2010-09-12, 16:00 | Link #722 |
Turnin' the Tables
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Where dimensions collide...
Age: 36
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I was at NDK this weekend, and I went to a panel by Rebecca Forstadt, the voice of Rika. Since it was her most recent project before Code Geass, I asked her about her role as Rika. Having never seen her in person, I originally thought that she had to raise her voice to perform her cutesy characters. In reality, she really does sound like "sweet Rika" in real life, which means that "dark Rika" was one of her most difficult voices to play. She also had difficulty dealing with her character within the context of the first season, since she never got to hear the second season and the director was new and inexperienced (surprise surprise, Geneon). She did her best with what she had, but the dub still ranks in the top ten worst dubs on anime news network.
I had told her that the second season gets better, (since she told the audience that the show was about these kids killing each other), but her reaction indicated that she hadn't read a script for the second season, which is ab bad sign for the future of the dub. I also talked with a rep from Fumimation about the license for Higurashi. He said that the license is borderline,new and the series may enter their new S.A.V.E. program, meaning that the series has reached the end of it's new content life cycle. I tried asking about picking up Kai as a separate series (instead of "season 2," but they snowed me out. Unless something changes in a big way, English Higurashi may be all but dead.
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2010-09-12, 17:41 | Link #723 |
.....?
Join Date: Jul 2008
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She didn't read the script? She's never seen the second season?
That's..Odd.. Wait, the dub is ranked as one of the worst dubs? Sheesh. I find it to be a very good dub, minus Rika to an extent. I suppose either they'll do the dub, get a new VA, or get someone else to license it.
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2010-09-12, 17:56 | Link #724 | |
Senior Member
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Regarding the second season, it's pretty obvious that she had no info about it, let alone a script... (it hadn't even aired in Japan yet when they started recording for the series) So I don't see why you expected her to have any knowledge of season 2 (well, besides its existence) As for the director, Kristi Reed, being inexperienced, I don't really see how she could be, considering she worked on about 5 to 10 shows before Higurashi. Maybe it was just Rebecca's first time working with her? Higurashi possibly going to S.A.V.E isn't too big of a surprise, since it's been on the market for awhile already. What exactly did they say about the possibility of Kai? Also, it's ranked in the Top 10 worst dubs? Really? On ANN? Do you have a link for that? The dub really isn't that bad... I think it's pretty nice... Oh well... |
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2010-09-12, 20:35 | Link #725 |
Haibanologist
Join Date: Feb 2007
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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.
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2010-09-13, 00:44 | Link #726 |
Turnin' the Tables
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Where dimensions collide...
Age: 36
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I apologize for having not done a more thorough job posting, but the only internet-capable device that I had available at the time was my phone (and I was in a moving line for another panel). I can't help but feel that you have missed the point of my point, but I'll clarify with context.
During the later portion of her answer, Rebecca Forstadt had said that the director of the dubs (she did not give a name) seemed inexperienced. This may mean "inexperienced" compared to other directors she has worked with (she's been in the business since before Toei was founded, after all), or it may mean that the director didn't have experience dealing with this type of project (I don't know when Kristi Reed directed the other dubs, but I would still argue that Higurashi is a more difficult series to deal with than Samurai Champloo or Fate/Stay Night). Forstadt had also mentioned that she had done a search of where the When They Cry dubs ranked, and she had claimed that they were in the bottom 10 on ANN (she may have actually been searching on a different site, but "worst 10 ANN dubs" still left a bad ringing in my ears). Majic's link seems to show the rankings of the different anime in general, instead of in terms of specifically the dubbed versions. At the panel, I didn't feel it was necessary to press the issue, as I could tell from her responses that she wasn't the most proud of working on this series. It seemed that the comment was made in passing, not to be made a focal point. Although she did make one response of particular interest. I had told her that I thought that most of the dubbing budget was used to get her to sign onto the project (since she is by far the biggest name in the cast). However, she stated that this was not true. I had told her that I thought this was odd, since the vast majority of the cast was a group of listless voice actors. This was followed by a small tangent about Kelli Kassidi (the voice actor for Mion), so we never got to go more in-depth about where the money went on an already budget-limited project (remember, this was very likely the last project Geneon ever completed in North America). My previous post wasn't meant to start a flame war over the final quality of the Higurashi dubs (yes, I had already read the dub reviews on ANN, so the "10 worst dubs" comment rang in my ears). The point is that although even the dubs (whatever your opinion of them is) have sold out at every event (even this con, although there were only 4 copies I could find this time, in a hole in the wall), it hasn't changed Funimation's stance. None of Funimation's new series acquisitions announced on Saturday even hinted at "older" series. The Funimation rep they sent didn't have much to say with regards in Higurashi, and the frustration is compounded by the definitions of "series and season" with regards to Kai and the fact that Geneon STILL HOLDS THE ACTUAL LICENSE. The seemingly endless complications surrounding the dubbing of this franchise now have me genuinely worried about the all-too-apparent conclusion that Higurashi is reaching the end of the line.
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2010-09-17, 01:22 | Link #731 | |
Haibanologist
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Flaming The Inferno?
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Aside from my skepticism on the admittedly subjective matter of dub quality, however, I certainly appreciate your reports and information on the subject, and hope you won't in any way be discouraged from providing whatever details you may choose, now or henceforth. News -- any news -- from the "front" is something I always welcome and am grateful for. Thank you so much for sharing it!
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2011-05-28, 13:23 | Link #732 |
Member
Join Date: Feb 2007
Age: 36
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Anybody know what happened to this release? I'm having a difficult time ordering a copy of this online. Only Amazon seems to carry it.
Links on ANN point to sites that no longer have it in stock and even the link from the show's website lead to another that's no longer available to purchase. |
2011-05-28, 16:47 | Link #733 | |
Turnin' the Tables
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Where dimensions collide...
Age: 36
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Quote:
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2011-05-28, 23:25 | Link #735 |
Turnin' the Tables
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Where dimensions collide...
Age: 36
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Wow, I've never heard about that. When and why did that happen? Seems a pretty big deal to just fall by the wayside (especially because I think Ergo Proxy would also be on that list).
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2011-05-29, 02:39 | Link #736 |
見ぬが花
Join Date: Jan 2011
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It happened March 4th . I was looking for clips of the dubbed season, everything was fine, but some time in the evening, all of the episodes were suddenly taken down, as well as most of the re-uploads from other users. FUNimation locked the Higurashi episodes out of the UK and US (and effectively, the world) on Youtube for some unknown reason. Nobody could access the FUNimation channel for a day due to "country restrictions". It could've been a license issue (has happened before) or a lawsuit, maybe (unlikely though). I've also heard that an issue concerning money cause all past releases and projects to just fall through the bridge. That goes to say that a dubbing of Kai will never exist from FUNimation anymore, for those who never liked subtitles.
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2011-05-29, 23:18 | Link #739 |
Turnin' the Tables
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Where dimensions collide...
Age: 36
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I'd say to buy the final box set. The average going price is $50, but it at least has the best versions of audio, video (completely remastered - better detail for backgrounds and scenes), and subtitle translations. It's pretty much the best way to immortalize the first season for your personal collection (that is, until I have enough hardware allocated to properly re-remaster it myself). I'll probably improve on WinD's translations and use their multi-colored dialogue fonts with the remastered video and audio and cram it all into a proper mkv. With any luck, I might have it ready by September.
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