Worst Dubs Ever?

[SCKnight]

The VAs in CCS aren't bad; it's just that sound older than the characters' ages. Not to mention, the editing is enough to make you scream.

[Aya Reiko]

Sailor Moon.

Though I think any series that was dubbed in the mid-late 90's or earlier probably deserves a mention.

[Sonhex]

Originally Posted by Radiosity

Hmm, Howl's Moving Castle had a passable dub. At least, I'd rate it as 'bearable under sufferance' I lent it to mum to watch and she forgot to switch it to Japanese, so I ended up watching about 20 minutes of it in English. I didn't cringe as much as usual, but even so, they ruined Calcifer completely... not that I was surprised.

I can't really think of a 'worst' one though, since I simply avoid dubs like the plague in the first place

Disney's dubs of Ghibli's works are works of art compared to the horror that is 'Warriors of the Wind' aka the first English language version of 'Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind'. WotW is the worst dub/edit job I've ever had to misfortune to endure. Infact the dub was so bad that even the actors deny they were involved with it.

[SCKnight]

Good point Aya Reiko. Back then, censoring anime was the norm. What was the reason? Oh yeah, now I remember: Parental control or some other nonsense.

[j4m3sb0nd]

I thought the english dub to elfen lied was pretty bad.

[The Bloodlust Kid]

The Mai-HiME dub.

Apparently, the cast are rookies.

[kingdom_elladrel]

One word.............Cardcraptors

That is quite possibly the epitome of stupidity for these.........erm, people.........who love to bastardize good anime into something truly horrendous and unspeakably traumatizing to watch.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Disney has a long history of being particular about their dubs when dubbing from English to foreign languages (their partners at Pixar show similar care). So when they import the Ghibli films (Totoro, Howl, etc) to english ... they do a pretty fair job capturing the spirit even though I think they over-mute the innate "japan" feel of the story. They also have the budget to hire quality voice talent instead of C or D list talent.

I find the use of famous American actors in these dubs a bit disconcerting. I especially disliked the casting of Billy Bob Thornton in Mononoke no Hime. His voice is so distinctive and so regional that it's hard to achieve the necessary suspension of disbelief and imagine that a Japanese character is speaking. Especially in this case where his character, Jigo, is depicted on-screen as culturally Japanese (unlike San or Ashitaka). I've not heard the Japanese voices; is Jigo supposed to be Osakan? I know ADV uses actors with strong Southern US accents to represent characters like Osaka in Azumanga or the kids in Abenobashi. I'll know better since I'm buying my daughter the Mononoke DVD for Christmas. Our copy was taped off-air when it was shown on one of the cable channels here so I've never heard the Japanese soundtrack.

I had the same reaction to Billy Crystal in Howl's Moving Castle.

I did find Gillian Anderson's voice-overs in Mononoke less jarring; she modulated her voice in a way that didn't leave the viewer thinking Moro was working for the FBI.

Personally I'd prefer that they use the "B-list" talent so the voices would be less recognizable.

[Vexx]

I don't particularly disagree with that... voices that are too recognizable are just as bad as "C/D" list voices. The "B" list zone is the best -- that's also where you tend to find the established character actors and the ones who can do more than one kind of voicing. There are "A" list actors that can do that but they're pretty rare.

My main thrust is that the current dub situation has been horrid .... though I'm going to give ADV and Geneon a few points for recent releases (Azumanga, Ichigo Masimaru, Pani Poni Dash) in which the dubs only made me cringe rather than throw things at the screen.

[Trax]

Originally Posted by Nidas

Heres a couple of comparison vids for anyone who doubts the CCS dub btw lol:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5V69Q36Bjw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJa8wuvBcKQ (the Tomoyo comparison is in this one)

Had a good laugh at these... Also posted some comments on youtube, I'll just be lazy and copy those here.

I guess that the only reason one could actually prefer the english dub is because you're used to it. And although not all the english voices are that bad, Sakura and Tomoyo/Madison's voices are simply awful, they don't sound like 10 year old girls at all.

Kinda freaky that Sakura's VA for the english dub is actually a girl around the same age as the character. Must be a scary kid, better lay off the hormone cocktails!

[Kaioshin Sama]

Aura Battler Dunbine hands down. I've never seen a series with more poorly coordinated scripting and voice acting for a dub than this. Not to mention Dunbine is one of my all time favorites as a mecha series.

[Matt Soulblade]

Seeing those comparitions on youtube made me think how well done were the latin dubs in comparition with the english ones. Yeah, sometimes the voices were awful (and repeated, another tendency) but they maintained the ops/eds, but dubbing the song (with some exceptions like SS, Ranma or other early series), maintained the original names and things like "Ramen" were maintained and not babelfishlated (to Noodle soup, for example).
Digimon is probably the worst thing I have ever seen in english, the voices were so exagerated and silly that I couldnt believe that latin tranlators/dubbers could have done so good job.

[-Breakthrough-]

One Piece. No competition.

[Nergol]

Star Quest - the first attempt at a dub of Wings of Honneamise.

[ps3mania]

I think what gets me pissed about people who dubb anime is that they tend not to NOT know japanese. I think a lot of the flaws in dubbing can be fixed if they used people who are billingual in the language being dubbed and the language its being dubbed to. also, I think any anime with a lot of anime tends to have horrible dubs, bec comedy is really hard to translate into a dif language, and even subbs usually dont do justice for many.

[frozen_night]

All the english dubs are so bad it's hard to say which is worst.... But really terrible ones include:

Yu-Gi-Oh
YuYu Hakusho
Fruits Basket
Rurouni Kenshin
Tokyo Mew Mew (Mew Mew Power)
Sailor Moon

..... And the list goes on and on.......

I hate english dubs. The actors always sound like they're being forced to say the lines and they don't pronouce names correctly. And they cut out too many good scenes. Even chinese dubs are better. They don't cut scenes (not many at least).

[ewzero]

The worst hands down Naruto. Big fan of the series not a big fan of the dubbing. Dubbing just makes me want to punch my face. I can't believe I used to enjoy seeing dubbed anime.

[Bloodseeker]

Rabbid weeabooism in this topic.

The Yu Yu Hakusho dub was a prime example of how to do a dub right. Americanize it (as in successfully alter the script to better get the point across to the target audience, not as in make it more friendly for conservative parents or make it into a train-wreck attempt at reaching the MTV audience), and spice the dialogue up a bit to make conversations more interesting. "Pure" isn't always best. And the voice acting itself was really good, too.

Out of post-anime boom dubs (disregarding censorship), I'd have to go with Yugioh GX. A lot of the character voices didn't even match the on-screen characters, and the voice acting itself sucked pretty hard.

Jinto's voice over in Crest of the Stars was soulless. There were parts where the dude sounded like he was reading out loud in class or something.

I didn't care much for the Love Hina dub either, but when I think about it, the only reason that I REALLY hated it was because of Kitsune's (my fourth favorite character behind Naru, Motoko, and Keitaro) voice. The rest of it was just kinda there....

[xxanimefan4_ever]

eh not all ghilbi/disney dubs are good, I thought the dub for laputa: castle in the sky was terrible. why'd they get that guy ~ forgot his name but he's from some show that aired in america, I was just thinking of pedophile the whole time (you know 30/40 soething year old-ish sounding person trying to sound like he's 12 when he's clealry not). Sheeta's voice just sounded annoying. When I saw that bit of it on CN when they aired it.

I did see some other version, I think it's UK version, cause I saw it before disney licensed the movie and i remember those voices were good.

Oh and the voice for what's his face in spirited away bothered me cause I recognized it from nickelodean, chester or AJ from fairly odd parents so that sorta ruined it.

[Zu Ra]

Sitting through Furi Kuri ( dubs ) was a pain they bored me to oblivion . Furi Kuri is watchable at times enjoyable . But hearing the dubs was painful

Also His and Her Circumstances definately requires an esteemed mention in Worst Dubs Category