No offence, but you're full of *rap.



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!

I guess a lot was probably lost in the translations in DOA2, but I really have to say, I love hearing those cute girls say bizzare stuff like "Sorry, I'm not sweet!" just after they've kicked 7 shades of crap outta you. But that's just me.

Dubbed can be better on certain occasions, as mentioned, Hideo Kojima prefers the English voices of his characters, as do many other as they have more emotion and talent, for example, where's Liquid Snakes British Accent in the japanese version, or the russian accents of the guards? Things like that translate better. I even think the FFX dubs were better than the originals (especially Auron!). But sometimes you do get pathetic poor dubs.

My my, aren't you an assertive fellow. 'dubs always kill the character', what a load of poo. I myself prefer subbed over dubbed on almost all occasions, but to claim dubs wreck everything both shows blind Japanese fanboy-ism and plain closed mindedness.



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.

metal gears solid series is quite a different case.

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...

For dubbing to work, the actors must have a thorough understanding of the original japanese text.



(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.