The Dubbing of Haruhi Suzumiya

[FatPianoBoy]

Originally Posted by darkchibi07

That's going to be an audio engineer's nightmare and not to mention the rest of the voice actors. Do realize by doing that there will be NO ambient or background noise from anything and anyone since it will get picked up by the mics. And also the audio engineer has to edit and splice a lot of audio tracks in order to get a proper sync.

And finally, to pull off getting everyone into the same booth, everyone's schedules has to match up which is RARELY possible since VAs has other obligations to tend to.

... Japan doesn't seem to have much of a problem with any of this. Neither does The Simpsons, which is one of the few (only?) American animations to use this technique.

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by FatPianoBoy

... Japan doesn't seem to have much of a problem with any of this. Neither does The Simpsons, which is one of the few (only?) American animations to use this technique.

True, but in both those situations, the studios have been set up for that. The way English dubbing is usually set up is for the VAs to come in one at a time and be dubbed separately, and for that to be changed would be a huge logistical ordeal for the studio.

That's not even taking into account the fact that due to the smaller talent pool in the US, VAs have to work on a number of jobs at once to meet the demand, and that would screw up the schedules of other jobs they have. In the case of The Simpsons, those VAs are paid well enough that they don't need to do additional work (not true with the vast majority of English VA jobs), and thus most of them don't. Then they get around many of the remaining scheduling issues involved in pulling an ensemble dub by having most of the VAs pulling double and triple duty.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Wow the English cast is actually better. They nailed pretty much everything. I don't care how much everybody says Aya Hirano is perfect and beyond compare, but even Wendee Lee's job was spot on if you consider she's an english speaker and this is in english. The only one I didn't like is Yuki's voice, but that's because I never liked her voice to begin with when it was Minori Chihara. There just keeping things accurate.

[FatPianoBoy]

I thought Wendee Lee's delivery was a little sterile, actually. Haruhi's supposed to be an incorrigibly motivated loose canon, and I just wasn't getting that. And no, I'm not comparing her to Hirano, since that's not really fair nor applicable.
I'm not sure how you could make a call on Yuki's voice after just hearing her say her name, though

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by FatPianoBoy

I thought Wendee Lee's delivery was a little sterile, actually. Haruhi's supposed to be an incorrigibly motivated loose canon, and I just wasn't getting that. And no, I'm not comparing her to Hirano, since that's not really fair nor applicable.
I'm not sure how you could make a call on Yuki's voice after just hearing her say her name, though

I don't know that's kind of what I got exactly is the stubborn arrogance and the idea that she needs to be in charge of the situation. That kind of got old on me fast though, which is why I wish they showed a bit more of the everyday Haruhi instead of the scenes where she's bossing people around. Ultimately, in the long run that personality trait doesn't even last very long to the degree it exists in the anime if you read the novels. After the defining event at the end of series you read the novel and she settles down substantially and they all chill out doing everyday stuff and getting serious character development with only a few strange things happening every now and then. (The malice in her character is diminished substantially as well) The series honestly picked like the worst time to end unless you are watching chronologically. (That's when the character development really kicks off).

Anyway, maybe they might want to release some clips with a bit more than soundbites (Actually they were more like Sound nibblets). Man I swear trailers kind of suck no matter what the subject is though. They never tell you anything valuable. Admittedly this one is far and away better than your average ADV Trailer (Play music from the show with random scenes from the anime). Now we get random scenes with people talking from the anime:

Haruhi: "Hey I'm Haruhi Suzumiya"
Yuki: "Y...U....K...I...Na.................Ga....... To"
Audience: "Hey what do you do"
Haruhi: "Huh!"
Audience: "You know whats your show about"
Haruhi: "Uhhhh. I'm Haruhi Suzumiya?!"
Audience: ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!

Unless they are deliberately trying to hide something though, I think the voices are just as good as the originals in the context of the English language. I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with me though, as Aya Hirano and Sugita Tomokazu are so damn popular that a lot of people think they are incomparable gods of voice acting. I kind of feel sorry for Wendee Lee and Crispin Freeman as a lot of people aren't likely to give them a fair chance even though they sound as close to a proper fit for the characters as anyone could possibly be without actually being the original voice actors. (Plus they have almost incomparable experience compared to Aya Hirano who has much room to improve. Not so much Sugita though as he has a fair number of series under his belt). Like a lot of people say, its getting used to it that will be the hardest.

[FatPianoBoy]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

I don't know that's kind of what I got exactly is the stubborn arrogance and the idea that she needs to be in charge of the situation. That kind of got old on me fast though, which is why I wish they showed a bit more of the everyday Haruhi instead of the scenes where she's bossing people around. Ultimately, in the long run that personality trait doesn't even last very long to the degree it exists in the anime if you read the novels. After the defining event at the end of series you read the novel and she settles down substantially and they all chill out doing everyday stuff and getting serious character development with only a few strange things happening every now and then. (The malice in her character is diminished substantially as well) The series honestly picked like the worst time to end unless you are watching chronologically. (That's when the character development really kicks off).

Well, they only covered the first volume with a few snippets from other novels, and she was like that for the entirety of the first novel, so it's kind of unavoidable that she'd seem that way. We get a lot of her more subdued demeanor in Live A Live and Someday in the Rain, and character development in these episodes is quite progressive, but most of the chapters from other novels they used are the ones when that trait resurfaces (Lone Island Syndrome, Day of Sagittarius, Boredom).

Anyway, maybe they might want to release some clips with a bit more than soundbites (Actually they were more like Sound nibblets).

I think they plan on releasing a bit more of the dub on May 29th

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by quigonkenny

That's a great post. I think more people need to realize that there really isn't an English VA equivalent to Aya Hirano as Haruhi. How often do you hear someone on a forum somewhere talking about how they didn't realize Aya Hirano was so-and-so in such-and-such anime that came out before Haruhi came along? She's been around for a while, but in a way, that role retroactively made her career.

I just noticed this post. I'd go so far as to say it both retroactively and proactively made her career as well. At this point in time she could put on the worst performance of her life and it would still be hailed as a hallmark of voice acting worthy of legend. That's the main reason I have this strange feeling that Wendee Lee is going to be getting some tough and unfair questions when the Haruhi panel makes does its next convention.

[Cloud05]

Originally Posted by quigonkenny

I wouldn't worry too much about it. From the rest of "Haruhi's" post, it just looks like it's a setup for Episode 006, "Haruhi Makes Her Directorial Debut" (or something like that) as noted at the end of 005.

Of course if they do change the voice, I nominate Richard Epcar (Daisuke Jigen, Batou, Zangetsu).

I thought the cats voice was great, I busted up when he started talking.

[rem]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

Wow the English cast is actually better. They nailed pretty much everything. I don't care how much everybody says Aya Hirano is perfect and beyond compare, but even Wendee Lee's job was spot on if you consider she's an english speaker and this is in english. The only one I didn't like is Yuki's voice, but that's because I never liked her voice to begin with when it was Minori Chihara. There just keeping things accurate.

I agree with you-- I can actually listen to Wendee Lee and not cringe Not to say that Aya Hirano didn't do a good job with the character, but her voice had an edge to it that really annoyed me. The rest of the American cast sounded quite good, and worthy successors to the Japanese cast. I'm wondering, though, at the choice of the translators/writers for the series-- the line of Haruhi's, "Listen up, boys! Here's what's going down!" is horrid! No one speaks like that, highschoolers or faux-cool adults I wish they would get in some competent writers who could make Haruhi and the others speak in a more realistic fashion!

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by rem

I agree with you-- I can actually listen to Wendee Lee and not cringe Not to say that Aya Hirano didn't do a good job with the character, but her voice had an edge to it that really annoyed me. The rest of the American cast sounded quite good, and worthy successors to the Japanese cast. I'm wondering, though, at the choice of the translators/writers for the series-- the line of Haruhi's, "Listen up, boys! Here's what's going down!" is horrid! No one speaks like that, highschoolers or faux-cool adults I wish they would get in some competent writers who could make Haruhi and the others speak in a more realistic fashion!

Bang-Zoom dub translation: "Listen up, boys. Here's what's going down..."
Baka-Tsuki novel translation: "Since you've said that, we have our ways."
a.f.k. fansub translation: "I see. Well, I have my own ideas about that."

The dub translation is obviously different, not even taking into account that the Baka-Tsuki translation may not even be of the same words (although a.f.k.'s Strato translated the line almost exactly the same as in the fansub in his novel translation), but the spirit of the line is certainly there. Who says "We have our ways," anyway, outside of Bond villains and Toht from Raiders of the Lost Ark? Having Haruhi "speak in a more realistic fashion" would be a failure, because Haruhi doesn't speak in a realistic fashion.

[QBnoYouko]

As long as the dub cast does a good job portraying their characters I'll be satisfied. So far, I think most of the actors and actresses voices will fit, especially Stephanie Sheh's.

Of course, I'm waaay more interested in the Special Edition DVDs with all the special goodies.

[Yazakura]

XP

Haruhi sounds like a donkey in the dub. XD XD XD

Seriously, I saw this interveiw for the Haruhi dubbed series done by anime fans in California, they showed the dubbed version of Haruhi and I went something like this...

[Animexcel]

I think Wendee Lee's voice sounds like Aya Hirano's singing voice as to her talking voice.

[darkchibi07]

English trailer is out!

http://asosbrigade.com/

The trailer will give more chances to experience more of Wendee Lee's rendition of Haruhi.

[FatPianoBoy]

In my completely objective opinion (meaning that the fact that it's Haruhi has not been considered), that may be one of the best trailers I've ever seen. It not only makes you wonder "WTF is this?", it makes you want to find out.

The jury is still out on Ms. Lee's rendition. I must say that I'm still not very hopeful.

[Dagger]

I'm not a huge Wendee Lee fan, so I guess I'm biased, but I think although she's got the right enthusiasm, it's just too obvious that it's acting.

And hey... is that footage from the full ED dance?

[FatPianoBoy]

Originally Posted by Magus IX

I'm not a huge Wendee Lee fan, so I guess I'm biased, but I think although she's got the right enthusiasm, it's just too obvious that it's acting.

And hey... is that footage from the full ED dance?

You hit the nail on the head right there.

And yes, that is footage from the full dance sequence. There's also some extra footage from the DVD release in there, too.

[cmage]

Originally Posted by FatPianoBoy

There's also some extra footage from the DVD release in there, too.

Would that be why some of the parts are unfamiliar to me?

I've been listening to it, and I think I can live with Wendee Lee's voice. It doesn't immediately cry 'Haruhi' to me, but I think it'll grow on me as I watch the dub. I think this is one dub I'll definitely be watching, just so I can get twice the Haruhi out of the DVDs.

[2H-Dragon]

While the dub overall is bad. I know a lot of people tend to bash dubs I do to, but on the overall dub scale this does score below average. It's the kinda dubbing you expect hentai to get. I think I really did hear em in some random hentai. O_o Not that I really care. If I can get the Japanese voices and English subs on the DVD I ain't complaining.

[FatPianoBoy]

The subber's l33tness got old about a year ago for me, guys.
The only voice I'm truly concerned about is Wendee Lee's. Everyone seems to be doing a bang-up job presenting their characters and their personalities (especially Mikuru and Kyon), so I really don't see what the problem is.