Spice and Wolf - English Dub Discussion
 

At Otakon 2009, Funimation revealed the dub cast for the recently-licensed first season of Spice and Wolf.

This thread is to discuss expectations, valid concerns, and (eventually) impressions of the English dub effort for this show.

NOT PERMITTED: Any generic comments that dubs are "awful", or disparaging remarks about dub actors or dub fans. If you're not even planning on giving the dub a fair chance, then don't bother posting in this thread. Posters who don't abide by this guideline will receive warnings, infractions, and/or bans.

I'm actually rather satisfied with the cast. Brina Palenica is a pretty good voice actor with some decent range and I can see her potentially doing a good Horo. As for J. Michael Tatum, I think its an acceptable fit for Lawrence as Tatum's voice does have a kind of Lawrence quality to it.

Although if I were to choose the cast I would have Caitlin Glass as Horo. She possesses the right timbre for the role. She can play a role that is slightly childish and vulnerable. She has also shown the ability to voice both the serious moments and the more playful moments; both are present in Spice and Wolf.

Also I'd have Travis Willingham as Lawrence. He would be perfect for the role in my opinion as he has the mature yet youthful, smooth sounding voice that is required for Lawrence (and heck he is probably one of the best male voice actors available).

Hmm, I really don't know english VAs that aren't Vic Mignogna, or Steve Blum.

Most of the roles I know Brina Palencia from are young girl roles. Eve (Black Cat) and Yin (Darker Than Black). I'm currently working through Baccano! where she voices Ennis, but I'll be hanged if I can remember how Ennis sounds. So I'm not sure yet how she'll sound playing an older (relatively speaking) woman. Mostly because I haven't heard her do an older role.

I'm more familiar with J. Michael Tatum's resume. Jiro (Black Blood Brothers), Kyoya (Ouran), Iichi (Save Me! Lollipop), and Lin (Ghost Hunt). I feel he could do well as Lawrence. (Although I did have a minor panic when I first read the announcement because I mixed up Tatum with Todd Haberkorn. I don't think Haberkorn would be right for Lawrence. :heh:) Travis Willingham would have been a good choice as well. But I think Tatum will do fine.

My biggest concern about the dub is how the cast will pronounce "Horo" / "Holo". Will they emphasize the "r" sound like how the Japanese pronounce sounds to me? Or will they pronounce it according to the official romanization and emphasize the "l" sound? My fear is that they'll say "Holo" and that'll just sound wrong to me.

And for the record, yes, I will be watching the dub. My hubby has vision problems that make reading subtitles nighe impossible for him. I want to show him Spice and Wolf which means we'll be watching with the English track. Although when I'm watching it by myself, I'll stick with the Japanese track because I think the Japanese voices are perfectly done on this series.

Brina has done roles like Ai Enma (Hell Girl), Rei Ayanami (Evangelion 1.0), Elsa (Gunslinger Girl), and Maho (BECK).

She is actually pretty darn good at placing her voice differently, which has allowed her to do a variety of roles (although her most well known roles tend to be young girls).

I'm unfamiliar with the cast for the most part... and yeah, I suspect I'll simply be wincing at each "Holo" because I can't think of many instances where an english VA pronounced names in the Japanese style when they're delivering english-localized dialog.

Similar problems here though... wife has astigmatism that makes DVD format subtitles difficult for her. Some of the fansubs do great jobs with subtitle fonts/colors, but the DVD protocol is very limited. Soooo, I really hope the dialog is written well for the VAs. Sometimes it isn't the VA's fault that they're given abysmal dialog :)

I haven't seen any of those shows. (Not in English nor in Japanese for that matter.) Other people have said she has range as you did. I'm willing to trust others' judgment. I just can't say that I've heard it for myself.

I think you're right about how the Americans are going to pronounce her name. Sadly so. :(

My husband has macrodegeneration. For him, official DVD subtitle protocol is easier to read than any fansub titling he's seen. Even with official protocol though, he misses so much that it's like he only gets to enjoy about 50% of any episode. The only series he has managed to struggle through is Emma. And we would definitely be watching the English dub for that if there was one.

That's something a lot of dub critics forget. The actors don't write the script. They may occasionally make in studio changes with the director's permission, but for the most part, they say what they're given to say. If the dialog is bad, it really isn't their fault.

I hope it turns out well. Alot of dubs are bad, but I have heard very good ones too.

I wonder if this will play on Adult Swim.


Who is the VA that does Spike in Cowboy Bebop? He is in almost every dubbed anime and he always does a good job.

That would be Steve Blum. He's in EVERYTHING.

Not a chance. S&W is too far beyond Adult Swim's target audience that even if Adult Swim weren't in a seemingly anti-anime mood, it still wouldn't schedule S&W.

Besides, there's no explosions or any other of the sort... why would AS schedule an anime that makes the audience think? :eyebrow:

Or Wendee Lee...original voice of Faye from Cowboy Bebop. She does a LOT of voices too.

He is in everything, but you know what? He always does a fantastic job. I really never tire of hearing him do characters. The only thing that bothers me is that I relate his voice to Spike Spegal. So whenever I hear him doing another character its like Spike is really deep down in there somewhere :)

I think it would be great to get Jim Dimagio from Futurama. Didn't he play both Bender and Fry?



Adult Swim did play Death Note. Oh and don't forget about Futurama.

Futurama: The thinking man's Simpsons.


I personally watch all my anime on my computer. That way its in (hopefully) high def with no commercials.

However I think it would be great for S&W to be on AS. A show as great as S&W deserves to exposed to as wide an audience as possible. I would wager that most newer anime watched in the USA is via Adult Swim. If it wasn't for AS most kids wouldn't even know what anime is.

Well... umm... they know Naruto, so I guess it counts.:eyespin::eyespin::eyespin:

aren't cartoon network and adult swim the same station?

They are, and AS shows Morbito which requires some thinking.
Back on topic, unfortunately I don't think I've heard any of these VAs, but I'll probably stick to the Japanese anyway.

What the fuck kind of rule is this? If the dub sucks, it sucks. There's no dicking around the subject. Is AS a christian forum now or something? Did I miss an important announcement? Since when do we have to be nice about dubs? Is someone on the staff getting slipped checks under the table? What gives?

*jokingly*
Oh Lord, please forgive his pitiable soul for he does not know what he is doing. He shall be enlightened with judiciousness and surcease rage and malevolence.... Amen. :o

This is a specific rule for this thread because this thread is supposed to be used to discuss the dub of the show, not a place to generally post about whether one likes dubs in general. If you have specific criticisms about this particular dub, then this would be the place to air them - it's the over-generalized complaints that are forbidden.

Basically, posts like "Character X doesn't sound very good" are okay, and ones like "Why would anyone bother listening to a dub?" are not.

Alright, thank you for the details.

Amen.