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Answerman - Quick Answers Part 4

Okinawan and Amami are basically not even Japanese anymore.

personally I really don't like how simulcasts now dominate the anime market because I tend not to like the professional subbing. either fan subs all consistently translated things wrong for years or certain companies just sub things incorrectly (and I don't want to start thinking about the ones that tone down cursing in the subs)
I prefer a dedicated fan sub where the fans actually care about getting the translation correct vs a rushed professional sub that had to be edited before the DVD release (and sometimes completely changes the meaning of lines in the process)

The way I see it, some American voice actors have little to no range (Lara Jill Miller, William Knight, Brian Donovan), while others have a lot of range (Tara Strong, Maurice Lamarche, Billy West). There are some who have a particular sound in their voice they can't truly hide either (Tom Kenny, Sam Vincent, Tress MacNeille). Some of them ARE typecast, however, and it often surprises me when I hear them sound different than I would've expected, such as Stephanie Sheh as Zeena in Sonic Lost World, where her voice is deeper and way snarkier than her usual shrinking violet roles; or Spike Spencer as Arakune in the BlazBlue games, where he got to play the "psychopath" he'd always wanted to play for many years. For both of them, I thought they sounded too similar in all their roles until I heard them in other roles. I didn't recognize Charlie Adler in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as Spuer-Skrull until I read the cast, and then it became unmistakable

Did you all know that kissanime has a patreon page? I kid you not. Nobody has pledged a cent, but it's still ridiculous that they have it. It is telling that even their "followers" are not willing to support their $1000/month server bill.

Yeah. While I don't listen to dubs much, I feel I'd like them more if the voice actors got to try more ranged roles. Like I said, there's a possibility they may be getting typecast and therefore don't have to display any real range, but I'd love for dub voice actors to be pushed out of the comfort zone a bit and try really different roles. I'd enjoy seeing that, and it's cool when it happens (same for Japanese seiyu's).
Like, I had to skim through Digimon Frontier for my job, and I heard two seperate (minor) characters whose voice actor voices Tai, and both sounded exactly the same. I don't know how much effort was put into dubs in shows like Digimon, considering half the cast is the same, but it was kind of awkward to hear. Meanwhile, I looked up one of the other voice actors to see she's done some pretty different voices throughout the Digimon seasons, and that was cool to see.

Man, idk, I just really want to see voice actor's expanding their range rather than seemingly auto-piloting through shows. Both Japanese and English VAs.

We have Steam for back catalog anime. In fact, we have several: iTunes, Amazon Video, XBox Live and PSN all offer pay-by-show download options with permanent ownership.

What's interesting about that statement is that if you mean Tai from the beginning of Digimon, Brian Donovan voices him, whom I listed as one of the actors who doesn't have much range and is easily identifiable. (I do think that he performs well though, just that range is one of his weaknesses.)

It is also possible that some voice directors are telling the actors to use a voice they had previously used for some other role or that they were cast BECAUSE their signature voice suits the character so well (which would be them getting typecast).

Besides, the most popular fansubs are the speed-subs, who are even MORE rushed than the ones handling the simulcasts (and don't necessarily do a better job). Don't be fooled by the increased swearing in fansubs. Some of them are added in by the fansubbers either because they can't translate something or to make it feel more edgy. (Japanese swearing works pretty differently than English swearing too, making a direct translation technically impossible.)

Ah, no, Brian Donovan voiced Davis, not Tai. That said, there was another minor character voiced by him in Frontier, but he hardly spoke so I couldn't tell if he sounded like Davis.
I was referring to Joshua Seth. Not sure what his range outside of Digimon is like.

(As a side note, looking up Brian Donovan just now taught me he also voiced Rock Lee. Now I'm either going to hear Davis all the time when I hear Dub Lee, or hear Rock Lee if I watched Digimon 2 again...)

I don't doubt some voice director's just want the same thing over and over. If it fits, it fits, I guess.

American companies love adding in swearing far more than fansubbers do since Americans love swearing. Hearing the dubs for Gakkō no Kaidan and Panty and Stocking were cringeworthy with how much profanity was used. On the other side you get translations of anime like Pocket Monsters, Digimon Adventure or Yu-Gi-Oh! who refuse to even acknowledge death, let alone let someone say 'damn' or hell. Fansubs are in the middle and do things pretty literally.

You are absolutely right. Brian Donovan and Joshua Seth are two people I often confuse for each other. That was my mistake. I just think of Brian Donovan because the cast list for one of the Naruto video games erroneously credits him as voicing Tsunade.

I would guess the environment in English anime dubbing being much different than in Japanese can also be a factor. The main thing I can recall is that in Japan, all of the actors for a particular scene will perform together, whereas English-language voice actors rarely have time for that so they're recorded one character at a time, or if the voice actor's good, then all of the characters voiced by that person (such as with Mr. Burns and Smithers in The Simpsons, whom I believe are both voiced by Hank Azaria). Having them react to each other's lines in person would most certainly affect the way they're delivered, but it's also a lot more expensive because everyone has to be free for that session.

Answerman wrote:

Okinawan and Amami are basically not even Japanese anymore.

It seems worth pointing out that Okinawan and Amami were never "Japanese" in the first place. These are Ryukyuan languages, related to but distinct from Japanese. Because the politics of language can be quite fraught, the Ryukyuan languages are considered by Japan to be "dialects" of Japanese, but most linguists would disagree (sort of a mirror image to the way, for instance, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden pretend they're all speaking different languages). Japan doesn't have a great track record on recognizing cultural or ethnic diversity within its borders.

Furuzaki wrote:

maximilianjenus wrote: there are a lot of countries, where 7 dollars is the minimum wage for two days. If they are paid 3,5 dollars per day, you should realize they wouldn't even afford the technology to illegally watch shows. Stop posting troll comments. Also, low income doesn't justify crimes. It sad and depressing that they are being severely underpaid, yes. But it still wrong to commit crimes, though if they must steal it should be food, not crap like tv-shows.

Because god knows poor people can't have hobbies and must dedicate their existence just to live the next day right?

Paiprince wrote:

Because god knows poor people can't have hobbies and must dedicate their existence just to live the next day right?

This. I just love how many people have an America-centric notion of income. Here in Portugal, there was a national student-owned computer program a decade ago. A already present economic crisis [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010–14_Portuguese_financial_crisis]erupted into a new level.[/url] So yeah, right now I am using a 10-year old Toshiba Satellite L40 that can barely play Youtube (VLC Player is lighter than any browser). All this whilst ''feasting'' on barley, and owing money to a grocery store, and no prospect of getting a job anytime soon, as I am labeled a handicapped (it's just Asperger's, for Christ's sake).

So yeah, poor people can own (old/used technology). And many have interests, and those interests are the thing keeping them sane. I care for actual criminality. Under the ''crime'' analogy, homosexuals getting hanged in Saudi Arabia got what they deserved, which is not true. That goes to show how absurd that logic is.

But some people, I assume, are Ayn Rand fans.

American companies love adding in swearing far more than fansubbers do since Americans love swearing. Hearing the dubs for Gakkō no Kaidan and Panty and Stocking were cringeworthy with how much profanity was used.

It's already the 20th century and still why do people in Japan put censorship in BL anime/manga, for example, the latest shounen ai anime, Hitorijime My Hero, there gets a kissing scene but they won't show how the characters lips touch! Why?!