Manga & Anime THREAD

[Rodney]

I think I've done both. When it comes to live-action, I always opt for subtitles. When it comes to animation, it's all about what has been mentioned here. I watched Princess Mononoke in its original Japanese, but this was on DVD. When I watched Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle in theaters, I watched it dubbed (only copy available). I enjoyed them so it doesn't bother me. I've since watched them on DVD in Japanese and enjoyed that as well.

I have also had experiences in other countries where they have dubbed English voices and have enjoyed those versions as well. Disney and other animation studios overseas (it could depend on the country) generally do excellent jobs with their dubbing.

[Ben]

I must say that most big budget films get top-drawer dubs.

The main thing I find with animation is that it's all about the visuals. And since that particular character could have been voiced by anybody, it's one thing to see a live actor with an odd voice coming from them, but another from an animated creation.

And since animation is all about the visuals, I don't want to miss them spending time reading the dialogue. All I know is that all through Persepolis, I spent more time looking at the bottom of the screen than I did engaging with the characters and the animation.

I very much go back and then see an animated film with its original track afterwards, and indeed have then preferred the film that way, but it's not like those characters were born with those voices - they were given to them - as opposed to watching a live-action movie where the actors have odd, non-synched mouths.

[FanamI]

Which version of Akira, FanamI?

From what I remember, I thought the original 1986 theatrical English dub was more "authentic" than the later Pioneer DVD edition. Why did they have to change that anyway!?

Really I wasn't aware there were variations. I have the collectors ed tin box set that came out about 8 or 9 years back. I'll have to check it out the English dub there. I just remember seeing the english version way back early 90's and feeling like the english voice actors really captured the characters well which was quite nice considering how many english speakers Akira introduced to Japanese animation.

[FanamI]

I think I've done both. When it comes to live-action, I always opt for subtitles. When it comes to animation, it's all about what has been mentioned here. I watched Princess Mononoke in its original Japanese, but this was on DVD. When I watched Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle in theaters, I watched it dubbed (only copy available). I enjoyed them so it doesn't bother me. I've since watched them on DVD in Japanese and enjoyed that as well.

I have also had experiences in other countries where they have dubbed English voices and have enjoyed those versions as well. Disney and other animation studios overseas (it could depend on the country) generally do excellent jobs with their dubbing.

Spirited Away and Howl's where great dubs. As chance would have it Princess Mononoke dub is pretty bad IMO so its good you caught it as original.

[eddievalient]

What are you talking about? Mononoke has a great dub! If you want to see a bad dub for comparison, watch an episode of the english Shaman King.

[droosan]

My personal preference is always to watch foreign films in their original language. I will always opt for subtitles over a dub, when available.

Thanks to having lived in Japan for six years of my childhood, and to the five years of french classes I took in high-school & college, I can often at least 'get the gist' of japanese or french films without subtitles, in most cases.

But that's what works for me.

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This is one of those topics of conversation that I quickly learned to 'avoid' as an anime fan in the late-1980's and early-1990's .. since the factions which touted 'dubs' versus those who preferred 'subs' were often 100% 'black or white' on the issue, and seemingly felt it their duty to proselytize anyone they'd discovered that didn't support their way of thinking.

Now that anime has more-or-less become 'mainstream' (or, at the very least, become an accepted sub-set of pop-culture within western comics/sci-fi fan communities), that sort of heated rhetoric -- over an issue which honestly comes down to a matter of 'personal preference' -- seems to have faded, somewhat.

[GeorgeC]

Anime's still pretty niche, Droo.

If anything, it's immediate impact is reducing in both the US AND Japan.

Japan is going through bad cutbacks and the Powers--That-Be blame it on the declining population but I'd say the real problems in Japan are related to overproduction, lack of quality control and bad writing on many shows, and a production system that makes the American animation industry look overly generous to American animators!

They really have it bad in Japan with gross underpaying of apprentice AND master animators, production schedules that are crazy, and of course food and housing costs that make most US metro cities look like bargain-living by comparison. Japanese animators get paid on average 1/4 to 1/2 of American animator salaries yet live in a society where food costs anywhere from 2-5 times more on average for beef and other essentials and have to share already cramped apartments with roommates. Many of them are barely getting by and most recent animation university graduates get out of the Japanese industry within 5 years. I've read stats that the industry drop-out rate is close to 90% if you can believe that.

The US anime situation I believe is related in some ways to Japan. There's a mirroring of licensing and promotion of TOO many shows -- most of which are mediocre or worse --, a failure to realize the faddish nature of fandom that's resulted in far too much product on the market, and a lack of venues in the US to distribute and broadcast anime.

The bloodletting's not over yet by a long shot... Best Buy is rumored to be liquidating anime from its shelves (excepting Disney-licensed Miyazaki and Pokemon) by the end of the year and nobody's coming up in B & M to replace Best Buy. Most of the other venues that carried a wide array of anime have been shuttered permanently or have almost completely dropped anime already.

[Tyler_Legrand]

Subtitled, but that's probably because I'd watch a movie subtitled even if it already has original English audio.

[Jafar]

Same here. Animation or live-action, I always prefer subtitles, than a dubbed version. Though I have tried all the Ghibli dubs by Disney and a few of them have been quite decent but I must also admit that I almost hated English dubs of "Castle in the Sky", "Kiki's Delivery Service" and the recent "My Neighbor Totoro" too.

[Ben]

Really I wasn't aware there were variations. I have the collectors ed tin box set that came out about 8 or 9 years back.

I have a feeling the early 90s versuion you saw and liked was the original dub that came out with the 1987 English version of the film.

The tin set is the one that included a "new and improved" English dub, but that many fans, and myself included, didn't like as much as the original dub.

[FanamI]

What are you talking about? Mononoke has a great dub! If you want to see a bad dub for comparison, watch an episode of the english Shaman King.

LOL I guess I was compairing it to movies of its calibre. I know what you mean if you want to get into the extreme bad dubs. But to show what a hypocrite I am I perfer my king fu with bad english dubs, yet in my animation I find it very detracting from the movie. When you figure out human nature copy me on the memo hahahahhaha

Just to be more clear I thought Mononokehime's English voice actors did not capture the characters well enough to warrant watching English over Japanese, especially when compaired to Howl's and Spirited. But at the end of the day its what you enjoy that matters.

[Trusted Vizier]

Generally, I prefer watching a movie or series with subtitles, there are exceptions to this rule though. For example; I actually prefer the english dub to "Cowboy Bebop" over the original japanese speech, not sure why though.

[eddievalient]

Because Stephen Blum is awesome, that's why.

[GeorgeC]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... on-july-28

As the link states, the DVD's available late July...

The distributor is Kino, the same company doing the Metropolis restoration for DVD/Blu ray.

Tezuka was most famous as the creator of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion aka Jungle Emperor Leo.

Most of these shorts have never been seen in the US. One of them was featured previously on one of the defunct Tourney of Animation VHS/LD collections. Of course, most domestic companies have decided 2-D animation isn't cool anymore and these films don't get much publicity now, period.

[Randall]

This is an exciting release. Thanks for posting that, George. I'm trying to snag a review copy, but regardless I'll be adding this DVD to my collection. Kino sells it direct for less than Amazon, by the way, and they have a free shipping promotion.