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Friday, November 13, 2009

Original Japanese Anime vs English Dubbed

I only found out today that there really is value in watching the original Japanese version of the anime versus one that has already been dubbed to English or another language. This realization hit me after watching both the Japanese and English version of Gundam 00 Season 1. The main benefit is that you get the original story versus one that has been edited and censored for North American audiences. Yep, there are some scenes in Japanese Anime that can't get through censors easily so they can't help but edit it out rather than risk the entire show.

Original Japanese Anime vs English Dubbed: Gundam 00 Exia

From what I've read before most of the Japanese anime that have been licensed already for North American audiences are being dubbed in Canada. One reason why if you watch one English dubbed anime the voice actors sound similar with the voice actors in another English dubbed anime.

Original Japanese Anime vs English Dubbed Gundam Dynames

I cite my experience in watching Gundam 00 Season 1, there were some scenes in the English version that looked OK. But when I watched the Japanese version I found out that they edited out some gory scenes in the series. The outcome of which was that some dialogue was removed that was crucial to the character development.

Gundam 00 Kyrios

Then there was the case of Gundam Kyrios/Arios pilot, Allelujah Haptism. In the Japanese version his voice projects him to be as soft spoken, averse to fighting and a total contradiction of his split personality, Hallelujah. In the English version, he sounds a bit proud and stand offish and only slightly different from his split personality.

I guess this could be because compared to the English voice acting industry, the Japanese has a larger pool of voice actors (Seiyuu) to select from which greatly affects the quality of the final product because they get the character that they are after. The career of the voice actor in Japan is also so mature and promising because there is a huge fan base that fawns on them and elevates them to celebrity status.

Then there is the case of the Japanese Director being present during the recordings so that his vision for the anime is carried out. I feel this vision easily and haphazardly gets lost due to the translation and re-dubbing process.

Then of course we miss out in being entertained by the voice acting skill of this year's best actor awardee in the 3rd Annual Seiyuu awards, Hiroshi Kamiya. He voiced Gundam Virtue/Seravee pilot, Tieria Erde as well as VF-25G sniper Michael Braun. His performance in the Diamond Crevasse episode of Macross Frontier was truly commendable.

Ok, I couldn't resist, is it just me or does Gundam Exia pilot Setsuna F Seie sound constipated in the English dub?

There really is nothing like the Real Mccoy.