Forum - View topicREVIEW: Urusei Yatsura: Only You DVD
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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Mr. Divers gave the dub a "B, Falls flat" rating but AnimEigo must have thought better to want to continue dubbing the rest. Also I always thought it was their dubbing of BGCrisis that they took a slagging for. But not knowing the difference, because I have never seen the sub of BGC, I wasn't that bothered really. Same for Ah! My Goddess. I thought AnimEigo did a great job with the OVA.
Back to UY and I have this movie on DVD already, though it's the earlier subbed only disk. I never did like the Japanese voice for Ataru. It sound much too forced for me. I will purchase the dubbed disk when it reaches this side of the world and if it's as good as others save Mr. Divers, say it is I will look forward to seeing the series dubbed as well. I will add that the BBC had dubbed the first episode of the TV series when they were doing a Japanese culture theme night back in 2000, or 2001. They used British VA's naturally, and when I saw it, I was in tears with laughter where the sub only made me just smile at the words. There was a major clamour for the Beeb to do more but they said they only had permission to do that one. |
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Allen
Company Representative
 Posts: 281 Location: Not there |
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The "B" is actually a passable grade, meaning slightly above average, but not stellar. My opinion is based on my experience with other dubs and my own preference for the voices of UY. As for Animeigo, yes, they thought better of it as the DVD for Only You sold better than they had hoped for. Inclusion of a dub on any release makes it more marketable. That's a simple fact. As for their bad dub reputation, things like the early episodes of UY and BGC give them that rep. They have since done a lot of great work with Oh, My Goddess and You're Under Arrest.
I don't remember saying this was a bad dub. My score and my opinion reflect that this was a decent dub. It could have been better, and it could have been much worse. As for your experience with the british dub, when it comes to languages, humor works best in your native tongue. It's more difficult for written humor to have the same impact as spoken humor and when reading subtitles, its quite a task to watch both the action and the words streaming across the bottom of the screen. A joke is often lost because you were so busy reading, you didn't see the characters performing the punch line. Personally, I would love to see the entire UY series dubbed. My only real beef with that is that it will add yet another delay to getting more UY out. The box set of movies and ovas has been effectively canceled while AnimEigo dubs those. While they will release one at a time as they are finished, its still a delay. AnimEigo is more of a boutique company. They have a very limited amount of resources they can put into a project and ever time they get an idea like this, it effectively puts any project on hold. UY was originally released on VHS. I believe they managed to get up to around vol 25 before they decided to switch production over to laser disc. With LD, they started at the beginning, cranking out volume after volume until they got near where they stopped with the VHS releases. Then along comes DVD. So, what happens? They start over again. They've finally reached a point where they are working beyond what they previously released and then realize that a dub might just be feasible. Unfortunately this means they will probably want to start from the beginning again. From a business standpoint, a DVD release that is a bilingual release is much more marketable. You get the hardcore fans and the more casual viewer. That all equals more money. So from that point, its obvious what the easy choice is... but what about the loyal fanbase that's been buying the product all along. Do you alienate them by giving them yet another product to buy with only one major difference, or do you keep them happy by cranking out new stuff along with the older stuff? And with AnimEigo's size, they probably can't put the resources into the second one. |
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Samurai CDZ
 Posts: 776 Location: Manhattan, KS |
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They better not 'cause it isn't that feasible. A dub won't pull in that many new people, the series is just too old. If they have to add a dub track they should start with box 7 (episode 121, I believe) and go back and redo all the previous ones later. As for the dub on Only You...I tried. I really did but when Mendou started talking I was like "TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF! AHHHH!" It's not bad, but I couldn't stand it, I'm too used to the Japanese voices. Kudos to Allen for watching it through. |
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mahoro
 Posts: 307 |
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I too tried to objectively give the UY movie #3 Only You, a chance as a English dub. I am sorry but it was horrible to suffer through. I watched the entire movie dubbed and then rewatched it at a later date with the original JP language and flipped back and forth to compare the characters. Mind you I have seen the original JP version years before this over 20 times. IMO Mendou was horribly dubbed in English and so was Lum. Ataru was fair but the English dub could not capture what his character is FAMOUS for, his screaming and perverted giggling whenever Ataru thinks of his harem, harem...!
Also read this post I made about Mendou's famous VA Akira Kamiya, MANY people love his work on UY, City Hunter, Dangaio, Fist of North Star, Maison Ikkoku, just to name a few series he has done! animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=38076&highlight=#38076 Kamiya didn't get to be one of the most respected men in the VA business by having weak vocal talents and the same can be said about Toshio Furukawa! Kurukawa embodied the soul of Ataru Moroboshi for years. You may recognize his voice as Asuma Shinnohara from Patlabor, Piccolo from Dragonball Z, Leon McNichol of Bubblegum Crisis, Sakamoto from Maison Ikkoku and many others. Rewatch the JP dialogue version and listen intently you will notice a huge difference with the superior VA work done. 
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Mohawk52
Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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Just because an anime, or manga is old doesn't mean it won't have any new fans. Time and tide wait for no one and new anime fans are born everyday. I had this discussion with AnimEigo back in 2000 and their opinion was "sub only is what the majority want most" I argued that they were overlooking the customers who don't like, or can't read and watch, subs which had to be greater than the "just subs" base. But they wouldn't have it. I will add that at the time I was unaware, and naturally they didn't mention, that they had tried dubbing UY and that it was that bad. I did tell them that until they decided to dub UY I wouldn't purchase it. I did eventually buy the "Only You" sub when the DVD was on sale for only £1.99GBP, but when I then discovered that it was to be dubbed shortly thereafter, I tried to cancel the order. But my supplier begged me to help him out to clear his stock that apparently wasn't moving anymore. He's a nice chap and has gone the extra mile to get other series for me in the past so I backed down and kept the purchase.
Back to the review. I wasn't criticising your rating. I only quoted the mark you gave. As a reviewer, you are in the unique situation to have had so many titles to see, to have a reasonable experience to say, which is, as it should if one is to be a good reviewer. However, having said that I wouldn't assume that there are many anime fans who can boost the same and are therefore not going to necessarily know the difference if a dub is worst than the sub, unless it's really horrendous; e.g. “Strange Dawn” thereby satisfied with it. AnimEigo have discovered that good dubbing is directly proportional to good sales. I hope they do not forget this lesson or they will have to learn it all over again. |
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