Lately I've started watching Log Horizon again on Hulu. I often watch things in the background while on the computer, but anime isn't usually a good match, since my Japanese kinda sucks. But if it's something I've watched a few times, it's not as bad. Hulu has a bug on Apple TV where if you click to play it from the main page though, it starts the next episode in dub mode, rather than sub.
I hate dubs.
Hearing the voice actors for the English version of Log Horizon literally made me feel a bit sick.
Nyanta turned into some kinda hip sultry jazz musician or something.
Maryelle from the Cresent Moon guild was a ditz...well...she's already kinda a ditz, but a likeable one. They turned her into a valley girl.
I guess I could have maybe gotten used to Nyanta...but it didn't really fit as well as his Japanese voice actor. I definately couldn't stand Maryelle though. She is a side character though...
But it's like this every time I try to watch an anime with English dubbing. Why do they always pick such shitty voice actors? Sometimes I wonder if maybe I don't notice how annoying the Japanese actors can be...but they often do fit the characters. It always feels like the English actors aren't picked as carefully. I'm often astounded when I can even manage to watch an English dub of an anime without retching or having to turn it off.
Do the people in charge of the English dub just not care as much to find the right actors for the job? Or do they have a lower budget, so they can't get good actors? There are a few animes with pretty big actors names for the english dubs though. I'm always surprised when I recognize a voice. So, what is it? Are they just treating anime like another cartoon, so they don't try to get as serious of actors?
Anime Cross girl by Melody Dragon October 5, 2008 CC BY-ND 2.0 (source)
