Are anime dub actors better, worse or equal to pre-lay voice actors

Yeah, but that proves they aren't perfect. Just like there are pre-lay cartoons with good awful voice acting and pre-lay with amazing voice acting.

Wolverine just has okay voice acting, its not offensively bad, but its hardly a top example of voice acting in a Western cartoon. I mean you have to match best against best or worst against worst to be fair. So Wolverine may not be as good as the best Funi dubs, but that's not the best example of pre-lay voice acting.
 
Well the Dragon Ball series was the 1st thing they dubbed, and they were trying really hard to market it for children's TV. FUNi has improved and has gained more experience since then.
 
I've noticed that I tend to appreciate the pre-lay voice actors more, even when they're performing a dub. Not to say that I don't appreciate a nuraber of dub actors, some of whom I'm sure could transition into pre-lay voice work if they chose to do so.

I also think too many dubs suffer from questionable voice direction. It's possible that some voice directors, who might otherwise do good work, are too picky about matching lip flaps or something. Sometimes they just have to make the best of a poorly worded (not necessarily inaccurate) translation.

--Romey
 
Another thing to keep in mind is that FUNi has a tendency to more aggressively rewrite scripts (Trinity Blood, Tsubasa) to make it easier on the VAs but also allow for more natural lines and flow. The result is an overall looser translation that can make subtle or major alterations to the original Japanese dialogue but often results in a better dub performance. The LA and Canadians studios don't usually take these liberties so the performances may wind up stilted and unnatural but they're closer to the original Japanese dialogue.

I'm probably in the minority that prefers the FUNi way of dubbing which is more freewheeling but makes the dub more enjoyable to listen to overall. It helps that FUNi puts obvious care into rewriting the lines so they come off pretty well, as compared to rewrites by certain other companies.
 
Pre-lay actors often have the advantage of playing off one another, rather than each playing their role alone in a recording booth. It can lead to a richer performance.

That being said, the dub actor definitely have the harder job; and not all voice actors can do it. Look at a film like Light Years (English dub of the French film Gandahar). It has a great cast, but most of them had no previous experience at dubbing, and their performance suffered for it.
 
I agree. I also prefer this way of dubbing, as long as they don't completely change everything from the original version in the process. I love how FUNimation can come up with lines that sound so natural for the characters in English, but also don't go so far in changing the script from the original source material, that you might as well think of their dub of a show as an entirely different work than the original, altogether. What I mean is that with their dubs of DBZ and Shin-Chan (from what I've heard, anyways), they take far too many liberties which results in a completely different experience of the story-line from the true original version. However, in most of their other dubs, they take enough liberties to make the job significantly easier for the voice actors, and have all of the lines sound so smooth and well-written, yet at the same time, they don't deviate from the original script so much that it feels like you're watching an entirely different show. I'd say that FUNimation's dubs for Yu Yu Hakusho is a great example of this.
 
You know... that's a tough call.

On one hand most pre-lay actors are very good at what they do and probably act on stage or do live-action television or movies at some point thus showing they have good acting chops. And not too many animated series recorded in the US are particularly dramatic... there are some but most are comedic or silly and that requires a different kind of acting. Rest assured those actors can do both comedy and drama and do so often enough.

On the other hand I think dub VAs though paid less than pre-lay actors have the harder job and also have more chances to do dramatic acting to animation not to say they don't get to do comedy at all because there's plenty of comedy anime getting dubbed these days. Again the actors can do both comedy and drama whether they do so for dubbing anime or not because many of them do threatre and record for video games and other things.

So I guess I'd put it this way, both could be just as skilled but the anime VAs have to suffer a bit more for their art with lower wages, more difficult recording process and even less work than pre-lay actors can get for whatever reason.
 
So many of the current FUNimation aces and up and comings actually do stage and Indie films so they actually do have acting experience beyond "I can do a funny voice" so I wouldn't say all voice actors for dubs aren't actual actors. Heck, even Chris Sabat who has been the bane of most DB fans for his performances has become a splended actor in his roles in recent years due to the tight direction at FUNimation. Sure, FUNimation is pretty religious about getting those flaps right, but they don't lose the essence of their non-DB shows.
 
At all the voice acting panels I've been to, every single voice actor and director have emphasized how very important it is to be an "actor" and to get involved in theather and stuff. You could have a great voice, but if you can't act it's not really worth a thing as far as the business is concerned. Many also recommend taking some kind of class.
 
It all comes down to personal preference sometimes the original is better some times the english dub is better, it just depenRAB on how you think the character should sound.
 
That's not what we are talking about, we are comparing the work of actors who mainly do pre-lay work, like Tara Strong, with actors who do mainly dubbing like Chris Sabat.



Some people didn't like their version of Crayon-Shin.

Again that's not special, because most voice actors who are even half way competent have a lot of other acting experience before they even pick up a mike.

Ron Perlman and Clancy Brown have extensive careers as character actors, who happen to do voice acting now and again.
 
Uh... I pretty much just said that dubbing stuff was harder. A GOOD voice actor can adapt. O.o And I know that the pay sucks, and that there's a lot of dub actors who really just aren't good, but they get hired because they're all there is. And by voice actor, I mean voice actors in general - which includes seiyuu.
 
Spart... "They're all there is"?

Um... no.

Voice actors are picked because the director feels they fit the role it's not because they're all they can get they get as many auditions as they want because it's an industry that plenty of people want to get into despite it's shortcomings. And those people who want to get into it have to train to do so they most likely have some kind of vocal training and previous theatre experience (and not just high school stuff I mean college courses and community theatre). While I have my gripes with some casting choices especially when it comes to LA dubs it's not because there was no one else to do it it's because they were who were picked from the auditions.

And gosh Jacob re-read what you wrote. All dub actors ARE actors. If for no other reason than that they are infact acting when they dub even if they were pulled in from another part of the company to do a bit role or something. Where as the majority of the dub actors at FUNimation have had a great deal of experience and were actors on stage or were even theatre majors before they came to work for FUNimation as voice actors.
 
Perhaps, but you can say there are example where a dub is better then pre-lay work, the Cowboy bebop dub had better voice acting then a lot of pre-lay cartoons.

I created this topic because when there is a thread comparing American voice acting to Japanese voice acting, often it just compares Japanese voice actors to people who dub anime, often forgetting about pre-lay voice actors.
 
That has a great deal more to do with direction than anything else.

But what are you comparing Bebop to? Another sci-fi action show? Let's compare it to Justice League. Both have excellent casting and excellent acting and direction. But say let's compare Bebop to oh... Spider-Man Unlimited. Yeah Bebop tops that easy. Let's compare Avatar to say... Bleach. Avatar has much better casting, acting and directing.

But I'm ceratain at least most of the actors recording for any of those shows have plenty of skill and talent. Either they were used effectively or they were not.
 
Sorry, my bad. I was under the impression that there was a fairly small talent pool for anime dubbing due to pre-lay work paying better.

So... we're back to bad direction again then? X)
 
Back
Top