Actors and direction that prioritizes caricature without becoming “campy”. This is something JP VO is ridiculously good at. They identify a character’s personality, crank it up to 11, but still make the emotional delivery feel genuine, even if extreme
Direction that understands the characters as intended by the author. This is where a lot of dubs fall horribly short. They do not consult with the original content creator, and wind up with voices and characterizations that may seem to work on the surface but are lacking the depth of understanding for a character needed for the performance to make sense over time as we learn more about them.
Just my 2c, but IMO this is where most of the problems with dubs come from, and why they wind up sounding either generic or campy.
Good way to put it; I’ve been a subs person for anime as long as I remember but I make an exception for games, I think in large part because they consult the devs more during localization. When anime does that, it seems to hit those two points.
I’m primarily a subs person, despite the fact that I prefer dubs if they’re actually good enough.
Cowboy Bebop and Fullmetal Alchemist are phenomenal dubs. I’ve watched both subbed and dubbed and think they are equally good, and thus prefer the dub so I can pay more attention to the animation and action.
The only recent dub I’ve thought was okay was ReZero. I don’t love it, and prefer the sub, but it is one of the better ones I’ve heard. Maybe there are other great ones but I stopped even trying to find them after a while 😂
Good dubs have always been a rare gem.
IMO the key to a good dub is two things:
Actors and direction that prioritizes caricature without becoming “campy”. This is something JP VO is ridiculously good at. They identify a character’s personality, crank it up to 11, but still make the emotional delivery feel genuine, even if extreme
Direction that understands the characters as intended by the author. This is where a lot of dubs fall horribly short. They do not consult with the original content creator, and wind up with voices and characterizations that may seem to work on the surface but are lacking the depth of understanding for a character needed for the performance to make sense over time as we learn more about them.
Just my 2c, but IMO this is where most of the problems with dubs come from, and why they wind up sounding either generic or campy.
Good way to put it; I’ve been a subs person for anime as long as I remember but I make an exception for games, I think in large part because they consult the devs more during localization. When anime does that, it seems to hit those two points.
I’m primarily a subs person, despite the fact that I prefer dubs if they’re actually good enough.
Cowboy Bebop and Fullmetal Alchemist are phenomenal dubs. I’ve watched both subbed and dubbed and think they are equally good, and thus prefer the dub so I can pay more attention to the animation and action.
The only recent dub I’ve thought was okay was ReZero. I don’t love it, and prefer the sub, but it is one of the better ones I’ve heard. Maybe there are other great ones but I stopped even trying to find them after a while 😂