By: Satika
Its been quite a long while since I have been active in anything
Sailormoon over the Internet. Its been a long while since Ive watched any
anime that you might know of (because the stuff I watch in Japan hasnt
come to North America to my knowledge). But every so often, I check out
some sites (like the AQ) just to see how things are going.
I suppose people must find something to complain about, but a while ago
I saw many Lemures articles that seem to be aimed at one thing:
Dubbed voices, and how horrible they are.
Ill be honest. I have never ever heard Serena's terrible voice yet. I
cant compare how badly the voices are done in North America with how
they are done in Japan. It strikes me as very interesting that many
Sailormoon fans and anime fans alike seem to practically worship Japanese
people and Japan, thinking that "they can do voices so much better than
us".
Wow, are you guys ever wrong.
Ill give you an example: Terminator 2. Every Friday at 8pm in Japan,
there is usually a Western movie showing. Of course, it is dubbed over in
Japanese (but if you have a bilingual TV, you can make it play in
English). I was watched Terminator 2 with my family, and I was shocked at
how silly the voices were. Absolutely crazy.
Eddie Furlong (John Connor) sounds like he is 5 years old. He had this
annoyingly squeaky voice which I suppose is to convey youth, but
really, it sounded like they hired a mouse to read his lines in Japanese.
Another nice example is Titanic. Ahhhh....Titanic. Whenever I go to
karaoke with my friends, I cant tell you how many times I hear "Sing 'My
Heart Will Go On'!" Even now. But anyway, in the Japanese television
premiere of Titanic, Rose's voice was HORRIBLE. Beyond horrible. It was
like the woman who played Rose was half asleep. Even when she is trying
to find Jack in the lower parts of the ship, she isnt even sounding like
she cares. It sounded like she didnt even care if Jack was alive or
dead. In the original, she screams because she loves him, and would die
down there trying to find the man she loved. In the Japanese version, it
sounds more like if she didnt find him in 10 minutes, she'll go back
upstairs and take a lifeboat out of there.
So, the point of this rant is to explain that North America is not the
only continent to be afflicted with voice acting difficulties. I
suppose things always sound better in the original version anyway...
Comments on this article can be sent to: Satika.
