Japanese VS English Voice-Acting

Despite the popularity of Japanese animation, which is lovingly referred to by fans as “Japanimation,” it still remains a strange and confusing medium to Western audiences. In the face of this lingering mistrust (or perhaps the pure strangeness) of Japanese entertainment, there has been an explosion of artistic appreciation and interest among young Westerners.

I’m a purist; I prefer to watch foreign films in the original language. Believe me when I say that in many ways the Japanese have us beat when it comes to voice acting. I am constantly amazed at how strongly these little animated characters emote –and how human they are! I would venture to state that 90% of a character’s self and core comes from their voice. Japanese animation can be very static, in which two characters stand opposite each other and speak with only their mouths moving. As a result, the emotion and gravitas behind the scene MUST come from the voice of the character. The voice carries the character and the Japanese have perfected this union; the ability to meld these two lies in the cultural foundation of the anime, as well as a solution born of necessity in the creation and production of anime itself.

So much emotion is communicated through music and eyes, which I think is one reason why anime-characters have such enormous eyes. But I digress…

One does not simply dub a Japanese anime. Blockbuster stars assigned to dub certain roles do not result in a successful dub. On the contrary, the film/series will be ruined. Japanese voice acting is so subtle, so nuanced and so tender in parts that is causes your heart to wrench. The cultural backdrop paired with subtlety of tone, inflection and emotion are usually lost when a series is re-dubbed in English. Japanese cartoons and American cartoon are produced from very different cultures and created for very different audiences. I believe Americans think animated series should be campy, slapstick or something reminiscent of The Simpsons. Americans are also uncomfortable with having a real (and often strong) emotional response to something so foreign and strange looking, which is a great little talent anime has. Americans are not used to seeing serious dramas or such real, visceral emotion from such a strange, static anime…so we tweak it to make it more palatable to our tastes.
This truly makes the series RIDICULOUS. CHEEZY. CAMPY. JUST PLAIN STUPID. And it reinforces the stereotype that anime is full of nothing more than weird, muscled guys with spiky hair who shout cheesy lines at each other.

I really don’t think studios mean to “ruin” anime when they set out to dub them; they’re trying to localize it to the target audience so it’s enjoyable while making the studio money. But I feel that reduces the impact of the anime. Anime should be what it is.

It would be like adding a modern aspect—like an iPod—to DaVinci’s “Mona Lisa” for no other reason than to make a piece of art deemed “dated” or “foreign” more palatable and relatable to the modern viewer. Not only does this ruin and cheapen the original vision of the creator and artist, it infers that the “Average Joe” isn’t intelligent enough to look beyond their own experience or approach art in other forms with an open mind. Furthermore, it insinuated that Americans don’t have the desire or capacity to learn about other cultures, because WE can make it better. It’s incredible myopic and so horribly backwards, especially for young people studying, working and living is a very global world!
As an American, I don’t want “Americanized” foreign films. I want to enjoy the film or series the way the home country and creator intended, even if it’s strange and confusing and I don’t understand it at first. I like that! Films are a universal medium that bridges all cultures. We can share ideas and catalogue the relationships, and beauty, and the emotion and all the things we as humans build our lives on and share, regardless of whether we were born in America or Japan.
On the other hard, there are broadcast requirements. Many Japanese anime shows designated for children contain blood, swearing, guns and violence. Granted, it's not gratuitous or anything, but these are not things an American production studio can push past censors simply for the sake of art. Certain series were hacked and mangled almost beyond recognition (namely One Piece and Yu-Gi-Oh!),which caused a massive  fan backlash against the American studios who dubbed the original series, but in it's own way, I think we owe companies like 4Kids, Funimation and VIZ a debt of graditude for bringing these shows to the US, when otherwise we would have never see them.

<END RANT>

ANYWAY. :)

One of my favorite anime series is Naruto. I wrote an extensive blog about it earlier last year, and it is a series I can only watch in Japanese. Even though both voice actors for Naruto are female, the English voice actor makes Naruto sound stock, stale and many fans have pointed out that his hoarse voice is similar to that of chain-smokers’…which has actually become a running gag in fan-made spoofs and parodies of the series. But Naruto, despite his hyperactivity, mischief-making and rudeness, is really a sweet and sensitive little guy, and the English voice actor does not infuse her performance with this aspect of his character.  She ruins it and her performance reduces the character of Naruto to half of what he could have been.

(c) Masashi Kishimoto / Shonen Jump / Sunrise / VIZ Media

Bleach is wildly popular and is a series I can watch in either English or Japanese. Like Naruto, Bleach has an enormous cast, and each character has a very distinct vocal personality. The English voices for lead and comic characters fit very well (!), but other supporting characters fall flat. I feel that the Japanese voice actors are pouring their souls into the performance of their character, which is maybe why the English version feels empty.

(c) Tite Kubo / Shonen Jump / Studio Pierrot / VIZ Media

Despite claiming to be a purist, there are a few series (and movies) I prefer to watch in English, because I feel the English actors—or the team behind the dub—truly understood the context and culture the art was produced from, as well as the subtle non-Western characterization. They were able to meld all these little nuances together to create a tremendously well-done dub.

InuYasha is one of the only anime series in which I prefer the English dub over the original Japanese. I felt the English voice actors had the same tonal quality of their Japanese counterparts and that they treated their roles seriously. InuYasha is a petty campy anime and a little over the top, but you coul feel the passion and love the English voice actors had for their characters and it worked. It really, really worked. Richard Cox, who voiced InuYasha, understood his character, his motivations, his nuances and the voice was perfect. To me, there is no other InuYasha except Richard Cox.

So, those are a few thoughts I thought I'd share. :)