The dubbing of Lucky Star
 

This thread is for the discussion of English Voice Actors in the R1 release of Lucky Star.

Please do not use this thread to whinge and whine that you do not like any sort of English dub. No one is forcing you to listen to the dub so if you do not like it then simply listen to the Japanese track and turn the subtitles on.

Please remember these simple rules when critiquing a VA's performance or reading another forum member's critique:

• Don't take it personally.
  In other words, you’re free to disagree with another person’s opinion, but don’t flame them if they offer a well written and well thought out analysis that differs from your own opinion. Keep it civil.
  
  
• Voice Actors are humans.
  Yes, it’s true. They’re human. Therefore, don’t just indiscriminately rip them and their work apart as if they’re inorganic objects. You don’t have to flame praise them non-stop, but be thoughtful in your criticism.

Except for the Gundam series I've never known Bandai to pull off a good dub (Love Hina... what a mess that was), but i am thankful that Bandai is bringing Lucky Star to the US. I really don't know the VAs of Bandai too well so i really can't give a good opinion about who should play who. I just hope they pick the VAs carefully.

I've only encountered a handful of dubs that didn't have me sticking icepicks in my ear. All the companies tend to pull from the same pool of VAs. They all have the VAs "almost" cold-read their lines separately in isolation (unlike in Japan where the VAs practice extensively and mostly read as a group for better emoting results). The results *sound* like people reading in a studio and in isolation.

Therefore I really don't care *which* company licenses it -- it'll be really iffy whether I like the dubs and since they'll almost certainly use a couple of VAs I can't stand....
... I'm better off with the original language and dealing with the subtitles (though those have mixed results as well... I'm going to be interested in seeing how they handle the puns and proverb references).

I will say a few recent dubs of various series have been passable... but it only takes one atrocious VA to tip the apple cart for group effort.

I'd like to see dubbing companies actually SHARE VAs with each other. a wider variety of voices would actually improve the quality of the dubbing.

You have seen Cowboy Bebop, right? :p

Makes sense, but the travel expenses alone would kill that idea...

:cool:

It'd be so great if they found and employed the girl from this clip : http://youtube.com/watch?v=T8btXrQ2Ujw
I've never heard anyone getting so close to the original hirano aya's performance and propably never will... To bad, that my wish is so impossible to happen :(

Hm, so the liscencing is indeed true. Now to see how the actors are. I can't judge till I hear how they sound. Who knows they might be good.. :D or the other way around. :x

Kagami should be pretty easy...western VAs seem to have no problem sounding dramatic. Konata, on the other hand...would be insanely difficult. First, you need this really nasal childlike intonation with equally childish speaking pace. Hirano Aya, even if you hate the fandom surrounding her, does win as an impeccable seiyuu in her own right for carrying this out so perfectly. I am of the belief that no western VA (in this business, at the least) can pull this off nearly as well. There simply aren't enough of them in the western industry.

First, lemme say that I'm glad that L*S is now licensed and it won't be this niche anime that people will go "?" when I refer to it. Even at Anime Expo a lot of people there don't know what L*S is or how Aya Hirano and Minori Chihara are related (though I caught on Timotei and DBZ OP). At least people will now know who I'm named after.

One of the many things I consider so unique and likable about Konata is her voice. It's got this sleepy nasal childlike intonation to it, just like you said. It was this voice, and not Haruhi, that made me like Aya Hirano so much that I was willing to stay in long lines just to go see her panel and attempt to get her sig (I went to AX mostly because Aya's the seiyuu of Konata, not primarily because I was a Haruhi fan). That voice is very hard to pull off, but she's done it consistently throughout all the episodes. I will give major props to someone who can pull it off as well as Aya. It doesn't help that Konata is my most favorite anime character of all time, and with my favorites I'm usually tough to judge on how people perform her.

I also hope that there's chemistry too between Konata and Kagami. Although not as evident in early episodes, their banter was one of the most enjoyable parts about the show.

I figured with the massive amount of Haruhi references that only Bandai would pick it up, and I was hoping it wouldn't come to this. Yes, I hate dubs, but some have managed to not make me want to slap the voice actors and the casting director (Air). I'm not a big fan of the Haruhi dub - it's barely within tolerance (save the dubbing of the song God Knows, which is a travesty on its own), so I can't imagine Bandai's going to pull a sparkling gem out of their talent pool for this casting. Some of them might go okay, like Kagami, but Konata... unless someone is entering the business and making Lucky Star debut that can pull it off, I cant' think of anyone already working that can properly do Konata.

That said, yes, I don't have to watch the dub (I'll at least sample it), but I would at least like to have the comfort that it's being done right.

The comedy duo format will probably make or break the dub ... what are the odds they'll have the two VAs chosen actually work together in the recording sessions? (probably zero).

As long as the video quality is good and they actually bother to do decently translated subs (with footnotes), the dubs could be in "Murloc" for all I care :) --- but that's just my own personal needs.

In the end who cares really. Aren't most of you(read:all of you), going to switch on the japanese track and turn on the subs after rofling 5mins how bad the dub. There are some cases where dub do sound good enough. LS is just one of those series you can't dub right. No matter how good the VA is tbh.

What I am really about is that I hope they do the sub right. Some DVDs' sub doesn't even turn out right for that. :(

Read the topic..... If you don't care , you don't need to come in this topic.

Hmm... one thing I'm wondering in particular how it'd be done...



It'd be interesting if Bandai were to team up with ADV to work on this show... but that's hugely unlikely.

Well, if a series I've already watched on fansub form becomes licensed, I somtimes do listen to the dubs on the dvd. I mean, unless the dub is absolutely horrid, if I want to watch something again, I might as well get a different experience out of it... I'm not exactly sure why it can't be dubbed right though. I mean, they did have a decent Haruhi dub, and ADV did dub Azumanga Daioh (I wasn't really fond of Osaka's voice, but every other character was fine). They didn't neglect or badly execute most of the cultural or otaku references in the scripts either. It's tricky, but not impossible to have a decent quality dub.

What? Are you serious? The Ocean Group dubbed the Gundam series and I dislike ALL of Ocean's dubs that I've heard so far. They're among those whose performances are either flat or over the top. Bandai might as well give this one to BZE too.

I meant the ORIGINAL Gundam and other UC century series (Gundam Wing and G Gundam included) were good dubbs. Gundam Seed and GSD left alot to be desired.

Well Vic Mignogna has done a minor role in the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya which is a Bang Zoom! dub so I don't think that'll be a problem.

make the english dubbers of Haruhi be the dubbers of L*S