Unfortunately, this survey doesn't give me my preferred option:
If I were to watch dubbed anime, I would want it to be in Cantonese. Otherwise, I'll take the original Japanese dialogue with English subtitles any time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vexx
But as for anime specifically, my complaint on dubs remains the same:
1) too small a pool of voice talent resulting in sometimes terrible casting.
2) the style of recording - japanese voice acting (and in many other countries) is done as a group with the actors in eyesight of each other. The result is much better *acting*. English dubs are done in a vacuum - each actor by themselves in a booth. Its more convenient but the results often suck. Actors in general say they do better with other people to push against.
3) Over-localization, wordplay fail, etc. People who watch foreign film should *expect* to encounter foreign concepts and be outside their comfort zone, duh. The other result is basically insulting to the audience, be it subs or dubs.
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I am of the opinion that there is something so intrinsically different between Japanese and English, in terms of expressions and speech patterns, that no English dub will ever do justice to anime, or any J-drama and Japanese movie for that matter.
In this respect, I don't think the calibre of English voice actors is to blame. There are just too many cultural and speech-based nuances that cannot be adequately translated from Japanese to English. Simple things like Japanese honorifics and expressions like
tadaima/
okaeri would sound odd in an English dub because there just isn't any Western equivalent for such terms.
If you can't even translate those terms, then how are the actors supposed to voice-act effectively? It'll be like trying to get someone who lives in the tropics, like me, to play the role of an Inuit talking about the 72 varieties of snow.
To be sure, the problem exists in both directions. For example, try listening to Japanese dubs of English-language shows (in-flight movies on Japan Airlines, in my case). You'd immediately notice how mangled the shows become, losing a great deal of their original flavour. Surely, with the quality of voice acting and direction in Japan, you'd think they'd be able to do a better job. Yet, that doesn't seem to be the case.
I can't put my finger on it, really. All I can say is that something gets lost in the translation. Which is why
Cantonese dubs leave me very pleasantly surprised at times. Again, I can't quite put my finger on it: Cantonese dubs just somehow manage to retain much of the flavour and
authenticity of the original Japanese.
For example, take this excerpt I stumbled upon:
Somehow, everything fits. If you think it's simply because Chinese and Japanese are similar, think again, because I've listened to Taiwanese Mandarin-dubbed anime that, believe it or not, sound even worse than American English-dubbed anime.
(It may the case that Cantonese is more closely related to Japanese than Mandarin, as
doraneko pointed out before, in this excellent
post.)
To date, I've watched
Neon Genesis Evagelion (the original TV series) and
Blood+ in Cantonese and, on both occasions, I was amazed by how natural the dubs sound to my ears. I'd go so far as to even say that the Cantonese-dubbed
NGE is superior to the Japanese dub (because Cantonese Shinji and Asuka actually sound much less whiny than their original Japanese versions).
The only pity is that it's not any easier for me to get my hands on Cantonese-dubbed anime than English-dubbed anime. So, that's why I'm stuck with English subtitles most of the time. It's the next best thing.