So the dub has started on [adult swim].
Well, here's the gist of what I wrote on one board before they removed it for some unknown reason (it's not like I was ranting and raving, like an elitest idiot).
What did I think of the dub? I liked it. Yes, that's right, I liked it. As I said, I wasn't ranting and raving. However, despite thinking they did a fairly good job on it, I still had some questions and comments on it.
First off... WHY did they change "pluses" to "wholes" ?! That part made absolutely no sense to me. They left SO MANY other things untranslated (konsou, bakudou, kidou, etc) so why bother changing pluses to wholes? That still confuses me.
Soul Reaper vs Death God... looooots of debate on this one last night. I know they chose Soul Reaper because that's what Viz is using in the manga. But as as I've said before (I think I've said it here) I would have just preferred if they had just left it "Shinigami." Untranslated, I mean to say. No Soul Reaper, no Death God. Just Shinigami. Again, they left
a lot of things untranslated, so I don't see why not. That would have ended this whole debate on which one is better and would have been more correct, I feel, since that's what they're called. But I'm sure I'll get used to it so no biggie.
The only real complaint I have is at the end, after the credits, for ep 2's preview where they horribly screwed up Kon. They gave him the worst voice out of any dub anime I've ever heard in my life. Just thinking about it makes me want to rip my ears out. Also, unless I just missed it they took out Kon's little catchphrase--"SPLAAAAAASH!" By the way, for those who didn't even realize that Kon appeared this early in the show (yes, I talked to 3 people last night who had watched the originals and either didn't see it or didn't know that he appeared during the preview for ep 2) I've uploaded the original.
You can find it here (raw, no subs). Watch it then compare it to the one from the dub last night.
Really the Kon thing was the only complaint I have, which is amazing considering I normally HATE dubs. So I guess they got it right this time. Or at least they got the first ep right.
Oh, and I guess there were also a few mistranslations that I found kind of weird. Like when Karin was being held in the original she shouted "run away!" to Ichigo, but in the dub she was more like "DO SOMETHING!" I think the former shows more of a love for her brother (i.e. don't do something stupid and kill yourself for me). I'm sure there were a few other lines that were a little out of place, but I don't quite recall. And I'm pretty sure my favorite bit of dialog remained the way it was in the original ("kazoku o tasuketai ka?" "Atarimaida! Aru no taskette tai houhou ka?" "hitosu dake aru. Shinigami ni narou!" -- the speech where Rukia asks if Ichigo wants to save them and tells him that there's only one way, to become a Shinigami).
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I liked dub episode two way more than the first dubbed ep. However, some things could still be improved (somehow I feel like some of the chars just don't have the same enthusasiam that there is in the original). But I can see (and hope) that the dub will just get better and better as it goes along.
However, yet again, the next episode preview made me go "what the heck is going on here?" In the original preview for ep 3 Don Kanonji appears. Not just his voice, a little cardboard cutout (I guess you can call it that) of him appears and bobs around the screen while he's talking. But in the dubbed version they removed the cutout.
Click here to see a small (semi bad quality) pic of it, original version --
and here's the same image in the dub. Why?! How?! Wouldn't that have required a lot of editing? Doesn't seem worth the effort to me and watching the little characters bob around is sometimes funny (later previews do a lot of the same).
While the dub itself is okay, I can't get over some of the weird stuff they're doing.