Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Spehss _]

What? Billy Bob Thornton, John DiMaggio, and Keith David.. Are meh??!

Die. :I

Who, what, and when? 

Only guy I recognized in that list was DiMaggio honestly. sorry I don't track voice actors or whatever. I'm going by their performance in this movie, not their history or legacy. It's been a while since I've watched a dubbed animu, anyway. The voice acting is just... I dunno. The start seemed eh, but it's gotten better as it goes on. It's good. Nice being able to just listen and understand without reading subs though.

Also, I can't deal with the mother wolf being a bass-y guy in the Japanese version. I really, honestly can't. It weirds me out.

Now I want to hear that. Can't find any clips in a google search for "princess mononoke japanese wolf mother".

[Parsely]

What? Billy Bob Thornton, John DiMaggio, and Keith David.. Are meh??!

Die. :I

Who, what, and when? 

Only guy I recognized in that list was DiMaggio honestly. sorry I don't track voice actors or whatever. I'm going by their performance in this movie, not their history or legacy. It's been a while since I've watched a dubbed animu, anyway. The voice acting is just... I dunno. The start seemed eh, but it's gotten better as it goes on. It's good. Nice being able to just listen and understand without reading subs though.

Keith David (in Mononoke he was the narrator, also the great white boar) is one of the most well-known, prolific and recognizable VAs ever. He's in everything, not to mention he's actually been in a number of Hollywood movies. And Billy Bob Thornton is just straight up a kick-ass, academy award winning actor (he was the hunter-monk in Mononoke).

Spoiler: Billy Bob Thornton (click to show/hide)

Notable Works (Hollywood)
Tombstone
Sling Blade
Armageddon
Pushing Tin
Bandits
Bad Santa
Friday Night Lights
Eagle Eye

Spoiler: Keith David (click to show/hide)

Notable Works (Hollywood)
The Thing (only one of the best horror movies of all time)
Platoon
They Live
Dead Presidents
Vanishing Point
Volcano
Armageddon
Pitch Black AND Chronicles of Riddick

(Video Games)
Fallout 1
Halo 2, Halo 3 (he's the Arbiter for fuck's sake)
Modern Warfare 2
Mass Effect 2
Saints Row 1, 2, 4

---
I excuse you for not knowing Thornton, since he doesn't like taking blockbuster roles, but Keith David? That's right out. Mononoke most certainly has a stellar dub. If that's not a kick-ass dub, one that's done by actors with a resume and a list of appearances longer than my arm.. Then I don't know what is. Next I suppose you'll be saying Liam Neeson's VA in Ponyo was subpar. :v

[Reelya]

Bad Santa defined our generation.

[Parsely]

Bad Santa defined our generation.

It's notable in the sense that everyone's heard of it (even you have, evidenced by your comment). It sure as heck means Billy Bob Thornton is one of the most well known American actors out there. I'm not too keen on most of his character acting but I'm definitely a huge fan of Keith David, even though he's got zero range. He's no Steve Blum.

[Flying Dice]

Bad Santa defined our generation.

It's notable in the sense that everyone's heard of it (even you have, evidenced by your comment). It sure as heck means Billy Bob Thornton is one of the most well known American actors out there. I'm not too keen on most of his character acting but I'm definitely a huge fan of Keith David, even though he's got zero range. He's no Steve Blum.

Of course, the actor of our generation is the Cage.

His greatest movie bar none? Face/Off (They take their faces... off.)

[Sinistar]

I remember watching Princes Mononoke for the first time and it was with English dub.

I though it was ok. Didn't strike me as really memorable, but it was good, yeah.

But when I later watched the Japanese version, I thought it was just...better.

I'm still not sure if I prefer anime to have Japanese dub over English one due to part of my brain being programed to think Japanese is just "right" for that kind of animation, or is it some strange combination of me not being native English speaker and Japanese just sounding more, dunno, pleasant to my ear because reasons?

Then again I haven't seen much non-Japanese-dubbed anime so there's that.

[Reelya]

Yeah I'm not American and I can definitely find American accents for non-American characters breaks immersion, definitely much more than Americans would, who would see that accent as neutral. I occasionally wonder what it would be like if English companies adapted more anime. It would definitely feel more natural to me for anime set in European-type settings.

[Neonivek]

I'm still not sure if I prefer anime to have Japanese dub over English one due to part of my brain being programed to think Japanese is just "right" for that kind of animation, or is it some strange combination of me not being native English speaker and Japanese just sounding more, dunno, pleasant to my ear because reasons?

I have long since admitted to myself that the only reason I can immediately tolerate any Japanese Voice acting is PURELY because I am not Japanese and I cannot tell how good or poor their voice acting is. Thus all that is left is the interpretation of their words and their general tone. Not that I haven't had Japanese voice actors I couldn't stand.

But I am not against Dubbing I am actually rather tolerant of it... The problem is that once you step outside the immediately popular animes into the peripheral animes your chances of having a half-decent dub drops drastically... and if you are staying IN those dubs you know you are far behind, and popular dubs are NOT beyond skipping episodes just to catch up... Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh...

As well western voice acting has a tendency to be rather... Hollywood and artificial. Just watch any side by side comparison of a death scene in different animes. While of COURSE they are going to yell "NoOoOOOoooo" just see which ones even attempt to sound convincing and which ones are trying to do a Hollywood NOOOOO! yell. To admit the Japanese version USUALLY does what I call the "Death Shriek". This only comes into play with emotionally charged animes, which is rare.

Then again I was spoiled because I grown up on only the animes with genuinely GOOD voice acting and only odd localization practices (rather then outright botched ones). I will still defend that the Neflight and Molly Scene in Sailormoon was excellently done, Even the silly "Chocolate Parfait" Line which I don't know why people harp on, it is SUPPOSED to be silly, it is meant to juxtapose the scene.

All in all... Give me a up to date anime with a decent dubbing and I'll watch that. Otherwise I'll just stick to a Sub and pretend what I am watching is excellently acted... Even if I am somewhat aware that anime in general is "overacted".

[Sinistar]

My post in it's original form in fact also included things like how Princes Mononoke's English dub seemed professional but lacked emotions and speculations how at the same time it might prefer Japanese right because I can't tell how good it actually is and I just rely on tone of the voice compared to general setting/facial expression/body language to gauge the quality of a dub... But in the end I scraped that part of my post, thinking I'm overcomplicating.

And there you have Neonivek who puts it exactly how I feel about it, exactly how I would like to put it only he does it better.

Dammit Neonivek.

[BFEL]

Dammit Neonivek.

HOW DARE YOU HAVE THE WORDS TO EXPRESS OUR EMOTIONS! STOP STEALING OUR WORDS DAMMIT!

Now imagining Neonivek as a animu villain who literally steals peoples words to become a famous charismatic speaker/leader.

[Sinistar]

I'd be ok with that plot.

Who should voice him though?

And what hero archetype should we pick to oppose him? The cliche and overused looser-turned-the-chosen-one? Or maybe something more super-sayan like? That could be cool.
Oh oh! Maybe we go down the Super Sentai/Kamen Raider route? Neo's background sounds just about right for him to be an overlord of some super-secret organization bent on world destruction!

Or we could turn this into some sort of weird supernatural-meets-Detective-Konan slashfic where Neonivek goes as a charismatic leader during the day and tentacular Eldritch monstrosity during the night all the while trying to outwit the increasingly less-sane noir-like detective hero?




Also, I think we should include dwarfs. And booze. And magma. Anime this days is seriously lacking in magma.

[Darvi]

There's actually a German novel with that plot.

Except instead of words, it's laughter. And instead of Neo, it's the Devil, but that barely counts as a difference.

[Chaoswizkid]

Also, I can't deal with the mother wolf being a bass-y guy in the Japanese version. I really, honestly can't. It weirds me out.

Now I want to hear that. Can't find any clips in a google search for "princess mononoke japanese wolf mother".

Here, this starts at a clip featuring her in the original PM trailer.

Her voice in the English version isn't necessarily better, but at least she's a she, and there's an undertone of bassy-whisper under the English voice actress's voice that sells it as the appropriate voice (between the two) for me. Of course, she's not the tipping point for my favoring the dub over the original, but a lot of cringing is saved.

[Spehss _]

Here, this starts at a clip featuring her in the original PM trailer.

Her voice in the English version isn't necessarily better, but at least she's a she, and there's an undertone of bassy-whisper under the English voice actress's voice that sells it as the appropriate voice (between the two) for me. Of course, she's not the tipping point for my favoring the dub over the original, but a lot of cringing is saved.

Hmmm. Yeah, the English dub is much more fitting in comparison. I was imagining waaayyy more bass in the Japanese voice. disappointing really.

thanks for the link to that.

[Neonivek]

There's actually a German novel with that plot.

Except instead of words, it's laughter. And instead of Neo, it's the Devil, but that barely counts as a difference.

OWWW