Forum - View topicThe Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (TV).
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NGE1113
 Posts: 1081 Location: Alexandria, VA. |
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The director's slated to be Eric Sherman, as well.
Out of those choices, the only one I have any qualms with is Wendee Lee. Perhaps she'll surprise me in this one, but in the past, she just didn't sound right voicing high school girls to me. Other than that, the rest of the cast sounds like a decent choice. |
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Mirrinus
 Posts: 230 Location: La Thiene Plateau |
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I was curious, so I looked up some other notable roles each voice actor has played:
Wendee Lee (Haruhi) - Faye Valentine (Cowboy Bebop), Tatsuki Arisawa (Bleach), Kaolla Su (Love Hina) Stephanie Sheh (Mikuru) - Orihime Inoue (Bleach), Eureka (Eureka 7), Hinata Hyuuga (Naruto) Michelle Ruff (Yuki) - Rukia Kuchiki (Bleach), Chii (Chobits) Crispin Freeman (Kyon) - Holland Novak (Eureka 7), Rude (FFVII: Advent Children), Amon (Witch Hunter Robin), Alucard (Hellsing) Johnny Yong Bosch (Itsuki) - Ichigo Kurosaki (Bleach), Vash (Trigun), Renton Thurston (Eureka 7) Bridget Hoffman (Ryouko) - Belldandy (Ah! My Goddess: movie), Shinobu Maehara (Love Hina), KOS-MOS (Xenosaga) Kari Wahlgren (Tsuruya) - Haruhara Haruko (FLCL), Fuu (Samurai Champloo), Robin Sena (Witch Hunter Robin), Anemone (Eureka 7) |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8502 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Wendee Lee certainly has the enthusiasm for Haruhi, even if she has a voice that's a tad old to be a teenager's. The others I have little problem with, except for Crispin Freeman, who's too gruff-sounding to be the deadpan Kyon.
Anyway, it's a moot point. I doubt the dub will even come close to the stellar performance of the Japanese voices. |
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Malintex Terek
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Disgusting casting, totally unexpected, in fact; I've already written up a lengthy response to be posted when the news is offically announced by ANN.
I don't doubt that all those actors will give good performances, but they're not the best picks from the cast we were allowed to sample; rather, it looks like BZE/Bandai are seeking to add some name recognition to boost sales of Haruhi, since there's an established fandom for Bosch, Lee, and Freeman. The sacrifice for "good acting" (a debateable point at best, since I think Freeman is a rather poor actor) is a generic casting, which is the primary point I've been trying to emphasize over and over to people as being the worst possible option for this type of show. Some would call the cast solid, others amateurish; I'd call it a waste. Here we had a perfectly good opportunity to foster some new, fresh talent by imprinting original voices onto extremely popular characters. Now, instead of watching Kyon/Itsuki/Haruhi prance around on screen, we'll be entertained (?) by Alucard, Vash, and Faye. God help us all; is there nothing as of late that goes through BZE's greased hands and arrives in stories untainted? |
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penguintruth
Posts: 8502 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Ahahaha, don't be so shocked. TMoHS is too valuable a property for Bandai to experiment with new and/or unexplored voice talent. To expect anything different is laughably naive. Personally, the voice cast doesn't seem that terrible to me, but yes, it is basically putting the most famous voices foward for the sake of sales. I still would have cast Kari Wahlgren and Stephanie Sheh, just not in the roles they've been cast in. Just enjoy the Japanese track with subtitles and be glad it was licensed for the R1 market. |
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Malintex Terek
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Licensing this property in the first place was a gamble; the whole marketing campaign is a gamble as well. You're telling me that, in spite of these risks, Bandai backed out in the last minute by risking jeopardizing their whole investment by hiring a bunch of "stock actors"? Think about the situation this way; BZE/Bandai have put in a cast that has a lot of marketability, but the show only appeals to a niche group of fans anyway. If Haruhi had widespread appeal, this would likely be a good move, but it doesn't; BZE/Bandai is heavily gambling on the internet fandom to pull through and rake in profits, but this reservation might just cost them what they've already gained and any prospectives as well. I know I won't be buying the R1 Haruhi DVD anymore; I used the money for that and put in an order for Fate/stay night.
They're not terrible by any means; I'm disgusted because they're generic, as in, they've been in so many famous roles hearing them in Haruhi is more of an earsore than a pleasure. It's enough to turn any seasoned dub fan away from even a favoured show, as in my case.
Sorry, there's no way I'd ever by an R1 DVD just for Japanese subtitles. I'll stick with fansubs and screw the naysayers; I purchase the DVDs because I want to hear dubs, not because I want extras or the pleasure of watching the show on my television, which I can't anyway since I no longer own a DVD player. It's a total waste of money, time, and effort; I'm even annoyed that I got so worked up being hopeful for this show. |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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I've noticed that there are users constantly trying to submit the OP theme spelled as "Bouken desho desho?", quoting Wikipedia in English and Aya Hirano's official site (without romanization, of course), claiming in error reports that "de-show" is a misspelling. Well, let's take a look at the authentic item:
Please stop submitting "desho," or I'll have to start banning people. |
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PantsGoblin
 SubscriberEncyclopedia Editor  Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
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My god Malintex Terek, is it really that bad? You seem to be the only one seriously complaining about this here. Personally, I like this cast. I'm not really much of a dub watcher, but I'm glad they went with more well known ones here. This is like, one of the few anime that (probably) isn't going to be on [as] that I actually know all the cast who are playing every role... I actually like hearing voice actors I've heard before too, since I actually like their voices, and I certainly like (most) of the cast's voices here too... Sad that you don't want to purchase the DVDs just because of this though...
Really? Hmm, Freeman has always been one of my favorite English voice actors, and I'm usually a sub watcher... He's one of the few I consider to have a lot of talent. If anyone could pull off Kyon, I would think it to be him... Meh, different tastes I guess. Edit: Oh ya, I think I was the one who first submitted that thing about the "de-show" since it changed right after I submitted the error report... Didn't know it would create a problem like this. I'm surprised I was the only one who noticed though, I guess that means most people didn't buy the actual CD.  Or at least, they didn't look closely at the text in it...
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator  Posts: 11446 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Wendee Lee as Haruhi... ugh. I've said it time and time again that I can't stand her playing young girls. Her voice clearly just isn't in that range and is better suited for older characters. I could care less about how much enthusiasm an actor/actress puts into their performance. It all starts with casting.
If you don't cast the right voice, that's half of the role already up for potential ruin. I really do like Wendee Lee for the more mature characters, but I feel casting her as one of the most spunky and cheery characters in recent anime history is a big letdown. Maybe she found a way around it, though, so we'll see (hear). Crispin Freeman also dubbed Tomokazu Sugita's Hideki in Chobits, which I didn't like too much. I've never taken Freeman as a comedy role kind of guy, and it'll just sound odd to have him stumbling all over the place and trying to create those subtly comical moments, just like how weird it was for Jouji Nakata to try and come off as "funny" for his role as Hijikata in Peace Maker Kurogane (good voice choice and one of my favorite seiyuu, but bad writing and characterization, as I felt for a lot of the other characters). Other than that, the cast seems decent enough for those who are just adamantly against reading subtitles or listening to Japanese people, and I'm surprised Melissa Charles isn't on here. I could've sworn I heard her voice in one of those audtion clips. |
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Jedi General
 Posts: 2485 Location: Tucson, AZ |
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So Crispin is going to be Kyon after all? CRAP!!! I wish I had asked him about Kyon at the convention I went to in Phoenix at the end of January. It's possible he would have been hush-hush about it though, since it hadn't been officially announced yet. But, if not, I could have possibly gotten him to sign some of the TMoHS playing cards I bought. Oh well. At least he signed my Blood+ poster. With Blood+ not having been released yet, it was pretty neat for him to sign it.
I agree. I'll still check out the dub because so many of my favorite English VAs are in it, but it will indeed be tough for them to match the original Japanese actors. |
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Malintex Terek
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How silly! The information only just came out and yet already you're trying to paint me as a radical. I'm just a disappointed moderate.
I understand where you are coming from, since I also like "veteran" casting (when applied sparsely) in dubs, but to have a number of them congregate in a show with a lot of narration, like Haruhi, is too grim a prospect for me to consider purchasing the show. It's a simmilar situation to sCRY-ed and, as I have been told, Ai Yori Aoishi.
He's got a sterotypical "Regal American" voice, which beguiles people into admiration out of inexperience. Let us assume one has heard a 'faked' foreign accent; to an unaccustomed ear, the accent sounds genuine/authentic, but when someone with a real accent comes along, the 'fake' sounds egregiously superficial. Much is the same for Freeman; if you put him alongside another "Regal American" voice actor with professional training (piled on after his early work), there's a clear disparity in command of speaking. My experience with voice actors extends far beyond anime/manga, so I suppose I would be more petulant than most with the frequent amateurish peformances in anime; still, Freman's a rather undeveloped actor with limited range, but a lot of potential. However, because of this blandness, I doubt he'll make an effective Kyon; heck, none of the BZE actors we heard would fit that bill. |
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EmperorBrandon
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 2216 Location: Springfield, MO |
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I really think some of you should judge the dub seriously (when it is actually out) before putting it down just based on the cast lists. Just look at a cast is a poor way of telling how good a dub is, even if you know the actors from other roles. Experienced actors could still do bad under poor direction, or do even greater than expected under excellent direction. The casting is extremely safe, which can be disappointing in one regard, but I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. I am pretty confident in the titles I've heard directed by Sherman for one (even though in general, BZ! does not seem as impressive as some of the works I've heard from Animaze or New Generation Pictures).
I'm quite excited about Bridget Hoffman being cast as Ryouko. She should fit that role nicely, and it's been a while since I've last heard her (only being in union dubs lately, so she's not around as much) |
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Malintex Terek
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That's one of the bittersweet aspects of "prolific" actors/actresses, though; they've got such résumé we can, quite accurately, predict their performance and chemistry, even before actually hearing the dub. They're "one size fits all" voice actors that can be sloted into any role and give a decent performance. Sure, we could give a cast of unknowns the benefit of the doubt, but not people as accomplished as those casted here. I would also say that directing has less influence on more experienced actors, while it is critical for new blood; poor directing is likely why I feel Fate/stay night had a tepid dub, but with an "all star" cast, they sort of set the tone of the story themselves without needing that much instruction. Afterall, if people didn't recognize them in these roles, why would a conservative cast like this have been drawn in the first place? |
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penguintruth
Posts: 8502 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Translated:
That's some nice selfishness you have going for you. |
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Mirrinus
Posts: 230 Location: La Thiene Plateau |
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Don't forget: they actually went with the results of what the fans voted for in the polls posted on the asosbrigade website. And they were anonymous polls too, the names of each voice actor wasn't given. Sure, a few people knew who the VAs were (since some people looked it up and posted it on message boards), but those are a small minority.
Bottom line: Fans like us actually voted for which voices we liked the most. And they went with it. Can you think of any other anime where this was done? Fans of other anime would probably kill for a chance to impact the English dub like this. |
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