A Z Kai dub review from a foreigner (me)

[linkdude20002001]

I wouldn't put the Funimation dub of One Piece in the same league as Ocean's Death Note dub, but otherwise, that's about the same as my own standards, even down to several of the examples.

To tell you the truth, I haven't actually seen the English dub of Death Note; I just wanted another example and I'd heard it was amazing. And FUNi's dub of One Piece is amazing, right? Or have I just not seen enough?

As for the other shows, I've seen them all quite extensively in English, so those are definitely accurate to how I feel.

[JulieYBM]

I wouldn't put the Funimation dub of One Piece in the same league as Ocean's Death Note dub, but otherwise, that's about the same as my own standards, even down to several of the examples.

To tell you the truth, I haven't actually seen the English dub of Death Note; I just wanted another example and I'd heard it was amazing. And FUNi's dub of One Piece is amazing, right? Or have I just not seen enough?

As for the other shows, I've seen them all quite extensively in English, so those are definitely accurate to how I feel.

The FUNi dub isn't something the fanbase is universally embarressed by, unlike the 4Kids dub. Add in Toei and Oda apparently had a heavy hand in the major casting and you've got yourself more support from fans.

Amazingly enough, they've dubbed about two hundred episodes in the past three years (possiblely two years, considering I remember around Christmas 2008 Kyle Hebert said he was going to record for Alabasta arc episodes and that right in the middle of Season Two) but the quality really hasn't been inhibited by it. FUNi really put a lot of work into their dub of it (two senior head writers with their own teams, three to five directors at a time led by Mike McFarland, and then an entire music team for creating English versions of the vocal themes).

Now back to your regularly scheduled thread!

[linkdude20002001]

Thanks, JulieYBM. From what I've seen of the dub, I've had no complaints. As for Death Note, I've only ever seen clips, and I wasn't exactly pleased by Light's laugh or L's voice, but that's probably just me being picky. Though, the laugh should've at least been better. I can do a laugh that's identical to the Japanese one, so I'd like to think Brad Swaile can too. Every time I hear Light in English, I'm reminded of Gohan. Thanks Westwood dub! Lol.

[JulieYBM]

Hmmm...this is actually the first foreign distribution and licensing of the series isn't it? Interesting how now non-R1 residents must reply on FUNimation's release if they want an English version of the show (or with English subtitles!!)

Thanks, JulieYBM. From what I've seen of the dub, I've had no complaints. As for Death Note, I've only ever seen clips, and I wasn't exactly pleased by Light's laugh or L's voice, but that's probably just me being picky. Though, the laugh should've at least been better. I can do a laugh that's identical to the Japanese one, so I'd like to think Brad Swaile can too. Every time I hear Light in English, I'm reminded of Gohan. Thanks Westwood dub! Lol.

What bugs me most about the Death Note dub is how they mispronounce Japanese names.

Although that applies to all dubs.

Then again...I don't really like the Death Note anime like I do the comic.

But...Mamoru Miyano and Kappei Yamaguchi do awesome as Light and L!

Wait, this is a Dragon Ball thread!!

[linkdude20002001]

They mispronounce names?! No!!! Now I see why penguintruth said FUNi One Piece and Death Note shouldn't be in the same category! I now official give Death Note a B.

[VegettoEX]

What bugs me most about the Death Note dub is how they mispronounce Japanese names.

Is it the standard Ocean practice of placing the weird emphasis on the middle syllable of a name? So a flat "Yagami" becomes "Yuh - GAH - mi"...?

Like I said, it's "standard" for them, and it goes back years and years and years. It's frustrating that whomever directs the group can never seen to care the least bit about what the names actually are, no matter which show it is and which group of actors/actresses it is.

One of our favorite examples is (admittedly way back in the day) with a minor anime-only character named "Sasuke" in the Ranma 1/2 TV series, whose name came out as -- you guessed it -- "suh - SOO - ke".

It's something we mostly avoided with the early DB & DBZ dubs because the names are so... well... non-Japanese, for the most part. There's the "go - KUU" pronunciation (rather than a flat "go - ku"), but that kind of stuff was and remains relatively minor, extending mostly to flat-out name changes rather than mis-pronunciations... though I'm sure there are some of those, too (like "duh - BUR - ah", I believe...?).

[JulieYBM]

What bugs me most about the Death Note dub is how they mispronounce Japanese names.

Is it the standard Ocean practice of placing the weird emphasis on the middle syllable of a name? So a flat "Yagami" becomes "Yuh - GAH - mi"...?

Like I said, it's "standard" for them, and it goes back years and years and years. It's frustrating that whomever directs the group can never seen to care the least bit about what the names actually are, no matter which show it is and which group of actors/actresses it is.

One of our favorite examples is (admittedly way back in the day) with a minor anime-only character named "Sasuke" in the Ranma 1/2 TV series, whose name came out as -- you guessed it -- "suh - SOO - ke".

It's something we mostly avoided with the early DB & DBZ dubs because the names are so... well... non-Japanese, for the most part. There's the "go - KUU" pronunciation (rather than a flat "go - ku"), but that kind of stuff was and remains relatively minor, extending mostly to flat-out name changes rather than mis-pronunciations... though I'm sure there are some of those, too (like "duh - BUR - ah", I believe...?).

Yeah, pretty much. What really gets me is how they pronounce Mikami. 'Ka' is pronounced as 'kuh', without any height and they tend to speed through the word so it comes off almost as 'Meekuhmee' which burns me to no end.

I'm pretty sure that's how they pronounce Dabra's name, too. Don't even get me started on their 'Gero', either.

[El Diabeetus]

What bugs me most about the Death Note dub is how they mispronounce Japanese names.

Is it the standard Ocean practice of placing the weird emphasis on the middle syllable of a name? So a flat "Yagami" becomes "Yuh - GAH - mi"...?

Like I said, it's "standard" for them, and it goes back years and years and years. It's frustrating that whomever directs the group can never seen to care the least bit about what the names actually are, no matter which show it is and which group of actors/actresses it is.

One of our favorite examples is (admittedly way back in the day) with a minor anime-only character named "Sasuke" in the Ranma 1/2 TV series, whose name came out as -- you guessed it -- "suh - SOO - ke".

It's something we mostly avoided with the early DB & DBZ dubs because the names are so... well... non-Japanese, for the most part. There's the "go - KUU" pronunciation (rather than a flat "go - ku"), but that kind of stuff was and remains relatively minor, extending mostly to flat-out name changes rather than mis-pronunciations... though I'm sure there are some of those, too (like "duh - BUR - ah", I believe...?).

Yeah, pretty much. What really gets me is how they pronounce Mikami. 'Ka' is pronounced as 'kuh', without any height and they tend to speed through the word so it comes off almost as 'Meekuhmee' which burns me to no end.

I'm pretty sure that's how they pronounce Dabra's name, too. Don't even get me started on their 'Gero', either.

I never noticed anything wrong with "Yah-guh-mee" how they pronounce Yagami in the dub. I've heard it like that in Japanese too. But, than again I got into Death Note through the dub, so that'll sound natural to me. I acutally feel weird saying "Yuh-gah-mee" (even though it's probably more correct) But, yeah. Mikami I could easily tell was completely wrong. Yeah, they do actually pronounce it as "Mee-KUH-mee" instead of "Mee-kah-mee" with no emphasis on the middle syllable. Actually, even with those small pronunciation errors, I still think Death Note's dub is the best one I've seen yet. All the voices are appropriate and a majority of the time they took into consideration what the Japanese did with the scene. I like the dub better than the Japanese for Death Note. The Japanese isn't bad at all, I just prefer some of the dubs choices (such as Ryuk's voice, Shidou Nakamura sounds generic to me compared to Brian Drummond's take on Ryuk). For the most part though, they get the pronunciations right. Kinda off topic to the dub of Death Note; but, I still can't stand the people the can't understand the Raito is just a Japanese pronunciation of the word "Light" and Light is the correct name for the character. Actually Moon would be if you go by the Kanji "Yagami Tsuki". But, yeah, you know what I mean. Actually the Japanese cast, in particular Ryuk tends to pronounce it as "Laito". But, yeah. (I sometimes wish there was a Death Note equivalent to Daizex. Now that I said that, I went and made a forum.)

But, one the topic of Dragon Ball, yeah, I doubt they'll ever correct Gero's name pronunciation. Same with Dabra. But, I'd give the Kai dub a B. It's way better than any previous dub. but still has a bit of ways to go before hitting Death Note dub level.

[Puto]

One of our favorite examples is (admittedly way back in the day) with a minor anime-only character named "Sasuke" in the Ranma 1/2 TV series, whose name came out as -- you guessed it -- "suh - SOO - ke".

The dub's pronounciation of "Akane" irks me more than any of the other characters, really.

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

"Mikami" was pronounced (mostly) correctly in the English dub of Death Note. It's not supposed to be "mi-KA-mi," even though most people pronounce it that way. Listen to the Japanese track.

[Cipher]

though I'm sure there are some of those, too (like "duh - BUR - ah", I believe...?).

"Yajirobe" is a pretty egregious example.

[Vegeta Jr]

Extended YAJ I presume? Same applies to Yamcha. (YORM-CHA).

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

Extended YAJ I presume? Same applies to Yamcha. (YORM-CHA).

"Yeah-juh-ROH-bee" instead of "yah-gee-roh-beh." Always hated that one...

[Vegeta Jr]

Strangely enough I have never heard that one before. I'm thinking of the second but with a very large emphasis on the yah and bay.

[B]

Extended YAJ I presume? Same applies to Yamcha. (YORM-CHA).

"Yeah-juh-ROH-bee" instead of "yah-gee-roh-beh." Always hated that one...

>gee
>beh

Are we still talking FUNi dub here? I've never heard them pronounce Yajirobe's name like that.

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

Extended YAJ I presume? Same applies to Yamcha. (YORM-CHA).

"Yeah-juh-ROH-bee" instead of "yah-gee-roh-beh." Always hated that one...

>gee
>beh

Are we still talking FUNi dub here? I've never heard them pronounce Yajirobe's name like that.

The first one is the (mis)pronuncation from FUNimation's dub, the second one is how the Japanese say it.

[linkdude20002001]

Extended YAJ I presume? Same applies to Yamcha. (YORM-CHA).

Yamcha is pronounced correctly in the dub, I think. Just make sure you say chaw, not chuh.