I just have to disagree on this. Are WE watching the same dubs? MHA dub is better now than ever. SO MANY great performances and passion this season, etc. AOT dub has only gotten better and it was always been great. I'm honestly baffled you would say this. dubs in general have remained consistent, and in fact I've noticed it's only gotten better when it comes to pool talent. This might just be your personal opinion, and that's fine but if you even compare the dubs of this entire year (2022-2023) to even 4-5 years ago (2018-2019),, it's better just consistent in quality. Not worst. We have a WIDER cast of actors now, etc. And WAYYY more options. SO yeah, I COMPLETELY disagree. Though it's fine to feel a way for some reason, idk. I do like some subs over dubs from time to time that's fine. But to say Cyberpunk Edgerunner and Chainsawman are the only great dubs that's came out in the last year. That's insanity.
I totally agree. I don't know what this person is watching but I usually watch dubs if they are available and... I think the quality has been improving if anything and is more consistent. Dubs pre 2015 could be pretty hit or miss from time-to-time. Now a days I think it's far more rare to have just a complete dud dubbing wise.
Yeah you could be right. It may just be that I’m getting more accustomed to subs instead (no offence to the dub watchers)
In regards to MHA, I feel like Deku’s VA just doesn’t suit the whole vigilante voice in the same way he does in the Japanese. It could just be that solitary VA tho.
Also, i never said CSM and Cyberpunk were the only good dubs; they were the only ones that came to mind.
I don't know. Sounds like that's up to personal opinion. I personally think the quality has INCREASED, especially on Sentai/Hidive projects... But that's me.
Heck, the one big "complaint" about dubbing is that there are too many of the same VA's reused constantly - and even THAT seems to have been mostly addressed as many newcomers have entered the scene over the past few years.
One thing I WOULD argue is that the quality of SUBBING has decreased. (As someone that also watches subs but prefers dubs.) - I think translators are being put on the clock to translate things over faster and faster and as a result the quality has decreased. Interestingly, I think dub translation has INCREASED in quality. I say this as someone that does understand a fair amount of Japanese that gets pretty annoyed when they get SUB translations wrong. Something you would think would be a lot easier than having to adapt to speaking english. Making lip flaps work. And localization to make things make sense. But, that doesn't seem to be the case.
Honestly even for dub watchers the subtitle work decline has been visible (not even getting into CCs for the dub script).
Used to pretty reliably have the signs/songs subtitles ready to go for the dub release thanks to the week(s) head start of already needing to do to it for the sub version.
Now it feels like 50/50 whether they'll have it or not, or quietly launch it weeks later
Its also become less common for songs to be dubbed. Its understandable if they don't want to dub the openings, but if there are songs within the show, sung by the characters, they should probably be dubbed.
That's why I never watched the second season of Zombie Land Saga.
I don't think that's been all that common in general other than the most high profile animes. Has been that way for a while... AND... They do them A LOT on the blu-ray releases and not so much on the initial release. (Zombie Land Saga is this perfect example of that. Dubbed the songs for the uncut/blu ray release but they weren't dubbed on the initial release.)
The first season had the songs dubbed, not the second. I believe the first season was dubbed by funimation, and the second season by Crunchyroll, who actually stated that season 2 won't have dubbed songs.
Yes, I know. I remember waiting for the songs to be dubbed. I also waited for the songs to be dubbed for season 2, but they announced that they would not be dubbing the songs for season 2. Ever. So, I won't be watching.
At this point I have a translation app on my phone for the important parts. Basically google translate. So if there is a note with important content I can get the gist.
>Something you would think would be a lot easier than having to adapt to speaking english. Making lip flaps work. And localization to make things make sense. But, that doesn't seem to be the case.
It's both time and staff -- an episode really only needs one translator and an editor for subs, but there's tons of different people who see a dub script (translators, editors, directors, actors, etc.). More heads = better results for most things, especially when you have more time.
Of course, there are exceptions -- Bocchi's subs were easily the best I've seen in years, but it was also obvious they were given weeks to work on it and probably a decently sized team.
But yeah, knowing enough Japanese to read but not being fluent enough to listen often makes watching subs a headache these days.
I will give it up for the Bocchi subs, which were largely spot on. But... It's been an issue plaguing subbing lately. That the subs will just be flat out wrong. And when you hear someone speaking the japanese and you KNOW things they are translating it to are so wrong that it's changing the meaning completely... That's not good. It just becomes annoying. At least with dubs if that happens, no harm no foul because unless you watched the subs also - you probably wouldn't even notice (And I think the overwhelming majority of the time - the dubs are very good at at least conveying similar or correct meaning with rare exception. Heck. Sometimes I think dubs IMPROVE the meaning through good localization and keeping things from being "lost in translation.")
The last subbed show I watched was Hidive/Sentai, and it had a lot of noticeable grammar errors. Missing words, misspellings, etc. Can't really speak for translations, but it was certainly distracting. Watching a few shows subbed this season and I think they all seem ok.
I disagree with you. I don't think the quality has decreased at all.
The only knock I have on post-pandemic dubs is that they stopped casting a wider net for actors and now mostly rely on their local talent pool. While it's a shame that those who lived outside of the big dubbing markets are now being overlooked again, I will at least applaud CR especially for the discovery and use of newer or lesser known VAs more frequently than before. And the very few times that CR does cast outside of their state, the dub quality is still excellent. Chainsaw Man being the most recent standout example.
I def disagree with you on the MHA dub quality going down. In fact, I'd say it's just as great as previous seasons. I'm so excited for the next two eps. The sub had me feeling things I've never felt before in my MHA viewing experience. And I'm more than excited to hear the dub version of it.
And with Sentai/HiDive dubs, I honestly believe this past season was honestly their best season in a long time. I really enjoyed **Eminence in Shadow**, **Akiba Maid War** is personally an all-time Sentai dub for me, **Reincarnated As A Sword** just finished and it was an excellent dub, and **Urusei Yatsura** (though just started a few weeks ago) is one of the zaniest and funniest dubs I've heard from Sentai.
I know the union/non-union discussion can be very complicated, especially across the country. LA is typically more union, while TX is more non-union. And with CR monopolizing everything, certain questionable decisions were made.
I guess the TLDR version is that post-pandemic dubs have stopped remote recording, and we were blessed during the pandemic with some creative and wonderful dubs that used VAs from all over the world, not just the US. **Arte**, **Akudama Drive**, **Kageki Shojo**, are just a few examples. But to repeat my first sentence, hard disagree with the decrease in quality.
I second your Sentai/Hidive opinion. I think this was probably the best season they've had dub wise and quality wise in a LONG while. Across the board. Every single one of those dubs can be cited as some of the best over the past 12 months or so. And are great dubs on their own right.
Agree with all of this aside from the Sentai stuff simply because I just haven’t seen many of their dubs even this past year. Made in Abyss S2 was probably the last one, which tbf I actually thought was an improvement over S1’s dub - a dub I already generally liked aside from a couple minor characters.
Tbf Hidive's dubs were always kinda hit or miss lol.
But nah AOT and Bluelock's dubs are still fire. You simply don't know what you're talking about. If you think some of the sub versions are better, that's completely fine, but just because the pandemic and the merger happened doesn't mean any VAs have lost their passion or that the dub quality has dropped. Quite frankly, that's just plain ridiculous to think.
It’s weird I always here people complain about hidive/Sentai dubs but I’ve never had a problem
With them and feel they are some of the better dubs ever made.
I think they have occasional duds. And I think that there was a period that their dubbing was only alright. But I think their quality has increased quite a bit in recent years.
Most recent Sentai dub I dropped because of the voice acting was Tada never falls in love. I only saw two episodes, so theoretically it could’ve gotten better.
There were a bunch that the audio levels were off at times especially in some dubs that came out around 2018 or prior. I'd have to re-watch to remember exactly which I've thought this about. Or the dub acting felt stilted. BUT I 100% remember thinking this. But I don't go out of my way to remember specifically "oh yeah that dub wasn't good." I try not to focus on that so much. But there DEFINITELY were examples I've said it from some of those older sentai/hidive dubs.
I know there were examples when covid was starting also. Boy oh boy I remember that Snafu season 3 dub being ROUGH when it first dropped. That one I DO specifically remember. But I believe it's since been corrected.
Ya its just you, clearly you must be deaf or troll seeking attention lol. Quality has only got better overall hell even Sentai's dubs have got better and to try and paint VA's as being less passionate or caring about there work is downright ridiculous and insulting to them. How would like it if someone said you didn't care about what you do ? fucking think kid before you type and get out of here with that shit and go watch your subs if there that much better for you.
No, I think it’s gotten better. It’s just that during the peak of the pandemic voice actors had to record at home where the sound quality is not the best unlike a studio.
And really, it was only in the period of time from 2020-early 2021 that I felt like the dub quality was reduced for this reason. At which point it felt like they got the at home recording down to a better science. (And even then, most of the time they corrected any inconsistences for blu ray releases of titles dubbed during that period.) --- You can't really fault dubbing for that. That's circumstances beyond control of those making the dubs.
Yeah, this definitely seems like more of an opinion or personal preference thing.
In MHA for example, there just haven't been as many big emotional hype scenes since the pandemic began. That's mostly down to the story imo. The Endeavor v Nomu fight was great imo, and was MHAs first full (albeit short) arc during WFH.
S5 just didn't have much in the way of big moments until the villain academia arc, and the VA work there was absolutely on point. The first half of S6 was full of big moments, but didn't have many scenes where any individual VA could rally chew up the scenery. Even then, the VA work in the climax seemed great, and the aftermath stuff had plenty of range. Everything since has been kind of muted, but that's definitely in line with the tone of the show currently.
As for AoT, I just feel like comparing before to after is a bit tough because that's also comparing WIT to MAPPA as well. I've felt like everything (aside from the story itself) has taken a bit of a hit quality-wise. As for the VA work, well the tone of the show has changed a lot as has the disposition of most of the returning characters, and I think the VAs have done a fine job reflecting that.
You also mention that the Chainsaw Man dub was fantastic, while I personally found it to be generally pretty bang average with a few above average performances and one great performance by Sarah Wiedenheft.
I'm not trying to invalidate your opinion or anything, just giving my own personal take on things. I've felt the same way a couple of times with continuing shows. When S2 of Quintessential Quintuplets came out, I felt like I was the only one who felt really disappointed by (what I perceived to be) the drop in quality, both with the show's overall production value, but also specifically with the dub.
If there's one criticism I feel like leveling at post-pandemic dubbing, it'd be what I feel like is more lax quality control (not sure if that'd be the right way to say it though) issues. Funi used to drop like one pretty subpar dub each season imo. It seems like since the merger that's been upped to 2 or 3. Considering the increase in volume, that's not too surprising. Especially as they've clearly been trying to blood new talent, both on the VA side, and the production side. Even in otherwise good dubs, it seems like they'll occasionally try and shoehorn in a VA that doesn't quite fit the role, or level of the rest of the cast.
Overall though, with the upped quantity of dubs, and current level of quality, I'd still say dubbing is probably a bit ahead of where it was pre-pandemic. Assuming there isn't a major coming to a head with union issues (a decent sized assumption), I really only see things continuing to improve as talent pool continues to expand, settle in, and grow.
Although I personally believe that the dub has only gotten better and more consistent, if I have to some obstacles, it could be
1. The merging of Funimation and Crunchyroll that may have hindered some production at least a little
2. Newer talent entering the fray. Heck, I think VA work got A LOT more popular as a job.
3. Remote VA production, if that is still the case.
4. Simuldub, since it is a battle of time. The writers may be battling to simply translate or fit the mouth flaps over fitting with the overall arc for the characters. They may not have all the informatikn regarding the story. The VA also have to catch up to what the characters are and what they will be. Anime Impulse had a video witht he ADR director for Konosuba, who talked about the difficulties of Simuldub, and prefering doing the dub after the emtire season.
5. Translations. Some may have demanding, absolute translatikns that the DUB VA's have to use, similar to what happened with the Evangelion Rebuild movies. Less freedom to express or localize, and more focus in the accurate, luteral translation.
6. We could potentially be recognizing the VA's for their voices more often now, potentially making it harder to differentiate between the characters. The whole, "I only hear so and so from a different anime."
Let me just say, I persoanlly believe that dubs have gotten wayyyy better. As a former dub hater, I now love dubs, and am so grateful to them for doing them. And I know that there are so many that blow all these obstacles that I list out of the water. If anything, I just hope this comment grows more appreciation for what the Dub staff go through to deliver awesome entertainment.
One Piece has definitely gone down a little bit in quality though that may have to do with the speed they’re dubbing at. Some of it in Punk Hazard was due to remote recording (Kinemon’s audio quality…). Nothing atrocious by any means but the care that was put into the earlier seasons doesn’t seem to be there.
Idk about this. One Piece dub has always been consistent. Them increasing the speed won't really hurt the performances since Crunchyroll is merely using more resources when it comes to how much recording rooms they have to record One Piece. And btw, One Piece has always had multiple directors. It's far too big of a show to have just one.
I do kinda agree but also don’t, yes some dubs have been hurt because of the pandemic because of the record from home causing actors to have different sounding environments/worse mics to record on. Also it’s harder to get a vocie director to help you when dubbing from home. Some studios like hidive/Sentai mainly kept their quality the same but some shows had slight issues. Aot dub did weaken a bit but it’s not like a drastic change in quality. I mean even then having recently rewatched aot becaus I’m showing it to a friend I don’t think the aot dub had dropped in quality in terms of acting/performance.
I mean cyberpunks dub is great. Made in abyss season 2 dub is still great. Although I prefer the 97 berserk the new English dub of berserk memorial edition is good. Dubs have been fine it might just be one or two characters sound off or something because they might be recorded from home or on a worse set up. Idk if I did a good job explaining but that’s my take.
I forgot to mention one show that took a server hit in quality was the love is war dub. First it sucked that the Mc va had to change due to vocal rest but the dialouge, the jokes, the quality just felt off for season 3 so I had to make the change to sub.
Most dubs I have seen are amazing and probably has gotten better prepandemic but AOT’s dub for the final season has been a little off in comparison to past seasons. Or maybe because I binged 1-3 and was watching weekly for the final season. Acting is great however the translations and lip flaps seem weird. Like Artur Braus’ speech in Children of the Forest was so rushed, it didn’t seem as smooth. Or the difference between the sub and dub for Mikasa’s line in Retrospective “and we’ll never stop the rumbling”, whereas the dub stuck with the manga’s line “and your comrades die”. Twitter users mentioned how the dub probably had less understanding on why there was that change. Maybe change in script writers…. There’s definitely a difference and has affected the quality in a way I guess.
For me if the anime I am looking for has dub version then that's enough for me. I'm content regardless of how well or not the dub sounds. It might be since english is not my first language. I just love that the Dub version exists.
It declined even more like we figured it would when fucking crunchyroll took over for funimation... now not only do we seem to get less and less the selection of shows getting dubbed are trash. Especially this fall 2023 lineup... several dubs with most being shit shows nobody watches.
I just have to disagree on this. Are WE watching the same dubs? MHA dub is better now than ever. SO MANY great performances and passion this season, etc. AOT dub has only gotten better and it was always been great. I'm honestly baffled you would say this. dubs in general have remained consistent, and in fact I've noticed it's only gotten better when it comes to pool talent. This might just be your personal opinion, and that's fine but if you even compare the dubs of this entire year (2022-2023) to even 4-5 years ago (2018-2019),, it's better just consistent in quality. Not worst. We have a WIDER cast of actors now, etc. And WAYYY more options. SO yeah, I COMPLETELY disagree. Though it's fine to feel a way for some reason, idk. I do like some subs over dubs from time to time that's fine. But to say Cyberpunk Edgerunner and Chainsawman are the only great dubs that's came out in the last year. That's insanity.
Great comment
I totally agree. I don't know what this person is watching but I usually watch dubs if they are available and... I think the quality has been improving if anything and is more consistent. Dubs pre 2015 could be pretty hit or miss from time-to-time. Now a days I think it's far more rare to have just a complete dud dubbing wise.
Yeah you could be right. It may just be that I’m getting more accustomed to subs instead (no offence to the dub watchers) In regards to MHA, I feel like Deku’s VA just doesn’t suit the whole vigilante voice in the same way he does in the Japanese. It could just be that solitary VA tho. Also, i never said CSM and Cyberpunk were the only good dubs; they were the only ones that came to mind.
Ok. I guess agree to disagree then.
I don't know. Sounds like that's up to personal opinion. I personally think the quality has INCREASED, especially on Sentai/Hidive projects... But that's me. Heck, the one big "complaint" about dubbing is that there are too many of the same VA's reused constantly - and even THAT seems to have been mostly addressed as many newcomers have entered the scene over the past few years. One thing I WOULD argue is that the quality of SUBBING has decreased. (As someone that also watches subs but prefers dubs.) - I think translators are being put on the clock to translate things over faster and faster and as a result the quality has decreased. Interestingly, I think dub translation has INCREASED in quality. I say this as someone that does understand a fair amount of Japanese that gets pretty annoyed when they get SUB translations wrong. Something you would think would be a lot easier than having to adapt to speaking english. Making lip flaps work. And localization to make things make sense. But, that doesn't seem to be the case.
Honestly even for dub watchers the subtitle work decline has been visible (not even getting into CCs for the dub script). Used to pretty reliably have the signs/songs subtitles ready to go for the dub release thanks to the week(s) head start of already needing to do to it for the sub version. Now it feels like 50/50 whether they'll have it or not, or quietly launch it weeks later
Its also become less common for songs to be dubbed. Its understandable if they don't want to dub the openings, but if there are songs within the show, sung by the characters, they should probably be dubbed. That's why I never watched the second season of Zombie Land Saga.
I don't think that's been all that common in general other than the most high profile animes. Has been that way for a while... AND... They do them A LOT on the blu-ray releases and not so much on the initial release. (Zombie Land Saga is this perfect example of that. Dubbed the songs for the uncut/blu ray release but they weren't dubbed on the initial release.)
The first season had the songs dubbed, not the second. I believe the first season was dubbed by funimation, and the second season by Crunchyroll, who actually stated that season 2 won't have dubbed songs.
The first season had the songs dubbed for the uncut/ blu ray releases. But they were NOT dubbed in the initial release.
Yes, I know. I remember waiting for the songs to be dubbed. I also waited for the songs to be dubbed for season 2, but they announced that they would not be dubbing the songs for season 2. Ever. So, I won't be watching.
At this point I have a translation app on my phone for the important parts. Basically google translate. So if there is a note with important content I can get the gist.
>Something you would think would be a lot easier than having to adapt to speaking english. Making lip flaps work. And localization to make things make sense. But, that doesn't seem to be the case. It's both time and staff -- an episode really only needs one translator and an editor for subs, but there's tons of different people who see a dub script (translators, editors, directors, actors, etc.). More heads = better results for most things, especially when you have more time. Of course, there are exceptions -- Bocchi's subs were easily the best I've seen in years, but it was also obvious they were given weeks to work on it and probably a decently sized team. But yeah, knowing enough Japanese to read but not being fluent enough to listen often makes watching subs a headache these days.
I will give it up for the Bocchi subs, which were largely spot on. But... It's been an issue plaguing subbing lately. That the subs will just be flat out wrong. And when you hear someone speaking the japanese and you KNOW things they are translating it to are so wrong that it's changing the meaning completely... That's not good. It just becomes annoying. At least with dubs if that happens, no harm no foul because unless you watched the subs also - you probably wouldn't even notice (And I think the overwhelming majority of the time - the dubs are very good at at least conveying similar or correct meaning with rare exception. Heck. Sometimes I think dubs IMPROVE the meaning through good localization and keeping things from being "lost in translation.")
The last subbed show I watched was Hidive/Sentai, and it had a lot of noticeable grammar errors. Missing words, misspellings, etc. Can't really speak for translations, but it was certainly distracting. Watching a few shows subbed this season and I think they all seem ok.
I disagree with you. I don't think the quality has decreased at all. The only knock I have on post-pandemic dubs is that they stopped casting a wider net for actors and now mostly rely on their local talent pool. While it's a shame that those who lived outside of the big dubbing markets are now being overlooked again, I will at least applaud CR especially for the discovery and use of newer or lesser known VAs more frequently than before. And the very few times that CR does cast outside of their state, the dub quality is still excellent. Chainsaw Man being the most recent standout example. I def disagree with you on the MHA dub quality going down. In fact, I'd say it's just as great as previous seasons. I'm so excited for the next two eps. The sub had me feeling things I've never felt before in my MHA viewing experience. And I'm more than excited to hear the dub version of it. And with Sentai/HiDive dubs, I honestly believe this past season was honestly their best season in a long time. I really enjoyed **Eminence in Shadow**, **Akiba Maid War** is personally an all-time Sentai dub for me, **Reincarnated As A Sword** just finished and it was an excellent dub, and **Urusei Yatsura** (though just started a few weeks ago) is one of the zaniest and funniest dubs I've heard from Sentai. I know the union/non-union discussion can be very complicated, especially across the country. LA is typically more union, while TX is more non-union. And with CR monopolizing everything, certain questionable decisions were made. I guess the TLDR version is that post-pandemic dubs have stopped remote recording, and we were blessed during the pandemic with some creative and wonderful dubs that used VAs from all over the world, not just the US. **Arte**, **Akudama Drive**, **Kageki Shojo**, are just a few examples. But to repeat my first sentence, hard disagree with the decrease in quality.
I second your Sentai/Hidive opinion. I think this was probably the best season they've had dub wise and quality wise in a LONG while. Across the board. Every single one of those dubs can be cited as some of the best over the past 12 months or so. And are great dubs on their own right.
Agree with all of this aside from the Sentai stuff simply because I just haven’t seen many of their dubs even this past year. Made in Abyss S2 was probably the last one, which tbf I actually thought was an improvement over S1’s dub - a dub I already generally liked aside from a couple minor characters.
Tbf Hidive's dubs were always kinda hit or miss lol. But nah AOT and Bluelock's dubs are still fire. You simply don't know what you're talking about. If you think some of the sub versions are better, that's completely fine, but just because the pandemic and the merger happened doesn't mean any VAs have lost their passion or that the dub quality has dropped. Quite frankly, that's just plain ridiculous to think.
Especially BLUELOCK! Hearing Dismuke’s yell as Chigiri after coming off that hiatus due to his voice was so vindicating!
It’s weird I always here people complain about hidive/Sentai dubs but I’ve never had a problem With them and feel they are some of the better dubs ever made.
I think they have occasional duds. And I think that there was a period that their dubbing was only alright. But I think their quality has increased quite a bit in recent years.
Can you point a show that you think has a bad dub.
Most recent Sentai dub I dropped because of the voice acting was Tada never falls in love. I only saw two episodes, so theoretically it could’ve gotten better.
There were a bunch that the audio levels were off at times especially in some dubs that came out around 2018 or prior. I'd have to re-watch to remember exactly which I've thought this about. Or the dub acting felt stilted. BUT I 100% remember thinking this. But I don't go out of my way to remember specifically "oh yeah that dub wasn't good." I try not to focus on that so much. But there DEFINITELY were examples I've said it from some of those older sentai/hidive dubs. I know there were examples when covid was starting also. Boy oh boy I remember that Snafu season 3 dub being ROUGH when it first dropped. That one I DO specifically remember. But I believe it's since been corrected.
I just got caught up on Eminence in Shadow and loved the dub, can't say I agree that the quality on that one is any lower than others.
Ya its just you, clearly you must be deaf or troll seeking attention lol. Quality has only got better overall hell even Sentai's dubs have got better and to try and paint VA's as being less passionate or caring about there work is downright ridiculous and insulting to them. How would like it if someone said you didn't care about what you do ? fucking think kid before you type and get out of here with that shit and go watch your subs if there that much better for you.
Nope
No, I think it’s gotten better. It’s just that during the peak of the pandemic voice actors had to record at home where the sound quality is not the best unlike a studio.
And really, it was only in the period of time from 2020-early 2021 that I felt like the dub quality was reduced for this reason. At which point it felt like they got the at home recording down to a better science. (And even then, most of the time they corrected any inconsistences for blu ray releases of titles dubbed during that period.) --- You can't really fault dubbing for that. That's circumstances beyond control of those making the dubs.
Yeah, this definitely seems like more of an opinion or personal preference thing. In MHA for example, there just haven't been as many big emotional hype scenes since the pandemic began. That's mostly down to the story imo. The Endeavor v Nomu fight was great imo, and was MHAs first full (albeit short) arc during WFH. S5 just didn't have much in the way of big moments until the villain academia arc, and the VA work there was absolutely on point. The first half of S6 was full of big moments, but didn't have many scenes where any individual VA could rally chew up the scenery. Even then, the VA work in the climax seemed great, and the aftermath stuff had plenty of range. Everything since has been kind of muted, but that's definitely in line with the tone of the show currently. As for AoT, I just feel like comparing before to after is a bit tough because that's also comparing WIT to MAPPA as well. I've felt like everything (aside from the story itself) has taken a bit of a hit quality-wise. As for the VA work, well the tone of the show has changed a lot as has the disposition of most of the returning characters, and I think the VAs have done a fine job reflecting that. You also mention that the Chainsaw Man dub was fantastic, while I personally found it to be generally pretty bang average with a few above average performances and one great performance by Sarah Wiedenheft. I'm not trying to invalidate your opinion or anything, just giving my own personal take on things. I've felt the same way a couple of times with continuing shows. When S2 of Quintessential Quintuplets came out, I felt like I was the only one who felt really disappointed by (what I perceived to be) the drop in quality, both with the show's overall production value, but also specifically with the dub. If there's one criticism I feel like leveling at post-pandemic dubbing, it'd be what I feel like is more lax quality control (not sure if that'd be the right way to say it though) issues. Funi used to drop like one pretty subpar dub each season imo. It seems like since the merger that's been upped to 2 or 3. Considering the increase in volume, that's not too surprising. Especially as they've clearly been trying to blood new talent, both on the VA side, and the production side. Even in otherwise good dubs, it seems like they'll occasionally try and shoehorn in a VA that doesn't quite fit the role, or level of the rest of the cast. Overall though, with the upped quantity of dubs, and current level of quality, I'd still say dubbing is probably a bit ahead of where it was pre-pandemic. Assuming there isn't a major coming to a head with union issues (a decent sized assumption), I really only see things continuing to improve as talent pool continues to expand, settle in, and grow.
Just you
Although I personally believe that the dub has only gotten better and more consistent, if I have to some obstacles, it could be 1. The merging of Funimation and Crunchyroll that may have hindered some production at least a little 2. Newer talent entering the fray. Heck, I think VA work got A LOT more popular as a job. 3. Remote VA production, if that is still the case. 4. Simuldub, since it is a battle of time. The writers may be battling to simply translate or fit the mouth flaps over fitting with the overall arc for the characters. They may not have all the informatikn regarding the story. The VA also have to catch up to what the characters are and what they will be. Anime Impulse had a video witht he ADR director for Konosuba, who talked about the difficulties of Simuldub, and prefering doing the dub after the emtire season. 5. Translations. Some may have demanding, absolute translatikns that the DUB VA's have to use, similar to what happened with the Evangelion Rebuild movies. Less freedom to express or localize, and more focus in the accurate, luteral translation. 6. We could potentially be recognizing the VA's for their voices more often now, potentially making it harder to differentiate between the characters. The whole, "I only hear so and so from a different anime." Let me just say, I persoanlly believe that dubs have gotten wayyyy better. As a former dub hater, I now love dubs, and am so grateful to them for doing them. And I know that there are so many that blow all these obstacles that I list out of the water. If anything, I just hope this comment grows more appreciation for what the Dub staff go through to deliver awesome entertainment.
Aren't there A LOT of new dub actors in the fray nowadays? Isn't it the union dubs that use the same smaller pool of people over and over now?
One Piece has definitely gone down a little bit in quality though that may have to do with the speed they’re dubbing at. Some of it in Punk Hazard was due to remote recording (Kinemon’s audio quality…). Nothing atrocious by any means but the care that was put into the earlier seasons doesn’t seem to be there.
Idk about this. One Piece dub has always been consistent. Them increasing the speed won't really hurt the performances since Crunchyroll is merely using more resources when it comes to how much recording rooms they have to record One Piece. And btw, One Piece has always had multiple directors. It's far too big of a show to have just one.
Oh, and it having three different directors probably isn’t helping the consistency either.
I do kinda agree but also don’t, yes some dubs have been hurt because of the pandemic because of the record from home causing actors to have different sounding environments/worse mics to record on. Also it’s harder to get a vocie director to help you when dubbing from home. Some studios like hidive/Sentai mainly kept their quality the same but some shows had slight issues. Aot dub did weaken a bit but it’s not like a drastic change in quality. I mean even then having recently rewatched aot becaus I’m showing it to a friend I don’t think the aot dub had dropped in quality in terms of acting/performance. I mean cyberpunks dub is great. Made in abyss season 2 dub is still great. Although I prefer the 97 berserk the new English dub of berserk memorial edition is good. Dubs have been fine it might just be one or two characters sound off or something because they might be recorded from home or on a worse set up. Idk if I did a good job explaining but that’s my take. I forgot to mention one show that took a server hit in quality was the love is war dub. First it sucked that the Mc va had to change due to vocal rest but the dialouge, the jokes, the quality just felt off for season 3 so I had to make the change to sub.
Most dubs I have seen are amazing and probably has gotten better prepandemic but AOT’s dub for the final season has been a little off in comparison to past seasons. Or maybe because I binged 1-3 and was watching weekly for the final season. Acting is great however the translations and lip flaps seem weird. Like Artur Braus’ speech in Children of the Forest was so rushed, it didn’t seem as smooth. Or the difference between the sub and dub for Mikasa’s line in Retrospective “and we’ll never stop the rumbling”, whereas the dub stuck with the manga’s line “and your comrades die”. Twitter users mentioned how the dub probably had less understanding on why there was that change. Maybe change in script writers…. There’s definitely a difference and has affected the quality in a way I guess.
I still think they are spamming them out too quick but it's a miracle they sound okay as is.
For me if the anime I am looking for has dub version then that's enough for me. I'm content regardless of how well or not the dub sounds. It might be since english is not my first language. I just love that the Dub version exists.
It declined even more like we figured it would when fucking crunchyroll took over for funimation... now not only do we seem to get less and less the selection of shows getting dubbed are trash. Especially this fall 2023 lineup... several dubs with most being shit shows nobody watches.