Forum - View topicNew York and Canada dub recommendations.
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The King of Harts
 Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
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I know that recommendation threads for specific shows are against the rules, but I thought this would be fine since I'm seeking dubs for shows rather than "shows like X".
I've noticed that when people talk about the Canadian or NY actor pools, or do fantasy dubs from those areas, I hardly ever know who they're talking about. Sure, I know Brad Swailie, the Dobsons, Scott McNeil, Tabitha St. Germain and the big names of NY (Dan, Veronica, Lisa, and Rachel), but there are still so many actors I'm not familiar with. I can recognize a Texas actor without even thinking about it, and I'm very familiar with the California crew, but Canada and New York actors aren't in my memory banks. After some research, I came to discover that it's not that surprising I'm so unfamiliar with them. When it comes Canada dubs, I've only seen 10, and for New York the number is 13. I've seen 15 Texas dubs from my top two shelves (out of 10) alone. The answer is simple: I don't recognize them because I haven't been exposed to them enough. When you look at the odds of me watching a Funimation or ADV show versus the odds of a Media Blasters, Bandai, Viz, or CPM one, they're very much stacked in Funimation or ADV's favor because they have a lot more shows, thus meaning I'll likely watch more shows from them and hear their stable more often. I want to be exposed to more Canada and New York dubs. I want to expand my horizons. I could play a game of chance and look through all the studios in those areas, or I could ask here and see what the people think are the better dubs of those areas. I'm not looking for ZOMG AMAZING dubs, I simply want good dubs that will familiarize me with most of the well-known actors from those areas. A good show would be appreciated, but it's not like I've never watched a show where the dub was better than the content; Girls Bravo, Magikano, and Rosario + Vampire immediately spring to mind. And so I don't get recommendations for shows I've already seen, here are my Canada dubs: Black Lagoon Death Note Galaxy Express 999 (both movies) G-Gundam My-Hime/Otome Ranma Saber Marionette J Shana Strawberry Marshmallow Video Girl Ai And here are my New York dubs: Ah My Goddess TV Buttobi CPU Demon Fighter Kocho Genshiken Magical Witch Punie-chan Magic User’s Club Midori Days Ninja Nonsense Outlanders Queen’s Blade Slayers (all) To Heart Utena Virgin Fleet Last edited by The King of Harts on Sun Jan 01, 2012 4:03 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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For a Canadian dub I would recommend Inuyasha, but except for Moneca Stori, in the lead role of Kagome, that has mostly the same cast as Ranma 1/2 so you have heard most of them. If you want to try Inuyasha but do not want to get involved with a very long series you can watch one of the movies. They do not really require much knowledge of the Inuyasha world.
I also really like Fancy Lala,which has a different group of actors. Another that I liked was Saber Marionette J, which seems to have mostly actors who had relatively minor roles in Inuyasha and Ranma. I do not know much about New York, not even which studios are located there. The only show that I really like that I am pretty sure was made in New York is Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars. |
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Surrender Artist
 Posts: 3264 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
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Adieu Galaxy Express 999, provided that you hadn't just consolidated the original and its sequel on your list, has the same core cast as Galaxy Express 999 with a few new parts.
You might want to watch Key the Metal Idol. It has respectable English dub by The Ocean Group and is a quite good series too... at least until the last two, feature-length episodes. I think that they must have run out of money and had to make the second half of the series in condensed form (Episode 14 is ninety minutes of mostly direct exposition), but the first thirteen episodes portray an interesting story with an intriguing, endearing lead. It's unconventional in a few ways, almost a predecessor to things like Serial Experiments Lain. It will probably be slightly trick to get it since it's an old title that's been long out of print, but I think that it would be worthwhile for your purposes. The English dubs of the Silent Möbius films and television series were likewise produced by The Ocean Group, although I believe that there were earlier Streamline Dubs that were never released on home video. The first film has the wonderful animation that the excesses of the golden age of OVAs allowed and all there are well done, even if very, almost quaintly, conventional and straightforward. A team of competent, professional adult women fighting extra-dimensional demons isn't really fertile ground for innovation, but it's all pretty well assembled and entertaining. Curiously, all what I've suggested above has Nicole Oliver in an important or leading part. Now and Then, Here and There has a New York cast in English who do quite well and is an excellent series too. There are characters who are supposed to be quite young, but don't really sound their age, which I suppose is a flaw, but never bothered me, because I don't like children. Jack Tylor is particularly good as King Hamdo, who is mad to a Shakespearean degree, and Lisa Ortiz is fittingly subdued and morose as Lala-ru. Rachael Lillis, Dan Green perform quite well in supporting parts. Kazyie Rogers portrays my favorite characters, Sarah, who also happens to have the roughest, yet most satisfying arc in the series, which contrasts amusingly with her having otherwise mostly had supporting or minor parts in Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokémon series. Berserk was given its English dub by a New York studio as well. It's pretty good work and might allow you to hear some rarer voices. It's also amusing to note that it was written and directed by Michael Sinterniklaas. For some reason the fact that Dean Venture, well the actor who would one day provide his voice, was responsible for the English version of such a bloody, serious, manly series. It's a great dark fantasy series with really good characters. The ending isn't really an ending, as you've doubtless heard, but it's still an excellent series. And for the sake of symmetry, for a third New York English dub, you could watch The Weathering Continent. It's a short, none-too-quick moving, stylish and atmospheric OVA that was directed by, Kōichi Mashimo. The English dub is another directed by Michael Sinterniklaas, who also has a supporting part in it. Jamie McGonnigal, Marc Diraison, who also portrayed Guts in the English version of Berserk, and Veronica Taylor play the leads. I haven't see it myself, but Phoenix reportedly has a good English dub with a New York cast. Lastly, as a minor note of correction, the English dubs for Kite and Ah, My Goddess were produced by Coastal Carolina Studios. Recommendations in Brief: Canadian Adieu Galaxy Express 999 Key the Metal idol Silent Möbius (OVA) Silent Möbius 2 (OVA) Silent Möbius (Television Series) New York Now & Then, Here & There Berserk The Weathering Continent Last edited by Surrender Artist on Sun Jan 01, 2012 5:07 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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victor viper
 Posts: 630 Location: The deep south |
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Ocean is based in Vancouver, so any show done by them might fit the bill. A couple of their shows that might be worth tracking down would be The Soultaker and its comedy spinoff Nurse Witch Komugi. I seem to recall from listening to the commentary tracks on the Komugi DVD's that ADV believed that the Soultaker dub was good enough that they reassembled most of the Soultaker cast to do the Komugi dub (which was kind of unusual, since ADV mostly tended to use the 'Houston' pool of voice actors). While in principle Komugi is a sequel to Soultaker, I'd recommend watching it first. It's short (6 episodes), it stands alone well, and Soultaker (as with a lot of shows done by Akiyuki Shinbo) can be an acquired taste. Also, if you want a dub that might actually be better than the Japanese version, Komugi might fit the bill. Joeclyne Loewen is pretty good as the title character (who was originally voiced by Haruko Momoi, who may or may not be to your taste). |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8511 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta Gundam, and Char's Counterattack are all Canadian dubs. I would avoid Zeta Gundam's, though, it's a horrible Blue Water dub.
NYAV dubs Gundam Unicorn. |
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Primus
 Posts: 2843 Location: Toronto |
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If you're not afraid to dip yourself into movies, Ocean's dubs of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and Sword of the Stranger are amazingly well done.
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The King of Harts
Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
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I like the sound of a lot these. Now if only a good bit of them weren't extremely OOP...
I actually "watch" this on TV every Sunday. I put that in quotes since I just have it on TV, and I listen and look everyone now and then, but I don't actually watch it. I've been doing this for years, but I still have little idea what that show is about. As for the voices, I know that Inuyasha and Ranma have a lot of crossover, but the only voices I recognize are Richard's and Scott's; I have to look up everyone else's  Watching this this morning is actually what convinced me to finally make this thread, because didn't know who the actors were and it annoyed me.
I've had several opportunities to grab this for cheap, but it sounds so painfully depressing (and I hear as much from those who have seen it). People do love it, though, and I wasn't aware it had Lisa Ortiz, so I'll have to grab this during a Sentai sale. Lastly, as a minor note of correction, the English dubs for Kite and
The original OVA series was done by Coastal Carolina, but the TV series was done by NYAV Post. And the movie and Mini Goddess were done by Magnitude 8 Post, but that's neither here no there, just amusing to me.
I do love Shinbo, but this doesn't sound like the stuff of his I'm used to seeing. That's not bad - it actually makes me more interested - it's just not something I'd expect from the man who directed Denpa Onna and Moonphase.
Ehhh, I'm not sure I want to watch Gundam stuff for the sake of dubs. The only two reasons I've seen G-Gundam is because 1) It's super robot and 2) I loved it as a kid on Toonami. Gundam as a whole has never been a franchise I'm terribly interested in, but I have been eying 0079 because of it's influence in anime, so I'm happy to hear it has a good dub. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6904 Location: Kazune City |
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As you may have gleaned from other posts, Ocean studios has two locations with semi-distinct pools of actors. Ocean's main (?) studio in Vancouver is usually considered the good one, while the "Blue Water" studio in Calgary has a more... uneven output. It's kind of a mirror of the old times at ADV, where they had a second studio in Austin, TX that produced a few clunkers.
Some other Canadian possibilities: Galaxy Angel (fairly good comedy, though I haven't heard much of the dub myself) Popotan (some performances may be questionable, but blame the subject matter) One franchise whose Canadian dub is best avoided: Crest/Banner of the Stars, especially Crest. Its acting quality usually ranges from "terminally wooden" to "unintentionally hilarious," and the script has a lot of "what were they thinking" writing. New York -- pretty much anything Rightstuf/Nozomi ever dubbed was done in New York. I don't know if they just liked the studios/actors there, or if they chose NY to be distinctive against the more numerous Texas/California/Canada dubs. I like to think RightStuf's usual care and attention to their products carried over to the dubs the commissioned as well. His & Her Circumstances -- good dub of a tough show, hits most of the right comedic and dramatic notes. Boys Be -- similar dubbing type and quality as To Heart. And from Media-Blasters, check out Shrine of the Morning Mist -- I felt that the dub scripting made that show better than it originally was. One NY dub to avoid: Gravitation -- IIRC some discomfort with the subject matter dragged this dub down. |
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Primus
Posts: 2843 Location: Toronto |
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There's some decent Calgary dubs, I enjoyed Pretty Cure, and the small snippets I've seen of Deltora Quest seem fine.
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Brainchild129
Posts: 308 |
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Another Nozomi dub from NY is Irresponsible Captain Tylor. I've only seen the first 2 episodes, so I don't know if the quality changes any further down the line, but what I heard was pretty solid and the show itself is very funny.
Another very recent and very good NY dub (well, NY plus Stephanie Sheh) from Media Blasters is Bakuman, full of veterans from the older MB/4Kids dubs. I actually bought it in part because I had heard the dub was top-notch and I was not disappointed. Story of Saiunkoku had a Ocean dub. It was OK - nothing remarkable, but not wretched either (at least, based on the 1st volume that I saw) although I thought Kelly Sheridan did a good job as Shurei. Too bad it's OOP and going for ridiculous prices on Ebay and the like. Actually speaking of Sheridan, I'm suprised that you didn't list Escaflowne for Canadian dubs. Yeah, it's an older dub and it shows sometimes in the performances, but it still holds up and that show is still awesome. |
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Karlmann
Posts: 6 Location: Houston, Texas |
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My favorite New York dubs:
The Slayers (all of them) Giant Robo OVA- NYAV Post dub Ah My Goddess 1st Season Also I can't remember if Squid Girl was done in New York or L.A. since Media Blasters did the dub. Favorite Vancouver dubs: Galaxy Express 999 movies Silent Mobius- TV and Movies Gundam Series Elemental Gelade |
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Surrender Artist
Posts: 3264 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
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I just happened to have been reminded tonight while listening to this of another worthwhile English dub that was recorded in New York: The Time Stranger! (Perhaps more properly GoShogun: The Time Étranger) I liked the English dub when I watched this last year and it's at least a good way to acquaint oneself with Veronica Taylor as she plays the lead. It's also a really unusual and interesting film. It's a sequel to a giant robot show that shows the giant robot only passingly in the background as a model and a mirror ornament. It's a rather surreal and hard to explain film with a tight, but varied focus upon its lead. Justin Sevakis wrote a Buried Treasures column about it that convinced me to see it. It's out of print, but nobody's heard of it and even fewer bothered to see it, so it's very cheap. Buy it damn you! That goes for all of you!
If you're at least curious, you can see samples from the English dub, as well as an alternate one made for the United Kingdom, beginning some three and a half minutes into the Otakon 2009 iteration of Dubs That Time Forgot, which is where where I first encountered the film. I feel like I should list something else with an English dub from Canada for the sake of symmetry, but the only other one that I can think of that hasn't already been mentioned in A-ko The Versus and I can't in good conscience tell anybody to watch that. Maybe Galaxy Angel? I haven't seen it, but the English Dub was produced by The Ocean Group and Mike Toole likes it.
I've noticed that too; I suspect that with passing of Geneon and Central Park Media have made English dubs from anywhere but Texas and Los Angeles, the latter being threatened by the withdrawal of Bandai Entertainment, a curio of the past. All of what I recommended seems to be attainable at a tolerable price, although it might require some awkward mixes of used and new copies from sundry sources.
So grim and twisted is my mind that the idea of something being painfully depressing as a deterrent is very alien. It does put one through an emotional wringer, but it does it very well and it isn't nihilistic or wantonly cruel. Thinking of that reminds me: I suggest that you watch Animation Runner Kuromi, and Animation Runner Kuromi 2, as both have a respectable English dub with Lisa Ortiz playing the cheerful, severely likeable lead and a pretty cool performance from Susy Prue in the important supporting part of Hamako Shihonmatsu. (The part is credited to Carol Jacobanis for the sequel, but she sounds the same to me, so it's a case of either pseudonym or an uncanny soundalike) If you get these and Now and Then, Here and There you can have hours of fun looking at them next to one another and asking yourself, "how the Hell did the same person direct all of these?" Damn it, now I need a Canadian work for symmetry.. again (It's a compulsion of mine). Unfortunately all I have left is Crest of the Stars, which I recommend that you watch, but not in English, because it was recored by Blue Water Studios and is awful. Maybe you should just try Master Keaton; I haven't seen it, but it looks pretty boss and I think it has an at least passable English dub.
Ah, I mea culpa. I'm not very familiar with Ah! My Goddess. I didn't even realize that there was more than OVA episodes. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18590 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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One that hasn't been mentioned yet is Starship Operators, whose dub was done by the Vancouver branch of Ocean Group. It also uses a casting company (the same one that cast The Story of Saiunkoku and most of the Inuyasha movies, incidentally), so it had a lot of one-shot VAs or relative newcomers and thus was a bit uneven in performance quality, but it is anchored by Kelly Sheridan in one of the lead roles and has several regulars from Inuyasha, Gundam titles and Galaxy Angel (the Dobsons, Kirby Morrow, Tabitha St. Germain, et al) in major supporting roles.
Speaking of Tabitha St. Germain, Shakugan no Shana is also an Ocean Group dub, and a strong one at that.
In fairness, some of the writing flaws may default back to the English translations of the novels, which also had some odd choices of phrasing in places. (Hiroyuki Morioka, the orginal novelist, was far better at linguistics and world-building than he was at writing dialogue.) And while I agree with your assessment of Crest's dub in general, not all of the performances were bad. Janyse Jaud did pretty well as Admiral Spoor. |
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The King of Harts
Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
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I think that depends on which NY studio they used. NYAV Post dubs like Ninja Nonsense? I love it. Headline dubs like Boys Be... or To Heart? Eh, not so much, but I think it's just that I'm iffy on that studio as whole, not just Nozomi dubs. I do love Kare Kano, though, and that's a Headline dub.
Heh. I've seen those, but I missed them when scanning my shelves. I find the commentary with Liam and Sam the best part of that dub for Boys Be. To Heart commits to one of the big dub sins (for me, at least) by leaving in honorifics, and I can't stand that. Decent acting, but those honorifics!
That's because I haven't seen Escaflowne. I've debated it for years, but I'd be buying because of it's name, not because I'm actually interested in it, and I've been burned by that a few times. I do keep a search on Ebay in case I decide to change my mind and pull the trigger.
I like the sound of this one, but it's directed by Takashi Watanabe. Now, I love Slayers and Shana, but I can't ignore the fact that he also directed Freezing and the first Ikkitousen, two shows I'm not hugely fond of. Using Shana as a 10 and Ikkitousen as 1, where would Starship Troopers fall in terms of show content? |
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TurnerJ
Posts: 483 Location: Highland Park, NJ |
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Since Slayers, NTHT, and Animation Runner Kuromi have already been mentioned, I'll chime in for some other personal favorite New York dubs of mine:
The World of Narue — This is a winner. Everything about it is great. No one turns in a bad performance. Genshiken — Dryly humorous and well-produced. Bill Timoney turns in one of his finest performances ever as the nerdy Madarame. His freak-out episode is absolutely priceless. Gokudo — Howlingly funny, laugh-out-loud fun. Daniel Kevin Harrison is a scream as the title character. Angora Deb compliments him wonderfully as a similarly sassy princess. Night on a Galactic Railroad — Quite good, with Veronica Taylor and Crispin Freeman giving solid performances. Record of Lodoss War — Noteworthy for being Lisa Ortiz and Ted Lewis' first roles. It's old and has some stiff/awkward moments, but it's still a dub I enjoy immensely. The VAs are all well-cast and generally good, despite some missed lines in places. (Best VAs, IMO, are Parn, Deedlit, Wagnard—that evil laugh especially—, Ashram, Karla, Slayn, Ghim, and Kashue.) The OP/ED songs are great, too. Chronicles of the Heroic Knight — Very uneven, although it does get points for reprising most of its cast and for Crispin and Angora Deb's standout performances. Otherwise a mixed bag and not as good as the OVA dub, or show, for that matter. The Irresponsible Captain Tylor — Crispin Freeman rocks in the title role, as does Rachel Lillis and Lisa Ortiz. Jungle Emperor Leo — This is an excellent dub. Highly recommended; one of the best I've ever heard. That's how awesome it is. Gravitation sounded fine to me, although I wouldn't consider it my favorite. Shadow Star Narutaru and RG Veda were the only NY dubs I've heard that I personally thought were bad, and while Alien Nine was done well, it wasn't my favorite. Canada: Escaflowne is hit and miss; there are some great performances in the show, but others can be stale and lifeless. Watchable overall, but not great. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time — A winner. Arguably the best Canada dub I've heard in years. Infinite Ryvius and Shana were both decent but nothing spectacular. |
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