Bad voice acting in the Japanese version?

[SuperSkyWing]

We all know how there were many miscasts that Vancouver and Texas pulled out their asses, but there is also bad acting in the Japanese version as well. Such as Joji Yanami's Babidi. He made Babidi sound like an old fart rather than a wizard. Other characters with bad acting in the original version is Bin Shimada's Broly. He doesn't make Broli sound butthurt and a sore loser which Broli is. Are there any others?

[Rory]

Broli's just a maniac, who hates.... everything. I don't think he's a 'sore loser', in any way. He just wants to kill shit, that's his 'thang.

[SuperSkyWing]

Broli's just a maniac, who hates.... everything. I don't think he's a 'sore loser', in any way. He just wants to kill shit, that's his 'thang.

You're right, I guess. I suppose Bin ain't THAT bad. He just doesn't have any emotion when playing Broli IMO.

[Rory]

Broli's just a maniac, who hates.... everything. I don't think he's a 'sore loser', in any way. He just wants to kill shit, that's his 'thang.

You're right, I guess. I suppose Bin ain't THAT bad. He just doesn't have any emotion when playing Broli IMO.

Nor does Vic (as much as I love the guy). Broli's hardly a 3 dimensional character. "Broli smash" about sums him up.

[SuperSkyWing]

Broli's just a maniac, who hates.... everything. I don't think he's a 'sore loser', in any way. He just wants to kill shit, that's his 'thang.

You're right, I guess. I suppose Bin ain't THAT bad. He just doesn't have any emotion when playing Broli IMO.

Nor does Vic (as much as I love the guy). Broli's hardly a 3 dimensional character. "Broli smash" about sums him up.

True. Broli is a retard over all.

[Gaffer Tape]

I've never understood the hate for Yanami's Babidi. It's actually one of my favorite voices, and I never get tired of hearing it. Even though I get to hear Yanami speak in every single episode, I got sad when I reached the episode where he dies because I knew I'd barely get to hear it again. I was a bit happier when I saw that he had a few scenes in Hell, despite how contradictory that entire premise is.

[VegettoEX]

I've never understood the hate for Yanami's Babidi. It's actually one of my favorite voices, and I never get tired of hearing it. Even though I get to hear Yanami speak in every single episode, I got sad when I reached the episode where he dies because I knew I'd barely get to hear it again. I was a bit happier when I saw that he had a few scenes in Hell, despite how contradictory that entire premise is.

Feel the same way. Always flabbergasted when people don't like that performance.

My go-to voice dislike is always Mayumi Tanaka's Uranai Baba. It's incredibly forced (more so than her Yajirobe, which is at least hysterical in its tone and accent), but her Baba voice drives me up the wall. I'll take Junpei Takiguchi any day of the week.

[Adamant]

Go-to dislike? Kinya Aikawa's Kame Sennin, no doubt. While it's not "bad" voice acting, he's ridiculously miscast, and makes a movie I didn't care much for in the first place even less tolerable. Thank god they never used him again.

Hands-down bad acting in the original, though? No contest there, Hiromi Tsuru's completely phoned-in performance as Bulma in the first 10-or-so episodes of Dragon Ball Kai is just downright embarassing to listen to. No emoting, no effort, no nothing. She eventually picked up her game, but these early episodes are painful.

(there's also Shigeru Chiba's Garlic Junior, which, while not bad taken on its own, doesn't hold a candle to Kamiya's portrayal of the character. Never saw the logic in bringing back an old villain for a filler arc if they weren't able to secure his original voice actor, either)

[The Time Traveller]

Hiromi Tsuru is pretty great as Bulma but there's times when it sounds like she's not really doing any acting. I like Joji Yanami's Babidi, he looks like an old shrivelled up alien and sounds like one.

Dragon Ball Kai didn't sound right in Japanese to me which is why I took to it in English so fast, all the actors were too old for their roles, Toshio Furukawa, Hiromi Tsuru and Masako Nozawa had a shaky start along with Shigeru Chiba. Mayumi Tanaka, Ryusei Nakao and Ryo Horikawa were all still amazing though.

It was either they sounded too old or their performances just weren't as great as the original anime.

[kei17]

I never liked Hiroshi Masuoka's Kamesen'nin because he always sounded like a pervert or a senile man. His acting seriously lacks the dignity of a martial-arts master. Also, I didn't like Ryuuzaburo Ootomo's King Cold. He sometimes sounds like he's just reading his lines.

[The Time Traveller]

I never liked Hiroshi Masuoka's Kamesen'nin because he always sounded like a pervert

Wait, what?! That's... good though isn't it?

[medvedenko2009]

To those of you who dont speak japaneese, How do you judge the voice acting?

[kei17]

I never liked Hiroshi Masuoka's Kamesen'nin because he always sounded like a pervert

Wait, what?! That's... good though isn't it?

I said he always did. Kamesen'nin must be a two-sided character.

[SuperSkyWing]

To those of you who dont speak japaneese, How do you judge the voice acting?

Although one may not know Japanese, you can TELL it's good. The subtitles also help as well. Granted, they're not 100% accurate, because it's not necessarily easy to translate a Germanic language like English to an Altaic, symbol based language like Japanese. Also, not trying to be racist, but some translators who aren't native speakers may slip up at times

E:G Rika Takahashi's translation of Krillin joining Goku to aid him against Garlic
'You should have invited me Goku!'

Steve Simmons
'You're acting pretty aloof Goku!'

Obviously, Takahashi is more accurate and Simmons flopped the big one on that one. Also emotion is a factor. E,g The Ocean Cast Tenshinhan is atrocious, making him sound like a surfer and a bland action hero! While the late great Suzuoki puts emotion into every Kikoho and the way he speaks is just amazing.

[TheBlackPaladin]

To those of you who dont speak japaneese, How do you judge the voice acting?

I can't. Not really, anyway. All I have to go on is the speed and volume at which the actor is delivering their lines. I'm not beyond liking the Japanese version of any anime, and do indeed have some favorite Japanese actors even in Dragonball (with Ryusei Nakao topping the list). However, I massively prefer dubs in almost every circumstance because, whether the acting's good or bad, nothing is lost on me, so I can make an informed judgement.

Although one may not know Japanese, you can TELL it's good. The subtitles also help as well. Granted, they're not 100% accurate, because it's not necessarily easy to translate a Germanic language like English to an.

I don't know that I've ever bought that. I dunno, maybe it's different for other people, but I can't "tell" if a performance is good or not unless I understand every word. Not to mention that, were it not for the subtitles, so many subtleties of a performance would be entirely lost on me. Heck, the performances themselves would be lost on me, never mind the subtleties. Still, to each their own.

[JulieYBM]

Yeah, Masuoka was a pretty terrible Roushi. It was really bad when he first started playing the role in the nineties. Tsuru does phone in Dragon Ball Kai, though. I have to seriously wonder what was going on behind the scenes for her to do that. You'd think one of the cast members would at least say something.

To those of you who dont speak japaneese, How do you judge the voice acting?

I pay attention, like I do for any actor.

[Gyt Kaliba]

I've never understood the hate for Yanami's Babidi. It's actually one of my favorite voices, and I never get tired of hearing it. Even though I get to hear Yanami speak in every single episode, I got sad when I reached the episode where he dies because I knew I'd barely get to hear it again. I was a bit happier when I saw that he had a few scenes in Hell, despite how contradictory that entire premise is.

I've heard a lot of hate for his Babidi as well, but once I got to it I couldn't really tell why, fully. I do think Duncan Brannan in the dub did better mind you, but Yanami was really, really good too. I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I ended up doing.

My go-to voice dislike is always Mayumi Tanaka's Uranai Baba. It's incredibly forced (more so than her Yajirobe, which is at least hysterical in its tone and accent), but her Baba voice drives me up the wall. I'll take Junpei Takiguchi any day of the week.

I'd have to disagree respectfully on this one though. Tanaka's is forced, yeah, but to me Junpei Takiguchi's is much more so. I seriously had to stop watching for a second and wrap my mind around what I was hearing. It might be weird to say, but I've been able to get over the idea of Nozawa, a woman, playing full grown males in this series much easier than I've been able to get used to a man voicing Baba.

Go-to dislike? Kinya Aikawa's Kame Sennin, no doubt. While it's not "bad" voice acting, he's ridiculously miscast, and makes a movie I didn't care much for in the first place even less tolerable. Thank god they never used him again.

Definitely agree here, ugh. I know it must have been hard to replace the genius of Kohei Miyauchi (who is one of my favorites in Dragon Ball), but did they even try with Aikawa?

To those of you who don't speak Japanese, how do you judge the voice acting?

This was something I always used to wonder about too, until I started watching it in Japanese as well - though I'd already kind of learned it with a few other subtitled series I got to see. It's hard to explain, but good acting can shine through a language barrier, more so than you'd believe till you experience it for yourself.

Let's see, as for bad acting on the Japanese side that I haven't already agreed with...hmm...

Honestly, I'm drawing a blank right now, I'll have to flip through my notes on it. The only thing that comes to mind right now is an isolated incident in GT, when Goku has first turned into a golden oozaru. What lead them to the thought that having Nozawa do monkey chirping for the form would be a good idea is beyond me...especially when it had never been done that way before.

[andrewtuell1991]

Feel the same way. Always flabbergasted when people don't like that performance.

My go-to voice dislike is always Mayumi Tanaka's Uranai Baba. It's incredibly forced (more so than her Yajirobe, which is at least hysterical in its tone and accent), but her Baba voice drives me up the wall. I'll take Junpei Takiguchi any day of the week.

I always hated Tanaka's Baba too. It just sounded like her Yajirobe with a cold. Why did Takiguchi leave again? I know he didn't die until while back, did he get sick or something?

Honestly I hated any of the Japanese replacement voices, whether they from mid-way during the original broadcasts or the replacements in Kai (Dodoria, Zarbon and Ginyu Tokusentai) because Toei was to cheap to hire them back.

But the one Japanese VA I absolutely cannot stand is Naoko Watanabe's Chichi. It just sounded too rough and she sounded like a total bitch after that. I've also noticed it's when Watanabe took over for Mayumi Shō that they really started to flanderize her in the anime. I really wished they could've hired Sho back for Kai but... oh, well .

[Akumaito Beam]

This may seem kinda silly to say but a chunk of extras in the Bardock special deliveried some incredibly flat,bored lines. It kind of jarred me because bad sounding extras are fairly rare.

I find it weird that people can't pick up on good or bad acting in a different language. I can really only see that flying if you had zero exposure to the language.

Edit-
Mark me up as someone who really dislikes that pop idol casting in Kai. When you put those sorts of people next to actual actors the results are embarrassing.

[dbboxkaifan]

To those of you who dont speak japaneese, How do you judge the voice acting?

You may not know Greek, Euskerá, Catalán, Portuguese, Portuguese Brazilian, Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, but you still know when the voice acting is good and/or bad.

I don't have anything against the original Japanese version, it's my favourite and pretty much grew up with it as the second choice. The first one was the horrid Portuguese dub which they made Piccolo Daimao, Kami-sama, Freeza, Cell, Cell Jrs, Ginyu Forces, etc sound like robots / distorted vocals.

Just imagine the Granny Freeza (Linda Young) with auto-tune. Ugh, gross.