Unpopular opinion: TPCI's dub has the exact same quality as 4Kids' dub

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

I really liked her performance in XY's finale arc.

 

[Daenerys]

Remember when TPCI did their first dubbing efforts (the 10th anniversary special, airing it a BIT too early), Ash had a high-pitched accent when it originally aired?

That's because Kayzie Rogers voiced him. I still preferred her take on Ash though, because at least she had voice acting experience and could actually emote. She just needed more time to settle into the role imo.

Also how was the 10th anniversary special "too early"? The first Pokemon games came out in February of 1996 and the Mastermind special came out in April of 2006. That's literally 10 years.

 

[Moonbyum]

I don't really like any of the English dubs for Pokémon, tbh.

I just wish we had a legit way to get the original version in the west.

True. I would rather watch the anime in sub but fansubbers quit translating the during half of the indigo league and the other series are unfinished translating in sub but atleast Best Wishes, Diamond And Pearl, X and Y, and Sun and Moon all episodes are in sub just not all the classic episodes

 

[Yami-no-Game]

Is there a reason why it's so hard to find an accurate fansub of the older episodes? I swear finding a fansub of OS episodes is almost as hard as finding a fansub of the first few seasons of Duel Masters, except that with Pokemon you would think that it'd be simple since it's such a popular series that's been around for two decades. This is why we need an official sub.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

Is there a reason why it's so hard to find an accurate fansub of the older episodes?

They don't exist, no idea why.

 

[FANG-TAN]

...and they're both faithful, excellent and nostalgic!

Okay, anyone's free to enjoy the English dubs if they want, but let's not lie to yourselves here. Faithfulness is not subject to opinion, it is an objective characteristic. They are not faithful, so do not pretend they are faithful.

They don't exist, no idea why.

There hasn't been a fansubbing group with enough free time or interest in subbing the entirety of the OS, which is over 200 episodes, long after it finished airing. That's the only reason.

 

[Moonbyum]

They don't exist, no idea why.

I'm thinking the same thing. As big of a franchise as Pokemon I'm surprised fansubs or official subs don't exist for the show yet

 

[Galactic_V]

I'm not sure which one is better or worse, as I didn't grow up with the English dub there's no nostalgia here. Though I got to watch the entire Kanto and Orange Islands in English long ago and a few AG episodes too. Yesterday I watched Agehunt and Dokukeiru! The Final Evolution! ("Seeing is Believing") and Begining Challenge! Sky Match - Poke-Ringer ("That's just Swellow"), which are two episodes I really like, first in Japanese and then in English, just to compare you know?

I'm ignoring the voice acting for a moment to focus on the awfully bland BGM 4Kids used, or the silly useless music (like that tune every time Satoshi checks the Pokemon Zukan, I so hate this one). As an example, during Subame and Volbeat's PokeRing match, the BGM they used in Japan is that awesome tone used in the end of the Lizardon vs Kamex battle in the Jouto League, while 4Kids went for two or three extremelly boring musics for the same scene. Same for when Oosubame beats Dokukeiru.

Now back to the dub, the least important here. I don't think the main characters sound that bad (except for Max, a little bit of Brock and, most of all, James). However lots of the funny moments (mainly featuring the Rockets) are ruined by some bland voice acting (adding to my James's bad acting point). One of my favorite Trio scenes in all the anime is in that episode mentioned before (Agehunt vs Dokukeiru! The Final Evolution!), when Kojirou throws a blanket over Musashi's Mayuld as soon as it finishes evolving and Nyasu pretends to be the Agehunt she was so expecting for (I always laugh so hard when, after Musashi asks what he's doing, him saying "What're you talking about? I'm Agehunt nya" xDDDDD) In English this amusing moment is bland as hell, just doesn't work in my opinion.

 

[kantoskies]

Maybe it's because I'm not as familiar with the Japanese version of the original series but I can find myself able to sit down and watch 4Kids' dub of seasons 2-4 with little problem. Oh sure, comparing it to the original version shows how many problems it's filled with and the wall-to-wall music is always a problem, but I can actually turn my brain off and just...watch it. I've never been able to say the same of the TPCi dub. I don't even think it's a nostalgia thing because I mainly grew up watching Advanced Generation and that's where I stop being able to watch the dub (the sound mixing in those seasons was dreadful).

That being said, I kind of struggle deciding on which dub is "better" because they're both so filled with problems. TPCi doesn't have nearly as many infamously huge changes to the show like 4Kids did, but it has plenty of problems of its own. The voice acting was never fantastic in the 4Kids version excluding Rachael Lillis because she did some amazing stuff as Misty and Jessie but it was at least passable, TPCi's performances usually range from "YouTube fandub" to "oh god is he reading cue cards?" though a lot of the blame should be shouldered by the voice directors. Michele Knotz is the only regular TPCi actor who manages to do a good job, though she replaced my favorite 4Kids actor so it's a bittersweet feeling.

And ohhh good lord Team Rocket...I genuinely am not exaggerating when I say that TPCi dubbed Team Rocket is some of the worst writing/acting I have ever witnessed on television. It is terrible. Michele is fine but she's not good enough to carry Jimmy "8 packs a day" Zoppi playing 2/3 of the trio. Even ignoring the rhyming and alliteration and "dig it"s, their "normal" dialogue feels so forced and they never sound like they're actually speaking to one another, it's really always just three people talking at each other instead of speaking with one another. The official Pokemon YouTube channel put this out for April Fools Day a last year and it was surprisingly watchable-- which tells me it was written by a completely different person than the regular dub. It also helped that there wasn't dub music blaring in the background.

Say what you will about how 4Kids messed up (and believe me there's a lot to say), but at least their version of Team Rocket was watchable. Sure it was completely different from the Japanese version, but it managed to have its own unique charm, especially in the Orange Islands/early Johto.

A lot of people claim that Sarah Notmyash Natochenny has grown into the role of Ash, to which I say excuse me no. She can do Ash's mild tone of voice well enough, but she can't handle the emotional scenes like when Ash gets teary. It's literally like listening to nails against a chalkboard whenever she has to do crying scenes, although thankfully those are very rare on this show. And her version of angry!Ash just sounds awful, plus the way that she calls out commands when Ash is battling sends a chill down my spine and not in a good way.

I remember listening to a demo reel of hers a few years ago and she's actually pretty good in some other roles. I'm not sure what it is about Ash that's so difficult for her, maybe having to match the animation is harder for her? She's definitely better than her season 9 days but that's really not saying much, and you're absolutely right when she tries any kind of emotion for Ash it falls completely flat.

 

[ThelVadam11722709]

I started watching the anime this year. So no prior nostalgia.
Both dub VAs for Ash are alright IMO, they're not the best VAs ever, but they serve the role.
Also IMO ->
Veronica Taylor - Pre-Teen to Early-Teen
Sarah Natochenny - Mid-Teen.
Which fits in well with my established head canon about Ash's age so that's nice.

As for the others, Max and May was a bit off in KBF, but DP and the beginning of BW (Where I'm up to rn) are dubbed just as well IMO as OS after the first like 40 episodes and AG.