Forum - View topicDo mispronunciations in dubs bother you?
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Eusis
Posts: 7 |
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When you're watching a dub and hear a certain Japanese name or word being pronounced in a way that seems incorrect, does it necessarily bother you or make you want to quickly change the language track to Japanese? Personally I don't really see it as a big deal when it comes to anime. While I've taken a few Japanese classes and understand how certain syllables need to be pronounced, I usually let some of the pronounciations said by the English dub slide and live with it.
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Cetus-kun
 Posts: 139 |
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If the pronunciation is only a little off it doesn't bother me at all. But if it's something like how Chitose was pronounced in the Happy Lesson dub I find it pretty annoying.
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Veoryn87
 Posts: 808 |
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Well I'm not going to explode if they stress a different part of a characters name than the Japanese do (like HarUka instead of HAruka). It's not like the Japanese can pronounce none Japanese names perfectly (I remember hearing the name "Richard" in the Monster dub, bleh). It's mostly the names I notice it with, and that isn't a big deal to me at all.
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Murasakisuishou
 Posts: 1469 Location: NE Ohio |
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I've never really understood why people get up in arms about mispronunciations of Japanese in English dubs and at the same time let the horrid mispronunciations of English in Japanese dubs slide. If we're going to harp on the Americans for not being able to pronounce Japanese correctly we should expect the Japanese to pronounce English correctly, no?
What bothers me is when dubs mispronounce words that are actually in English, like how maybe one or two members of the Fullmetal Alchemist English cast could say 'homunculi' correctly - I'd rather just listen to the Japanese actors say it wrong, because at least it's not their native language and they have more of an excuse. I was also rather angry with the English dub of Appleseed: Ex Machina for its horribly butchery of 'Hecatonchires', itself already a mangling of the greek 'Hecatoncles'. Although the entire Appleseed franchise has all sorts of mistranslated/oddly romanized Greek words in it, now that I think about it, so maybe I should lay off in that case. |
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Keonyn
 Subscriber Posts: 5567 Location: Coon Rapids, MN |
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No, not really. As Murasakisuishou mentioned, the Japanese use english names and words in their audio quite often, and they have the unfortunate tendency to mispronounce those as well. Unless it's something that they should have easily been able to pronounce, then it really doesn't bother me.
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Elfen12
 Posts: 479 Location: Bay Area |
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Indeed, i've not quite understood that either. I mean languages and their accents aren't made to be able to prononouce every other word in other languages. Although that really isn't the "Problem" and probably only makes up a small portion of the mess ups, it isn't easy to pronounce some of those japanese words. Going both directions, English Dubbers mispronouncing Japanese words, and Japanese Speakers mispronouncing (god that word sucks to type) English words, the people speaking just aren't always used to words like that, and sometimes may just be incapabale of pronouncing it. For example, i don't know if it makes me stupid, but i can't do that noise i see in German words such as "Nacht" which means "night" in German... i just can't seem to pronounce that right (it also seems to be in Arab). As long as we can understand what they're trying to say, and as long as the entire script word by word is like that, all pertaining to that" problem". That german example was kind of out of context here, but it relates back to the point that naturally accents of other areas and languages wern't made to back each other up on pronunciation. -Elfen12- Last edited by Elfen12 on Thu Aug 14, 2008 12:58 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator  Posts: 11352 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Yes, it bothers me. The phonetics of American English (not to be confused with British English because I like how they sound) have no excuse to mess up the pronunciation of any language. The vowel sounds already exist (considering you only need one sound per vowel). It's just up to the actors and directors to not be lazy and/or ignorant. They can say Amakakeru Ryuu no Hirameki and Hiten Mitsurugi, but can't even pronounce Kenshin properly? Screw you, ADR person.
I'm a little more forgiving when it comes to Engrish, though. It can't be helped every word over there ends in a vowel or has no v's, l's, or th's (Bwee-Tsu, Eru, Ruruuchu, and "saank yuu" just to name a few...). That's just the way their history and culture turned out. And besides, most of the anime I watch in Japanese are usually Japanese-associated anyway (as in, lots of Japanese names, words, terminology, etc.). I lean towards English dubbing when there's more of a westernized context (like Bebop, Hellsing, or anything not dubbed by ADV or FUNimation in association with ADV VAs). |
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larinon
 Posts: 992 Location: Midland, TX |
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Names are important, and I feel that saying a person's name correctly is a sign of respect. As a teacher I try to learn all of my student's names correctly, and if they do have to correct me at first I make sure I get it right thereafter.
Watching the Olympics this week and during previous Olympiads, it annoys me to no end to hear announcers constantly mispronouncing names. Not just the Japanese names, which they never seem to get right, but many of the other countries as well. They are professionals, does it not occur to them that they might need to look over these names before they go on air and learn the right way to pronounce them? It seems very disrespectful to me. All that said, yes, it does bother me a little that dub actors do not consistently get their own character names right, much less the other characters. It's not quite the same as if it were a real person, but I feel like they do not respect their craft and are being lazy. Actually, I feel sort of the same way when we hear "Engrish" in the Japanese audio track. In Black Lagoon Second Barrage, as awesome as it is, it's just painful to listen to Revy try to speak English under the pretense that it's her native language. To sum up, it just smacks of sloppiness to me. How much effort does it take to learn to say a few names correctly? |
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Eusis
Posts: 7 |
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That's certainly true, and there seems to be a double standard that some anime fans use to harp on an English dub for screwing up certain names in anime. For every native English person who pronounces Fuji wrong (it's actually "huu-gee"), there will be a native Japanese person who'll say the word energy in a weird way (which they use as "en-e-ru-gi"). When I took Japanese, and whenever I was called by my last name by the teacher, I would always expect to hear an extra sound added to it. As weird as that was, I knew it couldn't be helped and I actually got used to it. At the very least, I am able to forgive certain mistakes on both sides. |
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zanarkand princess
 Posts: 1484 |
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Not normally I mean if I sat though the characters in this ugly yet beautiful world trying to say "Jennifer Portman" then it's a little unfair not to have the same patience on the other side. Except for that one time in the kanon commerical...You guys know what I mean "From the makers of hurahi suzumyia"
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freezespell
Posts: 127 |
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For me, a notable example was a swimmer named Kosuke Kitajima. When I heard his name for the first time, I thought his hame was Kazuki Kitajima. When I saw his name on TV, I was just dumbfounded at how these announcers could screw up that pronounciation. The guy that narrates the profiles on Ninja Warrior hardly ever pronounces a name incorrectly and that show is on a channel that's, last time I checked, below basic cable. If he can get them right, why can't these announcers who broadcast on a major network get them right? There's no fuckin' excuse for it at all. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18267 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I often harp on this point when I do reviews specifically because of the double standard that seems to exist. I only get annoyed when it's a truly heinous mispronunciation (either way) or when it seems like the English dub is attempting to duplicate the Japanese pronunciation of a word/name that has a normal English pronunciation (see Eureka in Eureka 7). |
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retty
 Posts: 118 Location: Cheshire, UK |
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Being from England I'm used to Americans pronouncing things incorrectly, so it doesn't bother me too much. And to be honest I've not come across much where they've got it really wrong, just the occasional putting emphasis in names and so on. Listening to Japanese versions of English, however...that really drives me up the wall
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Maryohki
 Posts: 526 |
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It doesn't bother me unless it's a simple name and is extremely off, like...I have no examples. So I haven't been bothered by it =D. I honestly think it annoys me more when they're trying to sound more Japanese and just sound weird, like the way they'd say "Seiryu" in the Fushigi Yuugi dub.
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abunai
Old Regular
 Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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This one, right? Yah, that was painful. I seldom watch dubs, and when I do, it's in Danish (with my kids). There are some good VAs in Denmark, but the pool of available talent is fairly small -- so it can be disconcerting to continually recognize voices in new rôles ("Oh, hey, that's Meowth"), to the extent that it breaks the mood. Whenever possible, I watch anime in the original, with or without subtitles. Also, it's not just the mispronunciation of names (which is a problem in any dub -- the Danish dub of Totoro had an awful one that left me and my son in tears of laughter, since the mispronunciation turned a common Japanese surname into a naughty word in Danish). Frankly, I have a different problem. For me, the chief problem with U.S. dubs is that the American style of VA work is, for lack of a better word, "hammy". To my ears, American dubs sound horribly over-acted. I know it's merely a different theatrical tradition, but it just grates on my ears. - abunai |
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