English Voice Actors: Why Are They So Bad?
by "Tenshi Wings"

Originally Posted: 1 July 2000

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When many people think of dubbed anime, bad voice actors are almost always mentioned. Voice actors are criticized left and right for doing, what many people claim, a bad job. However, no one every really says *why* they aren't good. After a lot of thinking about this, I've come up with three reasons why they're "terrible".

1. Bad Voice Directing/Misinterpretation of Personalities. I don't know for sure, but I have a very strong feeling that many voice actors aren't told much about their character. For instance, Chichi's new voice. Someone pointed out that when Chichi, Master Roshi, Oolong and Puar were getting ready to go to Namek, Chichi sounded really vicious. She sounded more like a bitchy woman than a mother afraid for the well being of her son. And, as I look back, that is exactly right. Chichi's voice actress was probably told, "She's mad," rather than "She's upset because she thinks her son is in trouble." There is a big difference. Another example is Serena's new voice actress on Sailor Moon. Many people loathe her new voice. I know I hate it. Even my mother says it's terrible. They [the dubbing people] think that Serena is a big ditzy, clumsy, procrastinating girl who just happens to be a super heroine. That's wrong. Serena is a wonderful, pure-hearted heroine who has some bad habits. Also, sometimes, they even change the age of the character. For example, Luna of Sailor Moon. Luna is Sailor Moon's guardian and advisor. In the Japanese version, Luna is fairly young. Probably still a teen. So, Luna has a very girly, feminine voice. However, in the English, Luna is a forty year old, nagging cat with an English accent. This probably made it awkward for the dubbers in the S movie. The main plot of the S movie is that Luna falls in love with a human, Kakeru. It was probably awkward because how does an old cat fall in love with a young human? And, why does she have such an old voice when she turns into a beautiful young human girl? It makes you think. The fourth example is Vegeta. Vegeta was intended to be a very proud and tenacious person who was raised for about thirty years believing that the universe had one rule. "Kill or be killed." That's why he is usually so cold and downright cruel sometimes. But now, according to FUNi's version, Vegeta is just a cold-hearted bastard. So, it's normal for a voice actor to sound like a cold-hearted bastard. His new English voice is very grainy and hoarse, which, to me, is downright annoying. And, this brings me to the next reason!

2. Trying too hard to sound like the previous voice actor. Once again, let's bring up Vegeta! Brian Drummod gave Vegeta a very deep and sinister voice. I thought it was pretty cool! But when the new voice came along, Vegeta got a very grainy voice trying to imitate Brian Drummod. At least he tried though, right? That's all that really matters, right? Uh... never mind. Second example is the Ox King. The first voice actor I thought was ok. He wasn't fantastic, but he wasn't unbearable. The new one came along and I screamed for the other guy to come back. The new guy made Ox King seem like a big, dumb brute with that nasal kind of sound. Trying too hard to sound like the previous actor's deep and somewhat naive kind of voice with a slight nasal. It made me cringe.

3. Dialogue. Ok, it's official. Krillin is an idiot. Or is it just his bad dialogue? Can you really believe that someone who has the power to beat up anyone on Earth (excluding the Z senshi) would really say "Mondo Cool"? I know I believe it. But Krillin does. Would you believe that one of the most powerful, and somewhat insane, creature in the universe would say, "Come on big boy"? I wouldn't believe it. But Freeza says that. Would you also believe that the most powerful person in the universe would say, "If I was any more whipped, I'd be butter"? No way. But Goku does. He's innocent and naive, but he's not stupid. Many anime on TV often have their original scripts ripped to shreds. There is barely the slightest resemblance between the Japanese script and the English script. The plot usually stays, but the words? No. Everything *must* be Americanized. Raye from Sailor Moon *must* say "Da Bomb". Raye *cannot* want to be a voice actress because no one in America dreams of becoming a wonderful voice actor. The entire cast of Dragonball *must* use American slang. Why is that? But there are also examples of good dialogue changes. I was very pleased with Princess Mononoke, because very few things were changed. The only thing I can think of off the top of my head that they changed was the line "This soup tastes like water." In Japan, that is a huge insult. In America, we wouldn't be as offended. We probably wouldn't think twice of it. So, the line was changed to "This soup tastes like donkey piss." I would be *a lot* more offended by the latter insult . . .

Those are my four reasons. Bad voice directing, the misinterpretation of personalities, trying too hard to sound like another person, and the Americanization of scripts are why the dub voices turn out so badly.

Contact: tenshiwings@aol.com