Funimation Dubbing: My Hero Academia vs Dragon Ball Franchise

[WittyUsername]

Could you pick a better example than Death Note? That's a series that exemplifies mediocrity. I'll take the Kai dub any day over that show. I suppose the acting is good, but the actual writing is boring.

Never seen MHA, but with the exception of Kai, the 3 ocean dub movies, and DBZ Movie 8, DB has been treated terribly. If it wasn't DBZ, the bizarre practices wouldn't be tolerated. It's a testament to DBZ's popularity that it found an audience and continues to have the longevity it does in the US.

What about the dubs of Battle of Gods, Resurrection ‘F’, or even Super?

[Kunzait_83]

Their dub of OP is generally considered one of their best, yes. But their dub of Kai is also generally considered one of their best, and I have already laid out why I think it's not good enough. So, unless you have more than "it's better than dragon ball" and "i heard it's good", I don't trust it to be any better than their mediocre work on the modern DB dubs.

Another FUNimation dub that's often pointed to as "one of their best" and "a huge improvement over their DBZ dub'" is Yu Yu Hakusho. And that's certainly a dub that, while indeed LIGHTYEARS better than virtually anything they've ever done with DB in any capacity (which itself isn't exactly a high bar to clear to begin with), is still plagued with issues of its own. Most of it generally being related to scripting, though it certainly has a few acting issues as well (namely with Sabat's Kuwabara which is outright unlistenable).

The problem with FUNimation is that outside of the Dragon Ball franchise and Yu Yu Hakusho, VERY little of what they've actually dubbed tend to be anime I would consider to be good or worthwhile in and of themselves (even in their original Japanese versions) to begin with. With a VERY tiny list of exceptions, FUNimation as a company has continually demonstrated over the years an almost pathological ability to avoid dubbing and/or licensing anime that isn't some of the most lowest common denominator pandering, brain damaged garbage out there.

The VAST overwhelming majority of titles they now own that are actually good, worthwhile anime titles worth checking out are generally license rescues from other defunct companies (much of the time Geneon), up to and including their old dubs from them. 97/98% of the anime that FUNimation directly licenses/dubs themselves are very often the kinds of anime you couldn't even PAY ME to try and sit down and plow through.

I mean good for Ouran High School Host Club for having what I'm sure is a very respectful and accurate English dub: that hardly alters the fact that I'd much rather have one or both of my testicles sliced in half than sit through an episode of it in ANY language. And that sentiment goes for the VAST overwhelming majority of FUNi's entire anime catalog (the parts of it that weren't yanked from another, better anime licensing company's sinking ship at least). Yes, that very much includes stuff like One Piece and My Hero Academia.

In terms of FUNi's overall taste and selection in licenses throughout the vast lion's share of their history, FUNimation is hardly the anime answer to Criterion to put it mildly.

Of their major, flagship licenses/dubs, the most prominent two of theirs that I DO genuinely think are actually worthwhile titles (DB and YYH) also happen to have easily their two worst dubs.

[Cure Dragon 255]

This one is better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYWBMLYRp1A

[8000 Saiyan]

I'm curious, Kunzait, what do you think of Justin Cook's Yusuke? Some people think he sounds more like a punk than Nozomu Sasaki, who they think sounds like a stereotypical Shonen hero.

[Kunzait_83]

I'm curious, Kunzait, what do you think of Justin Cook's Yusuke? Some people think he sounds more like a punk than Nozomu Sasaki, who they think sounds like a stereotypical Shonen hero.

Cook's Yusuke is passable for the most part, at least from what I remember of it. He's hardly among my big issues with that dub. He's got his moments.

Calling Sasaki's Yusuke performance "typical Shonen hero sounding" however is a beyond bizarre and mystifying description.

First of all, Yusuke isn't a "punk" in the Western definition of the term: he's a Japanese Yanki-style delinquent, like Kuwabara. Yanki's, Bosozoku, Japanese street thugs in general have their own assortment of unique and culturally distinctive stereotypes and idiosyncrasies associated with them. Sasaki's Yusuke performance embodies plenty of those aspects, mannerisms, and tics, down to the particular manner in which he Kiais: Yusuke's trademark "Oraoraoraoraoraora!!!!" is a distinctive Yanki/Bosozoku battle cry used in back alley street fights. Its basically an ultra-aggressive, profane way of saying "Come on!" or "Lets throw down!" or whatnot. Its a VERY common sound throughout TONS of delinquent thug/Bosozoku anime in general (which unlike Shonen actually IS its own distinct genre of anime/manga, with its own set of common plot and character tropes and archetypes), as are any number of Yusuke - and Kuwabara's - other subtle mannerisms.

Sasaki is very much channeling Yanki/delinquent mannerisms and tonalities in his Yusuke performance, much as Shigeru Chiba is in his Kuwabara. Sasaki may not sound like the type of street thug that a Westerner might be familiar with, but that's because Yusuke (and Sasaki's performance of him) is VERY much invoking a very distinctively Japanese brand of street thug. A very young one sure, but that's because Yusuke is around 14/15 for much of the series.

And for that matter: what the fuck exactly WOULD a "typical Shonen hero's" voice sound like? I assume we're talking about "Battle Shonen" here, as once again Shonen in general is a VERY broad classification denoting a target audience rather than a particular genre. But even still, Yusuke in NO way sounds like Son Goku, who in NO way sounds like Kenshiro, who in NO way sounds like Seiya, who in NO way sounds like Jotaro Kujo, who in NO way sounds like Luffy or Naruto, etc. I have no idea what that description is even supposed to mean on a basic level: probably in no small part because the whole idea of defining Shonen as a "genre" is beyond baseless, ridiculous, and idiotic in itself in the first place.

[Robo4900]

Well, here’s a small sample of how their dub compares to the original (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5hln31n8GpU).

Hm. Dialogue in Funi's dub seems a bit stilted.

(As a side note, I don’t think the performances in the 4Kids dub of Yu-Gi-Oh are particularly good. There are honestly some pretty laughable performances in that dub, hence why Littlekuriboh was able to get so much mileage out of them. Characters in that dub don’t seem like they know what it means to speak in an indoor voice.)

Eh, I thought the main cast was pretty spot on, at least.
And even the ones that are "Laughable" are honestly more just delightfully silly and over the top than just bad... So it's often a rather enjoyable performance, at least.

[8000 Saiyan]

Jesus, that clip reminded me just how grating Colleen can be as Luffy at times.

[ABED]

I would argue Z movie 8 was also pretty terribly handled dub-wise

Other than the music, the acting is good and the script was as good as any to come out of FUNi.

[WittyUsername]

I would argue Z movie 8 was also pretty terribly handled dub-wise

Other than the music, the acting is good and the script was as good as any to come out of FUNi.

Even as far as the music is concerned, while I obviously don’t condone the use of replacement scores, if any Dragon Ball movie absolutely had to receive the rock music treatment, a Broly movie at least makes some sense, given the nature of the character.

Now that I think about it, the script for movie 10 was also fairly decent, IIRC.

[Danfun64]

Spoiler:

Simmons:
<Videl> What, are you doubting us? You have to be kidding! These two aside, I am a defender of justice back in Satan City.
<Elder> Natade Village here has long flourished because of our crystals, but starting seven years ago, it has been like this.
<Shaman> Our curse! Our curse, Ombachama our curse, our curse! Yayakoni Totsama! Ombachama! It is the curse of the mountain god!
<Elder> Seven years ago, this area began suffering under unusual weather. Even so, we bore it out and made our lives here. But there was a beast that suddenly grew out of the mountains, and when it had devoured all the animals, who were already dwindling because of the abmormal weather, it began to attack the village! What's more, it gets more terrible every year. The words of the Prayergiver-sama, which offers the sacrifice to the mountain god, beg that he may rebuke the beast.
Funimation
<Videl> OK, look. My name is Videl. I mean you no harm, and the same goes for these two lugheads. We have no ill will for you or your people.
<Elder> Forgive our suspicion. We were not always this way. I am Zalador, the Village Senior; and this is Maloja, the Village Idiot and self elected shaman.
<Shaman> {as the Elder is speaking the last sentence} Do not be fooled by their innocent forms! They are cursed and must be cleansed of the evil afflicting their dark souls! {gibberish that I am not going to transcribe}
<Elder> Seven years ago, the mountain god laid a curse upon our village. The Great Crystal, which had for untold ages protected us, was shattered. Prosperity gave way to misery, as drought and famine crippled the land. Still, we managed to survive. Then, one day, a terrible storm came down from the mountains, and with it a monstrous beast killed our livestock and attacked the village! Maloja advised an annual sacrifice to appease the mountain god and quell the beast's savagery. This has become our way of life, and I fear it degenerates with each passing year. We are a broken people.

You sure the script was "fairly decent"?

[8000 Saiyan]

I noticed one problem with one scene in Kai 1.0. After Piccolo is done arguing with Kami, he tells him this: "Let's just hope that when you come to your senses, there will be still a world left for us to save". The script is making as if the Z Fighters are superheroes.

[WittyUsername]

Spoiler:

Simmons:
<Videl> What, are you doubting us? You have to be kidding! These two aside, I am a defender of justice back in Satan City.
<Elder> Natade Village here has long flourished because of our crystals, but starting seven years ago, it has been like this.
<Shaman> Our curse! Our curse, Ombachama our curse, our curse! Yayakoni Totsama! Ombachama! It is the curse of the mountain god!
<Elder> Seven years ago, this area began suffering under unusual weather. Even so, we bore it out and made our lives here. But there was a beast that suddenly grew out of the mountains, and when it had devoured all the animals, who were already dwindling because of the abmormal weather, it began to attack the village! What's more, it gets more terrible every year. The words of the Prayergiver-sama, which offers the sacrifice to the mountain god, beg that he may rebuke the beast.
Funimation
<Videl> OK, look. My name is Videl. I mean you no harm, and the same goes for these two lugheads. We have no ill will for you or your people.
<Elder> Forgive our suspicion. We were not always this way. I am Zalador, the Village Senior; and this is Maloja, the Village Idiot and self elected shaman.
<Shaman> {as the Elder is speaking the last sentence} Do not be fooled by their innocent forms! They are cursed and must be cleansed of the evil afflicting their dark souls! {gibberish that I am not going to transcribe}
<Elder> Seven years ago, the mountain god laid a curse upon our village. The Great Crystal, which had for untold ages protected us, was shattered. Prosperity gave way to misery, as drought and famine crippled the land. Still, we managed to survive. Then, one day, a terrible storm came down from the mountains, and with it a monstrous beast killed our livestock and attacked the village! Maloja advised an annual sacrifice to appease the mountain god and quell the beast's savagery. This has become our way of life, and I fear it degenerates with each passing year. We are a broken people.

You sure the script was "fairly decent"?

I didn’t say it was great or anything. Just that it wasn’t as off the mark as some of the other movie dubs. There were some things it handled well enough. Even as far as the scene you cited is concerned, the end part from the elder wasn’t too bad.

[ShadowBardock89]

Not that I follow anime in general, but isn’t FUNimation’s dub of One Piece also held in high regard?

Pretty sure a lot of that is down to the fact it replaced the 4Kids dub, which... Well... Less said about that, the better...

It also helps that Eiichiro Oda himself approved of FUNimation's voice cast.

[8000 Saiyan]

Not that I follow anime in general, but isn’t FUNimation’s dub of One Piece also held in high regard?

Pretty sure a lot of that is down to the fact it replaced the 4Kids dub, which... Well... Less said about that, the better...

It also helps that Eiichiro Oda himself approved of FUNimation's voice cast.

He did approve of the 4Kids cast apparently.

[ShadowBardock89]

Pretty sure a lot of that is down to the fact it replaced the 4Kids dub, which... Well... Less said about that, the better...

It also helps that Eiichiro Oda himself approved of FUNimation's voice cast.

He did approve of the 4Kids cast apparently.

Is there any documentation for this?

At least I can point to an audio commentary in one of the early One Piece Voyages DVDs for mine.

[NintendoBlaze53]

With how many dubs Funimation produce their quality is always going to be all over the place. The best thing to look at are an anime's ADR director and other such staff. Since the topic is My Hero Academia, Colleen Clinkenbeard is entirely to praise for that dubs amazing acting and work with accuracy, same can be said with Steins;Gate, another heavily praised Funimaton dub despite it's very loose adaption in places such as using meme and internet humor in it's localization. However J. Micheal Tatum and Patrick Seitz made an amazing script coupled with Colleen's direction made one of funimations most praised dubs. Another important name is Mike McFarland. Most of Funi's praised dubs has one or both of these two attached in the staff list somewhere. Fullmetal Alchemist, Steins;Gate, Wolf Children, My Hero Academia, Attack on Titan, Evangelion Rebuild, One Piece. Basically it all depends on who's in the staff as Funimation has some great staff but also some really bad staff.

Most interesting, Mike McFarland has done some ADR work for Dragon Ball, funnily enough some of the more praised non-Kai stuff. Some late Buu Episodes, the UUE stuff, Z Movie 8 and Path to Power.

[Ringworm128]

Time. Funimation has been dubbing anime for almost 20 years, more if you count the "Ocean" stuff; of course a recent dub of theirs is going to blow what they did back in 1999 out of the water. Also MHA is one of the biggest anime/manga properties at the momment; and Fumination would definitely want to put more care into it than some random 13 episode "slice of life" show.

The My Hero dub is overrated in my opinion. It's a fine dub compared to many, but I just feel like a lot of the voices aren't natural and that they don't sound like a bunch of 14-15 year olds.

Welcome to the world of anime voices.

[MasenkoHA]

So I watched the first episode of My Hero Academia dubbed.

And I don’t know maybe it’s a good dub? I hadn’t seen the show subbed but the show is so god damn annoying from the way the characters talk to the art style to the over the top character interactions that seemed to be on 24/7 with no subdued moments I couldn’t get past it. Is My Hero Academia suppose to be a good anime? Is the dub actually bad? I don’t know.

All I can say is I could stomach OG Dragon Ball dubbed because even with the mediocre (at best) voice acting, unfunny dub added lines, and racist as shit white people doing cartoon foreign accents Toriyama’s story and the original anime can still shine through with the dub.

So either MHA has a worse dub than OG Dragon Ball or the show is just terrible.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

So I watched the first episode of My Hero Academia dubbed.

And I don’t know maybe it’s a good dub? I hadn’t seen the show subbed but the show is so god damn annoying from the way the characters talk to the art style to the over the top character interactions that seemed to be on 24/7 with no subdued moments I couldn’t get past it. Is My Hero Academia suppose to be a good anime? Is the dub actually bad? I don’t know.

All I can say is I could stomach OG Dragon Ball dubbed because even with the mediocre (at best) voice acting, unfunny dub added lines, and racist as shit white people doing cartoon foreign accents Toriyama’s story and the original anime can still shine through with the dub.

So either MHA has a worse dub than OG Dragon Ball or the show is just terrible.

Honestly as far as FUNi's non outsourced dubs of the Dragon Ball franchise go the 2001-2003 DB dub, DBZ Kai and Super are really the only ones i can watch and not cringe or laugh at every time.

Now the old '99-'03 Z in house dub/'07-'09 Orange Brick re dub and GT dub on the other hand, i just can't bear to watch those for obvious reasons so for the most part it's sub only for me as far as the original Z and GT goes.

[Mewzard]

Another FUNimation dub that's often pointed to as "one of their best" and "a huge improvement over their DBZ dub'" is Yu Yu Hakusho. And that's certainly a dub that, while indeed LIGHTYEARS better than virtually anything they've ever done with DB in any capacity (which itself isn't exactly a high bar to clear to begin with), is still plagued with issues of its own. Most of it generally being related to scripting, though it certainly has a few acting issues as well (namely with Sabat's Kuwabara which is outright unlistenable).

My view of the YYH dub is that it's not a particularly accurate dub like DBZ's dub was...but it worked better. I can't go back to DBZ's old dub. Had Kai not come out and gotten dubbed when it did, I would be sub only right now for DBZ.

But YYH? I'm nearly half way through my rewatch of it, and I love it. Because it still fundamentally feels like YYH, the characters feel right. It's not perfect, but that's important. I've watched the full anime and read the full manga of both Dragon Ball and Yu Yu Hakusho. I can recognize characters from YYH in both versions that they're who they're supposed to be. Yusuke is Yusuke, his dub voice/dialogue is just how I'd expect Yusuke to talk in English. But Goku? I love Sean Schemmel as Goku in the modern stuff...but old dub Z Goku is not Goku of the manga. There's such a stark difference in so many points (plus, it helps that Justin Cook did give a better performance at the time as Yusuke, Schemmel was still several years away from finally getting it right).

I watch YYH's dub even to this day, I laugh, I get hyped up, I even cry. I watch DBZ's old dub...and I cringe. Just cringe.

But yeah, FUNi overall does way better dubs now. One Piece and especially My Hero Academia are solid dubs. Decently accurate from what I can recall of the manga, as I've read both.

Of course, when it comes to more jokey things, sometimes FUNi tosses accuracy to have fun, like with the Crayon Shin-Chan dub, but yeah, they do a lot of good dubs now. Dragon Ball just has some holdovers, like fixing a run down clock with some new parts, while others are starting to rust.