Problems with the English dub...

[lily liver]

Sicarius what's your complaint about their VAs? do they just not sound right in your opinion?

[Sicarius VI]

Ok, Maya and Aoba are passable, but Keith Burgess as Hyuga really did not work out for the movie, in any size, shape, or form. It sounds so terribly miscasted that it is as bad as Smucker's jam and the horrible translation of Misato giving us a in depth explanation of Third Impact during the car ride. Also I wish they had kept Fuyu's original actor.

As for everyone else in the movie, the minor roles like the solder in the beginning who sounds like a southern aren't really done that well either. But the main cast being Rei, Asuka, Shinji, Misato, Gendo, Ritsuko, etc are done well, and I don't have a problem with.

[Ray]

C'mon. Don't tell me you don't love black hyuga!

[Reichu]

The "black Hyuga" jokes, on their face, seem kind of ridiculous to me. You don't see anyone complaining about white-everyone-else, despite almost all of the characters actually being East Asian. Unfortunate implications? Very yes.

[robersora]

The "black Hyuga" jokes, on their face, seem kind of ridiculous to me. You don't see anyone complaining about white-everyone-else, despite almost all of the characters actually being East Asian. Unfortunate implications? Very yes.

That's because everyone else seems to talk Standard American English, while Hyuga suddenly, (and only in EoE) has a thick accent considered being part of afro-american culture.
It's jarring, to say the least.

this is the only major problem i have with the dub, and it infuriates me every time i hear it. who thought it sounded appropriate?:

It was the ADR director and voice actress for Rei. And according to the on-disc commentary, she wasn't going for appropriate, but for hilariously edgy.
(source: one of goat jesus' videos)

[BrikHaus]

Hey guys, do you remember the time Amanda Winn-Lee (who played Rei) came to EvaGeeks to chat with us, and then HAL 9000 ran her off because he was a total dick?

We could have gotten some fascinating insights into the creation of the EoE dub. Alas, it wasn't meant to be...

[pwhodges]

That happened during what in another thread is described as the "golden age" of the forum. Memories are so selective...

[Reichu]

That's because everyone else seems to talk Standard American English, while Hyuga suddenly, (and only in EoE) has a thick accent considered being part of afro-american culture. It's jarring, to say the least.

Because, as we know, whites and black live in completely segregated communities and never, ever interact, let alone work together. Oh, wait, that's not (totally) true!

What's next? Toji is "jarring" on account of being the token Kansaiben speaker?

[gatotsu911]

Hey guys, do you remember the time Amanda Winn-Lee (who played Rei) came to EvaGeeks to chat with us, and then HAL 9000 ran her off because he was a total dick?

We could have gotten some fascinating insights into the creation of the EoE dub. Alas, it wasn't meant to be...

This was perhaps the single greatest towering beacon of drama in Evageeks history. At least in the time I've been here.

[gatotsu911]

What's next? Toji is "jarring" on account of being the token Kansaiben speaker?

If Toji had spent 26 episodes not having that dialect and then spontaneously developed it for the movies, and was also supposed to be German or something, and it wasn't even a conscious dialect but simply a shitty non-actor not even bothering to cover up his IRL dialect - that would be pretty jarring, yes.

There are plenty of actually talented black VAs who can play non-black characters and do different dialects btw

Link I wanted to fit into this post but couldn't find a good spot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_A ... ar_English

[BrikHaus]

I had wanted to ask her about "black Hyuga," but in a tasteful way once she had gotten comfortable with us. Maybe I even did ask her, and she ran off before she could answer. I don't remember now, it was too long ago. Anyway, the important point is we need to know more about "black Hyuga."

[gatotsu911]

He was a producer at Manga Entertainment and a big fanboy who had a good relationship with AWL so with Matt Greenfield refusing to return as Hyuga because ADV wouldn't see any shekels for it, she cast him even though he can't act for shit. You can hear him in the dub for Dead Leaves as well, which she also directed for Manga. There are also some vids on Youtube (or used to be) where he's at con panels as a Manga rep.

I'm sure he's a nice guy and all he just should never have gotten behind the microphone

This is pure deduction on my part, but I'm guessing EoE had the misfortune of being translated and released right in the middle of Anno's "fuck anime, fuck Eva" period, thus the dub and subtitle translations made it out of production with some truly inexplicable lapses in judgment while a decade later, 3.33 gets held up at the last second for two freaking years for far lesser crimes.

[robersora]

Because, as we know, whites and black live in completely segregated communities and never, ever interact, let alone work together. Oh, wait, that's not (totally) true!

Sorry, I should have implemented "stereotypical portrayal" in front of Afro American culture to make my point clearer. Also the jarring point is less about him having an accent, but more about the fact it appeared out of nowhere.

@gatotsu911: Thanks, I owe you a blowjob. :cat grin: (where's the neko smiley?)

[gatotsu911]

I appreciate the offer but unless you're a hot unmarried lady I'll have to pass

[Reichu]

she cast him even though he can't act for shit

So, on par with the rest of the cast, then. (Hey, man, you left yourself wide open to that one...)

[gatotsu911]

Not really, because whatever your personal opinion of them the rest of the cast are actually trained as actors and/or VO people and non-actors are not. Some non-actors can act (more often the case on the screen than behind the mic) but not this one.

[Reichu]

Note the quoted part, "he can't act for shit", not "he is a non-actor". Therefore, the implication is that "the rest of the cast can't act for shit". Whether or not they are "trained", as you say, is immaterial for the purposes of my lame crack.

And needless to say, "training" does not equal "ability". It helps, yeah, but intrinsic ability along with quality and quantity of the training all play a role. I can respect that ADV and the voice actors were all doing their best under sub-optimal conditions, but that doesn't change the sub-optimal nature of the final product.

[gatotsu911]

I mean I get that it was just a cheap dig, but surely you are not sincerely suggesting that Black Hyuga isn't worse than the other voices

Also people like to talk about how anime dub VAs are bottom-of-the-barrel talentless hacks, or simply an inferior breed to their illustrious thespian Japanese counterparts (cough), but then in cases where they go on to have success in other fields of voice acting (games, cartoons, etc.) - e.g. Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham, Troy Baker - no one has anything to say. The fact of the matter is they're not really all that different.

What's a good anime dub to you Reichu? Because you post in every single one of these threads repeating how you don't like Eva's, but rarely if ever give us any evidence of what you, personally, would consider a good dub by way of comparison. There are legitimate criticisms to be made and legitimate reasons not to like it of course, but I can't imagine any variant of an Evangelion English dub that passes the Reichu test, because you're really laser-focused on the "integrity" of the original product and no adaptation is possibly going to live up to that. (And that's what it is, an adaptation. It's not the original; it's never going to be. But a person can like both "the movie" and "the book" for giving them different perspectives on the same story, even if the movie is flawed by comparison.)

And let me point out that there's nothing wrong (in and of itself) with being a purist, but it does raise the question of why you come into these threads, repeatedly, with the exact same rhetorical toolset in hand, if not to look for new ways to shit on something you're never going to like.

[Reichu]

gatotsu911: While I'd like to address your concerns, it does occur to me that this thread is called "Problems with the English dub", so it probably isn't the best place to dissect my habit of merrily divulging what I feel to be problems with the English dub... Though if you actually are curious and not just giving me a hard time for [reasons], I can post a full reply in a more appropriate place.