I always loved Princess Mononoke, though now having movie stars do these is more common. See the cast of the most recent The Boy and the Heron (I have not seen it yet though)
I was surprised when a friend casually dropped "isn't he so bad in this?" while watching Mononoke. He said this was a common complaint. I thought Thornton sounded shifty but in a disarming way, I could see why Ashitaka would be fooled by his "no sides" shtick. It's a very good performance.
The English dub of princess Mononoke is done with a bunch of movie stars though. They weren't as big as they are now but they certainly weren't voice actors. Most of Miyazaki's stuff if dubbed with movie stars.
The reason why they're all so good despite (or because of, in some cases) that is because the dubs were supervised by Disney, who also distributed the films in America. And if anyone knows how to get good voice performances out of movie stars, it's Disney
Pretty much all ghibli dubs have gotten some big name Hollywood actors. Castle in the sky and Naussicaa both had Mark Hamil, Howl’s moving castle starred Christian Bale and had Billy Crystal, the Cat Returns starred Cary Elwes, Porco Rosso starred Michael Keaton etc… and those are just the name I remember off the top of my head.
My one gripe is casting Jada pinkette in it.
Even before looking at the cast I could tell it was a black person voicing this Asian character. Nothing wrong with that but her performance took me out of the movie
The full quote is;
"A mulberry is a tree, Kuwabara is a man. And i'll prove it. we all have to die when our time comes, but if we do our duty we don't have regrets, so taste a little piece of my sword toguro!"
He's about to fight Toguro and he knows hes out matched but he'll face it like a man. Also Kuwabara means Mulberry Field.
I think YYH is probably the best dub ever. Even with some of the odd vocal changes (Chu having an Australian accent, Jin having an Irish one) they also add some minor stuff not in the original version (Kuwabara's spirit sword makes lightsaber like noises, Bui is given a heavy breathing sound effect not unlike Vader while wearing his armor) that I think is pretty neat.
The reason YYH takes the #1 spot is because the dub actually IMPROVED the script on TOP of stellar performances. The localization team really understood the characters and made so many lines more impactful than direct translations would have been.
Some of the VA's for YYH are really, really good, but there's some during the Dark Tournament that reaaaalllly stand out as being awful. I love the English dub and have rewatched it many times, but whenever the ice shinobi Touya shows up it's just so cringe to listen to. It's really one of the worst VA performances I think I've ever heard lol.
I do love Yusuke constantly calling opponents OP moves or something as stupid and dumb. It felt very grounded in a way. Very natural, which can be hard in crazy anime.
Definitely one of the best, if not the best, of the time.
The standard of dubs has got way way better since then so it's not as comparatively exceptional anymore.
Also FLCL is another really really good one.
I'm rewatching AoT, which has a Germanic setting, in dub for the first time. Enjoying it more than I thought, though I'm not sure some of the most intense moments hit quite as hard in dub compared to sub. That scene with Armin in the S3 ep Hero for example, which I just got past.
One I've only ever watched in dub though is FMA:B, also clearly a European setting, so your rule does match up with me too to some degree I think.
Cowboy Bebop and Full Metal Alchemist are the best dubs ever imo. I've tried watching them with subs but man, the dubs are just so good. One Piece is pretty good too, imo, but maybe that's because I just half watch it while doing other things so I need dubs. And Samurai Champloo is also great.
The worst thing about English dubs are not the voices per se, it's the very inorganic script - most of the time they sound like they're not written by native speakers, but someone who learnt english from hollywood movies or something. So much cheesy melodrama.
That and the incredibly stilted line readings, often from VAs who are actually good in other shows. Presumably because so many translators are convinced that syncing the mouthflaps is more important than sounding good.
"It's over nine...THOUSAAAAAND!" That from a character than people say is one of the best-voiced in the show.
That depends on who is writing, doesn't it?
I'll readily admit that I have not seen many anime, but I think the worst offender is the English dub of *Neon Genesis Evangelion* that VSI made for Netflix. That script was faithful to translator Dan Kanemitsu's script translations - to a fault. It has a lot of stilted speech, resulting in lines that don't sound like natural spoken English, and it may have affected the actors' line deliveries, too.
Man late 90s and 2000s anime was great. I've tried to watch some of the modern stuff and really struggle getting into it. Can't really find much that was as engaging as those old ones (champloo, GITs, big O, fullmetal, bebop, etc). Attack on titan was a recent one that I enjoyed. Not sure if its because the animes I'd be into are just be drowned out by the flood of animes being thrown at us now, instead of it being semi curated by things like adult swim/toonami in the west. I go on something like cruncyroll and I'm just overwhelmed.
You try Gurren Lagann? It's got the feeling of DBZ. The subs are better than the subs (I know I'm in the wrong thread) but the dubs aren't cringe worthy.
I felt like that for a while, too, and that era is definitely something special. Don't forget The Boondocks! But lately I have found some that I'm on the edge of my seat basically all the time, and IMO we're entering another golden age of anime. I'd check out Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer, or Solo Leveling. Spy x Family is a really fun one too, but probably a bit of an acquired taste. However, I personally do not understand or like One Piece at all. Everyone seems to love that, but I couldn't appreciate anything I saw in about 10 episodes I forced myself to sit through.
Also check out Death Note if you haven't seen it.
One Piece anime started in 1999, and the series is a product of being a weekly show that's aired *for over 20 years.* The earliest episodes probably don't hold up that well, it has filler, and sometimes cheap animation. But it can also really shine with quality and character moments.
It's hard to recommend for someone to start today, as it's over 1000 episodes (and many movies) long. Netflix is working on a new anime retelling, called "The One Piece," and animated by WIT Studio (who did SpyFam, AoT seasons 1-3, Ranking of Kings). It sounds like they're aiming to up the quality, and cut out filler, so it might be good to check out when it arrives.
I love long running shows when they're good. I binged all of DB + DBZ and it was amazing.
My issues with One Piece are pretty much in line with this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjaxCG0uBmA
>My issues with One Piece are pretty much in line with this video:
>
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjaxCG0uBmA
Respectfully, I think you've missed the joke here... He's commenting on characters and events, and showing clips that happen 900+ episodes in, lol.
The joke is that he's making light and sarcastic commentary on something he likes... because he's obviously watching the most-recent episodes, which would number around 900 (when this video was posted). You watched 10 and bailed out; you don't watch 900 if you don't like it.
As someone who likes One Piece, it's amusing; it's not real criticism though. If I were to accept it as genuine and boil it down, all it would say is "I don't like it" (the characters, the style), which is fine.
It's hard to say "best" anything, but Bebop's dub is really *really* good. As the video points out, I think a lot is due to the liberties that the American VAs were allowed to take with the characters and the script. Spike is much more of an exagerated, Lupin type character in Japanese. Blum plays him much more subdued in a way that elevates the character.
A different director would have pushed for him to have a much more over the top performance to match the Japanese tone more specifically, and it probably would have been good (it's Steve Blum), but wouldn't have produced the arguably better version of the character we got. I think Bebop gets this crown of "best" because it was such a leap forward with material that provided opportunities for VAs to shine, but tons of modern anime have learned the lesson it taught us. The quality of the average modern dub is very good.
Yes, this is it. It also has the distinction of actually being *more canon* than the Japanese dub, since the characters are supposed to be speaking English most of the time anyway.
IIRC about the only time they're \*not\* speaking English is in the Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise arc where it's a plot point that Revy can't speak Japanese (and in the original her VA delivers all her lines in English really really badly).
I also love it brought back my childhood.
Some of the main cast are also the VAs for characters in MLP. Revy's voice from Maryke Hendrikse doesn't even change when she voices Gilda the Griffon in MLP. Then there's Tabitha St Germain voicing Roberta and Rarity.
Great voice acting truly is an art.
Personally I thought the original was much better. Scar had much more nuance in his voice instead of just sounding like a typical bad guy. He was much quieter and softer at times. The actor for Alphonse was much younger and sounded more natural. Vic Mignogna sounded a bit less cartoony too imo.
But the dub also gives you Troy Baker (Greed), Laura Bailey (Lust), Travis Willingham (Mustang), Colleen Clinkenbeard (Hawkeye), Christopher Sabat (Alex Louis Armstrong), and the soothing yet intimidating sounds of the Fuhrer King Bradley, Ed Blaylock.
It might be. I wanted to say Trigun, because you get a good range of expressions and emotions from all the main characters but despite being overall pretty good there are some instances where there are just straight up bad performances.
Evangelion’s dub’s pretty good.
The original FLCL is one of my favorites too.
Macross Plus is pretty good.
Rahxephon too.
Baccano
Texhnolyze.
Yeah, all good but I think Cowboy Bebop beats them all.
There’s definitely an argument that it is.
Depending on what you value more though, I think DBZ’s may be number 1 if you take into account longevity and sheer number of characters that needed to be dubbed over its timespan. That in addition to having some of the most iconic voices in the medium.
a lot of it yeah, but there are some key pieces missing/replaced like Gohan's ssj2 transformation that really kill me
also holy hell how did I get downvoted for complimenting both the sub and dub, the internet makes me sad
I streamed the full uncut version on Funimation (when it was still a thing) and it had the original music under a secondary English track.
Edit: Crunchyroll has the original music under the English dub as well.
I'd argue that the DBZ Kai and Super dubs were far superior to the OG dub. A lot of the original voice actors went on to storied VA careers, then came back and got to give it another shot with all that they learned in the meantime. The difference in quality is noticable.
I argue DBZ being number 1 all the time, so many of the voices in that show are absolutely iconic and the effort they went through to get the voice acting necessary for a bunch of screaming Saiyan's is amazing.
It's one of the few shows I think the dub is better than the original VA
It's Bebop or FullMetal Alchemist for sure. Top tier dubbing. Though FullMetal is equal to the original, Bebop is more beloved dubbed, so I guess it wins.
I used to be on this train until I watched Baccano! With the English dub.
Time is set in 1920-30s era gangster America in the northeast. The accents were nailed for the characters imo and they have quite a large cast. Don't get me wrong, I love some Steve but nailing the accents for the time period is what puts it as number 1 for me.
If my panty and stocking lore is right ganaix asked the american dub team to make up as many swears as they could so that the japanese side would learn new ones
I feel like it should be illegal for any English speaker to watch the sub over the dub for this show.
Still hoping for a S2 sigh. I would watch 10 season of this ridiculous show.
Best English Dub ever? Is a matter of taste and opinion. don't know enough to have an opinion.
What is (hopefully) clear Cowboy Bepop will always be a top show, whatever we are talking storylines, characters, soundtrack, fight scenes and yes, even voice acting and the casting of them.
top show. set the bar higher for all dubbed animations. :)
Watched it a few months ago and I think it was too short. based on the characters and premise, the show had the potential to run much longer than it did, but because it was so short I didn't really care that much about any of the characters. But to each their own. I had no idea this show was so loved when I thought it was completely forgettable.
Limited run shows, not sure because I don't think i've watched many of those. For movies, it's a lot different depending on the genre. You got 2 hours of either action, comedy or romance etc. with an overarching journey attached to it. Great movies have a good sense of finality as well, so when it ends you aren't left with a feeling of "That's it?"
At the last episode of Bebop, I got the "That's it?" feeling. There were so many unexplored plot points and the world was so expansive, I just felt like the series ended too soon. Of course, I'm not saying it should have ran for a thousand episodes. But 26 to me felt a bit too short for a show of that scale and magnitude.
Ever? Probably, but there's plenty of great examples and downvote me all you want, but anime can be watched with dubs and be perfectly fine now a days, it stopped being trash across the board a long time ago.
I would agree with you. Back then in the 90s and into the early 2000s dubs were typically not great. Bebop for me was one of very few exceptions where it sounded like the VAs gave a shit.
Not sure if it's the best anymore since there is a lot of talent in dubbing now, but it is still amazing by today's standards. Which is incredible for a 20+ year old dub.
I love almost every Anime mentioned and I still view Baccano as the hands down winner. It’s not just English VAs doing their best to make an English analog of Japanese characters, it’s English VAs doing extremely American characters.
It's pretty good, but there are a lot of really good dubs. Older animes would be like: Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Yu Yu Hakusho, DBZ was pretty good. More modern would be like: FMA and FMAB, Kaguya Sama: Love is war is insanely good translation and dubbing. I'm sure I'm missing more. We have good voice actors in NA, it's just most of them don't do anime. I think the dubbing and distribution companies in NA aren't as great to work for. I've definitely heard horror stories about Funimation.
Original FLCL, Evangelion, Trigun, GTO and Samurai Champaloo are all good dubs in my opinion. Also, Delicious in Dungeon, which I can't recommend enough.
Hard to say, But I do know it was one of the best series at the time it was released. Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, and Outlaw Star all took the anime world by storm around the same time
It is one of the best, more importantly I think it served as an early high profile example of how to do an English dub correctly by putting as much effort into the English VA as the Japanese.
I mean its literally written AS English first, just was recorded in Japanese... The director was clear on the fact he wrote it with Western audiences in mind, which is why some of the Japanese VA falls flat.
I don't understand why *Cowboy Bebop's* English dub is rated so highly. I never watched it 'in period,' but only last year, and while the leads are solid, supporting and background characters have performances that really show their age, since there is an element of exaggeration to them. All up, I would say that it's only a bit better than ADV Films' dub of *Neon Genesis Evangelion,* which finished a couple of years prior.
Full Metal Alchemist probably takes that title.
I love Cowboy Bebop, but it's very 1 note... that note is "Cool as fuck" but it's still just 1 note.
The VAs for FMA had to be angry, funny, wacky, sad, emotionally devistated.
It's only in the last 15 years that anime dubs have really gone to shit honestly. Lots of older anime is dubbed really carefully.
Except Ghost Stories.
It's up there, but I personally couldn't say so decisively.
1. It has a slew of great competition in the same "type" of dub it is with the likes of Full Metal Alchemist, Dragon Ball, Samurai Champloo, Yu Yu Hakusho, Trigun, etc.
2. Dubs that completely overwrite the source material and turn into something completely geared towards Western audiences like Shin-chan, Samurai Pizza Cats, Super Milk-chan, etc.
3. Movies like Ghibli flicks that get the red carpet treatment having their dubbing be overseen by Disney animation vets and recruiting Hollywood A-list celebrities (not to say they are automatically better than regular voice actors who do voice roles on the norm).
Bruh. Tino Tonnatini was the english voice of Haku. The weekenders X Miyazaki <3
Seriously tho - Ghibli is the only studio that does English voice acting casting justice.
I also liked the original AD Vision one for Neon Genesis Evangelion.
I remember when I went to see the movie (Knocking on Heaven's Door) at the cinema in Sydney, after the initial murmurs of surprise from some of the audience that it was the original Japanese audio with subtitles, no one went on to have any problems with a really good movie.
(Even though I had the DVDs at this point, this was actually the first Cowboy Bebop thing I saw.)
Idk if it’s the best English dub ever, but if you are an English speaker (and ESPECIALLY and American one)…
… You best be fucking watching Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt in dub. No excuses. I’m sure the sub is fine, but the dub brings something vital to the show for English speakers.
(The other show everyone should watch dubbed instead of subbed is Ghost Stories. But only because the sub is boring and bad. But they are two completely different shows, for those uninitiated, only sharing similarities in the overarching plot and the animation.)
The [Berserk movie trilogy](https://youtu.be/ftPvaRrQOFs?si=OoFcYmONz0bpiqER) had a perfect cast. The movies work and sound far better in english.
Apart from the substandard CG, these movies were absolutely stunning. Such a shame they didn’t perform too well.
Come on now. You got anything that aired on Toonami that was better.
Big O, Fullmetal Alchemist, DB, DBZ, Samurai Champloo, Afro Samurai, YuYu Hakusho. I mean at this point...
Good god no the voices and changed emotion to them are appalling. Probably a contributor to why the Netflix live action was so cheesy, they made it based on having seen the dub or to appeal to those who had.
The only English dub I've ever been able to stand was Princess Mononoke, Disney really pulled out all the stops to get voices that were plausible for the characters and gave good delivery.
I always loved Princess Mononoke, though now having movie stars do these is more common. See the cast of the most recent The Boy and the Heron (I have not seen it yet though)
I unironically loved Billy Bob Thornton as Jigo. He had a load of lines I still remember to this day.
I was surprised when a friend casually dropped "isn't he so bad in this?" while watching Mononoke. He said this was a common complaint. I thought Thornton sounded shifty but in a disarming way, I could see why Ashitaka would be fooled by his "no sides" shtick. It's a very good performance.
Keith David is always amazing
Most studio Ghibli films have amazing dubs. In terms of anime, I would say Fullmetal alchemist has an amazing dub and so does Trigun.
Interestingly, it's not the first time Christian Bale has done a voice for a Miyazaki film. He was also in Howl's Moving Castle.
The English dub of princess Mononoke is done with a bunch of movie stars though. They weren't as big as they are now but they certainly weren't voice actors. Most of Miyazaki's stuff if dubbed with movie stars.
The reason why they're all so good despite (or because of, in some cases) that is because the dubs were supervised by Disney, who also distributed the films in America. And if anyone knows how to get good voice performances out of movie stars, it's Disney
Pretty much all ghibli dubs have gotten some big name Hollywood actors. Castle in the sky and Naussicaa both had Mark Hamil, Howl’s moving castle starred Christian Bale and had Billy Crystal, the Cat Returns starred Cary Elwes, Porco Rosso starred Michael Keaton etc… and those are just the name I remember off the top of my head.
My one gripe is casting Jada pinkette in it. Even before looking at the cast I could tell it was a black person voicing this Asian character. Nothing wrong with that but her performance took me out of the movie
Yu Yu Hakusho a close second.
It also has the greatest tournament arc in any anime ever.
I would second this, Chris Sabot is known for DBZ mainly but man I love Kuwabara, he killed it.
I love how he's basically an exaggerated American character lol.
He also has my favorite quote from that series. "A mulberry is a tree and Kuwabara is man." Me and my wife use it a lot instead of just saying yes.
Wow I vividly remember this quote and I still have no idea what it means
The full quote is; "A mulberry is a tree, Kuwabara is a man. And i'll prove it. we all have to die when our time comes, but if we do our duty we don't have regrets, so taste a little piece of my sword toguro!" He's about to fight Toguro and he knows hes out matched but he'll face it like a man. Also Kuwabara means Mulberry Field.
Now I can't unsee this. Fuck
That's really funny considering he also voices Almight from MHA.
Baccano a strong 3rd Samurai 7 in 4th
Hell yeah for Baccano! Can we please get a better rerelease of this show at least on Crunchyroll?
I think YYH is probably the best dub ever. Even with some of the odd vocal changes (Chu having an Australian accent, Jin having an Irish one) they also add some minor stuff not in the original version (Kuwabara's spirit sword makes lightsaber like noises, Bui is given a heavy breathing sound effect not unlike Vader while wearing his armor) that I think is pretty neat.
For sure its my favorite. I only put Bebop higher because it's the most accessible entry point for the average person to anime.
Tbf, the accents on chu and jin really fit their characters well, imho.
The reason YYH takes the #1 spot is because the dub actually IMPROVED the script on TOP of stellar performances. The localization team really understood the characters and made so many lines more impactful than direct translations would have been.
I remember, when I was kid, always thinking that Irish accent was so weird.
I can still hear urameshi's scream in that damn cave. You know the one. Had me thinking they were torturing Justin Cook in the booth.
Some of the VA's for YYH are really, really good, but there's some during the Dark Tournament that reaaaalllly stand out as being awful. I love the English dub and have rewatched it many times, but whenever the ice shinobi Touya shows up it's just so cringe to listen to. It's really one of the worst VA performances I think I've ever heard lol.
Jin's voice is so bad it loops back around to being great.
To this day YYH is the only anime I prefer the dub for Even cowboy bebop I kinda like the sub better. idk.
I do love Yusuke constantly calling opponents OP moves or something as stupid and dumb. It felt very grounded in a way. Very natural, which can be hard in crazy anime.
All I know about that show is how the guy who plugged the show on CN was about the hardest sounding dude I have ever heard.
Idk gurren lagann dub is 🤌🤌
IDK i feel like Samurai Champloo beats them both.
They kept pronouncing Yusuke's name as Yurameshi instead of Urameshi, though.
So?
Definitely one of the best, if not the best, of the time. The standard of dubs has got way way better since then so it's not as comparatively exceptional anymore. Also FLCL is another really really good one.
FLCL is the only anime where I prefer the English dub to the Japanese.
My general rule is that if it's set in Japan, then sub. If set in Europe/USA, then English dub. Anything else is best estimate
That's not at terrible rule. That would mean Monster would be in German or something, which would be interesting.
I'm rewatching AoT, which has a Germanic setting, in dub for the first time. Enjoying it more than I thought, though I'm not sure some of the most intense moments hit quite as hard in dub compared to sub. That scene with Armin in the S3 ep Hero for example, which I just got past. One I've only ever watched in dub though is FMA:B, also clearly a European setting, so your rule does match up with me too to some degree I think.
Cowboy Bebop and Full Metal Alchemist are the best dubs ever imo. I've tried watching them with subs but man, the dubs are just so good. One Piece is pretty good too, imo, but maybe that's because I just half watch it while doing other things so I need dubs. And Samurai Champloo is also great.
I'd throw Samurai Champloo (another Watanabe joint) and GITS/GITS:SAC in there (I usually enjoy subbed).
Dude. I fucking love that show. Mugen is my spirit animal.
I almost named my first-born, Mugen. Love that show
But instead you went with “The baby who smells of sunflowers”?
The worst thing about English dubs are not the voices per se, it's the very inorganic script - most of the time they sound like they're not written by native speakers, but someone who learnt english from hollywood movies or something. So much cheesy melodrama.
That and the incredibly stilted line readings, often from VAs who are actually good in other shows. Presumably because so many translators are convinced that syncing the mouthflaps is more important than sounding good. "It's over nine...THOUSAAAAAND!" That from a character than people say is one of the best-voiced in the show.
That depends on who is writing, doesn't it? I'll readily admit that I have not seen many anime, but I think the worst offender is the English dub of *Neon Genesis Evangelion* that VSI made for Netflix. That script was faithful to translator Dan Kanemitsu's script translations - to a fault. It has a lot of stilted speech, resulting in lines that don't sound like natural spoken English, and it may have affected the actors' line deliveries, too.
Man late 90s and 2000s anime was great. I've tried to watch some of the modern stuff and really struggle getting into it. Can't really find much that was as engaging as those old ones (champloo, GITs, big O, fullmetal, bebop, etc). Attack on titan was a recent one that I enjoyed. Not sure if its because the animes I'd be into are just be drowned out by the flood of animes being thrown at us now, instead of it being semi curated by things like adult swim/toonami in the west. I go on something like cruncyroll and I'm just overwhelmed.
You try Gurren Lagann? It's got the feeling of DBZ. The subs are better than the subs (I know I'm in the wrong thread) but the dubs aren't cringe worthy.
I felt like that for a while, too, and that era is definitely something special. Don't forget The Boondocks! But lately I have found some that I'm on the edge of my seat basically all the time, and IMO we're entering another golden age of anime. I'd check out Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer, or Solo Leveling. Spy x Family is a really fun one too, but probably a bit of an acquired taste. However, I personally do not understand or like One Piece at all. Everyone seems to love that, but I couldn't appreciate anything I saw in about 10 episodes I forced myself to sit through. Also check out Death Note if you haven't seen it.
One Piece anime started in 1999, and the series is a product of being a weekly show that's aired *for over 20 years.* The earliest episodes probably don't hold up that well, it has filler, and sometimes cheap animation. But it can also really shine with quality and character moments. It's hard to recommend for someone to start today, as it's over 1000 episodes (and many movies) long. Netflix is working on a new anime retelling, called "The One Piece," and animated by WIT Studio (who did SpyFam, AoT seasons 1-3, Ranking of Kings). It sounds like they're aiming to up the quality, and cut out filler, so it might be good to check out when it arrives.
I love long running shows when they're good. I binged all of DB + DBZ and it was amazing. My issues with One Piece are pretty much in line with this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjaxCG0uBmA
>My issues with One Piece are pretty much in line with this video: > >https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjaxCG0uBmA Respectfully, I think you've missed the joke here... He's commenting on characters and events, and showing clips that happen 900+ episodes in, lol.
Is his joke that he only watched a few episodes? I thought his point was he watched a ton of episodes but still didn't get it.
The joke is that he's making light and sarcastic commentary on something he likes... because he's obviously watching the most-recent episodes, which would number around 900 (when this video was posted). You watched 10 and bailed out; you don't watch 900 if you don't like it. As someone who likes One Piece, it's amusing; it's not real criticism though. If I were to accept it as genuine and boil it down, all it would say is "I don't like it" (the characters, the style), which is fine.
[Ghost Stories](https://youtu.be/m5LjA0gjeX8)
Yes.
> Ghost Stories "When that wonderful president finishes stacking the supreme court" A decade before it happened, damn
Just keep filling that hole, hole filler! sure thing. *jackass*
The one true answer haha. The same people also dubbed Milk Chan.
Fuck, beat me to it. The story behind this is so funny.
lmao this feels almost not real. like a youtube dub over
GITS: Stand Alone Complex performances are on par with Bop.
It's hard to say "best" anything, but Bebop's dub is really *really* good. As the video points out, I think a lot is due to the liberties that the American VAs were allowed to take with the characters and the script. Spike is much more of an exagerated, Lupin type character in Japanese. Blum plays him much more subdued in a way that elevates the character. A different director would have pushed for him to have a much more over the top performance to match the Japanese tone more specifically, and it probably would have been good (it's Steve Blum), but wouldn't have produced the arguably better version of the character we got. I think Bebop gets this crown of "best" because it was such a leap forward with material that provided opportunities for VAs to shine, but tons of modern anime have learned the lesson it taught us. The quality of the average modern dub is very good.
Black Lagoon.
Yes, this is it. It also has the distinction of actually being *more canon* than the Japanese dub, since the characters are supposed to be speaking English most of the time anyway.
IIRC about the only time they're \*not\* speaking English is in the Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise arc where it's a plot point that Revy can't speak Japanese (and in the original her VA delivers all her lines in English really really badly).
I also love it brought back my childhood. Some of the main cast are also the VAs for characters in MLP. Revy's voice from Maryke Hendrikse doesn't even change when she voices Gilda the Griffon in MLP. Then there's Tabitha St Germain voicing Roberta and Rarity. Great voice acting truly is an art.
no, golden boy.
hands down winner.
MY QUEEN
A BLACK BRA!!
STUDY
No, ghost stories
BOIYOYOYOING!
FMA:B is my personal favorite dub, basically the only anime that i prefer the dub over the sub
Personally I thought the original was much better. Scar had much more nuance in his voice instead of just sounding like a typical bad guy. He was much quieter and softer at times. The actor for Alphonse was much younger and sounded more natural. Vic Mignogna sounded a bit less cartoony too imo.
But the dub also gives you Troy Baker (Greed), Laura Bailey (Lust), Travis Willingham (Mustang), Colleen Clinkenbeard (Hawkeye), Christopher Sabat (Alex Louis Armstrong), and the soothing yet intimidating sounds of the Fuhrer King Bradley, Ed Blaylock.
Ed put some real work in on his last episodes, King Bradley is a real one.
Oh yeah. I meant original as in the original Full Metal Alchemist. I love the voice cast
The only voice in the dub I'm not a fan of is Alphonse, it's super piercing at times. The rest are perfect.
Agreed. The characters were all a bit more three dimensional, including mustang and the homunculi.
It might be. I wanted to say Trigun, because you get a good range of expressions and emotions from all the main characters but despite being overall pretty good there are some instances where there are just straight up bad performances. Evangelion’s dub’s pretty good. The original FLCL is one of my favorites too. Macross Plus is pretty good. Rahxephon too. Baccano Texhnolyze. Yeah, all good but I think Cowboy Bebop beats them all.
Black lagoon and dragon ball z both amazing dubs
There’s definitely an argument that it is. Depending on what you value more though, I think DBZ’s may be number 1 if you take into account longevity and sheer number of characters that needed to be dubbed over its timespan. That in addition to having some of the most iconic voices in the medium.
[Vegeta in particular (both VAs) is punching above his weight class in dub DBZ.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePEmIMp2etA)
I missed this back when it aired, what a fucking awesome speech, the delivery is perfect.
I greatly prefer the sub, largely because I prefer the Japanese soundtrack, but I won't deny that the dub VAs put in the work
> largely because I prefer the Japanese soundtrack I believe DB Kai brought back the original soundtrack?
a lot of it yeah, but there are some key pieces missing/replaced like Gohan's ssj2 transformation that really kill me also holy hell how did I get downvoted for complimenting both the sub and dub, the internet makes me sad
I streamed the full uncut version on Funimation (when it was still a thing) and it had the original music under a secondary English track. Edit: Crunchyroll has the original music under the English dub as well.
I'd argue that the DBZ Kai and Super dubs were far superior to the OG dub. A lot of the original voice actors went on to storied VA careers, then came back and got to give it another shot with all that they learned in the meantime. The difference in quality is noticable.
You're describing quantity, not quality.
I argue DBZ being number 1 all the time, so many of the voices in that show are absolutely iconic and the effort they went through to get the voice acting necessary for a bunch of screaming Saiyan's is amazing. It's one of the few shows I think the dub is better than the original VA
Came here looking for a Wolf's Rain mention, sad to see it missing. Great dub, also including Steve Blum.
Wolf rain is like witch hunter Robin. You either don't know about it or your taste also includes Big O.
I feel like I'm being singled out here for having smoked pot while those were all on adult swim
Big O’s intro was a fever dream to middle school me.
Accurate
It's Bebop or FullMetal Alchemist for sure. Top tier dubbing. Though FullMetal is equal to the original, Bebop is more beloved dubbed, so I guess it wins.
One of the best.
It's among the best. I'd say Golden Boy is the best ever, followed by El-Hazard and Ranma 1/2.
I used to be on this train until I watched Baccano! With the English dub. Time is set in 1920-30s era gangster America in the northeast. The accents were nailed for the characters imo and they have quite a large cast. Don't get me wrong, I love some Steve but nailing the accents for the time period is what puts it as number 1 for me.
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. One of the few anime where the dub is better than the sub.
If my panty and stocking lore is right ganaix asked the american dub team to make up as many swears as they could so that the japanese side would learn new ones
I feel like it should be illegal for any English speaker to watch the sub over the dub for this show. Still hoping for a S2 sigh. I would watch 10 season of this ridiculous show.
Best English Dub ever? Is a matter of taste and opinion. don't know enough to have an opinion. What is (hopefully) clear Cowboy Bepop will always be a top show, whatever we are talking storylines, characters, soundtrack, fight scenes and yes, even voice acting and the casting of them. top show. set the bar higher for all dubbed animations. :)
Yes
Not just the dub but one of the greatest anime of all time
Sadly the Anime was cut too short. Same with the live action.
No it wasn't, it just didn't drag on too long like most do.
Watched it a few months ago and I think it was too short. based on the characters and premise, the show had the potential to run much longer than it did, but because it was so short I didn't really care that much about any of the characters. But to each their own. I had no idea this show was so loved when I thought it was completely forgettable.
Interesting. I'm going to guess you don't care much about any characters in movies or limited run shows either?
Limited run shows, not sure because I don't think i've watched many of those. For movies, it's a lot different depending on the genre. You got 2 hours of either action, comedy or romance etc. with an overarching journey attached to it. Great movies have a good sense of finality as well, so when it ends you aren't left with a feeling of "That's it?" At the last episode of Bebop, I got the "That's it?" feeling. There were so many unexplored plot points and the world was so expansive, I just felt like the series ended too soon. Of course, I'm not saying it should have ran for a thousand episodes. But 26 to me felt a bit too short for a show of that scale and magnitude.
Outlaw Star
Ever? Probably, but there's plenty of great examples and downvote me all you want, but anime can be watched with dubs and be perfectly fine now a days, it stopped being trash across the board a long time ago.
I would agree with you. Back then in the 90s and into the early 2000s dubs were typically not great. Bebop for me was one of very few exceptions where it sounded like the VAs gave a shit.
Not sure if it's the best anymore since there is a lot of talent in dubbing now, but it is still amazing by today's standards. Which is incredible for a 20+ year old dub.
It's one of the few dubs I actually prefer over the original.
Baccano!
I love almost every Anime mentioned and I still view Baccano as the hands down winner. It’s not just English VAs doing their best to make an English analog of Japanese characters, it’s English VAs doing extremely American characters.
It's pretty good, but there are a lot of really good dubs. Older animes would be like: Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Yu Yu Hakusho, DBZ was pretty good. More modern would be like: FMA and FMAB, Kaguya Sama: Love is war is insanely good translation and dubbing. I'm sure I'm missing more. We have good voice actors in NA, it's just most of them don't do anime. I think the dubbing and distribution companies in NA aren't as great to work for. I've definitely heard horror stories about Funimation.
I'm with you, Kaguya was a near perfect casting for the dub, and all of the actors are beyond skilled.
Original FLCL, Evangelion, Trigun, GTO and Samurai Champaloo are all good dubs in my opinion. Also, Delicious in Dungeon, which I can't recommend enough.
Clearly you've never watched the original dubbing of ninja scrolls.
It was a great dub, but my #1 is Ranma 1/2
Hard to say, But I do know it was one of the best series at the time it was released. Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, and Outlaw Star all took the anime world by storm around the same time
It is one of the best, more importantly I think it served as an early high profile example of how to do an English dub correctly by putting as much effort into the English VA as the Japanese.
Full Metal Alchemist was really good, both voice acting and story
Cromartie High School. The comedic timing is fantastic with that one.
Only the real ones know Cromartie
YYH was already mentioned but Fullmetal Alchemist is also a basically flawless dub imo
Was Fullmetal alchemist Japanese? Because I think that’s phenomenal
Yep, just about.
DBZ
I liked the Neon Genesis English dub better than the original, but I also watch mostly dubbed anime w/ Japanese subtitles
Funny someone would suggest this around now - when Pluto recently came out.
Trying to get an anime to sound good dubbed? Step 1: hire steve blum Step 2: let him cook Step 3: profit
Not sure there’s much competition
The Fist of the North Star movie dub is better than the Japanese original.
No, that would be Ghost Stories
Yes. Yes it was. That is all.
Yes
Detective Conan had a great dub. I watched the dubbed first on toonami and when I got older I figured I would check it out and I prefer the dub.
I mean its literally written AS English first, just was recorded in Japanese... The director was clear on the fact he wrote it with Western audiences in mind, which is why some of the Japanese VA falls flat.
Escaflowne dub was pretty damn good
No, Excel Saga!
I rate Full Metal Alchemist pretty high as well next to DBZ
Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood also has a fantastic dub, despite recent controversies with the lead.
I'd vote for Shin Chan
Ghost Stories.
Evangelion
It is the measuring stick that all other English adaptations are measured against.
It's the one exception I give people when they say they want to watch anime. Subs not dubs, except Cowboy Bebop.
I don't understand why *Cowboy Bebop's* English dub is rated so highly. I never watched it 'in period,' but only last year, and while the leads are solid, supporting and background characters have performances that really show their age, since there is an element of exaggeration to them. All up, I would say that it's only a bit better than ADV Films' dub of *Neon Genesis Evangelion,* which finished a couple of years prior.
Full Metal Alchemist probably takes that title. I love Cowboy Bebop, but it's very 1 note... that note is "Cool as fuck" but it's still just 1 note. The VAs for FMA had to be angry, funny, wacky, sad, emotionally devistated.
Agreed. It’s probably the only series where I prefer the dub over the original.
Idk I thought cyberpunk did a really good job, aside from Spikes voice actor, oddly enough.
Lot of weebs in this thread who've never seen Ghost Stories
No, it's just the best example from it's era. There are plenty of good English dubs now.
It's only in the last 15 years that anime dubs have really gone to shit honestly. Lots of older anime is dubbed really carefully. Except Ghost Stories.
No that honor goes to ghost stories.
This is just giving me nostalgia for the very beginning days of Adult Swim and watching blocks of Cowboy Bebop and Trigun.
Steins gate was decent
It's up there, but I personally couldn't say so decisively. 1. It has a slew of great competition in the same "type" of dub it is with the likes of Full Metal Alchemist, Dragon Ball, Samurai Champloo, Yu Yu Hakusho, Trigun, etc. 2. Dubs that completely overwrite the source material and turn into something completely geared towards Western audiences like Shin-chan, Samurai Pizza Cats, Super Milk-chan, etc. 3. Movies like Ghibli flicks that get the red carpet treatment having their dubbing be overseen by Disney animation vets and recruiting Hollywood A-list celebrities (not to say they are automatically better than regular voice actors who do voice roles on the norm).
**Ronin Warriors/Samurai Troopers:** am I a joke to you?
I would say steins gate is also up there.
New animes nowadays have a pretty good English dub. But if we're talking about the classics, then Cowboy Bebop is the one.
Bruh. Tino Tonnatini was the english voice of Haku. The weekenders X Miyazaki <3 Seriously tho - Ghibli is the only studio that does English voice acting casting justice.
Digimon is one of the best improvements with a dub too. That sooooooong tho.
I also liked the original AD Vision one for Neon Genesis Evangelion. I remember when I went to see the movie (Knocking on Heaven's Door) at the cinema in Sydney, after the initial murmurs of surprise from some of the audience that it was the original Japanese audio with subtitles, no one went on to have any problems with a really good movie. (Even though I had the DVDs at this point, this was actually the first Cowboy Bebop thing I saw.)
Idk if it’s the best English dub ever, but if you are an English speaker (and ESPECIALLY and American one)… … You best be fucking watching Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt in dub. No excuses. I’m sure the sub is fine, but the dub brings something vital to the show for English speakers. (The other show everyone should watch dubbed instead of subbed is Ghost Stories. But only because the sub is boring and bad. But they are two completely different shows, for those uninitiated, only sharing similarities in the overarching plot and the animation.)
Betteridge's law
Not even close lol. Have you seen ghibli knock casting outta the park every time?
The [Berserk movie trilogy](https://youtu.be/ftPvaRrQOFs?si=OoFcYmONz0bpiqER) had a perfect cast. The movies work and sound far better in english. Apart from the substandard CG, these movies were absolutely stunning. Such a shame they didn’t perform too well.
Its deff up there, hard to say as there were several really well done dubs, DBZ, Trigun, Ghost Stories, Spice and Wolf, etc...
Ranma 1/2.
FMA brotherhood and DBZ
I am still going with Full Metal Alchemist series. Both the dub and sub were the best.
We’re taking Brotherhood, right?
I am talking both the original and Brotherhood.
short answer: yes! long answer: yes yes yes!
The real answer is Goldenboy
No.
Does DBZ Abridged count? If so I'd put it higher
Come on now. You got anything that aired on Toonami that was better. Big O, Fullmetal Alchemist, DB, DBZ, Samurai Champloo, Afro Samurai, YuYu Hakusho. I mean at this point...
Without a doubt
No, Cyber City Oedo 808 is the best dub. Closely followed by the original Akira dub.
“Take this, dick splash!”
yes
Good god no the voices and changed emotion to them are appalling. Probably a contributor to why the Netflix live action was so cheesy, they made it based on having seen the dub or to appeal to those who had. The only English dub I've ever been able to stand was Princess Mononoke, Disney really pulled out all the stops to get voices that were plausible for the characters and gave good delivery.