The Best & Worst Anime Dubs

[RetroPokeFan]

Here's another Entertainment related thread from moi... this time, we're talking about dubs.
Anime dubs.

Which ones are the best ones and are there any you think just flat out stinks on thin ice?

Talk away down below...

I'll start things off with a sort of Bad Un which is unfortunately Nelvana's dub of Cardcaptors. Some of the voices were fine, others were just weird and off. Not to mention they edited the living daylights out of it. While the UK got it better in terms of episodes thanks to CITV, Kids WB's version was edited even more, not to mention episodes were also shown out of place making the whole thing near unwatchable.

The dub for the first film was alright though, they at least had the nerve to present it uncut this time around. The second and last film was done by Bang Zoom Entertainment!.

Bu hey at least some people enjoy the Nelvana dub for that nostalgic CITV factor so i'll give em a little bit of credit.

 

[zakisrage]

I know it's kinda cliche to say, but the worst dub of any anime definitely has to be the 4Kids dub of One Piece. It's literally unwatchable, it literally skips entire arcs, and it makes rather ridiculous changes (like making Miss Merry Christmas "Miss Groundhog Day" and turning weapons into goofy whatchamacallits).

 

[RetroPokeFan]

I know it's kinda cliche to say, but the worst dub of any anime definitely has to be the 4Kids dub of One Piece. It's literally unwatchable, it literally skips entire arcs, and it makes rather ridiculous changes (like making Miss Merry Christmas "Miss Groundhog Day" and turning weapons into goofy whatchamacallits).

Ahh, the 4Kids dub. The ultimate and most perfect example of how to ruin a popular anime series in under a fraction of a second. At least they came to their senses later on and ditched it so Funimation could take over and make things better.

 

[zakisrage]

Ahh, the 4Kids dub. The ultimate and most perfect example of how to ruin a popular anime series in under a fraction of a second. At least they came to their senses later on and ditched it so Funimation could take over and make things better.

They basically had no choice but to do it because Toei revoked 4Kids' licence.

 

[Johtohfiller]

Yep, gotta go with 4Kids' One Piece dub as the worst. It probably kept One Piece from being as big a hit as it could have been in the English-speaking world.

 

[Kharixi]

Best I've seen? Naruto, probably.
Worst? Most likely Dragon Ball Z.

 

[Poke Trey]

Best: Pokemon I do not care.
Worst: Anything from 4kids minus Pokemon and even Sonic X because that's a guilty pleasure of mine

 

[RetroPokeFan]

Best I've seen? Naruto, probably.
Worst? Most likely Dragon Ball Z.

Which one are you referring to for Dragon Ball? The Ocean dub, the Funimation dub or the two infamous ones, the Big Green (AB Groupe) dub and the hysterically entertaining Speedy Video dub.

 

[Kharixi]

Which one are you referring to for Dragon Ball? The Ocean dub, the Funimation dub or the two infamous ones, the Big Green (AB Groupe) dub and the hysterically entertaining Speedy Video dub.

Well, any really, but specifically the Funimation dub.

 

[Beth Pavell]

The Toradora! dub is a good one. I suspect it tidies up some of the "vaguely dramatic" dialogue that anime has a habit of turning out and turns it into something more prosaic but clearer. Oh, and it does a decent job of altering the dialogue so the Japanese slang is mostly turned into something that at least sounds reasonably like English teenage slang

 

[ocelotlrama jaguar]

Best dub: Wolf's Rain. It's probably because they kept most of the dialogue intact and the voices they had for the characters matched. There was no overacting and the actors seemed to assimilate into their roles fairly well.

Worst dub: I want to say Garzey's Wing, but that's too easy to pick on and the badness is so entertaining. The one anime that was badly dubbed and not entertaining in anyway was Cardcaptors. What a trainwreck of a dub. You can tell they tried their damned hardest to make Li the main character to market it for boys when it was, you know, a magical girl show. It made DiC Entertainment's Sailor Moon look like a masterpiece (and I like DiC's version just for fun).

 

[zakisrage]

Never got why they tried to market Cardcaptor Sakura to a male audience. DiC didn't do that with Sailor Moon, and guys watched it anyway. (We actually got all the episodes of Cardcaptor Sakura here in Australia, even the ones without the male character - albeit still heavily edited.)

Speaking of Sailor Moon...while, there are certain ridiculous changes. I think DiC did a better job then Cloverway. Cloverway did have less censorship than DiC, but the censorship they did have was a lot more awkward than DiC's. The most ridiculous change was their attempts to get rid of Haruka and Michiru's relationship. They constantly insisted that Haruka and Michiru were "cousins" (to the point where even Kaolinite and Eudial seem to know that they were "cousins"), yet they left all of their romantic scenes intact. Basically, they took a lesbian couple and turned them into lesbian cousins. Way to go, Cloverway. (On the other hand, it made the Cloverway dub unintentionally funny. Actually, the original English dub of Sailor Moon is unintentionally funny, full stop. There's a YouTube channel called "Sailor Moon Says" that showcases some of the cheesiest moments.)

As for good dubs...I thought Hamtaro was dubbed surprisingly well for an early 2000s dub. Sure they did change characters' names, but it was actually pretty entertaining.

 

[Time Breaker]

The worst I've seen is the original in-house FUNimation dub of Dragon Ball Z. Thankfully, they've stepped up their game as of 2009~10 with DB(Z) Kai, and then Battle of Gods, Resurrection 'F', and Super.

The best would be Naruto. While I don't know as much about the Japanese version, I can tell by comparing voices and the like that it must be pretty good. Though it is Viz, so what do you expect?

 

[RetroPokeFan]

Never got why they tried to market Cardcaptor Sakura to a male audience. DiC didn't do that with Sailor Moon, and guys watched it anyway. (We actually got all the episodes of Cardcaptor Sakura here in Australia, even the ones without the male character - albeit still heavily edited.)

Speaking of Sailor Moon...while, there are certain ridiculous changes. I think DiC did a better job then Cloverway. Cloverway did have less censorship than DiC, but the censorship they did have was a lot more awkward than DiC's. The most ridiculous change was their attempts to get rid of Haruka and Michiru's relationship. They constantly insisted that Haruka and Michiru were "cousins" (to the point where even Kaolinite and Eudial seem to know that they were "cousins"), yet they left all of their romantic scenes intact. Basically, they took a lesbian couple and turned them into lesbian cousins. Way to go, Cloverway. (On the other hand, it made the Cloverway dub unintentionally funny. Actually, the original English dub of Sailor Moon is unintentionally funny, full stop. There's a YouTube channel called "Sailor Moon Says" that showcases some of the cheesiest moments.)

As for good dubs...I thought Hamtaro was dubbed surprisingly well for an early 2000s dub. Sure they did change characters' names, but it was actually pretty entertaining.

Nelvana must have seen the male audience watching Sailor Moon, and thought "You know what could make Cardcaptor Sakura better? If we market it to male audiences and completely ruin everything that made the show click." Thus the dub was born.

 

[zakisrage]

Here's another bad one. It's a bit old, but being one of the most extreme dubs in terms of editing practices, it definitely fits this post. Battle of the Planets. I know it has a cult following, but after watching the original Gatchaman, I just can't bring myself to like BOTP. Basically, they took a good show and turned it into a Star Wars/Star Trek ripoff. Some of the changes flat-out didn't make sense, like making Jinpei a cyborg. There's the usual edits, like removing death, violence, and other "scary" material, changing all the names, and censoring Berg Katse, the villain, because he's a hermaphrodite. And of course there's the mega-annoying 7-Zark-7, who was added for kid appeal (the original show already had Jinpei as the kid appeal character, and for those who think he's annoying, 7-Zark-7 is way more annoying) and to rip off R2-D2 from Star Wars. All of that combined with the corny narration make it good to make fun of. People complain about Gatchaman being dated, but I always thought BOTP was way more dated. It's really hard for me to watch without cringing.

Actually, none of the Gatchaman dubs have clicked perfectly with me. G-Force was a little better than BOTP since it kept the original premise of the show, but it was still heavily edited. Eagle Riders was flat-out horrible for butchering the characterisations of Ken, Joe, and Jun (I will never forgive Saban for ruining Ken, or "Hunter" as the show called him) and extreme cut-and-paste edits. The ADV dub is okay, but all the corny slang and jokes are kinda cringe-worthy. Though at least the ADV dub is watchable...

I agree with you on Nelvana's Cardcaptor Sakura dub. Nelvana was good at making its own cartoons, but they really managed to screw up anime.

 

[Powerstars]

Best: Sgt. Frog adapted the script really well, in such a way that the comedy is less Japanese-specific, without losing the intent. In addition, it makes fun of itself, basically being an uncut, official abridged series.

Rumbling Hearts, on the other end of the spectrum, takes a solid drama and translates it, losing little or none of the emotion in the process.


Worst: Narutaru, to the point where I could no longer take the show seriously and needed to stop watching it.

Also the dubs of D.N. Angel and Garzey's Wing are frickin' hilarious.

 

[FinalArcadia]

Great Dubs:
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans - The protag's (Mikazuki) English dub VA is phenomenal and I actually prefer him over the Japanese actor for the character despite watching the show subbed first. There are actually a lot of characters who were better in English imo.

Fullmetal Alchemist - This one probably goes without saying. Really really great English dub, and Ed being voiced by a guy rather than a woman made things a lot better.

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion - I so much prefer this show in the English dub that I'm not sure how I'm going to keep up with R3 when it airs since I won't be hearing it with the voices I love like Johnny Yong Bosch's Lelouch.

Bad Dubs:
Black Butler - It's not unwatchable by any means, but Ciel's English voice makes my skin crawl its so annoying, and Sebastian's bothers me too. It might be those accents that Funimation tried to use to make it fit the Victorian England setting, but it comes across cringey and fake, to be honest.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's (and pretty much all of the post-GX dubs) - This one was so brutal that it off-put me from watching 5D's period for a while. When I finally watched it subbed, it suddenly became so good, so entertaining... Nothing like the disaster of the 4Kids dub. And this is coming from someone who actually liked the DM and GX dubs for the most part.

 

[Peekaboo Pikachu]

Best: Diabolik Lovers - For a niche show about sadistic vampires, the English dub was surprisingly good. I thought each voice actor fit the character pretty well (particularly Laito's). Unfortunately it wasn't perfect because Kanato's singing sucked. But other than that, I'd give it a solid 9/10.

Honorable Mentions: Free Iwatobi Swim Club. Befitting of a series loaded with female-gaze fanservice, Funi went all-out and hired their best (IMHO) male voice actors for the cast.

Worst: Gravitation - Not only was the English dub hilariously awful, but even the Japanese VAs were pretty bad. Such a shame because I really liked the show and it holds nostalgic appeal for me. Maybe someday someone will pick up the license and do it justice with a better dub.

Dishonorable Mentions: Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Neon Genesis Evangelion (original anime series, not the Rebuilds). Both wonderful shows with unfortunately bad dubs. They get a pass because the subbed versions are far superior.

 

[Lufenium]

It's cliche, but the Fullmetal Alchemist dubs are fantastic. I think that one speaks for itself.

As for bad...the Ghost Stories dub is so bad. But so bad that it's actually hilarious.
I actually highly recommend checking out the Ghost Stories dub, as it's just that awkwardly funny. It's full to the brim of swearing and illicit references though, so be warned.

 

[Peekaboo Pikachu]

I've been revisiting Hetalia lately. The English dub is hilarious in all the right ways. Not even in an ironic way; I actually love the localized jokes. I take back what I said in another thread about comedy anime being unfunny, because this show packs more humor into its 5 minute episodes than most standup comedy shows do in an hour.