Postby gatotsu911 » Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:34 pm
Most of the audience seemed to like it, if the fact that it received a standing ovation from the entire screening room exempting maybe five people at the end was any indication. I thought it was pretty good, anyway; like the first film, it's more well-rounded than the ADV and Manga dubs, meaning it doesn't have any of the facepalm-worthy low-points, but it also doesn't quite have any of the exhilarating high points found in those dubs. (Now's as good a time as any to proclaim that I am a huge fan of the original dubs; though I wouldn't dare pretend they were flawless or anything near it, I maintain that when firing on all cylinders they remain some of the best performances in the history of anime dubbing.)
A few more specifics on my impression of the 2.0 dub: Spike Spencer continued to be the most consistently excellent performance in the series, and there are moments in this movie where he just nails it, single-handedly selling the scene. Allison Keith was also superb as ever, although I was ever-so-slightly disappointed with her monologue during Misato's most emotional scene in the film. I am really warming up to Justin Cook as Toji, and I think Michael J. Tatum did great as Kaji, exerting just the right amount of aloofness and swagger. On the negative side, I think Brina Palencia actually got a little bit worse as Rei compared to the first movie, and Greg Ayres as Kensuke is by far the most grating performance in the dub. I'm actually surprised by this, as I came to respect him quite a bit after being blown away by his performance in Welcome to the NHK; I guess his acting quality is just a huge variable. Trina Nishimura as Mari, I felt, was neither here nor there; we know so little about the character that it's kind of hard to define her, and by extent what she "should" sound like, at this point. I thought the script was decent; smooth enough to get the job done, but not quite as strong or quotable as some of the better parts of the earlier dubs. I actually liked the fact that Mari was given coarse language and a tendency toward swearing; it helps establish her character and gives her dialogue a personality that it would otherwise be lacking. I only counted one F-bomb, though; not sure where you heard the other ones, Aaron.
I should also point out that I too fall heavily on the side of "localization" over "translation", at least for dubs. That's probably why I loved the previous Evangelion dubs, and hated the dub for FLCL.
@Eva-04: They re-dubbed them, and rewrote the dialogue a bit.
"I am shocked, SHOCKED, that a regular on an Evangelion forum would be a self-hating mess." - Tarnsman, paraphrased
"Jesus Christ, why are we even still talking about this shit?" - The Eva Monkey, summing up Evageeks in a sentence
Avatar: The Frozen Flame ~ Where Angels Lose Their Way