The new voices...

[Byakko]

First off, I just watched some DP episodes, so I could get a hang of the new voices (DP is not showing in Singapore yet, but I've caught some on YouTube).

Personally, I found them all mostly tolerable, mostly because I never really cared about Team Twerp (sorry XD).

Actually, Ash's voice does suck. It's very much more annoying than the original. So much more. Just...so...annoying...

Ahm, back on track. Team Rocket's the problem. The problem not being about the actual tones of the voices, but the delivery.

Billy Beach (did I get that right?) spends too much effort trying to pronounce Jame's lines in the same Eric Stuart, and then pushing the accents too far. Possibly, he can't figure out how Jame's rhythm of speech should go. I've watch scenes where the lines are delivered too quickly, messily, with a strange rhythm, and even stranger accents in the wrong parts.

I understand that it's so much harder for voice actors to attempt to mimic an already falsified and characterized voice, instead of being like the original voice actors who had the fantastic leeway of experimenting and figuring out specific voices for each character.

Those clips I watched were from earlier episodes, so I don't know whether they got any better. Team Rocket's voices are the main culprits; but the VAs can't be blamed, since the new TR motto sucks so bad with its lack of rhythm and terrible eye-rhyme.

I'm pretty much ready for the new VA to just give up on mimicking Eric and just go ahead with a similar, yet different interpretation of James' voice that he can comfortably produce. It'll be better to imagine James with a new voice, then to have the constant nagging reminder that we're getting a facsimile of the original.

That said, I would only be fully satisfied if Darren Dunstan were to take-over for Eric in any situation. If I'm not wrong, Darren was even the voice director for Pokemon, at least in some episodes. If he did Pegasus voice for James, that would actually be kinda sexy X3

 

[Trainer Lisa]

Hmm....

So this is another VA debate thread, basically.

This is interesting, though everyone should be careful what they say in here, as the thread could easily get out of hand and get closed like what happened with the SOVA debate.


Anyway, I agree with you on some things, but disagree with other things.

And to be honest, personally, I've never been a big fan of Team Rocket. I loved them in the 4Kids dub though, because they were hilarious. They're still "funny" in the Pokemon USA dub, their voices just don't sound right to me.

It'll be better to imagine James with a new voice, then to have the constant nagging reminder that we're getting a facsimile of the original.

Well, hey, look at it this way.

At least with James' new voice, it still resembles his original voice.


I can't say the same thing for Ash's new voice (that's the one I'm most disappointed with, in the Pokemon USA dub). Sure, every now and then, there are good episodes for Sarah where she will sound very similar to Veronica's Ash ("Settling A Not-So-Old Score" was one of these episodes). But these times are very rare. And even in episodes like those, there will only be a few lines total, which resemble Ash's original voice.

I mean, that's fine and all, but come on here. Sarah's been doing Ash long enough to have already gotten down his emotions AND the voice itself. Neither should be a problem for her at this point, but they still are. I can tell they're causing her trouble somehow, because I can hear it in her Ash voice. It still sounds "forced" to me, most of the time. And in most cases, the voice is lacking emotion as well. Sarah needs to fix this, and she also needs to fix the inconsistency. Her Ash voice sounds different on an episode-to-episode basis, which I find strange because Veronica's Ash wasn't like this.



What I mean is, if you watch one episode of D/P, Sarah's Ash voice and her acting will sound decent. But, then if you watch another episode, everything may sound good. And finally, if you watch another episode of D/P, in some cases the voice and the acting actually goes back to where it was before - sounding not as good and just sounding average/decent at its best. What I'd like to know is what's with the inconsistency here? Why can't she keep her Ash voice a certain way, and have it stay like this throughout D/P (I'm saying this in regards to both the voice itself and the acting)?

That said, I would only be fully satisfied if Darren Dunstan were to take-over for Eric in any situation.

For me, it seems I'll only be completely satisfied when/if the original VAs are able to work on the show again (or if they allowed Veronica back, at least).

Sarah has made Ash into a different character than he was before in the dub, back when Veronica voiced him. Episodes such as "Battling The Enemy Within" and "Duels of the Jungle" prove this (granted, the script wasn't good either, as I hated those lines they gave her - the bad lines only made matters that much worse). Anyway, I don't like Sarah's Ash because he seems different personality-wise. And I'm contributing this mostly towards Sarah's inability to perform Ash's emotions correctly.


Just like the voice itself, Ash's emotions are either "hit or miss" (it's the inconsistency thing again). No matter how hard she tries, Sarah just can't reach the "Veronica" level of emotion that I expect and would like to see. I hate this, because in my opinion, Ash's emotions are a huge part of what made him who he was in the first place. And with that part of him being gone, Ash isn't the same character in the dub anymore (from my point of view).

 

[Byakko]

To be honest, Ash doesn't exactly 'emote' much beyond the required emotion range for a typical anime protagonist. But I just find the new voice aggravating from a purely audio stand-point.

Also, dubbing for anime doesn't go in a linear fashion. It's normal for the VAs to work on different episodes at the same time, depending on their characters and the scripts that have been finalized. So I'm not surprised if the voice acting is inconsistent and not in a continuous improvement.

Anyway, my main gripe with the new season is that from what I've seen, the dialouge has been incredibly clumsy, which I'm ready to attribute to the script-writers more than the VAs. It's not uneven lip-synchage, but gabbled and unevenly coordinated lines that sound like the DRAFT of the final script that hasn't been run-through and play-tested yet.

This problem is compounded IMO by the VAs only in so much that they're having a hard time figuring out how to voice their characters w/o the need for a clumsy script.

I don't care if it doesn't sound completely like the originals; the least they could do is sound like human beings.

 

[Trainer Lisa]

Oh, I see....

So for the most part, it's the Pokemon USA script and dialogue that you dislike, rather than the voices.


Well, personally, I find the script to be pretty similar to the 4Kids one. So anyway, I'm just fine with the dialogue, except for two problems:

1. There have been several instances where the Pokemon USA script has caused Ash to go out-of-character. The 4Kids script never did this, as far as I can remember.

2. The Pokemon USA script seems to have Team Rocket break the 4th wall almost constantly (now I like that kind of thing, and I could understand them doing that every-so-often like 4Kids did - but honestly Pokemon USA's overdoing it).

This problem is compounded IMO by the VAs only in so much that they're having a hard time figuring out how to voice their characters w/o the need for a clumsy script.

I completely agree with you there.

I don't care if it doesn't sound completely like the originals; the least they could do is sound like human beings.

Speaking of the characters sounding like human beings, that reminds me of something.

I remember Dogasu saying that a possible explanation for why Sarah's Ash sounds so "fake/forced", may be due to them using a computer program to further change the voice, by making it sound lower or deeper.

I wonder if that's true....


It sure sounds like that's the case, and it would help explain the inconsistency issue as well. But it might not be true though, since that's just a theory.

 

[Kazamatsuri]

So I guess this will become the next VA/SOVA Debate thread (though I don't know if it will stand).

One thing I want to point out. The current VAs aren't really new anymore. They're already on their 2nd season, having been regularly seen on CartoonNetwork for more than a year now (a year and one day to be exact). They have accumulated thus far, 74 episodes on the air, one movie, and two specials.

 

[The Power of Pika]

Speaking of the characters sounding like human beings, that reminds me of something.

I remember Dogasu saying that a possible explanation for why Sarah's Ash sounds so "fake/forced", may be due to them using a computer program to further change the voice, by making it sound lower or deeper.

I wonder if that's true....


It sure sounds like that's the case, and it would help explain the inconsistency issue as well. But it might not be true though, since that's just a theory.

yeah that's a good point. If it's true that is. No one knows unless they actually witnessed it being edited.

Though if it is true.

It could be deliberate but it could also be accidental. Believe it or not it's quite easy to make a voice go deep by accident. I've done it with the lecturer having to help me after screwing it up.

Too much of a certain bottom end or top end or something (I seriously have to revise this, I know it has something to do with that) in the EQ can make the voice deepen slightly or alot (you should have seen me before trying confirm what I was typing here, double checking, I made the voice I was messing around with go so deep it muffled and got loud and hurt my ear.=P) and it's a common mistake. It's worse when you save over the original voice recording because that means either sticking with it or wasting time trying to record it again. Why you always save a copy.

PUSA dubs an episode a week and problems can come like that. EQ is an pain and I've even made a voice sound like it was coming out of a tin when putting too much top end/bottom end. (Goodgrief I really got to revise which end is top end and which is bottom end, I'm putting both down because I don't remember which end is which, it's one of them anyway. I'm so not with it today.=()

The EQ seems to be one potential culprit if there is a problem. I'm sure there's other culprits that I'm not remembering right now.

My lecturer would probably know. He was able point out every sound problem in the transformers movie.
It sounded perfect to me and my friends but not to him.

What I do know well.
All VA's have to have some sort of editing done to the voice. Not usually alot done but it's necessary. They're doing the voicing in a room. There's a difference in sound when talking in a room compared to outside. So that has to be fixed through editing if the character is outside. Any mic sounds, background sound that got through has to be fixed. Any clicks has to be removed. Sometimes gaps between sentences (pauses) have to be shortened if they slightly miss the lip sync. Deleting the gaps ect. EQ helps change the voice to make it sound outside or inside but it's a disaster if you screw it up which is very easy to do with EQ.

There you have it. I probably confused everyone especially when I get confused with which side is bottom end and which is top when it comes to sound. I have to revise that.=P

I know how to do it but when it comes to terms I kind of suck at explaining. Since I get the terms confused in audio.^_^;;;;;;

Though voices can be made to sound deeper accidently.

Now I have to get myself out of doing that same mistake.lol

Though of course unless we work in the studio and have seen the editing we won't be able to 100% say that they have used a program to "deliberately" deepen Sarah's voice.

I hope I made some sense. I'm learning how to use 3 different editing programs so I'm kind of still learning this.=P
My animation has to have perfect sound and voice according to my lecturer.



EDIT: now thinking about it I probably confused everybody by going into EQ. Keeping it simple. You can make mistakes and cause a voice to go deep, tinny, high, muffled ect. by accident when editing to remove or add elements to a recording. There are other things that can be used and make mistakes with aswell.=P

Sorry if some things don't make sense. It's late at night where I am and I'm not fully awake.^_^;;;;;

 

[terminallyCapricious]

Eh, I'm all for the original VA's back except for Ash. Ash has been on his journey for well over 3 years, he's had to have had puberty by now.

Everyone else needs their original VA's back now.

EDIT: Ironicly, I have to agree with Lisa, as well as Pika. The scripts were terrible in some episodes, and the (new) VA just made it worse. Audio also tended to change.

I really don't have much room to talk, I don't watch the anime much. >_<

Yeah, I'm ready for the next thousand Flame Arrows *Pulls up Flame Sheild very scared like*

 

[Snake Bandage]

*HEADDESK*

*HEADDESK*

*HEADDESK*

Why do we HAVE to go back to this STUPID topic all the GODDAMNED TIME. WHY.

My only opinions are that the dub was never very good in the first place and that Zoppi!James is better than Stuart!James and Lewis!James put together (he actually sounds adorable and can, like, emote).

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

But James is silly a lot more than he is serious, and ZoppiJames can't manage silly half as well as StuartJames could. Just because he could do serious in *one episode*, everyone sings his praises, but you have to look at the bigger picture.

 

[Geodude]

The voices are way past the point of being "new". Deal with it. And history has proven this subject far too volatile to be discussed maturely here.

Closed as a preventative measure.