Why do people always bash American voice acting?

[Eredar Warlock]

Personally, I think the American voices are pretty good. I personally dislike the japanese voices, as to me a lot of them have an annoying tone or pitch to them. I don't understand why, every time I go to a club meeting, they vehemently insist on listening to the Japanese voices while reading subtitles.


Also, why is it that people also insist on using the Japanese name when it has a dubbed name? Fans of the Pokemon anime are *really* bad at this.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I think it's because American voice acting *used to* be pretty bad, even in domestic shows (like The Jetsons, for example--the acting in that was atrocious). But they're still stuck in the old days and refuse to look at the quality work being put out nowadays.

Heck, even a lot of so-called "bad dubs" still have decent voice work.

 

[Habunake]

The Jetsons had good VAing.

What do you mean by that?

 

[vee2x_paradox]

I think the bashing generally refers to the poorly made dubs with characters who have voices that don't match them at all.

And people insist on using the original name because they are used to that compared to an English name that they are not that familiar with.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

The Jetsons had good VAing.

What do you mean by that?

Dude, everyone sounded faked and forced, like they weren't trying at all. But that's for another topic.

 

[Cybersai]

Well, why not use Pokemon as an example?

Look at how some people reacted to the PUSA voices for the Pokemon characters. I find them all rather enjoyable, aside from Max's new horrible voice, but I can understand why others wouldn't like them.

You can pretty much find the answer to your question right in this very fandom about the dub of Pokemon.

 

[Zeta]

The only problem I have with US voice acting is that the casts tends to be much smaller, like four people to a show, and they try to do more voices by holding their nose or putting on an inappropriate fake accent to stretch the budget - and it totally doesn't work. Japanese voice casts tend to have unique voice actors for nearly every character, even minor incidental ones.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I donno, The Simpsons does that all the time (reuse VAs) and no one bashes them for it. And sometimes they don't even try to sound different--in the ep where Bart becomes a jockey, there was another jockey that sounded *exactly like him*. And no one complained.

 

[bell02+]

^^^ That's because they fit. I never complained about Seto Kaiba sounding like Brock because I thought the voices fit for both of the characters.

Also, why is it that people also insist on using the Japanese name when it has a dubbed name? Fans of the Pokemon anime are *really* bad at this.

I do this at times because I forget the english names of stuff and don't want to look it up (because I watch the Japanese episodes more than the english ones)

As for the topic itself. I don't get annoyed by a voice in any language, but that doesn't mean I like all the voices. If they don't match, they don't match, and sometimes the english dub voices just don't sound good.

(Of course, other times I don't like the Japanese voices sometimes because I don't think they fit a character either if I read the manga first for a while before the anime. For example, I didn't like Luffy's voice when then anime first came out in Japan, and I still don't like Rukia's Japanese voice (but I think the American one is good))

 

[Adamant]

Why do people always bash American voice acting?

Because a lot (not all, but a lot) of it is not very good, and often sounds annoyingly different from the original.
It's not voice acting as a whole, though, it's usually dubs in particular. American animation often has very good voice acting.

I don't understand why, every time I go to a club meeting, they vehemently insist on listening to the Japanese voices while reading subtitles.

Well, it's the original. It's what the characters were supposed to sound like. People wanting to watch the original show/movie/whatever rather than a foreign adaption should be commended, since they don't demand things get changed according to their standards before watching it.
Do you need your foreign live action movies dubbed as well, or are you applying different standards to those (and yes, I know the average American doesn't watch much non-American films. Work with me here, I'm not American)?

You do realize what you actually asking, right? "Why do these people prefer the original work with avilable translations rather than an altered version edited to seem more like material from whatever country it was edited in?" There's a little word called xenophobia.

Also, why is it that people also insist on using the Japanese name when it has a dubbed name? Fans of the Pokemon anime are *really* bad at this.

Because not every watches the dub, or is as familiar with it as with the original, and would prefer to refer to things the way they are referred to in what THEY watch. If people don't yell at you for using American dub names, you shouldn't yell at them for using the original names.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

You do realize what you actually asking, right? "Why do these people prefer the original work with avilable translations rather than an altered version edited to seem more like material from whatever country it was edited in?" There's a little word called xenophobia.

You're assuming, though, that all dubs do that, which they don't. I don't consider things like localizing puns to be "xenophobia".

 

[Adamant]

Of course it isn't, that's just an effect of localization. Preferring "American dubs" in general over the original version, no matter the medium or original language, however, is.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

It's xenophobic to like something in a language you're used to rather than the original? That's bull.

Books are translated all the time and no one complains. Everything from Shakespeare to Rowling (and in hers they even made some stupid changes but that's like the one thing I *don't* see HP fans wanking about) to Marquez... And I don't think liking a translation of a book makes you a xenophobe.

I suppose by that logic, it would make the creator of Cowboy Bebop a xenophobe, because there's an oft-repeated tale that he said he liked the dub better than the Japanese track.

 

[Adamant]

It's xenophobic to like something in a language you're used to rather than the original? That's bull.

It's the very definition of the word - fear of the foreign and unknown. Not wanting to listen to a foreign movie, even though it's perfectly understandable through the magic of subtitles, unless the movie is edited to have local voices, certainly fits under that.

Books are different, since there's only one way of translating them: replacing the text with translated text. For media that's both visual AND audial (...that's not the right word, is it?), simply telling people what the on-screen sharacters are saying in text form let's people understand WITHOUT having the original material altered in any way, which really SHOULD be the preferred method, right?

Also, while I'm no Harry Potter fan, I've heard my share of complaints about the ridiculous name changes in those books.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

There's also a difference between "not wanting to" and "having done so and still prefering the translation". You're assuming that anyone who prefers a dub hasn't seen the original and refuses to, when that's simply not the case.

 

[Adamant]

No, which is why I'm talking about dubs in general, rather than a single dub.

I quote from the first post:

I don't understand why, every time I go to a club meeting, they vehemently insist on listening to the Japanese voices while reading subtitles.

This is not talking about one dub in specific, this outright says "Why on Earth do anyone want to watch the original version of any movie/TV show instead of the American dub?" Preferring the American dub of anything and everything over the original version IS xenophobic and elitist.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Preferring the American dub of anything and everything over the original version IS xenophobic and elitist.

I think it depends on your reasons. If you like it better for the sole reason of it being in English and being localized, that's one thing. But what if you think the translators did a better job of writing it? What if you think the acting's better in the dub than it was to begin with? Those aren't xenophobic in the least, those are valid reasons to like something.

And I'm talking about dubs in general too. What *else* is elitist (and, to an extent, xenophobic) is assuming that someone who prefers a dub has never seen the original or otherwise they couldn't possibly like the dub so much. And also that a dubbing company couldn't do as good or better of a job as the original people--that's pretty elitist.

For another example--Hollywood remakes movies rather than releasing the original film either subbed or dubbed. I consider that to be pretty xenophobic right there. But it's an accepted practice. Dubbing companies aren't going back and remaking series instead of releasing the original here, that would be stupid. Even the most edited of dubs is still the original work at heart.

 

[Adamant]

I think it depends on your reasons. If you like it better for the sole reason of it being in English and being localized, that's one thing. But what if you think the translators did a better job of writing it? What if you think the acting's better in the dub than it was to begin with? Those aren't xenophobic in the least, those are valid reasons to like something.

Yes, but in that case you'd have to have been exposed to both versions first. Plus, it's really not very realistic that someone, in every single instance, will find the American dub of something better than the original.

And I'm talking about dubs in general too. What *else* is elitist (and, to an extent, xenophobic) is assuming that someone who prefers a dub has never seen the original or otherwise they couldn't possibly like the dub so much. And also that a dubbing company couldn't do as good or better of a job as the original people--that's pretty elitist.

True. I never did that.

For another example--Hollywood remakes movies rather than releasing the original film either subbed or dubbed. I consider that to be pretty xenophobic right there. But it's an accepted practice. Dubbing companies aren't going back and remaking series instead of releasing the original here, that would be stupid. Even the most edited of dubs is still the original work at heart.

I didn't know it happened that often, and haven't actually seen any of these remakes, so I can't really comment, but yes, the lack of non-American movies in American theatres is really ridiculous, as is this practice of remaking foreign movies.

 

[Zeta]

Some people just plain have trouble reading subtitles and keeping up with the action on screen.

 

[Eredar Warlock]

I believe I addressed this in my first post.


The Japanese voices have (in my opinion) a rather annoying tone of voice to them. I've listened to both sides on several occasions, and prefer the English voice acting for several reasons. I've noticed that Japanese voice acting tends to be higher pitched than American voice acting, and I much prefer characters with deeper voice.

The other (And biggest) reason is that I prefer to watch an anime, not read the subtitles.



You're calling me xenophobic simply because I have a personal preference. That's like calling me racist because most of my friends aren't part of minorities.