No hope rule
(midwest.social)
Marty (he/him)
196Whenever I start a game from a non-english studio, I always set voices to their local language. You almost always get a more engaging experience that way
Plus, it's kinda fun trying to figure out when a character has a vocal quirk that doesn't translate well
I hate subtitles
You played Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher in Polish?
almost
the exception being games targeted primarily to english audience
I have read excellent critiques of the Polish voice acting from Cyberpunk, but honestly I wouldn't bother playing a game in a language I don't understand if there is decent VA in a language I do understand.
Excuse me, but I’d like to ask: Why do English speakers hate their voice actors so much? Are they really that bad?
Here in Latin America, we LOVE ours.
they don't talk like how real people talk. according to a semi local voice actor, japanese studios want that weird acting for some reason but a lot of voice actors hate doing it and that's why theres like 3 men and 5 women that do almost all of the english dubs
But many voice actors from other languages don’t speak like “normal people, not even Japanese seiyuu.
Going back to the example of Latin American dubbing, 90% of the time they speak in unnatural Spanish with a neutral accent that doesn’t match any of the Spanish-speaking regions, but it works within the CONTEXT of the scene. The remaining 10% is when they do speak according to a region (mostly Mexico cuz is the one with most prolific dubbing industry), and this is split between when it works and when it’s annoying af.
I think that rather than feeling natural for the “real world,” it should feel natural within the world of the work.
One thing that hadn't been mentioned yet in this thread is that when voice acting is sub-par, it's not as noticeable when it's not in my native language. That's my own experience anyway.
I personally struggle with English VAs often when they seem to ham it up more than seems appropriate, or don't seem to take things as seriously as the scene's tone.
I could guess. Most English actors are not used to doing dubs. Lots are just giving it a go when they want to be a screen actor.
There's a far more reliable pool of work for dubbing TV and film to languages other than English and therefore a greater pool of professionals to pick from. Leading to higher standards.
On top of that there's an anachronism of American actors accents in older stories set in the past that don't fit, or trying other English accents they've never been exposed to fit in.
Good English speaking actors and voice actors are in really high demand outside of the gaming industry too. There are a huge number of bad or inexperienced actors trying to get a career going.
The quality of actor for dubbing a game you can get for a budget is probably lower or at least much less consistent.
When we love an actor they get star billing and the cost to hire them rockets. They then move towards film and TV.
We love our good actors but that means they're too expensive.
- A LOT of this comes from elitist "old heads". Until the 2000's or 2010's, anime in America came from importing it into specialty shops. These formed a community of sorts, a unique subculture of anime enthusiasts. English dubs were rare, but if they existed they were often done very cheaply. Bad translation, bad direction, bad acting, bad editing, bad mixing even. Because it was not a large or lucrative enough market to justify putting money into.
There was also online piracy, which included the occasional fan dub. Which like... The passion of fans can be great for some things, but most anime fans lacked the skills fkd professional quality audio production.
And so for a loooong time English dubs got the reputation for being garbage. That changed a while ago, but some people just have a hard time adjusting their expectations.
- Gatekeeping. It is simply harder to watch things in a language you do not known with subtitles. That keeps out the visually impaired. It requires a lot more cognitive effort to watch, and takes your eyes off the actual animation that you are meant to enjoy. A lot of these old heads learned enough Japanese to be able to understand basic conversation.
In the pirate scene you also have fan subs, which is something that is much more accessible to anime fans than audio production. You need a lot of equipment and talent and expertise in different areas to create a dub. You just needed a computer and the ability to translate to make a sub. I don't mean to diminish the effort and skill it takes to translate, but dubbing requires all of those same skills PLUS a whole lot more, so it is harder.
This is not unique to anime. People in the US who watch foreign films in different languages have a similar subculture.
Personally, I like to get high and watch anime, but I find it's harder to read when I'm high. I don't mind watching sub's stuff occasionally, but I prefer dubs.
- Ignorance. It was not ONLY the English voice acting that was bad. A lot of cheaply made anime in the 80's, 90's, and 00's had terrible Japanese voice acting too. However, if you don't know much Japanese and are just reading the subtitles, you are not really in as good of a position to evaluate it. A lot of old anime fans love their anime, and felt outcast by American mainstream culture. They related more to Japanese culture and want to think its better. So they just assume the voice acting was better even when they aren't able to evaluate it themselves.
A lot of cheaply made anime in the 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s had terrible Japanese voice acting too. However, if you don’t know much Japanese and are just reading the subtitles, you are not really in as good of a position to evaluate it.
I used to think this until I watched one of those "[sentence] in 50 languages" videos, and then, surprised by what I heard, I listened to longer things dubbed in languages other than English. It turns out not being able to understand the language doesn't make brainwash you into thinking the performance is compelling.
And, TBH, I've come to consider this attitude, that voice actors can just be swapped out like mechanical components, to be disrespectful to them and the art of voice acting. What we have with American dubs is like taking Star Wars and swapping out James Earl Jones for Dwayne Johnson doing the same voice he does in Moana, with zero direction from any of the creatives that originally made the Darth Vader character. Note that I chose Star Wars as an example and not something like Citizen Kane or Schindler's List. I'm not trying to argue that Japanese media is some kind of high art that can never be equaled. But something doesn't need to be high art to be butchered.
- when you hear the same 5 english VA over and over again, you lose interest. Jap. generally has more big VA than the US.
For me that's a plus. I can listen to Matt Mercer's duldct tones all day.
I look up my favorite voice actors and see what else they have been in to decide what to watch next. I think a LOT of people do this, with live action actors moreso.
I'll have to respectfully disagree on this. More power to Matt and his prolific career, but man, can we please have some other voices.
Edit: My goal is to be immersed in the story, and having a small group of VAs work on everything becomes distracting, in my experience.
It really depends. Just an example, Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill had mostly fine dubs, but I absolutely hated the English Sui voice acting. It just didn’t fit right, and one individual even told me that was the reason she refused to watch the anime (she prefers dubs.)
I’ve experienced similar with other anime, so I just err on the side of subs these days.
English dubs on Kaguya-sama: Love Is War are fantastic, btw...
But I've seen comparisons where dubs completely change the meaning of what they're saying.
Most of them aren't too bad. It's just that a lot of the anime dub voice actors do the same kinds of voices over and over again, and it gets a bit repetitive. Outside of dubs, there's grown women voicing kids, which can be a little strange, but still better than getting kids to do it. The ones voicing originally English speaking characters don't get as much respect or attention as live action actors like Tom Holland or Keanu Reeves, but the more well established ones do get a bit of both. https://youtu.be/DzjiBJ7AetE This is what anime dubs sound like to a lot of us.
I love figuring out what One Piece character any given voice actor played. There were so many it's like the Kevin Bacon of animes. It's usually Zoro.
English voice acting tends to change the tone way too much
It's a hold over I think. From back in the day when dubs were entirely fan made so the quality of actor was just "whoever wanted to do it for free". It could also be 4kids hangover from watching these terrible dubs of one piece or pokemon from back in the day.
Not even remotely just fan dubs. ADV was often, but not always quite bad. Funimation can be very hit and miss. I don't know how familiar people are with Rikudo Koshi and Excel Saga these days. The English dub was a crime. It's an absurdist series by nature. The absurdity bolstered by the serious delivery in insane situations. The English dub lost most of the serious tone. With a lot more goofy, ahyuk ahyuk delivery. It was baaaaaaaaaaaad.
But as someone who's been a fan and watched anime for over 35 years. It's gotten worlds better. And not even all the stuff back then was that bad. The dub of space adventure cobra still holds up well for me. Not perfect. But very serviceable.
Maybe it's just because I don't watch enough anime, but while I've definitely recognized voice actors in different shows, I don't personally find it any more annoying than seeing an actor play another character in another IP.
Idk his name but one guy is in a ton of stuff including games, but I love when I recognize it.
I actually love it. When I find a voice actor I like, I look up their filmography to find new shows to watch.
I thought dub shaming got out of fashion by now.
it will go out of fashion when there are more than 12 English voice actors. or when they are permitted to do any voice cadence other than Ash Ketchum or Alvin of Alvin and the Chipmunls
Yep. I usually prefer original voices, but that's not out of principle. The Xenoblade series is one where English voice acting is high quality, and is also great for featuring accents from across the Anglosphere, rather than just American accents.
Likewise. My personal exceptions are Cowboy Beebop and Helsing OVA even if they also reuse some prominent actors, they get points for trying to sound different.
I've heard Xenoblade has some unusual ones
Hey, Frieren wasn't bad. That's the only anime besides the Ghost Stories Dub that I've seen so far, so it's probably not representative ot anime as a whole. Ghost Stories did have some... interesting voice acting, so I guess I've gotten lucky.
EDIT: And Erased was also very good English voices!
Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood has some great English voice acting, and that's coming from a Japanese voice over lover. :-]
Lol yes Ghost stories is an exceptional case. Those were all high billing actors but they were wilding out
Oh, absolutely. That probably wouldn't have been allowed nowadays, and honestly, that's probably a good thing. But as a product of its time, it's pretty entertaining.
How many Dubs did you listen to to get that idea?
Too many. I still give them a shot but if I cringe, I switch
i wonder where the 3 downvotes came from.
Do people want you to sit through a 24ep show you don't enjoy, when salvation is only 2 clicks away?
lemmvotes.org if you ever want to scope em out. to me, i just made a pretty divisive statement. it just comes with the territory, aint no thang
It annoys me to no end when there's no option to access the settings until after you've sat through the opening cutscenes. That applies to video settings as well as voice.
When I want to read, I read a book. If I'm too tired to read I play games. I don't want to read when playing.
Where Winds Meet mood.
