It just sounds cooler to some people. Sure, you can’t understand what they’re saying unless you can speak the language obviously, but a lot of people appreciate that extra “oomph” put into the Japanese voices that they can’t find in English. For a lot of dubs, they’ll usually just “read the script, and add expression if needed”. Doesn’t sound or feel the same.
That said, for me personally, a lot of shit these characters say are so cheesy that I’d rather hear them say it in Japanese. Softens the blow for me.
Conversely, a lot of Japanese people think that English is like the coolest language on Earth, but a lot of those same guys can’t understand it. They just love how it sounds.
actually not. I can show you a VERY (like right from hell) german dub for metal gear solid 1 - you ears will cringe.
you can very much appreciate quality voice acting without understanding the meaning. intonation, feeling, expression etc are all meaning independent.
I mean, you can listen to french, japanese or hawaiian songs and appreciate them without having a clue what they are about.
this is generally more an issue of having a terrible localization team than any weakness in english dubs.
Some nuances aren’t going to make the jump over because there’s really no such thing as a perfect translation from one language to another. you have to account for words having multiple meanings (usually in the form of puns in the original language that don’t make any sense in another) as well as common idioms and vernacular.
this is why the best english dubs are localizations rather than literal translations. the literal translations make very little sense in english, while a localization does its best to adjust the content to fit both the original idea as well as making sense to the English-speaking audience.
and as aku said (hey buddy) the lines in english are sometimes too much (more the problem). yes they’re saying similar things in japanese but it sounds less forced i guess. for instance shin shoryuken is always awesome. but if i had to hear ryu say TRUE RISING DRAGON PUNCH i dunno.
Because you speak Japanese and can tell if they are good voice actors right?
I just keep whatever is the standard normally. If they had subtitles everytime the characters spoke I would pick Japanese just so I could learn a few random phrases.
in fact I do understand a bit japanese, but that is totally unimportant. you can say if a voice acting is good even without understanding the meaning.
again, intonation, expression, pitches etc are not bound to understand.
just take a look at 99.99999999999% of any dubbed anime. it’s terrible in comparison.
I use to always be for the Japanese voices in Japanese games, but I just like the nostalgia of hearing some of the characters. SOME OF THEM. Labrys, you’re gonna take a while to get use to toots.
