DISCALIMER:
The process one goes through to cover their own ***.
This
is opinion, not fact. If you the reader take offense to the following
text in any fashion, and express that through a comment, you will be
ignored and/or laughed at. The reason for this is because you care
enough about the topic at hand to engage in some sort of debate over
whom is “right,” which destroys the very concept of opinion.
It
shows that you care enough about something to argue about it with me,
the writer (whom in this case is “right” ), which by your definition of
what is “right,” gives you full reign to ignore and/or laugh at me
along with the entitlement to write something of your own.
I
don't want to argue with you. Going back and forth over who is "right"
in a debate on personal preference is an exercise in fulility.
So play nice. Who knows, maybe you’ll see the topic at hand in a whole new way when this is over.
- Knife’s Thoughts on English Dubbing -
For
the lazy bastards out there who don’t have the time to learn another
language or can’t be bothered to read, English voice actors for
Japanese cartoons is essential. They also provide much needed material
for *****ing, I’m sorry, discussion over online message boards by nerds
and geeks who want to flaunt their knowledge of the show.
Coming
back to the topic at hand, Dubbing… For my example, I’ll be using One
Piece, a special case due to its transition from 4Kids Entertainment to
Funimation, 2 prominent English dubbing companies for Japanese
cartoons. I’ve seen enough material from both versions of the dubs to
share my opinion on several levels.
First, lets talk about
censorship. There’s no denying that the 4Kids dub of the show received
some really deep edits, from the violence, the cussing, the suggestive
themes, the original score, even going as far to change Sanji’s
cigarette into a fracken lollypop. I’m with my peeps in saying that
these changes take away a lot from the show and it sucked that it was
cut. Making a show not intended for little kids (at least naïve, chubby
American kids) for little kids just doesn’t flow very well.
On that note, I pose this hypothetical to you all, what if they kept all that stuff in?
Let
that sink in for a second… Now, would the choice of voice actors really
be that bad if they did the show the way it was intended to be? Again,
coming back to the purpose of having an English voice cast, they’re
there to make it so you can watch the show w/o having to read the
dialogue (if you’re like me, I prefer listening to my television, but
that’s a preference, and despite how right I am, I’m not going to delve
into that… yet). Wouldn’t it be grand if the show was left untouched
and had the convenience of being in your native tongue? What am I
saying, of course it wouldn’t, because the actors don’t sound identical
to the original voice cast, which brings me to my next point.
A
lot of people I know who watch anime tend to judge an English voice
actor’s success by how closely they sound to the original Japanese cast
member. Personally, I think that’s the dumbest s*** I’ve ever heard in
my life. Not only is it stupid considering the fact that there’s no way
in * you’re going to find someone who happens to sound exactly the
same as some person living in a different country speaking a different
language (people have gotten close, but its never been perfected), but
it’s also stupid in the fundamental sense that they expect that when
these people are cast.
It doesn't take much to notice that
things are different between us here in the West and our bosom buddies
in the East. One of those things is how we identify someone’s
character; it can be their voice, their choice of clothing, and $hit
like that. For my example from One Piece, I’m choosing Sanji.
Sanji
is kind of a d***. He’s that kind of quick tempered, sarcastic, over
confident, womanizing d*** that makes him the pinnacle stereotype of
what I call the “Boston Creep.” Keep in mind; this is what I gathered
by reading the manga, not tainted by hearing his original Japanese
voice (I heard it for the first time after hearing both English dubs).
When
his first episode of the 4Kids dub was broadcast, I thought they hit
the nail on the head; not just because they had the same vision of his
voice that I had, but also because his voice had personality, it had
character. Then, when Funimation takes over, it’s completely different;
more than likely changed to as closely impersonate the Japanese voice
as possible (the only voice change that didn’t bother me much was Zoro,
I could see him going either way, but again, the 4Kids voice had
personality). Fundamentally, he fulfils the need of an actor, but he
lost the character that distinguished him from other characters in the
show; it’s plain, it’s average and as far as I’m concerned it’s a
downgrade.
I don’t understand this fixation on having voices
sound like their originals, outside of appeasing the fans that bother
to torrent the original subbed Japanese episodes. I suppose one could
argue that because the show is Japanese in origin; that the chosen
voice embodies that character’s personality based on the creator’s
specifications.
But here’s the thing, and this is coming from
a guy who actually preferred the subbed episodes, after listening to so
many Japanese people from television, movies and cartoons, I can say
that the Japanese… Have no personality. They all sound the fracken
same. They have a mid-tone, high-tone and low-tone, ranging from young
to old, in possibly 2 dialects, genders and are either nice or a total
d***… That’s it. Maybe it’s because I’m American and I don’t speak
Japanese, but that’s the way it sounds to me (And I’m sure it’s the
same way over in Japan, we all just sound like white people).
Even
when it came to Luffy’s voice, I thought Bella Hudson (the 4Kids actor)
portrayed Luffy’s fun loving, energetic and rather childish personality
really well, while not being obnoxious and annoying. Now, when I listen
to whom they chose for the Funimation dub, my ears bleed, and the same
goes for Chopper. Chopper sounded cute in the 4Kids dub, now he just
screams all the time and is an annoying little s***. When Lisa Ortiz
screamed as Chopper, it was tolerable, when whoever they replaced her
with screams, like Luffy’s voice, my ears bleed. The only people I
didn’t mind so much was Nami, Robin and Ussop; that’s because they
sounded a lot like the original 4Kids cast to me.
Moving on from
personality, there’s the argument made of the actor’s ability to convey
emotion has a say in how good of a job they do. That’s good, I like it
when people who are meant to act do a good job, but here’s the thing
with the dubs of Japanese cartoons. I have watched a lot of
dubbed anime and I’ve only heard 3; yes only 3 voice actors that can
convincingly convey the emotion of the character they’re paid to voice
in any mainstream Anime (and those people are Vic Mignogna, Mark Gatha
and Yuri Lowenthal, those guys are the s***).
To me, it’s all
about the convenience of being able to listen to a show rather than
read it, if the actors happen do a good job at it, that’s gravy. I’ve
come to expect that they’re just going to read off lines in time to lip
flaps on a monitor and put it on TV/DVD, but the thing that usually
saves those characters for me is that aforementioned personality they
project on to the character. To take an example from Naruto, the dude
they hired to do Choji’s voice did a kick *** job; he got that fat kid
with a heart of gold thing down (something I can relate to personally,
being a fat kid with a heart of gold and all). It’s just not about
making them sound similar to the original voice it’s about making a
character appeal to the audience here in America.
I remember
one particular instance when I was a T.A. for my Japanese teacher for
his 8th grade Japanese I class. They were watching a DVD of Poke’mon in
Japanese, and all they would comment on is how everyone sounded like a
girl; one kid even said, “If anime is always like this in Japanese,
I’ll take French instead.”
Things are different here and different things are going to work for us here, that’s just how simple it is.
That’s
what the original 4Kids dubbing of One Piece did for me, it appealed to
me as a young man who grew up and lives in the God Blessed United
States of America.
It’s a shame we don’t make good cartoons over
here anymore, if only the Looney Toons were as good as they were back
in the day, I probably wouldn’t even think twice about watching
something from Japan; I’d be too busy watching my kick ***, well
animated, more funny than any anime, American made cartoons.
…
God… The world needs another Mel Blanc. I think that's something we can all agree on.
