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I do a really rambly review and generally be a dub fangirl
Oh, man. This was a terrible week for homework. And sleep. The most sleep I got was six hours. And it doesn't look like this weekend will be much better. A long weekend and everything. D: D: D:
But somewhere in the middle of all this madness I did get to watch the first episode of the Ouran dub (yes, late Vethie is late orz). Now, normally I don't have quite as high standards for dubs as some people do, but even still I was very impressed. For starters, the opening and ending were completely redone in English. I'm not going to claim they're as good as the originals, because they just don't flow as well, but you've gotta respect that level of commitment. The voices sound the same and everything.
As for character voices, I don't see as how they could have gotten a better Haruhi. Caitlin Glass's voice is almost perfectly androgynous - a little too feminine when Haruhi's presenting male, ever-so-slightly too masculine when she's presenting female. I'll admit I had my doubts about Vic Mignogna as Tamaki, but he really surprised me. Spot-on. Doesn't sound a thing like Ed. Hikaru and Kaoru's voices kinda bugged me - I think they were a little high-pitched - but I'm guessing the original voices were probably about the same and I was too busy reading the subtitles to pay attention. On the other hand, I'm kinda in love with Kyouya's voice - it's so deep, and maybe sorta British? *swoons* Honey-sempai is Luci Christian, who is awesome (I'm biased). Yeah, maybe they could have gotten the girl who did Momiji, but I think they made a good choice. I can't say anything about Mori because I'm pretty sure he didn't speak in that episode, but uhhhhh it's Travis Willingham, so fingers crossed.
The main thing I was worried about translation-wise was how they were going to do the last line, the one about "I'll just start using 'ore' from now on". Obviously English doesn't have gendered first-person pronouns, so I couldn't think of how that could be translated. It turns out Haruhi is now going to call everyone "dude" and "bro" instead. I don't know how much of a distinction that is (or that Haruhi ever would call anyone "dude" or "bro"), but since there's no perfect way to translate that, I think they did a pretty good job. All other dialogue was translated well, although I did miss Hikaru's/Kaoru's (I can't remember which it was orz) line about "A guy like this, if you take off his glasses, it just makes his eyes look smaller". But that's probably just me. My only major complaint with the translation is that those boxes with the pink text that pop up were left in Japanese and subtitled in English. You'd think plain writing on a blank background would be the easiest thing to replace, but I guess not...? There just didn't seem any real reason to leave them. If those had been changed up, I think the experience would have been a lot more cohesive.
Mostly, I'm just really impressed by the quality of acting here. Sometimes some dubs just don't sound like the voice actors are acting, but only reading their lines a little emotionlessly (I'm looking at you, Bleach). Here, it's like the thing could have been made in English - if it weren't so Japanese, of course. If the rest of the episodes are like the first, we have an awesome dub on our hands.
Side note: am I the only person who thinks the messy-haired, beglassesed, baggy-sweatered Haruhi at the beginning was kind of a cute guy? Yeah, I thought so. OTL
And speaking of dubs, I'm going to say what I want to say next in a completely roundabout way. In Code Geass, if you think about it, the Britannians should have had British accents, shouldn't they? Because, I mean, they're Britannians. I gave the dubbers a pass on that one because it's probably hard to find that many American voice actors who can do good British accents. But if they ever dub the Hetalia anime (which I can't see why they wouldn't if it becomes popular, by the way. Talk about your multicultural appeal*), they have no excuse for not giving Canada and UK (and Sealand (FFFFFFF I JUST REALIZED THAT SEALAND IS BRITISH, BRITISH KIDS SOUND SO CUTE *.*)) their respective accents. No excuse. (Not that they should do this for countries where English isn't their first language, though. That'd get kind of incomprehensible. Unless they wanted to give France one, because you can't tell me you don't read the guy's dialogue with a French accent. HON HON HON.)
* Except in Korea. Which I just found out made the anime get canceled from TV because even though they took Korea out of the anime specifically for some reason Koreans still aren't satisfied. Geez Louise, Korea, why can't you be more like Korea? He may be an incestuous pervert, but he's an awesome one. =_= At least it'll still be available on the internet.
But somewhere in the middle of all this madness I did get to watch the first episode of the Ouran dub (yes, late Vethie is late orz). Now, normally I don't have quite as high standards for dubs as some people do, but even still I was very impressed. For starters, the opening and ending were completely redone in English. I'm not going to claim they're as good as the originals, because they just don't flow as well, but you've gotta respect that level of commitment. The voices sound the same and everything.
As for character voices, I don't see as how they could have gotten a better Haruhi. Caitlin Glass's voice is almost perfectly androgynous - a little too feminine when Haruhi's presenting male, ever-so-slightly too masculine when she's presenting female. I'll admit I had my doubts about Vic Mignogna as Tamaki, but he really surprised me. Spot-on. Doesn't sound a thing like Ed. Hikaru and Kaoru's voices kinda bugged me - I think they were a little high-pitched - but I'm guessing the original voices were probably about the same and I was too busy reading the subtitles to pay attention. On the other hand, I'm kinda in love with Kyouya's voice - it's so deep, and maybe sorta British? *swoons* Honey-sempai is Luci Christian, who is awesome (I'm biased). Yeah, maybe they could have gotten the girl who did Momiji, but I think they made a good choice. I can't say anything about Mori because I'm pretty sure he didn't speak in that episode, but uhhhhh it's Travis Willingham, so fingers crossed.
The main thing I was worried about translation-wise was how they were going to do the last line, the one about "I'll just start using 'ore' from now on". Obviously English doesn't have gendered first-person pronouns, so I couldn't think of how that could be translated. It turns out Haruhi is now going to call everyone "dude" and "bro" instead. I don't know how much of a distinction that is (or that Haruhi ever would call anyone "dude" or "bro"), but since there's no perfect way to translate that, I think they did a pretty good job. All other dialogue was translated well, although I did miss Hikaru's/Kaoru's (I can't remember which it was orz) line about "A guy like this, if you take off his glasses, it just makes his eyes look smaller". But that's probably just me. My only major complaint with the translation is that those boxes with the pink text that pop up were left in Japanese and subtitled in English. You'd think plain writing on a blank background would be the easiest thing to replace, but I guess not...? There just didn't seem any real reason to leave them. If those had been changed up, I think the experience would have been a lot more cohesive.
Mostly, I'm just really impressed by the quality of acting here. Sometimes some dubs just don't sound like the voice actors are acting, but only reading their lines a little emotionlessly (I'm looking at you, Bleach). Here, it's like the thing could have been made in English - if it weren't so Japanese, of course. If the rest of the episodes are like the first, we have an awesome dub on our hands.
Side note: am I the only person who thinks the messy-haired, beglassesed, baggy-sweatered Haruhi at the beginning was kind of a cute guy? Yeah, I thought so. OTL
And speaking of dubs, I'm going to say what I want to say next in a completely roundabout way. In Code Geass, if you think about it, the Britannians should have had British accents, shouldn't they? Because, I mean, they're Britannians. I gave the dubbers a pass on that one because it's probably hard to find that many American voice actors who can do good British accents. But if they ever dub the Hetalia anime (which I can't see why they wouldn't if it becomes popular, by the way. Talk about your multicultural appeal*), they have no excuse for not giving Canada and UK (and Sealand (FFFFFFF I JUST REALIZED THAT SEALAND IS BRITISH, BRITISH KIDS SOUND SO CUTE *.*)) their respective accents. No excuse. (Not that they should do this for countries where English isn't their first language, though. That'd get kind of incomprehensible. Unless they wanted to give France one, because you can't tell me you don't read the guy's dialogue with a French accent. HON HON HON.)
* Except in Korea. Which I just found out made the anime get canceled from TV because even though they took Korea out of the anime specifically for some reason Koreans still aren't satisfied. Geez Louise, Korea, why can't you be more like Korea? He may be an incestuous pervert, but he's an awesome one. =_= At least it'll still be available on the internet.
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