Quote:I almost said that, but reconsidered- the dub, as several people have pointed out, is far from being *that* bad. For the time, it was good. Now, though, it's a lot harder to deal with.
thoguh I would hope that the d9fference is more like a well written fic to the troll-spew that started the thread...
My evaluation of the dub's quality comes from the fact that I first got into anime about three years ago. I like to say that the quality of most dubs are inversely (pun unintended) proportional to their age: as a relatively recent otaku, I've come to expect quality along the lines of modern anime. By that standard, Slayers fails horribly (I can barely stand it for any length of time). InuYasha and BGC are the only two other dubs which I've had this much of an issue with.
Don't get me wrong- there are quite a few anime that I prefer dubbed- for instance, as far as I'm concerned, The Big O was never done in Japanese. I watched the first episode (my first time with the anime, as a matter of fact) subbed: it was decent, but not impressive. Dubbed, though, it's one of my very favorites. I enjoyed the dubbed episodes of FMA that I've seen far more than my subs (so much so, that, shortly after my dubbed collection stopped, I quit watching). Chobits is good in English, and I hear Excel Saga is much improved.
This one got on my nerves: not because of any technical fault, or a problem with the way the dub was done, but because of the voices they chose for some characters. Lina is a girl in her early teens at the beginning of the series, and, somehow, Hayashibara Megumi (long may she live) managed to get that spot-on, while developing Lina's voice so that, by late NEXT (or early TRY), she sounds more like a confident, sarcastic, emotional young woman. Ms. Ortiz doesn't do that, and her voice has a grating tone to it which, I feel, doesn't match the character until *maybe* the end- if ever. Xellos, also, got shafted: he sounds like a stereotype of a whiny nerd, when he's supposed to sound like some fairly normal (physically) guy who just happens to be either a fruitcake or, rarely, mysteriously evil. They aren't all bad- Gourry, especially, got a pretty good voice. Lina, though, speaks more than roughly any three other characters put together, and the first thing that any dub has to do for me is give the biggest characters the best voices.
Xellos is just my favorite character, so I had to whine about him.
Sorry for the rant, but the issue of dubs vs. subs is highly emotional. My earlier comment, which I felt to be relatively acceptable, sparked enough disagreement that I thought it best to clarify my views in a way that would avoid giving more offense than absolutely necessary. I don't want to irritate anybody, nor do I want to see any long, unproductive arguments (as these sorts ofconversations tend to become), so I wanted to make my position as clear and reasonable as possible.
Thank you for reading so much of my opinion, and not (hopefully) hating me for the content and/or quantity of it.Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines...
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.