prince of Tennis. I know it isn't super popular here but it is in Japan and besides the epic shonen ai potential (with junior high kids, no less), I can't see why anyone would enjoy it.

Haha yeah. i was rather taken with PoT for 2 years, and for me it was awesome, and I did watch it not just for the pretty boys. The matches were fun, and the fillers were also pretty hilarious. Also, when I got into it the fandom was producing some pretty decent fiction, even though that might seem ridiulous for a show such as that. I stopped watching when things got so over the top that it was ridiculous. It had really gotten out of hand @,@

Mohawk52 wrote:

What? no one's mentioned The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya for most over rated? Well I'll be the first then. Blatant moe pandering and nothing else. (stands behind ramparts with fire hose charged at the ready.) Wink

Finally! Someone whom I agree with on Haruhi Suzamiya. A friend loaned me the first disk and told me I'd love it. Frankly I'm afraid I failed to see what the big fuss was about.

While the GitS movie dub wasn't really good, it was tolerable. Richard Epcar did a good job as Batou. The Japanese version is still better though.

Last edited by Mad_Scientist on Fri May 09, 2008 4:29 pm; edited 1 time in total

Most overated anime series? Actually, as there aren't too many anime series I've seen that I really disliked, and those that I have disliked usually aren't that highly praised in the first place. (I've yet to see a single positive thing about Virus Buster Serge... can't believe Sci-Fi took off Street Fighter II V, which could at least be mildy entertaining at times, and put on VBS.)

But one popular series that I simply didn't enjoy much at all was FLCL, though I think part of that may be because I hadn't seen enough other anime series at the time I watched it. It seemed to make a lot of references and parodies that just went right over my head. On the other hand, the parts I DID understand showed me that it wasn't the type of series I'd enjoy, as it really wasn't my type of humor. But some part of me can at least vaguely understand why some people like it.

I hope some time the question is "What is the one of the most underated manga series?", though, as I have plenty to say regarding that.

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