flemmings | The things we do for love

Abandoned fandoms may be the best after all, now there's no such thing as an undiscovered one. The local video store had some Kenshin DVDs so I watched a couple last weekend- the first two OVAs (western packaging is immensely uninformative about just what you're getting) and several eps from first season. The artwork is better than good and anyway, you know, Kenshin. An institution. (I know, so is Gundam an institution and you don't see me watching any of it. I am large, I contain multitudes.)

So I took them back on Sunday and went to see what else they might have in the series. The smallish anime section was being blocked by three large young and talkative otaku of various sexes who needed to comment on every cover they pulled out, which was trying; but said otaku also revealed that the unlabelled drawers below the counter held the VHS selection. So I scuse-me'd and grabbed the Rurou section to peruse elsewhere.

They had almost all of the Kyoto arc but only 1 and 3 were in Japanese, so I took those. Wretched wretched mistake, as Elizabeth Bennet said. I want to see the rest. So. I am watching dubbed Kenshin, and bleeding because I *know* it sounds better in Japanese. If I make myself forget Suzukaze Mayo's voice I can almost live with the American VA except for his utterly uninflected delivery of 'that it is.' But I hurt at not hearing Ikeda Shuuichi as Hiko. And I've just had to take a break after discovering that in America the character is called Cow-roo.

Otherwise it's kind of natsukashii in its Memories of '99 fashion: back in the days when Fearless Leader was sending me stacks of Saitoh x Aoshi djs to translate. I've seen little of Aoshi (remember I skipped eps 6-9 of the Kyoto arc) but what there is suggests that he's terribly wet, not to say water-logged. If there's a logic to the attraction I'm not getting it. Saitoh gets on my nerves by being so clearly labelled 'Kakkou Ii- please swoon now' but even that one can live with. So. I persevere. Back to those cookie-cutter female VAs; does anyone know why they all sound alike?

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In English? Because really, there are very few of them and they're all aiming for something approaching the Japanese VAs, which they oughtn't. In Japanese? Because so much of the time talent-of-the-day gets hired to play the popular-role-of-the-day and talent-of-the-day tend to be all the same.

In English. I thought maybe there was just a house style because I hear the same tones and intonation everywhere, from dubs to Disney. The Japanese female voices don't annoy me as much as they ought to, but the English ones- and the male VAs as well- have no notion of phrasing, or even of where periods come. Or ought to come.

I'm not a fan of English dubs, but even among my friends who don't mind them, it's agreed that the Kenshin dub is one of the worst out there.

As for English female VA in general ... it strikes me that far too many of them aim for shrill, rapid-fire delivery (Tiffany Grant and Hillary Haag come to mind). Which works, say, for Excel in Excel Saga, but not much for any other kind of role. That, and well, the few I've heard all sound alike to me. The Japanese female seiyuu often hit notes I don't think an adult woman should be capable of (Sakura's seiyuu in Card Captor Sakura is the worst offender) but they don't annoy me as much.

I'm glad to hear the Kenshin dub is considered bad, because I seriously don't see how you could get into an anime whose characters sound like that. I need to do a little more hunting through downtown video stores and hope someone's bought the Japanese version because this is more painful by the minute.

IMO the Japanese voice actors are just that -- voice actors -- and they take the role very seriously, giving words the necessary inflections and intonations at all the right spots; whereas English-language voice "actors" simply read into the microphone. I wonder how far ahead of the recordings they all get their scripts? I think Japanese VAs can't get them very far ahead, which is testament to their talent.

There's also a huge difference in recording practices.

What I've gathered from watching old LD omake is that the Japanese anime voice actors actually interact with each other, in the same room, a la olde timey radio drama, with a preliminary version of the product projected on a screen for reference.

I believe the American custom is to record all voice actor tracks separately, then mix them together electronically in postproduction. So, basically, they're all doing monologues in a recording booth. I've no clue whether they can actually see what they're dubbing, but I noticed in a few Disney thingies that I watched eons ago, no visual reference was provided; more than one actor might be in the booth during a musical number, but otherwise not.

I think the oldest dubs (such as those for Streamline) might have used the Japanese method. But I gather that separate tracks are current practice everywhere; I've read that American voice actors have stated that cons were were the first time they'd met the other actors in the same anime.

Is interesting. My thinking always has been that this is one of the contributory factors to that notorious "flat" sound of most American dubs.

Notoriously flat. Has no-one complained to the companies? (No, I suppose not. If you don't want to read your TV shows then you're not in it for the beauties of the voice: bouncy breasts and panty shots, more like.)

Most people are used to that classic "American cartoon" sound; those who never listen to dub tracks won't care at all. Anyhoo, it's likely related to cost savings rather than 'art for art's sake,' so I rather expect the voice acting isn't high on the companies' priority lists. I shouldn't think there will ever be comparable seiyuu fan clubs on this side of the pond.

Thing is, with the advent of DVDs -- in which you can select which version you want to hear -- seems to me that there's radically less fannish complaining than in the past. Y'know, VHS gave you -only- the dub or -only- the sub, and most companies would produce a dub first; the subbed version might be released much, much later -- if they bothered at all, which some never did.

Wow, Kenshin is really nostalgic. The Kyoto arc is especially good. (How did you like the OAVs?)

There are good dubs out there. I remember the original Ranma dub was pretty good, or maybe my standards were lower then...And some of the old Pioneer dubs were good, although the Tenchi one took a while to get used too. Patlabor Movie 1 had a pretty good dub, or the movie was so good, you followed it along regardess. Wings of Honnimease (sp?) also had a good dub. (That's a fabulous movie, and quite a few years old. I recommend it if your video store has it. It's been out in the US for at least 10 years, I think...) It's easier to take if you "start" on the dub, because you have nothing to compare it to. Going from Japanese to English though is really difficult, and I dropped shows when I was younger when the video store switched partway through a series. I would complain, but the market for dubbed was greater. Most people don't like to read their TV.

This really takes me back, back before I even started watching fansubs, when only the Drive-in Movie Store could provide my fix, back when the selection was really small...natsukashii...

The OVAs were visually splendid but emotionally cold. They do work better as an adjunct to the series: the adult commentary on the (basically) teenage settei. If I'm ever tempted to take Kenshin seriously I must remember the one ep I did see, somehow, in Japanese, the confrontation with Shishio on the roof: And our *next* contestant is----

The things we do for love

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