Friday, April 2, 2010

Of Dubs and Men

Hello all of my 11 followers! Are you doing well? Are you happy? Are you bored?

Are you still out there reading my ramblings? Please say yes, you're support is all that keeps me alive. (Okay, respirating a mix of O2, N2 and other gases plus regular caloric intake keeps me alive but your support makes mere survival enjoyable.

Anyway, I'm here to blather yet again about some great news in the English dub world and to let you know my thoughts on what is going on.

First, lets have a yippie for VIZ getting Kekkaishi on to Adult Swim!

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Yeah, funny how Adult Swim was all "we're getting rid of anime!" a while back and now they're all "dudez, we's gots some animuz fur yer!" Perhaps they found out that anime fans, while not giving them quite the ratings they wanted, are critical to the late night programming succeeding? Who knows, who cares, more anime on TV is ALWAYS A GOOD THING!

Some exceptions may apply, void where 4Kids is applicable.

Let us also rejoice at Funimation licensing Black Butler!

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Gee, that doesn't quite look like my kind of show but it could be awesome. Many expect the dub to cast Brina Palencia as Ciel. Apparently they wish to conveniently ignore the existence of Maxey Whitehead! Defy expectations in dubbing!

Anyway, lets talk about some fully confirmed English dub casts!

Do you remember that Bandai licensed the second season of Haruhi? Did you know there was great uncertainty about the English dub cast? Well, that's been cleared up and we now know that the original English cast is back to show us the awesome again!

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In case you don't like to click links, here's the cast that's been confirmed:

Haruhi Suzumiya: Wendee Lee
Mikuru Asahina: Stephanie Sheh
Yuki Nagato: Michelle Ruff
Kyon: Crispin Freeman
Itsuki Koizumi: Johnny Yong Bosch


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Sorry Asakura, you're going to have to wait a bit. Who knows, maybe you'll get to be in a future dub?

In that same ANN article, Vampire Knight's main English dub cast was presented!

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Perennial fan favorite Vic Mignogna, the lovely Mela Lee and rarely heard but often loved Ethan Murray join together in a cast that has left many fans saying "what the heck?" A few in a good way, many in a negative way but then poor Vic seems to have a personal hatedom to go with his fangirls. (He has lots more fangirls than haters though so he probably doesn't care too much.)

I haven't seen Vampire Knight so I don't know if the casting works or is horrible but personally, I like all three of these VAs. I'm eager to give this dub a listen. (Assuming I can buy the DVDs down the road.)

Still, VIZ is being much more creative with its English dubs lately. That should be praised considering how much some fans complain about "assembly line dubs" and such.

Last but far from least, let's talk about the Clannad dub!

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Awesome! I've been unable to fully watch the first episode in English due to Section23's Anime Network hating my computer. (My computer seems to be hated by many streaming sites. I think it has to do with my local ISP sucking and being on an over-burdened line.) However, there are some great clips of the English dub online at YouTube and they've given me a chance to enjoy the show a bit.

I will have this one even if I have to eat dust and misery for a month to afford it! Here's the cast!

Tomoya Okazaki: David Matranga
Nagisa Furukawa: Luci Christian
Kyou Fujibayashi: Shelley Calene-Black
Botan: Melissa Davis
Ryou Fujibayashi: Brittney Karbowski
Tomoyo Sakagami: Kaytha Coker
Kotomi Ichinose: Emily Neves
Fuko Ibuki: Hilary Haag
Youhei Sunohara: Greg Ayres
Mei Sunohara: Serena Varghese
Akio Furukawa: Andrew Love
Sanae Furukawa: Kara Greenberg
Voice of "I": Shannon Emerick
Girl: Melissa Davis
Yukine Miyazawa: Maggie Flecknoe
Misae Sagara: Elizabeth Bunch
Naoyuki Okazaki: Chris Hutchison
Kouko Ibuki: Stephanie Wittels
Yusuke Yoshino: Illich Guardiola
Junior Male (from Ep 24): Josh Grelle


That's a very nice cast. Especially awesome choice for Fuko. I love Hilary Haag's voice so much. I've really missed her.

Plus the character I've been the most curious about in this show is Fuko due to the whole "loves starfish" thing.

I find the oddest things interesting in series huh?

Well, that's all there is for me to talk about today. Hopefully, I won't be venting my spleen any time soon about negative or unhappy things. Currently I'm waiting to learn more about several situations before raging and working on a few reviews, maybe even an "official" one. (Now if Zac will just get back to me.)

I'll post again soon! In the mean time, check out the new English dubs hitting the market, keep loving what you love and never forget that you are a human being who deserves respect! Never accept flak from the haters!

And no matter how much you love English dubs, don't pretend you can get people into them.

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Trust me, this can not turn out well.

Bye-ni!

9 comments:

  1. Delicious Dubs. :9

    I'm certainly excited to see the rest of the dub of Clannad! The cast is pretty great! And yes, I haven't heard Hilary Haag in ages! And not only is she back in this new dub, but her voice is perfect for Fuko!

    I also look forward to the Haruhi 2009 dub! (Endless Eight aside, Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody and The Sigh of Haruhi will be great to see dubbed!)

    And I'm also interested in checking out Kekkaishi! I wonder what studio shall be working on that title? It gives me an Ocean vibe myself, but who knows. Guess we'll see in two months!

    As for Butler and Vampires, I'm not personally interested in them, but my significant other will probably be all over them. She's such a Vampire Night fangirl, lol.

    I look forward to hearing more from you and the world of dubs!

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  2. Dang I should have had a shorter name. Anyways, I'm glad Adult Swim is bring more anime to the market. SyFy & Chiller are the only other major one that doesn't air just one. But kudos to Disney XD and Nicktoons for picking up other series. Now if only AS can get Bleach back on the air. I'd be happy, that would be like a record for them airing 3 new anime episodes like in a day.

    I just couldn't bring myself to bring Clannad in for the exchange, I mean IT'S Clannad. Just got to buy the dub and re-review when I watch it.

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  3. @wilhelminaanime-
    Yeah, the original sub discs of Clannad had such great packaging I may just buy the Dub set new rather than exchange them.
    Oh well, that's just more money for Sentai to encourage them to continue with this dubbing program they're doing.

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  4. This is great news with all the new dubs!

    Btw I was at Wondercon yesterday in San Francisco and Viz had a booth. They were displaying some of their manga titles and one of them was Monster. My friend and I asked about Monster box set 2 unfortunately they didn't have any answers for release dates but said it should be soon. Wondercon also had a lot of screenings of anime from practically every company. I over heard a few people expressing their concerns over the lack of dubs from S23 like many of have. But with these new announcements of their dubs I think the future is bright!

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  5. I'm so excited about Black Butler's license! I actually put together a dream cast for that a while back. Here it is: http://neocloud9.livejournal.com/236141.html

    Glad to hear the original Haruhi cast will be back! Crispin Freeman rocks every dub he's in. :)

    Homophobic douchebaggery aside, I rather like Vic Mignogna when he's cast in funny, spazzy roles. The guy's got a good sense of comedic timing. That being said, I kinda winced when I saw he was cast as the dark and brooding Zero. Love the other two, though.

    I saw the first two episodes of the Clannad dub and it is FANTASTIC. I'm so pleased with it, honestly! <3

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  6. I'm glad Black Butler finally got licensed. I loved the show when I was watching it in Jap. It had such beautiful animation, and Ciel and Sebastien's voices were perfect. Only reason I stopped watching it is cause I could not stand the maid's voice. It was absolutely horrible, as was the character herself. Just another stereotypical nosebleeding maid with a crappy voice. I really hope they don't get such an annoying voice in English.

    As for Vampire Knight... I do think Vic is a good voice actor and all, but I'm not sure if he's good for this show. As for Mela Lee the only role I know her from is the English Higurashi, which was ear screeching (as was the Jap, but not as bad). I really hope that it was just the director's fault for that show and that she can pull this one off. And for Ethan Murray I can only say one word: Franz <3

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  7. Glad to see so much excitement for what's going on lately. I always feel a little depressed reading the regular forums and people are like "no, I hate that channel/show/dubs!"

    @ cerride: Two good series to hear Mela Lee in for a very different voice than what she did for Higuarshi are Rozen Maiden and Fate/Stay-Night where she played Shinku and Rin respectively. Very different voices from her Rena.

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  8. In regards Black Butler, I for one initially thought Maxy Whitehead would be a good candidate, but really thinking about, I don't think she would fit. It's not like I don't like her, and it's not like I don't think she amazing with the young boys voice, I can't picture her as Ciel. I just prefer the more mischievous punk sounding voice that Brina Palencia does better. But, I've heard Whitehead's performances in Baccano, Soul Eater, and Brotherhood, so I could be missing something.

    In regards to Vampire Knight, not sure about Vic as Zero, but hey, he could pull it off.

    I don't really understand the fan hate for Vic, and I have yet to see proof of his "Homophobic douchebaggery" that doesn't seem to be stretching.

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  9. If Vic didn't have a problem with homosexuality, he wouldn't have a problem with fans interpreting his characters as homosexual or as having had homosexual experiences. It's the textbook definition of homophobia and those of us who have had to deal with that in our everyday life would rather it stayed out of our fandom.

    As for a specific example, he made a comment at one convention referring to a girl's fanworks as "garbage" and that's just plain mean. Hence the douchebaggery.

    That said, I'm willing to put aside an actor's toxic personality if they have true talent. I just happen to think Vic's talent lies more in comedy and singing/songwriting than it does dramatic angsty roles. That's simply a matter of preference, not politics.

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