So... Merlwyb will be voiced

[AlexNiculaie]

This

As someone incapable of reading subtitles or understanding of Japanese I fail to see why it is always held in such high regard as if it some holy language which must be worshipped by all. I have a friend who speaks the language fluently and has even taught English in Japan and she doesn't even act as if Japanese is the alpha language and even prefers some dubs over subs.

You are entitled to your opinion, as I am to mine but quit pretending this other language that most of you cannot even speak is superior. It is no different than French, German, itallian or Spanish, just another way of saying the same damn thing nothing more.

I don't hold Japanese to be some Holy grail, or what ever other hyperbolic attempt to dismiss others' preference one wishes to throw out. It doesn't matter what language the original is in, I tend to prefer it to English dubs because too often English voice actors treat whatever it is as if they are doing voices for Scooby Doo. It's annoying, like they are trying too hard.

Those that I do find well done tend to use live action actors for voice overs. Hell, even the English native language games and animated shows that seem to have the better voice acting do too. Granted, that is a generalization, and I readily acknowledge that, but for me it holds true more often than not.

That, and it's harder to tell bad voice acting when you aren't as familiar with the language to know just how horrible it really is.

[Erana]

Voice-acting will be done by Fernehalwes, of course.

But yes, looking forward to seeing how it'll turn out. Hopefully they make the accents so that they're not cheesy.

[Orophin]

Or maybe some (that have actually worked in the voice acting industry) know how to distinguish good voice acting from mediocre voice acting, and recognize that Japan simply has a much more solid tradition for voice overs that the US and Britain do, resulting in much higher quality overall.

That's nice if Japanese have better voice talent, but it does shit all for me if I can't understand what they're saying. If I wanted to read subtitles I'd just assume not have voice acting at all.

It's a good thing we have options. You folks that like how Japanese voices sound compared to everything else can listen to something you may or may not understand while us folks that prefer to hear something in our native language can do so as well.

[Abriael]

That's nice if Japanese have better voice talent, but it does shit all for me if I can't understand what they're saying. If I wanted to read subtitles I'd just assume not have voice acting at all.

It's a good thing we have options. You folks that like how Japanese voices sound compared to everything else can listen to something you may or may not understand while us folks that prefer to hear something in our native language can do so as well.

So I'm not sure where the problem is, since no one here argued that everyone should listen to the Japanese track with subtitles?

[Ricky]

I too irrationally hate English voices by default

[OrionInerghem]

http://youtu.be/Fk3uXwn_OQg

I expect it'll be better than this, and 1.0 was fine to me for what it was.

[Vilhem]

/puts on Gaius van Baelsar face

=.= You were unwise to come here....

*blows up half of Mor Dhona*

[Duelle]

The reason for that imho is largely because in Japan, anime is not seen as something solely "for kids" and also no opinion that "kids won't notice anyway" if the voice acting is bad. Not to say all non-Japanese voice acting is bad. The majority is though, especially for anime.

For me, it's also the fact the voice actors often don't make any effort to pronounce foreign names properly.

I think that's less on the voice actors (though the lack of voice acting schools has not helped) and more on the sound directors. Then again, I expect all directors to be like Nabeshin in PuniPuni Poemi, where he hits them every time they get a line wrong and tells them to do it from the top. >.>

[Elexia]

Oh Skye...<3 We shall make happy puddles of bliss when we hear Thanny voiced, won't we? T.T /high5



I'm not arguing anime here, nor the production of it. I'm quite aware of the differences that need to be made with script changes to match flapping mouths and whatnot, which can result in quirky and clunky dubs. Once upon a time, I too watched anime, and had about equal dub and sub. Some are hit, some are miss, I will give you that, BUT..the point I am trying to make is that people treat the Japanese and their language as if they're some omnipotent existence on this Earth and that anything in Japanese will always be vastly superior (not just anime, as evidenced by this very thread), even when production elements and high quality dub voice actors are streamlined; because to these people, their minds are ALREADY made up that anything non-Japanese will suck. Then they will watch or listen to said non-Japanese thing and find reasons to validate their worshiping of the Japanese language and its superiority. Lol

Thing is, most mainstream anime/games are either: Japanese or English. If you're playing on a Nintendo console or Sony console, chances are it's one of the two for most games. So it's not that Japanese is held "above all", it's the simple fact most gaming and anime media that's mainstream is Japanese.

If it was Chinese or Korean you'd be pissy about people holding those languages over English or French.

[Destain]

Not worried, SE has always done an good job with voice acting in games in each language IMO. I mean, Balthier in English? Sploosh!!!

I do also understand the people that prefer JP voice with subs. Animes like Soul Eater and Full Metal Alchemist always seemed substantially better performed by the JP voice actors. For everygood one there is a bad one I think. Anyone watch trunks go SSJ in subbed DBZ, highest voice ever.