Dub Hubbub
I'm skeptical of the claim that
Higurashi "ranks in the top ten worst dubs on anime news network". Googling that phrase doesn't turn up such a list, although it does reveal the
Rating stats page, which offers overall best/worst rankings for anime.
Looking at the
When They Cry - Higurashi (TV) encyclopedia page, we find that
Higurashi is overall rated excellent by ANN members, but nothing about the dub's ranking on that page.
If it's one of the ten worst dubs, however, Theron Martin must have missed the memo when he gave the dub a B+ and commented "+ Effective horror elements, excellent English dub" in his
DVD 1 Review. He did, however, note a degradation in quality as the series progressed in his
DVD 6 Review, but still rated it a "B". So I suspect he would disagree with a "ten worst" rating.
But the main reason I am skeptical of the claim is the fact that there are just so darn many bad dubs out there. So many, in fact, that there's just no room for
Higurashi anywhere near the "top ten worst".
For example,
Crest of the Stars, Banner of the Stars and
Banner of the Stars II already have three of those slots locked up ("anti-
substance fuel"?!?) which anyone -- and I mean
anyone -- who's ever seen those dubs could not possibly deny.
As for the other seven, pretty much anything by
4Kids would easily make the cut, but that's too easy.
This old ANN forum thread covers a lot of ground in both best and worst, and even though dub quality is subjective at best, there's plenty of able competition for "ten worst" to be found there.
Even if we throw out obscure titles, there's plenty of contenders that bump
Higurashi way off the list. I won't throw out specific names for fear of inciting a flame war (note that there is absolutely no such risk in the case of CotS or BotS as named above), but if you're looking for bad dubs, shounen mecha series won't let you down, as a rule of thumb.
Please don't get me wrong: I'm not saying
Higurashi has one of the ten best dubs. But I'm not able to believe it's anywhere near the ten worst, either -- let alone being rated as such on ANN.
