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Subbed or dubbed: A look at Japan-America game translations |
Listed in: PS3, Wii, PSP, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, PC Gaming Tags: Atlus, David Hayter, Hideo Kojima, Japan
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When a Japanese game manages to see an English rendition, up comes another major hurdle for the fans. Will it be subbed, retaining all the glory of its original Nihonggo tongue? Or, will it face the U.S. distributor's splicers, arriving on retail with a completely new voice crew?
Some will face this predicament head-on and just turn down the volume when the sprites start talking. Some will shake their head in fury, and import. Most will probably just shrug, and resume play. Whatever the case, we figured it was high time we have took a look at some of the points often discussed when it comes to a game's voice tracks.
Quality
Arguably the most violently conflicted point being stated for this particular argument. As many purists will state, dubbed games have a habit of churning lackluster English voice acting. The scars of the "Jill Sandwich" is still fresh in our memory, with similar titles (ZX Advent, Dynasty Warriors come to mind) only adding fuels to the fire. Even Atlus stumbled a couple of times - Luminous Arc's cast felt lacking in intensity (then again, so did the rest of the game).
But much like the similarly styled U.S. anime industry (try not to think of 4Kids for a moment), the quality' is showing signs of maturity. After all, we've got talented people like David Hayter, who's built up quite a fan base for his works in Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid franchise. Gamers will also remember Viktor Josef Mignogna (aka Vic Mignogna) - the English voice behind Full Metal Alchemist's Edward Elric.
Okay, so the FMA games were sub-par; but at the very least, actors like these fellows we mention indicate the level of refinement and dedication that's being siphoned into Japan-English ports.
And who's to say that poor acting is an ailment that's exclusive to the U.S. market? As Anime News Network editor Ryan Matthews puts it for a relatively parallel anime industry:
The sad truth of the matter is that most Japanese anime voice acting is of average quality. This is not to impugn the Japanese; it's merely Sturgeon's Law at work. For every Akira Kamiya and Megumi Hayashibara, there are scores of actors giving uninspired, cookie-cutter performances.
Celebrity status
Of course, there's the matter of star power. Many an anime fan will tell you that part of the fun in watching their favorite shows is based on the seiyuu. The same can be said for video games; plenty of these seiyuu lend their talents to some of your favorite titles.
It's just more fun (and strange) playing a bout of Samurai Warriors, knowing that Yukimura was also voiced by the same guy who did Slam Dunk's Hanamichi Sakuragi. In this case, the actor is Takeshi Kusao.
But as we've said in passing earlier, the same can be said (to a certain extent) for its U.S. counterparts. Mignogna himself has a whopping fan base (type his name on youtube if you don't believe us) that would rival many a Japanese pop star.And lest we forget, Kingdom Hearts' U.S. port was also proved to carry its own celebrity who's-who. The crew consisted of names like Haley Joel Osment (A.I., Sixth Sense), David Gallagher (7th Heaven), and Christopher Lee (Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings).
Lost in translation
The gist is that if you try to dub game scripts instead of leaving them untouched, some subtle meaning in the dialogue is lost as well. In some cases, this can be a harmless nuance to Japanese culture, or a missed punchline. On a more severe case, this could mean gaping inconsistencies in the plot.
There's also the candid effect of the character's mouths (originally timed for their Japanese
voice) moving even as the character hasn't uttered a word. A very strange ailment that's plagued the run of Monolith's Xenosaga, and its predecessor, Xenogears.
Here's the territory gets a little iffy. While it does feel like something gets lost in the English translation, it's not always as bad as it seems. Take Disgaea (or Disgaea 2), as distributed by Atlus, for example. The game's English voices are pretty spot-on with the text, with certain gags being approximated to fit a more American setting.
And while this may not be an exact translation per se, this does mean that viewers can enjoy the humor as well as a Japanese audience. Different jokes with different cultural contexts can still equate to the same lols, after all.
On a more practical note, there's also the matter of reading speed.Only those among us with above-normal coordination can usually read subtitles while still playing a decent match. For most of us, it just results in tired eyes and poor scores - can you think of a worse reason to hate a game?
Your choice:
Of course, in the end, this really up to the workmanship of the studio behind the localization. And much in the same way, up to the personal tastes of the players... and of our willingness to stomach the occasional ear bleeder to experience a potentially face-melting title. In my case, though, I'll be sticking to subs, and keeping ZX Advent's volume down when the conversations pop up.
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Comments
I do not understand why North Americans must dub everything.
Anime or games alike, dubs always kill the character.
{{I bet most of you didn't know Aerith (FF7) only speaks in single word sentences 90% of the time~!}}
The little details they add to every character's speech is what makes the characters who they are. By taking away what the artists have put into the character, you are disrespecting both the work and the Japanese culture.
Every character's personality is created to fit only that one particular voice actor/actress. While the animation is in the making, the actor/actresses were already hand picked so that the voice suits the character. However, when the pieces of work are imported to North America, they all end up sounding like robots.
The American voice actors (regardless of skills) simply do not fit the Japanese animated characters. (Not to mention 99% of all the dubbed voices total failures) Anyone with the least bit of interest in Japanese animation or culture will make the effort to download Fan-subs instead of watching dubbed anime on TV.
North American cartoons are always very well voice acted. The voices fit the characters and everything is right on. (Who doesn't love Sponge Bob and Patrick Star?!)
But honestly, the only reason someone might choose dubs over originals is the five years old kids who cannot read subtitles (or at all) yet!
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I'd like to see the option of choosing if you want English or Original speech with the optional subtitles.
That way, those who are fine with dubs (yuck) can enable this at say, the start of the game. While those who enjoy the games as they were intended to be, can leave original speech on and enable text if they wish it.
Im tired of the sucky voice actors in the FF series among other things. There are no flow, just "Read the next line please" with little or no emotion.
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I have played the american metal gear solid games 1st, then I tried the japanese and disliked the voice acting o_0. Thats a good sign, we need more of that.
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True the little details the seiyuu's add to their character's personality is quite important, but for those who don't understand a single word of Japanese apart from 'ninja' and Japanese car brands, there's less appeal - especially for those who aren't already die-hard anime fans. I see no disrespect in attempting to help spread the anime/game by raising the appeal for those who would never have gotten into it otherwise. True many times they botch it up, but as for me who can understand and speak functional Japanese, there's also many shows/games where I can't stand the high pitched female voices and how they love to have western inspired characters that talk better than Japanese natives, whereas in English you get a lot more 'localization' of accents, etc.
The article brings up Disgaea. I've played it on both PS2 and PSP many times in both English and Japanese, and I must say, I keep it on English 90% of the time. It's less irritating. And you can shoot me dead if I'm forced to play MGS in Japanese. Even FFX and FFXII weren't bad at all, and I own the imports as well.
At the end of the day it all comes down to many factors, such as translators, artists, and even the setting and plot of the show/game. 'The American voice actors (regardless of skills) simply do not fit the Japanese animated characters.' Does that mean if they did an anime that was fully set in the historic Wild Wild West, having them speaking in English would be stupid ? According to you, it'd be much better to have the sheriff speaking in Osaka-ben and the damsel to be voiced by a chick who's hobby is to get high on helium.
Meh.
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The game has a western setting....
in this case the japanese voice sounds stranger...
heck the japanese sucks at dubbing english movies/cartoons too...
=____=
I did mention that the voices have to suit the characters. And when a character is an American, how could a Japanese voice possibly suit him?!
Let me pick out two more games to compare.
Silent Hill series VS Fatal Frame series.
Silent Hill itself is mostly based on a foreign setting, while Fatal Frame takes place in Japan.
Seeing a blonde American chick speak Japanese was a tad strange I must say, and vice versa.
To be fair, the Japanese voice actors did not develop their skills in one day. Star Ocean SS original voices sucked just as hard as the dubbed. But the least North Americans can do is stop raising their pitch trying to sound like a Japanese. Instead, put more effort into emotions and character...
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This is in my opinion... and all of my friends too. You, QJ, also say MOST don't care? How do you know that most people who watch anime, and play dubed games don't like it as much as the origional with subtitles?
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(Lest we forget about Advent Children's "dilly dally, shilly shally")
Also, if the japanese is littered with japanese in-jokes per se, that won't translate well, the anime/game should be subbed, with major focus on keeping the dialogue authentic.
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man i love that game...
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