Is the Japanese Version Underrated?

[8000 Saiyan]

the Funimation 1999-2005 dub was consider to be awful and one of the worst dubs next to the DIC dub of Sailor Moon.

While the DiC Sailor Moon dub was terrible, there were some good voices such as Tracey Moore's Sailor Moon and Susan Roman's Sailor Jupiter. The dub just needed better directors, better casting, better scripts and no censorship.

Dub budgets are lower than they were in the 90s.

Is that really true?

Yes, Animaze (which Bandai & pre-2002 Geneon used regularly) had standards of 10,000/episode, & Streamline used Studiopolis (used a different name then), generally a more expensive studio (they do American games & shows mainly). Bang Zoom got popular because they had lower standards, & in the era of lower need for dubs (thanks to the Internet & a Japanese-partly-owned venue for streaming without need for American TV), there's inherently going to be less money put into it - dubs are made just to support the lowest common denominator, that is why the budgets are so low despite the huge success of many of these shows. The actual show & production cost barely spends anything on dubs, & they obviously want to minimize it as much as possible.

* It's mainly producers/business executives that have control & jurisdiction on these things, but I suspect there might be actual creative people who probably either dislike it strongly, or simply are apathetic/would prefer you watch it subtitled. Miyazaki advocates for dubs though, as does (I think?) Tomino. That might be part of why their dubs are so good. (Satoshi Kon's dubs were always non-union, despite the films' massive success - probably because, as he said, he didn't like or support dubs)

I would also say that it is a triumph for marginalized groups & artists to have their language & cultural flavor preserved in mainstream viewings. The fact that we are able to lower dubs' budgets now is a positive thing - & that's not to knock on distributors from putting in whatever investment needed to bring in more viewers & revenue (or on dub VAs & directors who at least attempt to do a good job with what they're given) just that it's nice they have less need to alter viewers' experience of the works. I would love it if someday we got to the point where language barriers were a non-issue honestly. I think being more open & inclusive of minority artists, though, is a step forward.

...As for Sailor Moon's dub, yeah, I think it wasn't too shabby. Honestly for a Toei mainstream dub, I'm extremely impressed that they more-or-less left in the opening song, & the voices are pretty accurate to how the characters were done in Japanese. Rino Romano (& Vince Corazza) made fantastic Tuxedo Mask's. I would say it's significantly better than Saban/Toei's Digimon dub. I havent seen the old SM dub much though, loving the Viz one so much.

I don't think I will ever know why non-union dubs bother so many people.

[huzaifa_ahmed]

I don't think I will ever know why non-union dubs bother so many people.

Union or not, the point is that the companies dont really take the dub as seriously as the fans may take it. Aside from the overall accuracy, the shoddy production of values of specificly DB's introductory dubs, are a testament to that sense of haphazard conduct in regards to the dub. Unionizing at least shows that you're meeting an industry-set standard, as low as it might be in the case of English dubs. The whole point of the union standard wahe is that it's fair & accessible - I'm eternally curious as to why, for example, original animation/games/audiobooks/commercials etc, generally use their union standard, whereas anime does not. Don't the same rules govern them? Overall I can overcome a lot of ignored annoyance, anxiety, & in general mesh better with the flow of the community if I simply approach the business of dubs as one that's less artistic or a necessary evil/business practice, as people who ignore dubs entirely, such as Cipher or other great contributors on here, do. I always like following VAs & never appreciate people disrespecting or dismissing the work of these people, & I do like shedding light on how these things work, though.

Language & voice-over is an important of a show, though, & I think hopefully at some point we'll drum up enough interest to get more anime for beyond just Japanese folks - like Animatrix, Afro Samurai, Gotham Knight, & the Thundercats anime. I can understand people not happy with replacing voices, fair enough, but I dont think this is an unreasonable idea. An artstyle or medium isnt inherently tied to a language, right? Here's hoping.

[8000 Saiyan]

I don't think I will ever know why non-union dubs bother so many people.

Union or not, the point is that the companies dont really take the dub as seriously as the fans may take it. Aside from the overall accuracy, the shoddy production of values of specificly DB's introductory dubs, are a testament to that sense of haphazard conduct in regards to the dub. Unionizing at least shows that you're meeting an industry-set standard, as low as it might be in the case of English dubs. The whole point of the union standard wahe is that it's fair & accessible - I'm eternally curious as to why, for example, original animation/games/audiobooks/commercials etc, generally use their union standard, whereas anime does not. Don't the same rules govern them? Overall I can overcome a lot of ignored annoyance, anxiety, & in general mesh better with the flow of the community if I simply approach the business of dubs as one that's less artistic or a necessary evil/business practice, as people who ignore dubs entirely, such as Cipher or other great contributors on here, do. I always like following VAs & never appreciate people disrespecting or dismissing the work of these people, & I do like shedding light on how these things work, though.

Language & voice-over is an important of a show, though, & I think hopefully at some point we'll drum up enough interest to get more anime for beyond just Japanese folks - like Animatrix, Afro Samurai, Gotham Knight, & the Thundercats anime. I can understand people not happy with replacing voices, fair enough, but I dont think this is an unreasonable idea. An artstyle or medium isnt inherently tied to a language, right? Here's hoping.

As long as the dub has a good director and a good cast, then it's clear to me that who's responsible for that dub is taking things seriously. Union dubs don't suddenly scream quality to me if they don't have anything I've mentioned.

I don't know exactly why anime dubs don't have cartoon voice actors, but personally, while I would like to see voice actors who just work in western animation and video games in anime dubs, I don't think they're exactly necessary to be in dubs just to prove to you that they take dubbing work seriously.

Even if they had decided to dub GoLion and Star Musketeer Bismark seriously in the 1980's with your typical cartoon voice actors and voice director, uncut and with an accurate script, I doubt it would have been good. In the old Akira dub, Wally Burr, who was a great director for Transformers and GI Joe, didn't seem to know what he was doing. But then that was the 80's, anime dubbing in English was relatively new and even great talents didn't have a great grasp on it.

As for people disregarding and dismissing the work of English VA's, well, keep in mind that quality is subjective. Not everyone shares the same opinion.