Postby gatotsu911 » Wed Apr 13, 2011 11:46 am
@Reichu: Everything you wrote I had assumed to be implicit to anyone posting on this forum, and particularly on this thread, but perhaps that was wrong of me. Thank you for articulating it so well. (No sarcasm there, btw.) I will admit I might have been getting a little overly defensive in that last post. Not everyone is going to like the dub, and not everyone has to; it is but one of two (or more?) ways in which to view this series. HOWEVER, since it is something I greatly enjoyed, I do find it somewhat frustrating how some people feel they can belittle it - with aforementioned hyperbole - without any justification or context. The wording, "the ADV dub, which I felt to be miscast and lacking in nuance" would have provoked quite a different response from me (if any) than "the atrocity that was the ADV dub". Additionally, some criticisms are more substantive than others, and since this is a thread dedicated to discussing and debating the quality of a dub, you can bet that I'll debate the statements I don't agree with if I have a specific response to them. I can't argue against people's opinions, but I can debate objective criticisms they make that I feel to be insufficiently grounded. I'll admit, though, that when people are instantly dismissive of or disparaging toward something I like - even something I like to which, again, I'll readily admit the existence of flaws and shortcomings - I can on occasion get a little bit irritated, specifically after encountering statements such as this for the I-don't-even-know-how-many-hundredth time, and in a place where I would like to expect better. It can wear down on you a bit.
@FFFFE: The point you raise in comparison of live-action dubs to animation dubs is an interesting one. As someone who never watches dubs of live-action films (exempting the most gloriously campy) but routinely watches dubs of animation, I would like to offer something of a converse: to me, dubbing of animation, Japanese animation in particular, is acceptable because the characters exist independently of the physique and performance of their original actors; that is to say, in live action, the voice of the actor is inextricably tied to their physical performance, while in animation, the "physical" performance and voice are completely separate entities. Anime especially, in contrast to Western animation, will typically produce the animation and the voice actors' recordings separately, meaning that the process of recording the original voices and dubbing them into another language is far more similar than you might think. Anime is not an actors' medium; the performances of the voice actors, in any language, are immensely dependent on the script and the instructions of their director. I suppose you could use that statement as a further argument against watching anime dubs, but I feel differently. The director has already produced exactly the visual cues they want, and the actors merely need to lend those cues a voice. If I were the casting director for an animation dub, my primary concern would be casting voices that are true to the spirit of the characters, not merely replications of their original-language counterparts. I'd rather allow the actors to act (even within the restrictive confines available to them), and put themselves into their performance, than concern themselves with imitating someone else's; I think that is more true to the directors' intent than trying to produce a pitch-perfect imitation of the original work. Also, speaking of directorial intent, the other major reason why I watch anime dubs; in anime (and video games), far more than most other mediums, the creators typically have a considerable say in how their work is translated and dubbed, and Evangelion is actually one of the first anime for which this was the case. Anno himself oversaw ADV's adaptation of the series (though how intensively, I'm still unclear); the alternate English episode titles and specifics on translation of terms such as "Angels" and "Instrumentality" were all by his insistence, and I've heard tell (though I can't confirm) that he gave his seal of approval to all of the dub cast. What was a revolutionary thing in the 90s (the only other anime from that time period for which the creator had extensive input in the localization - that I'm aware of - is Ghost in the Shell) is now common practice for companies like Funimation, Bandai, and ADV/Sentai. So when I'm watching a dub by any of these companies, I can rest assured that, more often than not, I am watching an adaptation approved by the original director. (Not that this ensures that every dub is good, as there are still plenty of times I prefer the subbed track - although the standard of quality for modern dubs is leaps and bounds above what it was in the 90s, that's for sure.) Unless I'm misinformed, live-action directors rarely put that kind of attention into foreign dubbing of their films. There are a bunch of other points to raise in the animation dubbing vs. live-action dubbing debate, but I imagine I've consumed enough of your time as is.
"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
Gendo'sPapa wrote:That might be a solid excuse if there wasn't a way to watch the series in a language OTHER than English. But that's impossible, I mean, it's not like there's a version of Neon Genesis Evangelion out there that comes in a different language.
Oh man, that's awesome. Too bad it's not in video form, though.
