When was the dub at its best?

[kantoskies]

(Before I start I'd like to say this isn't another 4Kids vs TPCi thread, it's more of a season-by-season discussion)

The dub has gone through many changes over time, from music to voice acting to script quality, and I wanted to know when everyone thought it was at its best (or least bad). It can be based on quality/quantity of dub BGM, voice acting, script faithfulness, amount of cultural edits, "extra" material (like dub-exclusive songs), or anything that made the dub what it was.

For me, I felt that seasons 2 and 3 (mid/late Kanto-early Johto) were the best as far as the main TV series goes. Someone on bulbagarden did a count of the amount of Japanese music kept throughout the first 14 seasons and I think 1-3 had around 70% before dropping to the low 30s in season 4. I also thought the dub music during this time was the least bad it's been (other than some XY tracks). The voice acting of the main characters was really good, I loved Rachael Lillis' performance as Jessie. I also thought Team Rocket had their own 4Kids-exclusive charm during this time and I'm a bit sad the dub didn't maintain it, even through the rest of the 4Kids dub. I think in season 6 when the dub changed studios the sound mixing was changed and all of the voices were much louder and more annoying (and the performances changed too). Season 14 is a close second only because it kept around 90% of the original BGM and TPCi couldn't butcher Team Rocket because that was during their serious phase.

As far as the movies go I think the best dubs were 6, 7, and 8. There wasn't any dub music and the scripts were pretty good.

 

[Dogasu]

Best dubbed product of all time goes to Pokemon Origins, hands down. Great voice acting on-par with most modern dubs, a (mostly) decently translated script, no replacement music...if the regular show was dubbed to this standard then I'd have very little to complain about.

As for the regular TV series I'd have to say the Orange Islands portion of Season 2 / 3. The scripts were fairly accurate and, as kantoskies stated, the dub Rocket trio, while different from the Japanese version in a lot of ways, had their own kind of charm that'll go missing from later seasons.

 

[Poke Trey]

I would say IMO DP because even though I did like what 4Kids brought to the table way back then, I can't help but feel that came 4th gen things were starting to look more up their alley and that it was the gen that I actually cared more for the charcaters than for what I could say even for the OG series.

 

[Ryu Taylor]

Ooooh... tough one... Here goes nothing...

I don't think the dub has ever been bad, no matter what studio had it. As far as the 4kids dub goes, although AG is my favorite saga so far, I'd say the OS dub was best. As this was before OLM let 4kids's ridiculous culture erasure get to them, we still got to see Japanese culture in some form. Characters, though never losing their charm, got better lines here and more often. And the dub music was amazing. After all, this was the era that gave us Ralph Shuckett and John Loeffler's musical magnum opus. And speaking of the movies, the dub soundtracks of the first three were great (with only the first one being inferior to the JP soundtrack), so I took that into account.

For TPCi, their current XY dub is doing great. Scripts got better, Team Rocket stopped constantly doing what was seen as annoying in previous TPCi seasons, it got a better VD (with another one on the way), and Ed Goldfarb's compositions are some of the best things to come out of TPCi's dub, at least as far as the show goes. He's not as great with the films, though that could change with the upcoming Volcanion film.

But to be honest, my pick for the absolute best Pokemon dub ever is Pikachu's Rescue Adventure. It had a very wonderful and whimsical score (including this wonderfully infectious ear worm), and it had the absolute best decision 4kids ever made: removal of the narrator. 4kids, a company infamous for not giving its audience enough credit and usually does things that end up insulting the audience's intelligence (remember, this is the same company that gave us the ever-infamous "donuts" bit, took out Tracey's scientific moment out of fear that the audience would use that explanation of H2O becoming separate H2 and O molecules upon contact with electricity to make a bomb (no joke; that's the reason that edit was made to P2000), changed Mewtwo's motivation from "existential crisis" to "vengeance", had an originally-much-too-subtle plot point in the fourth film made crystal clear with added scenes, etc.) in that one simple action, ended up creating a product that respected their audience. Nobody needed Tamo Satou escorting them through the original short in every possible way, so it was great to see 4kids not pull a similar "Blade Runner's infamous 'tell, don't show' theatrical version" and instead let the short go on its own and be shown instead of told to the audience. After all, as the old axiom goes, silence is golden. God bless you, 4kids.

 

[Poke Trey]

Change of mind after doing this but, I'd have to say during 6 gen because of the diversity I have been seeing the amount of VA's we've been getting and there being plenty more emotion this time due to direction which again this weekend we are getting a new Director. So let's see how she cuts it, but music-wise It's good although sometimes the music could at least sound more energetic instead of psuedo-calm music which isn't a bad thing, but noticeable. Especially with how the Dub's been treating the show so far, I can say it will only get better because imagine if 4Kids were still running the show, then what could we really say?

 

[UxieLover1994]

For TPCi, their current XY dub is doing great. Scripts got better, Team Rocket stopped constantly doing what was seen as annoying in previous TPCi seasons, it got a better VD (with another one on the way), and Ed Goldfarb's compositions are some of the best things to come out of TPCi's dub, at least as far as the show goes. He's not as great with the films, though that could change with the upcoming Volcanion film.

I don't understand why people consider Ed Goldfarb's music to be automatically Twilight-bad by default without even listening to entire scores. Heck, he absolutely nailed it with Open My Eyes (the ending theme of M17), which I could say was the best English ending theme since Make A Wish for M06 (but this is a Kingdom Hearts fan speaking; Sanctuary ~After the Battle~ had a similar style to Open My Eyes). Though I wouldn't say the same for Every Side of Me for M18, but let us see what he has planned for M19.

Being from Australia, I'll be among the first to see it, given how M17 and M18 had their dub premiers in Australia and New Zealand in November of their respective years.

Especially with how the Dub's been treating the show so far, I can say it will only get better because imagine if 4Kids were still running the show, then what could we really say?

Sure, they replaced the voice actors, but given that ten years have passed by, and most of the original cast have long left, a lot of us have accepted the change and moved on (but there's still quite a vocal minority out there who refuses to accept the change). But sometimes, one does question on how the anime would still be like if 4Kids was still dubbing it. Western merchandise would still be 99% anime oriented as opposed to ~35% today, and it would be obvious that DP and XY would be of lower quality, almost on par with BW even. Heck, they would've made J a member of Team Rocket, as well as Zero in M11, and the thieves in M17.

I don't know what to say, but I would think that the change might've made the English dub slightly more accessible to the 13+ crowd than if 4Kids continued on. Given their policy, they would've heavily censored XY given Xerneas and Yveltal as entities of life and death, and thus, maybe we'd be hating M17 for the same reasons as M01 if they turned Yveltal from true neutral into a cold hearted villain.

 

[danh19]

for me when 4kids owned the rights to Pokémon it seemed to have the more consistent acting but after they were replaced their was less needless editing

 

[kantoskies]

Change of mind after doing this but, I'd have to say during 6 gen because of the diversity I have been seeing the amount of VA's we've been getting

I absolutely do appreciate the diversity of voice actors nowadays. I know in the Johto days any given female COTD would either be voiced by Lisa Ortiz, Veronica Taylor, Rachael Lillis, or Meghan Hollingshead. And at least half of the males would be voiced by Eric Stuart. True I don't watch the dub that much any more unless I'm looking to see how they did a specific scene but I have noticed more of a diversity.

 

[GuyWhoTellsTruth]

My Two Cents...

Anime: Seasons 1 to 3, I'd say, the dub kept a large portion of the Japanese music (only 14 in contention in that regard, but that has TPCi's awful acting and dialogue very much present, so that brings it down significantly for me). Regarding Seasons 1 to 3, the voice acting was spot on for the most part (Taylor took maybe 14 episodes to get her Ash voice down, but she nailed it once she did, something Natochenny has never done IMO), and the script was pretty accurate as well. My only complaint would be the donut/eclair thing, and some other paint edits, but other than that, the first three seasons easily take the prize for when the English dub of the Anime was at its best.

Thoughts on the rest:

As for the other 4Kids seasons, Seasons 4 to 8 were decently dubbed, but again we had the sandwich edits, more music got replaced (never as much as TPCi have been throughout XY, however), and then Eric Stuart's James began shouting all the time in the goofiest way possible (not sure why it was specific to his James, either, because his Brock was absolutely fine throughout, and his Butch actually got less raspy and sounded better in AG than it did in OS). I'll say that 4Kids' dub music was pretty decent, however, it was listenable...which is better than what I can say for what happens with TPCi. Actually, this Era of the dub has the best English openings as well, I have to say David Rolfe was the best singer IMO.

Season 9's dub was mediocre, and was when the English dub's voice acting took a nosedive (TPCi) and the dub's script devolved into utter stupidity, with such memorable lines as "On the blink," "I got me," "We're gonna raise the roof," "We can't catch us," etc. Rogers' Brock started out better than anything he did later on and same goes for TPCi TR, who at the time were doing mediocre impressions of the 4Kids TR, which is again better than what happened later in the TPCi run. Also, Natochenny's Ash was as monotone as you can get throughout the season, so that was certainly not pleasant.

Season 10's to 13's dub was terrible. Rogers' Brock devolved into this burly old man voice and he sounded pissed off on every line, Jimmy Zoppi/James Carter Cathcart decided to make Team Rocket his comedic jokers in having them rhyme and alliterate back to back while insulting each other constantly, and the dub music DuArt composed was a step down even from what TAJ composed. Michele Knotz's Jessie began getting higher pitched as well, and James Cathcart began shouting all the time and adopted a very nasally tone to his performance as James, also so goofy, that it makes AG Eric Stuart sound pretty serious in comparison. Overall, the DP dub was, prior to the current Arc, the worst English dubbed saga. The intros were all awful except for 12, especially the DP Rap which I think makes the 4Kids One Piece rap sound good in comparison, because that's how awful it is.

Season 14's dub was OK, I guess, probably the best thing TPCi's Anime crew has ever done. The good news was a huge chunk of the Japanese music was kept, more than ever in fact, but the bad parts were the voice acting was still really bad, the script was better than in DP's dub but Ash still had a LOT of cringe worthy lines (e.g. "That's a fire type: nice and fiery," "Pikachu's just about to hit the wall") and JCC still had Team Rocket talking awkwardly at times (how many times did James say "Right" to start his sentences again, and Meowth's "Oy vey" was still irritating). The dub music was...forgettable...nothing offensive like BF to DP's but nothing really that decent like what 4Kids did in OS and AG. Natochenny's Ash sounds better here than in anything else she's ever done throughout her run, too. The intro is also cheesy as heck, but that's par for the course with TPCi.

Season 15 to 16's dub was poor. TPCi dropped to keeping low 40s again with the Japanese music like in DP in 15, and the dialogue began regressing back to DP levels. Natochenny also stopped trying as Ash again, imo. We also got Marc Thompson and Tom Wayland doing a lot of roles (and people think 4Kids were the only ones guilty of this, really, talk about double standards much here?), and overall, it proved 14's dub was a cock tease in my book.

16, we dropped to the low 30s with the music kept, TPCi called apples "berries" proving they one up'd 4Kids in idiotic food censorship in my book, and to make things worse, it featured the return of JCC's Team Rocket, so you know, we got the rhyming and alliterating dialogue back from DP. Furthermore, the acting declined again, and pretty much everyone was monotone and lifeless.

Then...we've reached the low point of the entire English dub...Season 17 to 19's dub....HORRIBLE. The voice acting is terrible again, the dialogue is really bad ("Wowie," "Try, try," "Furshonista," "Cutier pie," "Primo perps," "Time to put your foot on the gas," "You'll catch cold," etc.), TPCi begin replacing more of the Japanese music than 4Kids ever did, even in Season 8, so that's just wonderful (Season 17 kept a measly 15 percent, 18 a measly 11 percent, and 19 is so far around the same average as 18). Also, TPCi proved they're as xenophobic as 4Kids was by paint editing the Korrina kanji, also paint editing Ash's badge case in 17 like 4Kids did in AG (though unlike 4Kids who only did it for Kids WB's demands, TPCi has no excuse for this), and overall, XY to present's dub is the worst of 4Kids and TPCi rolled into one package. I cannot even fathom why anyone would suggest this is better than 4Kids, because it's not. Also, all the dub intros have been horrible, "Stand Tall" in particular is an abomination in my eyes.

Movies: Movies 6 to 8, surprisingly, 4Kids was at their best in AG about this: pretty faithful scripts, great voice acting, kept the Japanese OST throughout, and heck, they even kept the Japanese Ending with English vocals in duet form with Movie 6 (I should add TPCi has never done this).

Other Movies:

4Kids botched the first 3 (still had good acting, however, and I think some of the dub music is decent, plus 3's script was actually fairly accurate), 4 was good and an improvement, but had that Oak dumbing down thing at the end, 5 was good, but the Alto mare story was removed, and TPCi's Movie dubs all have terrible voice acting (sorry, not sorry) and the dialogue/script writing is always crammed full of obnoxious slang, rhymes, and alliterations, so that should tell you I hate Movies 9 to 16 dubbed ("let 'er rip!"), and TPCi botched both Movies 17 and 18 dubbed (and will most likely will botch 19, too, enough said).

As for Origins dub, actually, I prefer the last 3 4Kids' Movie dubs over the Origins dub, because I feel Bosch sounds like every other role he's done as Brock and didn't even try to differentiate his voice from Ichigo or Lelouch, and Hebert's Oak sounds like Aizen from Bleach reading an audiobook to me, so yeah, but the rest of the acting was wonderful to me. Also, "I stands right here at the top of the Pokemon League," and "I searched specifically for those tings," from Blue/Green in File 4 was definitely a con to me: they got pretty lazy in the last File with the script. Other than that, I liked the Origins dub, WAY better than anything else TPCi have done with the Series thus far if you ask me (and like Dogasu, actually, if the Anime & Movies were dubbed that way, I wouldn't have anything bad to say about them).

Overall:

I prefer 4Kids' earlier Seasons dubbed, but later Movies dubbed, so that's how I wish the Anime was dubbed into English the whole time, and they did a much, much better job than TPCi in my eyes.

 

[Ryu Taylor]

Also, TPCi proved they're as xenophobic as 4Kids was by paint editing the Korrina kanji

There's a possibility that that kanji was preemptively edited by Japan themselves in the copy they sent overseas for dubbing, just like what they did with Lenora's apron. Also, that bullshit "XENOPHOBIA" card is played more than the "NOSTALGIA" card is played against 4kids dub fans. Both arguments are completely meaningless.

By the way, where do you stand on the Pikachu shorts?

 

[Elementar]

I think the Original Series kept improving until the DP saga I think. The original series was good, AG was good from what I've seen, and imo DP was one of the best dub seasons. Unova wasn't amazing and I've realised with XY that subs/originals are better than the dubs by far. The dialogue isn't as childish and I like the serious tone to it.

 

[Blue_Drifblim]

This is an interesting question. Rather than unnecessarily tear down one dubbing company in favor of the other, I'm just going to answer what the topic initially asked. Neither company is perfect, but both have good aspects... and not-so-good aspects. While scripts/voice acting are important and factor in to my judging of the dubs, my main criteria is how the music is handled.

Personally, I'd say the best dub series is Diamond & Pearl. Voice acting and music replacement wise, TPCi pretty much found their groove there. Yes, there were still (pretty dang horrendous at times) music replacement issues, but at the same time they would often keep quite a bit of the original music, and starting from Battle Dimension, regular and substantial amounts of actual silence. Like, you know, a legit dub. While not true for every case, there were a lot of moments and episodes that could have been ruined but made it unscathed. (While early 4Kids kept a lot of music as well, they slipped down a slope about halfway through the first series)

As far as best dub season goes, that's probably S1 of Black & White. Pretty much the best trade off the show could ever reasonably get these days: dub music filled silent areas, and on the other hand 90% (and occasionally 100%) of the original music was kept. As I mentioned, I'm not as picky when it comes to the voices/scripts, but I felt things were well done regarding those, too. If the dub were kept this way, I'd have next to no complaints. Too bad it didn't stay like this for long at all.

That said, the XY series dub is... an interesting case. Dub replacement music quality is at its highest, with a genuinely unified and coherent soundtrack for the first time ever. I honestly appreciate that the dub has put forth the effort to make actual memorable music motifs and themes, with a personal favorite of mine being the "adventure" theme that often plays at the beginning or ending of an episode. Unfortunately, the replacement music is replacing way too much of the original music, in addition to replacing silence. Like with later 4Kids seasons, it makes me wonder why they bother keeping anything at all. And while I admit the original Diancie and Hoopa movie soundtracks weren't all that, the fact that they're starting to be replaced again is insane.

My bottom line: Honestly, I'm completely fine with dub music filling some silent areas. Just for crying out loud, DON'T replace the original soundtrack. And if you DO replace it, I think I'd rather have it ALL gone at this point rather than keeping a measly two or three pieces an episode like they do now. Yes, DP started out this way, but fortunately things got substantially better, with more movie music being kept more often and the aforementioned silence. The new dub music is nice, but it's just baffling how much the dub seems to be regressing. It almost ticks me off.

 

[GuyWhoTellsTruth]

There's a possibility that that kanji was preemptively edited by Japan themselves in the copy they sent overseas for dubbing, just like what they did with Lenora's apron. Also, that bullshit "XENOPHOBIA" card is played more than the "NOSTALGIA" card is played against 4kids dub fans. Both arguments are completely meaningless.

By the way, where do you stand on the Pikachu shorts?

I suppose, but if that is the case, Japan is literally "pre censoring" the Series in English now regardless: I'm not really too concerned with the kanji or romanji at all myself, because I think the English dub has far more serious issues with it these days, but I do think it's just as dumb as when 4Kids would do it. However, I agree both arguments are ultimately meaningless, because what bearing does it have on the quality of the dubbing itself in either case? None, really.

On the Pikachu shorts? My favorites were Gotta Dance from Movie 6 (RIP Maddie Blaustein, I personally miss her so much) and Pikachu and Pichu from Movie 3 in English, personally. The others fall into this "meh" territory, but to me, the weaker ones would have to be anything with JCC's Meowth in them by default, mainly because I don't like the way he talks since around Season 10 in English, saying things like "achin' mug," "lugs," "oy vey," "Dig it," and the like in the dub as well as his performance as the character being pretty grating on me. I'd say my least favorite overall, though, is Pokémon: Pikachu and the Pokémon Music Squad if I had to pick just one (again, it's mainly JCC's Meowth portrayal, it really just rubs me the wrong way), but I'll admit Haven Paschall has a really good singing voice at the end of it with "Join the Band" at least (after hearing that, I kind of wish she was singing the intros and not "The Sad Truth," but that's just me).

 

[kantoskies]

There's a possibility that that kanji was preemptively edited by Japan themselves in the copy they sent overseas for dubbing, just like what they did with Lenora's apron. Also, that bullshit "XENOPHOBIA" card is played more than the "NOSTALGIA" card is played against 4kids dub fans. Both arguments are completely meaningless.

This could be the case but what incentive would they have for doing it? Lenora's apron was because the mammy archetype exists and they didn't want to come across as racist to international audiences. But why censor a language? Tbh if it's not xenophobia it's just a pointless edit, which isn't as bad but still isn't great

 

[GuyWhoTellsTruth]

This could be the case but what incentive would they have for doing it? Lenora's apron was because the mammy archetype exists and they didn't want to come across as racist to international audiences. But why censor a language? Tbh if it's not xenophobia it's just a pointless edit, which isn't as bad but still isn't great

The Lenora apron is a pretty reasonable edit, but the kanji one is pointless, that's true: I have a theory it's because they don't want kids to be confused with Japanese culture or something like that. I'm not saying it's not stupid, because it is, but...I mean, take a look at a (IMO) much better dub of a kids Anime airing right now than TPCi's dub, Yokai Watch, that keeps the Japanese music, stays (mostly) faithful in translation, and has genuinely (and actually good) voice acting...despite having that, they still do that kind of Americanization thing despite that, and paint edit Japan with America on maps for whatever silly reasons for which they find it appropriate.

Frankly while I do accept all cultures, and I would never edit out Japanese letters or characters etc. if I was ever in charge (never going to happen, just saying), I'll take everything else being good with that flaw of Americanizing stuff for silly reasons, over that (what little remains in the Anime at this point) culture point retained, but with the current (IMO, terrible) condition the dub is currently in, in nearly every other aspect.

 

[kantoskies]

The Lenora apron is a pretty reasonable edit, but the kanji one is pointless, that's true: I have a theory it's because they don't want kids to be confused with Japanese culture or something like that. I'm not saying it's not stupid, because it is, but...I mean, take a look at a (IMO) much better dub of a kids Anime airing right now than TPCi's dub, Yokai Watch, that keeps the Japanese music, stays (mostly) faithful in translation, and has genuinely (and actually good) voice acting...despite having that, they still do that kind of Americanization thing despite that, and paint edit Japan with America on maps for whatever silly reasons for which they find it appropriate.

Frankly while I do accept all cultures, and I would never edit out Japanese letters or characters etc. if I was ever in charge (never going to happen, just saying), I'll take everything else being good with that flaw of Americanizing stuff for silly reasons, over that (what little remains in the Anime at this point) culture point retained, but with the current (IMO, terrible) condition the dub is currently in, in nearly every other aspect.

Yeah like if the one change a dub makes is making it more American I'm not too upset (like tbh I didn't care when in Inside Out was released in Japan--I think-- they changed broccoli to a vegetable more disliked by children in that country). But it is still pretty weird, like as Dogasu always has said I don't think kids would care if they saw Japanese culture on their TV.

 

[Dogasu]

Yeah like if the one change a dub makes is making it more American I'm not too upset (like tbh I didn't care when in Inside Out was released in Japan--I think-- they changed broccoli to a vegetable more disliked by children in that country)

Disney also gave Japanese fans the choice of watching the original version, both in theaters and on the DVDs / Blu-ray. Where with Pocket Monsters the only (legal) choice anyone has outside Asia is the edited-for-TV dub.

 

[GuyWhoTellsTruth]

Disney also gave Japanese fans the choice of watching the original version, both in theaters and on the DVDs / Blu-ray. Where with Pocket Monsters the only (legal) choice anyone has outside Asia is the edited-for-TV dub.

You know Pocket Monsters has it bad when even 4KMedia/Konami offers subbed Yu-Gi-Oh on Hulu and Crunchyroll despite how (IMO) poor the recent dubs of that Series have been (just like with this Series to me): yet, we have no (legal) option with this Series for viewing it in its original format. It really does suck...

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

My two cents, just thought about this since we're very much approaching the ending of the Pokemon dub pre-Liko Series soon, really.

Anime: Mid-Kanto to the end of early Johto (Mid Season 1-Season 3)
'
The first few episodes of Kanto's dub are super rough to me so I disagree with Dogasu on this very much, as the VA work is almost as spotty as in the current dub IMO, but to be fair Veronica Taylor was pregnant at the time just trying to figure out how to best mimic Rica Matsumoto at the time- while the VAs were just getting started in the roles.

But I felt that generally speaking, the Kanto dub found its footing around the time of Nathan Price's last episode in "Dig Those Diglett" which kept 100% of the OST and had fairly decent dub script writing (if there's anything I did like from the earlier Kanto episodes though, definitely the script translation/writing being 1:1 though and episode titles, but the music situation was quite a bit worse than for rest of the ENTIRE 4Kids dub in those first 14 episodes, in fact, in how many pieces were kept as was the VA work) and from around Episode 31 all the way to the end of Episode 157 was the best of the #PokeAni English Dub. About 70% of the OST was kept in an average episode, and while the script work had its good and bad days, its good days were very good such as EP097 and EP099 in the Orange Islands- additionally, this was post-Eric Stuart doing a bland Ted Lewis James impression but pre-overly exaggerated theatrical dub James that showed up around mid Season 5's dub (still better than it was given credit for in hindsight, especially given XY+ dub James with both VAs surprisingly) so was the best of English dub James and all the VAs suited their roles very well.

Early Season 4 up to Ash's re-match with Whitney kept a lot of the OST that said: it was specifically when the fillers set in that the amount began to decline in earnest (though it never got as bad as TPCi from Season 16 onward even by Season 8, to their credit).

Also, the intros were very good, especially Season 3's dub OP.

Movies: Movies 6-8 (The Hoenn/AG Era dub films under 4Kids' tenure)

@kantoskies has said it all, really, imagine if the Series' dub proper had been like this in English the whole time, Pokemon would've had a fantastic English dub of high repute: 4Kids really redeemed themselves by putting out their best Movie dubs during Hoenn at a time they were not doing so with the Anime (they started keeping the score/OST ironically in the Movies from mid Johto onward and the Pikachu Shorts from M03's Pikachu and Pichu at a time they decided to replace more in the Anime dub simultaneously, it's complicated and not at all like the TPCi run here!). The music, the voice acting, the script writing, it's all mostly stellar and top notch stuff, surprisingly.

Pikachu Shorts: A tie between Camp Pikachu and Gotta Dance (Movie 5's Short & Movie 6's Short, Late Johto-Early Hoenn)

Theatrical Pikachu Short 05

Theatrical Pikachu Short AG 01

Just leaving these here, to hear any 4Kids dub is as enjoyable as the Japanese Version is unthinkable, but happened in these two instances.

Spinoffs: Pokemon Origins, though it hasn't aged well at all in hindsight.

The script adaptation is solid through the first few files to File 3, and the OST is kept, as well as the VA work being good overall.

However, you get typical JYB same-voicing another role as Brock and while it's better than what Bill Rogers' rendition ended up as over time, it's about as generic/bland/boring as Bauer's take in Masters and just "there" (he's actually met Eric Stuart at Dallas Comic Con as trivia and deferred to his Brock, didn't put his take in the picture, he knows where it's at lol) while Kyle Hebert is just...doing some deep voice which is his natural one as he thought Origins Oak was 40 years old not older (mistake) but he's better than JCC to me as well as Ben Diskin so it's not terrible...another just "there." Bryce Papenbrook's acting as Red blows Michele Knotz and BBT's out of the water, but Knotz makes more sense as a casting choice as a woman...??? The best choices that aged well are Lucien Dodge's Blue (probably because he had some experience in the main Anime dub during DP/BW first) and Jamieson Price's Giovanni, which are on par with JCC's Gary as well as Ted Lewis' Giovanni in hindsight. Also, "I searched specifically for those TINGS," as well as "Now I STANDS right here at the top" in File 4, yeesh no quality control check there at the end of it.

Overall: Early 4Kids/TAJ for the Anime, Late 4Kids for the Movies/Pikachu Shorts, and LA TPCi for the 2013 Spinoff (their later outing Generations was pretty bad though, not the same staff behind it so that makes sense!)

@R.O.B.

 

[R.O.B.]

I would say the dub was at its best during Hoenn for reasons I've brought up before: peak performances from most of the voice cast, Eric Stuart in particular was on fire, a lot of my favorite dialogue was in this series, and it had the best intros.