I watched it dubbed and quite enjoyed it.
"I mean, really, how many times will you look under Jabba's manboobs?"
Ruin? The 1988 dubbing was done rather well and remains one of my favorite dubbings next to Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell. The 2001 dubbing however was pretty bad IMHO, they had the voice talent, but it felt like a rushed project and was totally unnecessary.
Because sponges never have bad days.
I have the Blu-ray and watched part of the movie in the Streamline 1988 dub, but it was incredibly compressed sounding so I switched to the extremely clear and uncompressed 2001 Geneon dub. I liked the Streamline dub's voices slightly better but both were good. I can only picture Vash the Stampede whenever I hear Johnny Yong Bosch's voice, though.
shareIMHO the dubbing of the first Ghost in the Shell film ruined it.
shareAre you talking about this particular movie or watching anime in general ?
shareDoesn't matter. The OP is an anime snob.
Snoogans.
Well, I haven't seen English dub of "Akira" so can't say about this very case, but I often hear people talking about how you should always watch movies (and most often it's about anime) in the original language ONLY with subtitles ONLY. Because the translation kills the original, completely ruins the movie, yada yada yada. And with that I strongly disagree - why instead of watching what is going on on screen I have to look at the bottom of screen reading what they're saying and in addition seeing the whole dialog at once ? If the dub is done properly it can even be better than the original.
shareFirstly, no effort is required by the regular viewer of subtitled films, he/she automatically assimilates both text and image. Secondly, I've NEVER seen a foreign language film 'improved' by dubbing (a frankly ludicrous, not to say arrogant and offensive idea).
Finally, the reason the subtitled version of Akira is superior is simply a matter of it adequately communicating the plot - something neither of the English language dubs achieve.
I don't know, maybe it's just me, but reading subtitles really distracts from the movie. You cannot read the text with one eye and see rest of the picture with the other, for some time you need to switch your attention to the bottom of the screen (and miss smth else, a small detail, a character's facial expression etc).
I agree, that there are a lot of examples of dub ruining the movie (I know a lot of such cases myself). But that doesn't mean dubs cannot be better than the original. A recent example I can think of off the top of my head - Ukrainian dub of "The Hobbit", both voice choices and voice acting was superior to English version.
Then again, I haven't seen "Akira" in English dub, so cannot say anything about this very movie.
I have no difficulty watching a film and reading the subs at the same time.
shareEver seen baccano english dubbed?
shareI have to say while I don't think a dub has ever improved a movie, having to read subtitles is a pretty big handicap, especially for a movie as visually exciting as Akira. I first saw this movie with the '88 dub, it almost feels weird to watch it any other way (I've watched it with the subtitled original audio track as well and didn't find it all that better.)
Some movies it does make a huge difference, like (La Femme) Nikita, the English dub on that is horrible, I won't watch it any other way but the original French with subtitles. But Akira was dubbed pretty well imo.
or maybe not lol http://www.WorldofBong.com
Finally, the reason the subtitled version of Akira is superior is simply a matter of it adequately communicating the plot - something neither of the English language dubs achieve.
So the plot is better received by reading, what amounts to, exactly what a voice over would be saying. Please explain that.
Have you ever watched a dubbed movie? They don't restrict them to mouth movements. Also this is a cartoon, the mouth movements never are perfect, regardless of language.
movies watched in 2015 http://www.imdb.com/list/ls073644637/
WHY is the dub restricted to the mouth movements? No good reason that I can think of. When in Star Trek did the universal translator ever not match the mouth movements? Silliness.
shareWatch an anime on Netflix. Put language on English and subtitles English instead of English 🇨🇨. English 🇨🇨 is the same as the English dub, English is what they're meant to say without mouth movement and length of sentence restriction.
shareIt is quite apparent that you've never watched a subtitled film. Why do you then still think you can expertly comment on the subject?
Registered date
Tue Jan 23 2001
What makes you think that I have never watched a subtitled film ? Because I wrote that subtitles are distracting ? This fact alone hints that I have.
Then, in which part of the post did I mention that I'm going to express my highly expert opinion on the subject ?
I am also an anime snob and proud of it.
shareIn General.
Warriors of the Wind, edited, dubbed:
"I won't let you give up now, Milo!"
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, original, subbed:
"What do you mean, annihilated?"
Dubbing quality depends purely on the performance of those doing the dubbing, it can be good, bad, better, or worse.
shareMy point exactly. Claiming that dub is weaker than original by default is shortsighted at best.
shareNo it doesn't. Some of the anime I have seen have dialogue quite different from the original. Most of the dubs I have seen have the same dialogue, only changed to fit the mouth movements better, but some of them are dumbed down.
shareI will disagree partially. It depends on the circumstance. For live-action, yes, I often find dubbing ruins the experience (particularly because it never matches visually, and has an almost fourth-wall breaking look that is distracting for me), but with animation, it's a toss-up, because that matching isn't quite perfect with the original Japanese dialog either due to the style. So it becomes a choice of which simply sounds better to me.
In some cases, I find the English dubbing in many Anime, video-games, etc. to be arguably superior to the Japanese original dialog. (Hell, I know in some cases, even the Japanese creators prefer the English dubs, such as Hideo Kojima with his Metal Gear Solid franchise)
"Akira" is one of those cases where I could go either way, as I find the two English dubs to be fantastic and as good as the original Japanese. (Although I will go against the popular opinion and say I far prefer the 2001 dub, as the '88 dub sounds silly in spots and the dialog seems slightly more robotic in writing to me) But in some other Anime I prefer exclusively watching the dubbed version. (Excel Saga, Cowboy Bebop and GTO feel like better productions in English to me, because the actors are truly giving their all, and seem to match the visuals better than the Japanese audio, for example.) And there are also some where I prefer the subtitles and original Japanese audio.
It's foolish and even snobby to say that dubbing always exclusively "ruins" a product. It's a subjective thing from person to person.
And FURTHERMORE, this is my signature! SERIOUSLY! Did you think I was still talking about my point?
2001 dub all day. Everyone sounds the same in japanese.
shareDon't be such a tumbling, tumbling idiot.
share