2007-02-09, 13:09 | Link #126 |
Dansa med oss
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Near Cincinnati, OH, but actually in Kentucky
Age: 36
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I'm surprisingly pleased with the cast. The only ones I have questions marks about are Stephanie Sheh, as I don't quite recall her work from Eureka 7 (I only watched one episode); Michelle Ruff (never saw Chobits in English); and Bridget Hoffman (never saw any of her English roles, either). Everything else looks good. I especially like their choices for Tsuruya and Kyon. Also, lol for sugar-sweet Belldandy playing a psychopath
It's beginning to look like I was worried over nothing. I won't be completely relaxed until I actually hear the dub, though, as a bad voice director can FUBAR even an all-star cast. |
2007-02-09, 13:26 | Link #129 |
illusion control
Author
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I've not heard any English dubs of the AMG movie (mostly because I never got the chance to), but I do hope that the sugary-sweet remains. One of the best parts of Ryouko's character, to me, is that she sounds so sweet and polite and happy and life-is-good... even when brandishing a combat knife murderously.
If it's like her KOS-MOS role (which I have heard), though, it'd probably be a major mistake in direction. |
2007-02-09, 23:39 | Link #130 |
Sav'aaq!
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Hyrule
Age: 51
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Wow. I don't know if I could possibly be happier with the dub choices for SHnY. It's like a Who's Who of non-affiliated English VAs. The only thing missing is Steven Blum, but he could still turn up somewhere (Tanaguchi, maybe?).
Wendee Lee as Haruhi Suzumiya. This one surprised me. I thought she would have actually been best for Tsuruyu-san, and that Kari Wahlgren actually put forth the best "audition" on the asosbrigade website, but Ms. Lee isn't the most prolific female voice actress of all time for nothing, and she's carried the female lead on a pantheon-class anime (and pantheon-class dub) before, on Bebop. I'd expect something similar to her Tatsuki role from Bleach in this role, with maybe a little Faye Valentine indignation at times. I am very interested to see how she pulls off Live A Live. Stephanie Sheh as Mikuru Asahina. She's definitely a rising star in the English dub world, with recent success in Eureka 7 and Bleach, and put forth easily the best--er--performance in the asosbrigade Mikuru auditions. While those auditions caught some heat for their notable lack of "voice" acting, I think they were a wonderful test example, as that type of acting is usually much more difficult to pull off than normal conversation or shounen-style action. Case-in-point is Winry's VA (whose name escapes me) in FMA. While she inarguably did a great job in most of that role, her acting as young Winry, especially in the flashback regarding the news from Ishbal, was weak, as her voice was basically the same, despite the large difference in age, and that unfortunately colored my opinion of those scenes. Similarly, if Mikuru's VA pulls off the normal acting, but tanks on the cos-raping (which there is a lot of), wouldn't it detract from the show? As for the "normal acting," Ms. Sheh has proven herself in her previous roles, especially FLCL's Mamimi (as Jennifer Sekiguchi--yes they are the same person), but I would expect something closer to Eureka for this role. Michelle Ruff as Nagato Yuki. Easily the best at lack of emotion in the asosbrigade "auditions" for Yuki, and did fairly well at not sounding "too" robotic. While I haven't seen Chobits, I did read the manga and have seen some trailers, so I imagine her role as Chi would sound similar. Ironically for this role, Ms. Ruff has probably the best vocal range of any of the other actors cast, except maybe... Crispin Freeman as Kyon. The no-brainer of no-brainers. This is like casting Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. His voice acting talent is indisputable, and his voice is as close to a perfect match to Tomokazu Sugita as you're coing to get on a gaijin. 'Nuff said. Again, I haven't seen Chobits, but for Kyon I expect some kind of happy medium between his S-Cry-Ed (Straight Cougar) and GitS (Togusa) roles, quite possibly his two best. Jonny Yong Bosch as Koizumi Itsuki. I was bound to be disappointed for this role, no matter who they chose to play it, once it was evident that Ocean wouldn't be handling the voice acting. Simply put, Kirby Morrow (Inuyasha's Miroku) was born for this role, in much the same way as Freeman was for Kyon. Still, Bosch is a top-tier VA, if a little over-exposed right now, and turned in the second best asosbrigade "audition" (after Freeman, surprisingly). Also, he has an amazing ability to differentiate his roles through emotion alone. There's no mistaking Jonny Yong Bosch playing a role, as they're all basically the same voice (adjusting for age, as he showed on Eureka 7) but the different emotional flavor he puts into each role allows him to make them easily distinguishable from each other. I don't know how well that's going to work for the emotionally camouflaged Itsuki, but it does mean I can't really expect this performance to match one of his previous ones. Does need to work on his name pronunciation, though. Bridget Hoffman as Ryoko Asakura. This one I know little about, as I've only seen the AMG movie once, and all I remember from it is Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (the Major from GitS) as Urd-sama (epic) and Steven Blum as the bad guy (perfect as always). Guess I've got another reason to pick up the DVD now, although no one ever manages to impress me as Belldandy other than Kikuko Inoue as the original. You just can't improve on perfection. I've got the Love Hina DVD box set at home, though, so I might as well take a listen to the English dub, although her voice for Shinobu should be very different. And dkellis is right in that her Belldandy voice should be in full effect here, from start to epic finish, to get the role right. Kari Wahlgren as Tsuruya-san. Oh man. This could be the most important role of them all, and make or break the entire dub depending on how they handle her. I have complete faith in Ms. Wahlgren to turn in a stellar performance as directed, but it's the "as directed" that worries me. Anime characters with weird vocal mannerisms tend to be difficult to translate well, and are often disasterous when poorly regionalized (see ADV's version of Himeko from PPD!). The only times I can remember it being done well were with Ed in Cowboy Bebop (still the weakest dub performance in the series) and Haruko on FLCL, which does make me feel better about this being done well. I expect the director to try to pull some of that FLCL role out of Ms. Wahlgren, but they need to be careful to make sure she comes across as eccentric and not psychotically insane. All in all, I've got a good feeling about this. **crosses fingers** |
2007-02-10, 13:57 | Link #131 | |
One PUNCH!
Administrator
Join Date: Dec 2005
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Dub director Eric Sherman posted this on the AnimeonDVD.com forums:
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2007-02-11, 20:09 | Link #133 |
Bemused Scholar
Join Date: Jan 2007
Age: 36
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What do you think the fan reaction would be if they dubbed God Knows? And conversely, what do you think the reaction of the first-time viewer would be if they saw it switch from English to Japanese in that scene if they didn't dub the songs?
Meh . . . I guess we can always fall back on the excuse that Haruhi just wants to be unpredictable, lol. I confess I don't know that much about Wendee Lee's voice acting abilities, although she seems to be recieving the most amount of discussion from fans, and for good reason I'd assume. |
2007-02-11, 20:31 | Link #134 | |
One PUNCH!
Administrator
Join Date: Dec 2005
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Quote:
Other roles you can find here courtesy of Anime News Network's Anime Encyclopedia! If she can play Ryoko from Real Bout High School, then she can pull off Haruhi! |
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2007-02-12, 22:26 | Link #136 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2004
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Quote:
*remembers Sakura Saku insert in Love Hina* |
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2007-02-14, 02:42 | Link #137 | |
Sav'aaq!
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Hyrule
Age: 51
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Quote:
Of course, one of the reasons why it worked out so well is because the story is very American in feel (which makes me feel good about the upcoming Black Lagoon dub). Since Haruhi isn't, I don't think it'll ever really approach Bebop in popularity over here. For one thing, there's not enough action for the Adult Swim crowd. Secondly, it looks too "high schoollish" for some of the snobbier American fans, who will also be turned off by the (well-deserved for once) hype. And finally, it'll lose the "high school anime" fans fairly quickly (halfway through Episode 00, for some) as it's not formulaic or soapy enough. To all of which I say, "Their loss." The dub should still be great, though. |
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2007-02-14, 14:02 | Link #138 |
Senior Member
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Just a reminder, AnimeTV is going to premiere TOMORROW! They will show clips of the English dub of Haruhi Suzumiya as well as said so in this press release:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/pres...emieres-feb-15 Whew, good thing they decided to release it on YouTube as well. |
2007-02-15, 23:37 | Link #139 |
Bemused Scholar
Join Date: Jan 2007
Age: 36
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A sample of some scenes dubbed in English can be found in AnimeTV's review of Haruhi Suzumiya:
http://www.goanimetv.com/watch_animetv/index.php |
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