Howdiddly hey! I have a friend who is quite the anime fan, and is very interested in purchasing this DVD. However, she is bothered by the fact that it may be "dubbed" with no option of having the original Japanese with English "subs." Anybody who could clarify what the DVD offers in terms of language options will be thanked by yours truly!
shareHi! First you can ask your friend what the deal is with anime fans insisting on the original dialogue with English subs. I never understood that.
I'm not sure if there are different editions of the DVD floating around out there, but the one I just looked up on Amazon has Japanese and English language, with English subtitles available.
Ah, thanks very much! I think that it has something to do with phrases being changed to make the lips match the words a bit better, but that's just my theory. I'll ask her when I talk to her next!
shareWell, it's usually because the English voice actors aren't exactly the best (there are some exceptions of course-the remastered Akira for one), and it's harder to tell if the Japanese actors are good or bad. Also it makes it as "pure" as possible without the viewer having to learn Japanese.
shareDubbed versions of Anime are never a literal translation from Japanese. The English Dub has to be reworded for two reasons, first because it usually takes about half the time to say somthing in English than to say the exact same thing in Japanese; secondly because Japanese is a poetic and very beautiful when translated directly into English, but is not always easy to speak. The language must be "coloquialised" or in other words changed into regular conversational English.
There are some decent dubs, for example the ones Disney did for Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, as well as the occasional series (I for one really like Aura Battler Dunbine dubbed,) but vast majority are done with uncharactistic voices and poor acting, not to mention low budgets. Maybe it's just me but they seem to like to choose voice actors from Texas for some reason.(I have nothing against Texans or Southerners, but they just don't usually fit Anime well.)
I feel that dubs can butcher what was originally meant to be conveyed by the director and rates right up with Pan and Scan.
i wanted to mention something about the texas or southern accented characters. Usually the reasons for this would be in the japanese version they have someone speaking osaka dialect, which is like a southern japanese... so to make up for that over here they higher someone who can do a southern accent.
I admit though... it sounds horrible.
JurisAnnarielle
Often a lot of Japanese is idiomatic or certain phrases are rather cultural and Americans often either don't get it or don't like it so they often change words and phrases around. They also often tone down romances and friendships when they dib anime because Anime in the US is often aimed at boys who aren't interested in them, and becuase many American have been conditione to see a lot of things as being sexual and thus inappropriate, but which aren't in Japan.
English Language Anime: Dub it, don't pervert it.
Funny you should put it that way...I've never understood tolerance for dubbing. Regardless of the talent level behind it, dubbing inevitably alters the original creative work. Besides the obvious translation complications, I cannot support the replacment of the original actors and actresses. If you can't understand why that bothers me, simply imagine one of your favorite English-language films dubbed over by a completely different set of actors. At best, it will sound strange and at worst it sounds ridiculous.
shareMost English speakers won't bother to watch a subtitled film unless they are a fan. Dubbing attracts a wider audience.
English Language Anime: Dub it, don't pervert it.
a lot of fans... (like me) prefer the subbed version over dub for a few reasons. One would be because of the scripts. With a few animes when they write them in english they tend to change a lot... This doesn't happen much anymore... Sailormoon would be a good example. They took out or changed things that is kind of necessary to the plot.. And in english vers... some really good japanese jokes get lost. The japanese like to use a lot of play on words, which doesn't happen when it gets translated into english because it wouldn't make sense to us.
Another would be because some english voice actors aren't that good. There are a couple out there that are decent... but overall they are annoying and terrible.
and last but not least is because you have die hard fans out there who just want to be able to watch the movie in it's orginal form.
JurisAnnarielle
Strange ot relate, but the subs are usually more accurate because they are written for fans rather than for non Japanese speakers.
When they dub a film for a U audience they often change the dialog to make it more American, and sometimes the butcher scenes terribly and even change the entire context of scene.
Listening in Japanese gies you greater appreciation of what a FOREIGN film is like, if you have a sub, you might as well be watching an American film with a Japanese style because changing the accents and the language detracts from the feel of the film.
Also some fans can understand a little Japanese but still need 'helpers' to get by, particularly as Japnaese grammer is very different from English grammer (the most important part of a sentence is usually put at the very end, meaning that verb placement is often very different).
Oh, and US dubbing studios can not usually afford trained voice actors so they put in mid level screen actors who can't project themselves all that well.
English Language Anime: Dub it, don't pervert it.
mydvd has the origial japanese version w/ subtitles. i cant stand dubbed versions.
"Happy is he that taketh Thy little ones and dasheth their heads against the stones."-Albert Fish
Just imagine watching Shrek but instead of Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy, they cast some unknown german voice actor who just needs some work because the studios havent discovered him yet. That is the reality of dubbing.
Sure, good dubbing is possible. But wouldn't you prefer to hear the lines delivered the way the director intended? It doesn't matter if you understand it or not, good voice actors can convey meaning and set the mood exactly as the director intended. Not to mention that American women have a hard time maintaining the high pitch that comes naturally to the Japanese (trust me, a lifetime of training will do that) without sounding like a five year old who drank too much coffee.
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