@demonkicksanji:
I'm talking in general. Nothing against Brina and those who enjoyed her performance as Yuno. From the clips and parts of episodes I've seen of Future Diary (as I'm waiting for BDs), she suffers from what I call "Higurashi dub syndrome"…the "crazy/psycho" voice works well enough, but the "normal" voice just seems off to me. I'm just saying that I think Tia would've been great for Yuno as much as I think she'd be great for Perona.
I get what you're saying, but I had no issue with it. Then again, I watched the dub first and listened to the Japanese version here and there afterward, as well as the unreleased OVA Redial. So I may be more biased toward the English dub since I watched that first, and though I enjoyed the Japanese performance for Yuno I think Brina's take on it was fine. I think it comes down to cultural differences between Japan and America on how "normal" High School girls talk in anime. Notice in Japanese versions you tend to get more overly cuteness in a lot of the girls while dub voices tend to be a bit more casual. I think it just reflects how Americans view average teenage girls versus how Japan views them mixed with moe influence as well (though Mirai Nikki really isn't a moe, but you get what I mean.)
But what I'll agree with you on is Tia's performance for Megumi in Shiki. I loved that and I'd agree she'd probably be a good fit for Perona.
@senjuitama:
Who will he voice in Marineford?
My mistake. I realize I sounded a bit confusing there. I was talking about Whitebeard's dub voice, whose name I forget off hand but I think it's Brian something-rather from what I remember seeing on the credits yesterday. I know he's had a few other recent roles as well because his name rings a bell in the credits recently in this arc. I was comparing his role as Whitebeard and how I'm not too impressed yet, but just like how I felt that way about Spandam Christopher Smith really got much better at the role as time went on. I expect the same from dub Whitebeard as well. To be fair, he hasn't had much time at all to play the role and he's coming back now after years of only having one scene.
@LazySketcher:
It's kind of the opposite for me, I think WB's eng voice works very well. They're clearly not trying to imitate the japanese performance.
It's pretty much the exact same case as Franky's eng dub, the only way to enjoy it is to not compare it to the original seiyu. It doesn't have the same deep baritone as WB's jpn voice but it still works as it's own voice. He also sounds considerably older in english as well, which makes sense for a man around Garp's age. They're both excellent portrayals of Wb's character imho.
I agree with you and I don't want to contradict what I just said. While I don't think the dub needs to be a direct copy of the original, I do think it needs to capture the same feeling of the character. Seitz as Franky, for example, manages to work the same in English despite not sounding the same. Meaning quirky, fun, and like an 80's or 90's American stereotype (like a Johnny Bravo of sorts). Also note that as time went on throughout the arc Seitz has really lowered his tone a lot and gotten rid of a tad bit of the initial over-gruffness many of us had an issue with. And to be fair, Franky as a character also lightened up a LOT since then, so it works well.
As my most recent example after watching the Garp introduction episode last night, Franky's performance right before and during involving the Ship and his reactions to Garp's quirkiness really captured the ideal English Franky for me. Since there can't be an English clone of Yao (who is always Franky number one for me), I think Seitz is awesome and deserves credit for nailing the role and adapting to the character quite well. I can say the same for the voices of Spandam and Lucci, who I felt were a bit off at first but really adapted and evolved with each episode and nailed their performances in the end.
For Garp, I felt the voice worked fine. Like with Whitebeard, it'll just take some time to get used to it.
@LazySketcher:
Yeah, I feel like they're still approaching Garp's character the same way Toei does but they're not exactly doing it right, at least not yet. Whenever he screams his funny lines or acts silly, he just sounds either pissed off or bored, not really goofy, if I'm even making any sense. I hope I am.
Anyway he pulls off all other aspects of Garp's persona just fine, but the silliness, I think they really need to work on the silliness. If they can do that then Garp's dub will be just fine for me.
I sort of agree with you, to an extend. I think it's the same case as Seitz as Franky. Sietz's first "SUPER!" felt a bit off for me, but in my most recent watching I feel like he's really gotten used to the quirkiness of Franky and made it his own. Since Garp will have more chances to shine from now on, I expect to hear an improvement there as well.
@LazySketcher:
While I would totally agree with you about that, I think the Thriller Bark arc is definitely a special case. Funi should really try their very best to be as close to the original as possible for this particular arc.
We get five new characters in TB that are just overflowing with quirkiness. Moria, Hogback, Absalom, Perona, and Brook all have such unique laughs, mannerisms, speech inflections, and running gags. In fact tbh, out of those five Absalom is about as tame as it gets when it comes to quirkiness. While a lot of them aren't the most complex characters in OP, they're definitely some of the most ridiculous and exaggerated we've seen so far.
Thriller Bark is really one of the few arcs where Oda seemed to have gone all out in terms of eccentric personalities and goofy character design. To not at least try to adapt some of it in the dub would really feel like a disservice and it'd certainly be a major disappointment in my opinion.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that they shouldn't get close to the original. I definitely agree that certain attributes of the characters should be kept. What I'm saying is that I feel that the voices don't have to sound like exact imitations as long as the feeling is the same. We'll have to see how they approach Hogback and Perona, both characters who talk in low and high pitches. And Moria… well, I don't have a voice for him in my head in English but they need to at least keep it somewhat high-pitched or it won't feel like Moria at all.
Don't worry about the laughs. Mike was shaky at first but I think he gets it now. All the recent laughs have been kept and Mike himself even hinted at Buggy's original laugh during the Jipang filler, which gives me hopes we'll see more of that later on in Impel Down.
Anywho, I guess I may as well mention my thoughts on a few other things:
- They didn't credit Leah Clark for original Coby despite using her in the flashback, which is a bit odd to me. Especially because they made it a point to write :Buggy" and "Buggy (Teen)" despite the two sounding nearly the same.
- Seeing Big Mam shadowed makes me wonder what Oda's original idea of her design was. It looks similar, but not exactly as grotesque. But then again, it's only a shadow anyway. It also makes me want to see Kaido already.
- Whitebeard's delivery during his fight with Shanks threw me off a bit. Maybe I heard wrong but he sort of just runs in shouting "WHITEBEARD!" when in the original he shouts "BECAUSE I AM THE WHITEBEARD!" Just a small nitpick but the delivery felt a bit awkward to me.
I didn't comment on the previous set but all I'll say is it was perfect all around, except maybe for the slightly disappointing commentary choices (again) qand the screwup on the repeated special footage. Acting wise, though, I enjoyed it immensely. Those are some of the best episodes of the series, even with the art and animation dip in episode 310/311.
I still haven't watched my copy of Strong World yet and I'm at the filler now for post Enies Lobby. Guess I'll hold off on my thoughts until I finish the set. Strong World comes after that.
