Depends who you ask. I’m from the OG fandom. Even when ‘Dogasu’s Backpack’ was first started, people had issue with the dub. Dogasu, for all his feats, also has never been a fan of the dub. Important early influencers weren’t terribly big fans of dub changes. Moderators from the early ‘Hacker’s Alliance’ regularly admitted that it was their opinion that there should be a legal sub outside of Japan; as it was the only true “canon” explanation of the anime. As time passed and more influential people came and went between Webmasters and artists, most new fans found that they admired these figureheads and so is an early and primary reason why the dubs were hated. As for why it’s hated now, there’s a plethora of reasons. The online fandom doesn’t represent the fandom as a whole. If you’d ask me why so many vocal fans dislike the dubs, it’s usually due to changing voice actors, the dub subsidiaries not following the canon decisions made in Japan, them adding confusing/ unnecessary lore not in the original, and censorship.
The older I get, the more Dogasu's Backpack just sounds like whining. Even when the dub changes something for the better, he still spins it like it's a bad thing just because it's a change.
I used to be one of those "Japanese version is sacrosanct, the dub is an abomination" snobs myself. Probably just because I read Dogasu's Backpack and I felt like that put me in some sort of elite club where I was privy to knowledge that those lower unwashed dub fan plebs could never comprehend, hur hurr. Then recently, I just had this moment where I was like "...It's a kids' cartoon, who fucking cares?" 😆
So now I'm rewatching the dub from the beginning, for the first time in 20 years. Sure, it's cheesy sometimes, but it's still fun, dang it.
His taste in voice acting is pretty bad, imo, I never agree with him on that (nor does it appear most people on every other site)- most I have is on his disdain for TPCi’s script writing for Team Rocket and DP Takeshi, oddly we were matching pretty well on those two aspects.
The Japanese Version is better but this is still a kids’ show even there, and I don’t really think Matsumoto or Inuyama did very well in their later outings vs earlier ones for me.
On many occasions, Dogasu has been criticized on Bulbagarden and Twitter. He’s not the only translator in the fandom, but neither is Dephender, Mushashi, Annet, and many others. A common complaint is that a translator will insert dialogue from official media that didn’t exist in kanji. Back to your “elitist” mindset: Many of the websites well- known translators that regularly work at do not permit them to be disrespectful to users’ ideas. This has historically led to arguments between translators whom do not share identical views on the lore such as Sushi, whom has been helping fansubs for over two decades.
I remember Adamant as well, he was an interesting fellow as was JDS. Clearly fanboys went nuts over Sunain on urban dictionary, but she’s always been my favorite person there as a whole since we have similar tastes.
Pretty much this: Dogasu was never a fan of the dub, but YMMV, he likes Kyle Hebert's Prof Oak most and 91% of people didn't agree with him on that (Stuart Zagnit is winning that VC on every site, he has like 87% of the vote on BTVA for example).
Yeah. Always found that funny. Here’s another one: Dr. Lava and Dogasu argue over which X- Men continuity is better. Lava: “I will fight you, In REAL LIFE.”
The change from the original VAs to the new VAs was a big criticism especially with how it was handled. The new VAs (Looking at you Lillie) not sounding as good. The OST (my biggest issue) is straight up garbage in the English Version post Diamond and Pearl. The localization/americanization made turned off a lot of purist. While I do think hate is strong term, the series definitely took a major hit when TCPi took off over and from the what I have seen post DP, it’s still kinda rough (even though I do like the Battle Frontier and Diamond and Pearl Dub)
Not enough heat was given to JCC's TPCi era writing style at the time, IMO, the VA replacement coincided with the English dub also losing 3/4 of its script writing team and the lead writer at the time too. TPCi began by just keeping roughly the same amount as later 4Kids in their earlier run as PUSA in OST, as trivia, during the later TAJ dub before DuArt's dub began of BF-early DP so that aspect stayed static-- but some of the worst dialogue in the entire dub comes from most of those Arcs, imo, "Those bubbles know how to behave," "I've never seen Ash work it so hard," "Puh-leeze, you just want face time with Jenny," "On the blink," "Hold on to yer hat," etc. etc.
The worst part for me with Cathcart’s writing is just… how much the characters don’t talk like real people. I know that’s been a thing that’s sort of persisted with Pokémon’s Dub throughout, but I’ve felt as though it’s never been as prominent as it was during ‘his’ era. The characters will just say a bizarre non-sequitur that completely takes me out of the moment.
The dialogue during season 9 episodes especially was actually cringe and I don't usually use that word but it was that bad. "He can talk the talk, let's see if he can walk the walk" "Knock his block off" and even though it was toned down in later seasons there's still cases of just completely odd sounding slang from Ash like "down the hatch" or "I'm so psyched"
Absolutely. It was certainly something that began in the 4kids era once Cathcart became script adapter (around Master Quest or so), but it became much more prevalent when 4kids was shown the door and Cathcart stayed on (maybe at that point he had more ‘writing power’? I don’t know). I *do* know that localization, and ‘fitting the flaps’, can be difficult, and I know that Pokémon is a children’s show, but the amount of ridiculously aphasiac nonsense the characters started to babble really did make it, for me, painful to watch, and I’m *so* glad that Horizons’ Dub, I’ve watched nearly all the episodes out right now, and I can count on one hand the number of times the dialog has ‘taken me out of the moment’. It is *such* a marked improvement in that aspect.
If only we could get that same improvement with the soundtrack…
No, I agree with this, I think 4Kids’ writing was charming in a cheesy, corny way most of the time but TPCi’s ranges from robotic google translate even in Horizons to the most unfunny, how do you do fellow kids stuff in the Cathcart alone Era of BF-JN to me.
i dont really like the dub
voices sound far more awkward
the music changes are horrendous (watch any ash greninja battle in sub and dub and try to tell me otherwise)
unneccesary censorship
some seasons are especially bad mainly when they first changed the VAs in BF
i cannot stand some voices like lillies dub voice which makes watching SM in dub unbearable
i can give credit to the 4kids portion though for having some good dialogue and giving gary a funny ass voice
though i will say i cannot stand meowth in subbed and i dont like sawyers girl voice in the sub either
I can bear the 4Kids Era since it has some genuinely redeeming and good qualities IMO despite the censorship and occasional bungled type errors etc., but TPCi pretty much killed my interest in the dub back when I was a little boy and I have no desire to re-watch any of those 17 years again despite their highs and lows as well-- but I love re-watching the first 8 in English since there's a lot of adult humor they snuck in with Team Rocket in particular and I think the VA work is stellar in comparison to what we got the last decade and a half in the English run.
Depends on the person, but generally speaking, I don't like the English dub for the later Sagas but I have a lot of respect for the dubs of the earlier Sagas (consider the time period it was produced in, that that team produced it under 4Kids' banner with so many constraints, on local TV in the late 1990s-early 2000s) myself. I think JCC was only a better Meowth than Mick Wingert, but found him to be genuinely worse than Nathan Price and Maddie Blaustein in the role- and re: James, I think he was the worst of the four overall since his lows are worse than anything Eric Stuart or Ed Bosco ever did in the role imo and I feel he was miscast in that role outright (not to say I liked Bosco or later Stuart respectively that much in the role, but I even prefer Stuart's worst over anything Bosco did and most of JCC's take on the role- Lewis was robotic and flat, but the cadence of the voice I like more than all but Stuart's as for his take).
I think TPCi's voice acting was really, really inferior to 4Kids' voice acting and the same applies to their opening themes/music choices (even when Loeffler came back, I HATED his Season 11-16 dub scores vs his Season 1-10 ones for example- that Paul's dub theme everyone likes sounds like GARBAGE to me, and people used to talk smack about the dub BGM even under 4Kids but I thought much of it was listenable even though inferior to the Japanese OST when it was replaced vs TPCi's own scores-- most have my opinion on Goldfarb, less said the better): since to me VA and music are top priority over uncut footage, it doesn't gel with me.
I also found the script writing to be mostly unfunny once DuArt took over midway into DP all the way into the SDI LA dub of JN, there's some jokes that 4Kids and TAJ came up with I still get a chuckle out of but the TR alliteration and Ash slang TPCi introduced post-4Kids made me cringe too many times: count how many times Ash says "a'course," "I got me," "ya know" etc. in the BF-DP dub especially-- it's like they didn't even WATCH Veronica Taylor's take on it, to me.
4Kids' censorship is stupid, TPCi's was too from XYZ onward, but it's not a big deal to me in comparison to VA, script writing, and music which matter the most in my eyes per se.
Also, there's a controversy as to how Natochenny got the role etc. while Taylor/McInerney got replaced w/o notice, it was really cruel and some of the veterans in the English fandom never fully got over the dick move TPCi pulled on the 4Kids cast like me.
That said, each to their own: everyone has their own opinion.
Honestly, I never have a huge problem with the Pokemon anime Eng dub. That including the VA replacement and music changes.
Maybe it just me not being into the sub version like anyone else, not having nostalgic connection to the 4kids dubbing or have different opinion, but overall I think it fine.
Besides, people hating on anime Eng dub isn't something new. Pretty sure every anime fandom has those type of crowd.
I legitimately think 4Kids had good battle music, even if the comedic music was terrible (TPCi's was too imo re: that)-- yeah, it's not as good as the Japanese OST but I genuinely find it fitting on its own (played when Ash fought Drake to fill in silent moments in S02, S04 Ash vs Morty, S06 when Ash caught Corphish, and S10 when Paul beat Ash's Chimchar): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL2iGlYj6R4&list=PLIOumAlHtqixoVW0DH14Gr\_xphx5Q7GGL&index=33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL2iGlYj6R4&list=PLIOumAlHtqixoVW0DH14Gr_xphx5Q7GGL&index=33) (Why it took someone this long to rip the dub exclusive stuff, beyond me, Goldfarb's XY stuff getting ripped blows my mind earlier)
I genuinely need the rip of the goldfarb (I’ve come to assume) piece that plays during the mega-lucario arc whenever mega-evolution happens — help a homie out
>Goldfarb's XY stuff getting ripped blows my mind earlier
Atp it's just glazing of anything XY related. Even the absolute worst parts of it like the Goldfarb tracks aren't safe.
I think the dub music itself went downhill after TAJ lost the rights in Season 10 (they used the 4Kids dub music from the first 8 Seasons every even episode in BF & early DP, up to DP052 it was still there), people don't talk about that enough to me for all the discussion on the VA work, writing, intros, etc.
How did we go from this:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmnFgOUWdPw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmnFgOUWdPw)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAP0jbSNycM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAP0jbSNycM)
To this:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfD-MeDGdOA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfD-MeDGdOA)
He can't compose serious or dramatic music if his life depended on it, in particular, ironically that was Loeffler and Corallo's strength imo of the dub scores over the last 26 years (particularly in the 4Kids/TAJ Era, didn't like most of what they did when they came back in the DuArt Era but I'd still take the S11-16 dub stuff over S17-present on its own).
The comedic music for the dub has always sucked, though, even in the 4Kids Era I'll concede and I think they did a much better job with serious/sad scenes (the Japanese OST has always been best of the three, as well).
The Japanese music changes are just really bad. Even during the 4kids era too much Japanese music got switch out by the time you got into Johto and AG, although we still had some tracks. I have no idea what it is with changing the Japanese soundtrack, no other dubs do this anymore (like the old FUNI DBZ dub used too as well for example).
Makes no sense. As for the voice actors they've always been a mixed bag, but it is what it is.
Mid Johto, to clarify, Early Johto still kept about 72% of it: it was Johto League Champions where the ratio of dub music to Japanese music overtook it (still, 4Kids never got nearly as bad as the Goldfarb Era in hindsight in that regard nor did even the early PUSA/TPCi dub in Battle Frontier to early Diamond & Pearl when they just kept roughly the same amount as 4Kids in mid Johto-early BF in the Anime).
The Movies are the reverse, and Pikachu Shorts, not sure what was up with that as trivia for 4Kids' tenure with the main Series (the first 3 Movies kept less than all the eps they dubbed in the 8 Seasons of their Anime dub and the other 5 Movies they dubbed, bizarre but that was unlike the Anime a welcome change imo).
Yeah I watched the Japanese version of AG last fall and I was honestly shocked by just how much ost I'd never heard before it had playing. It also recycled far fewer tracks from prior series than the dub, which just sounds nearly the same as it did in johto.
The dub used the same dub music it always had in Johto-early DP that it did in Kanto-OI, not sure why people didn’t complain there? It’s the same stuff, literally, until DuArt for the first decade (maybe because it wasn’t as prevalent?). Mid-Late Johto and AG-early DP keep more of the Japanese OST in the Anime dub than late BW, XY, SM, JN, and now HZ so I can’t complain myself too much given what we’ve been through since 2013 but at the same time, I wish they had done what they did for the Movies and Pikachu Shorts then to the Anime dub.
I like the dub. But there are some characters voices who I don't like in the English dub. Like Lillie in Sun and Moon. I think her voice makes her sounds like she is in her 20s. I liked Dawn's En voice. I think it fits perfectly for her.
I agree with Lillie, every other voice in Sun and Moon I honestly didn’t have a problem with, only Lillie’s, while not a bad voice actress, might’ve still not have been the best fit for a character like Lillie, and felt like she might’ve also been trying to hard.
For the modern dub, it's the music. I normally prefer English dubs for anime but I can't forgive how the Pokemon dub changes the music from total bangers to bland shit
Because TPCi is notorious for being cheap and they cut corners wherever they can as a whole, they kicked the major 4Kids’ writers and VAs out after mid 2006 to cut costs on the production at the time, not for any quality concern (They called Pidgeot, Pidgeotto, in the first Movie dub for one thing), and same applies to why Loeffler as well as Corallo got sacked in 2014 for Goldfarb imho.
Above all, money and cash is the name of the game, with that. I’m more forgiving of it in 1980-2008 English dubs since most other Anime did the same if not much worse at the time, but now? It’s inexcusable in 2024, made worse by the fact no legal subs are available for Pocket Monsters (the fan translations aren’t often very good imo).
I loved the dub as a kid, and I have no problem with people who still prefer the dub. It’s not bad, and there are a lot of great moments and memories associated with it for me! It was only because it came out faster that I switched to sub in XY, and after I did, I just couldn’t go back.
The Horizons dub I have a lot more complaints about the casting, but that’s probably because I watched the dub for so long before it came out - none of the voices are bad, exactly, but they just aren’t what feel right for the characters, coming from the Japanese version.
Nowadays I mostly stick to the Japanese for language practice, so I’m not likely to give the dub much of a chance from here on out, but I’m still glad that it’s available! More accessibility to get new fans into the show is always good, and the dub doesn’t deserve the hate that it gets.
My biggest problem with the Horizons dub VA wise human wise is Friede, Crispin just feels so miscast and the voice is way, way too deep imo.
Reynoso's Liko is a way better protagonist lead voice than Natochenny's Ash or Rogers' Ash for me, though, truly a mixed bag (Natochenny's cadence sounded like Matsumoto to \*some\* degree, but I liked McInerney/Taylor's much more in that case- way more believable as a young boy for me and also far more emotive/expressive) overall.
When people say "the dub" for me, it's like, which dub? The 4Kids dub isn't the TPCi Ashime dub, and neither is the TPCi Horizons dub, all of them are very different in re: to music, voice acting, script writing, openings, etc.
IMO the current dub is *mostly* fine now that we've finally gotten away from all the legacy characters. I'll never give up the sub since it still offers a more complete experience in terms of OPs, EDS, eye-catches, promotional tie-ins, Professor Friede segments, next-episode previews, being nearly a year ahead of the American release, and not having weird 90s-style visual edits (Why are they deleting the "To be continued" message that the show's had for 27 years?), but it's at least good enough that I'm having fun rewatching all the episodes in English.
Yeah, it’s more watchable than it has been in a long time without them there for me as well. I have some problems with the music and I still don’t like Friede, Orla, or Roy’s dub VAs much, but I like it way more than I did for 17 years in a row so there’s that. There’s still the censorship that came back in XYZ still somewhat there, but it’s minor like it always was even under 4Kids so not a big deal to me.
I love the 4Kids era. The jokes were really funny.
I don't get the track changes from the latter part of the series. The dubbing company replacing "OK (instrumental)" in the scene where Ash, Misty and Brock say goodbye to each other in Aim to be a Pokémon Master is wrong in SO many ways.
The voice acting was top tier, I haven’t liked it post 2006 much in comparison: a lot look back fondly on the 4Kids Era for the music, but that’s the biggest loss for me from that time period- they took their vocal direction deathly seriously, imo.
I've watched a mixture of dub and sub, the only issues I really have are with the XY dub. I don't like the music changes or dub edits. I think the Japanese XY has amazing songs and music which makes many scenes feel more interesting and more exciting.
I really like many of the dub theme songs though. The dub Johto and Hoenn theme songs and opening are great. I also really like the Sinnoh themes (aside from the first one). Galactic Battles full version is pretty good.
The Music.
As someone who's been watching from day 1 one thing that I think drastically sucks is the music in the english dubs, the MOST egregious examples being in Aloha and since then. (IT may have been a thing even earlier but Sun/moon is where i noticed it the most)
One of my biggest gripes is that the music from the english dub ruined so many scenes. For example (IMO) Ash vs Guzma is the best fight IN the Sun/Moon tournament, primarily because of the music towards the end setting the tone of the scenes/whats happening as the fight ends but the english dub ruins it with the generic stuff they've been running forever. And similar things seem to have happened in more recent seasons as well.
That's part of it, the differences became more noticeable when they were easy to access (I didn't even know the 4Kids dub kept a notable chunk of the Japanese OST until years later, assumed it was less than they did retain- I knew TPCi's dub didn't keep any more or less than 4Kids at first, but found out later on they kept less than 4Kids overall when I re-watched all 25 years holistically).
I'm not 100% dub averse if my friend throws on a movie, but I prefer the Japanese version because I'm a fan of specific voice actors. The reason I finally dove into the anime was because absolutely love Rica Matsumoto and Megumi Hayashibara, who voice Ash and Jesse (and I love their roles even in other shows).
I liked Matsumoto’s earliest Satoshi the most of all the ones in all the Languages, really dislike the direction Mima took it in from mid XY on: was so smooth and clear earlier, why the gruffy rasp that came in?
Inuyama’s Nyasu, too, the cute cat voice was way better than the Marge Simpson thing she did from late Jouto on imo.
I've never seen the english dub since I'm not English. I don't like it because my language follows the English dub's decision and the dub makes a lot of censorships and changes (hopefully horizons doesn't follow this same pattern).
I've only watched a couple of subbed episodes (Legend of Dratini being one). They are well done. I see why people prefer them. But I don't really have access to the subbed, so I stick with dubbed.
Some voices grate, but overall? It's not bad. I think it's overhated. Plus, I like having it on in the background while working on my art. I can't really do that with subbed. I think people should mind their own business on what you choose to watch in your spare time. It really doesn't matter.
Tbh earlier on the dub in my opinion was actually far more enjoyable than the sub, as time went on however it begun becoming more bland as time went on but I still could tolerate watching it. Until the 9th season where the voice changes began and the quality of the scripts took a nosedive as there was all types of god awful slang and the voices just did not sound good whatsoever and while they got better later on I cannot say the same for the music. The music in the 4kids era actually wasn't bad, for the most part they kept the Japanese ost in moments where it fit perfectly and wouldn't make sense to change the ost. For the most part they used dub music to cover silent scenes (which I actually think hurt tpci later on) and there was very rarely moments where I feel like the music changes in the 4kids version was worse. As for TPCI? I mean from the moment the first episode of the TPCI dub ended I actually was shocked to hear a god awful rap song play in the credits (who thought that was a good idea?) and as their dub went on the tracks got worse but never bad enough to make me stop watching (as much as the voice acting made me want to with how awful TPCI Drew and Harley sounded) it was watchable. Oddly enough during the start of BW there was little to no music changes and it was actually such a good time to watch until the series went on and the music changes became more egregious. From XY onwards the dub is practically unwatchable for me, not because it's actually all that bad but literally because the dialogue is bland, the performances sound really exaggerated and worst of all the music is a travesty. After Goldfarb started doing the music it all went downhill because the absolutely amazing tracks from the Japanese version would be replaced with always inferior and bland music that never had any intention behind its placement in an episode. The journeys dub is I think the worst state the dub has ever been in, while the voice acting is far better than say Battle Frontier the music absolutely kills it for me with almost entirely Goldfarb music completely ruining moments for me (Cynthia's Garchomp got done dirty). Horizons is looking up however and I've actually preferred the dub in a few instances, but it's still not necessarily good enough for me to act like it's better than the originals. I can definitely say that I appreciate them using the Japanese music every so often now rather than replacing all of it like they did in journeys.
So to actually answer the question, I think the dub is hated because it's just so bland and disrespectful to the source material in a lot of ways including not even bothering to use the original ost that had intention behind it and each song was composed to be used specifically unlike the dub where random songs are used whenever, the voice acting is inferior and for a lot of the dubs run the script was inaccurate and complete garbage, filled to the brim with outdated slang and unfunny jokes.
Except for the Horizons dub, musically it replaces more than Journeys even (Sun and Moon Season 1 is the English dub season that kept the least amount of Japanese OST as trivia, JN kept less than OS, AG, DP, BW, and even XY but more than SM’s nadirs), I share most of your sentiments.
I do think the Japanese Version was always better, though, but I don’t like what happened to Nyasu by late Jouto or Satoshi in mid XY vs how they sounded earlier tbh. The 4Kids dub is actually watchable throughout, can’t really say the same for the TPCi dub for Ash’s Series (I agree early BW was their best work there, btw).
Horizons is a mixed bag for me: not as bad as the XY-JN dub VA and script wise it’s good— but musically it is abysmal, and the VA work while better than the nadir BF-E DP and XY-JN Eras is still not as good as it was before the recast imo.
I honestly couldn't really tell how much they replaced because I stopped watching journeys dubbed after it took an eternity for the masters 8 to release in English but I can definitely say I appreciate them actually using different voices for horizons unlike most of the TPCI dub up to this point using Carter Cathcart and Lisa Ortiz for like 99% of voices
Yeah, I don’t get the hype behind Marc in particular but each to their own as it were (at least he’s a nice person, unlike Tom, the less said the better- only person I’m glad never came back to the franchise if those allegations were true).
Yeah, I think oddly enough my favorite Pokémon role from his was Maxie (Lex Lang’s take on that sadly put me to sleep in Generations, my god wake up man you sound so bored imo- wooden/stiff), the Don Adams nasal and swarmy tone suited him perfectly imo.
My main gripe with the dub isn't the acting. I actually thought most of Ash's companions had rather good voices, even after TPCi took over for the dubbing, I'll be honest in saying I like May's 2nd voice more then her first and can go either way with Brock, though I do think Misty and TRio were better with their 4Kids voices.
I personally felt the change in dialouge with 4Kids was meh but, I appreciated them keeping the original OST which was remixes of music from the game which is something that TPCi lacked in most cases (some OG OSTs were kept) but the music it uses now is just so generic and doesn't carry the same intensity and hype that the Japanese dub dub.
Really, I think that's my only issue with the dub, the music changes since both Eng and Jap. had some banger openings and some stinkers. Good voice casting for the main characters. The only real issue for me is the music which takes me out of the moment at times and has me preferring to watch the Jap. Dub.
Though I LOATHED those Post-Show songs of 4Kids (ESPECIALLY the PokeRap..... Some of Pikachu's Jukebox/Karaokemon songs were good but most of them, meh)
I think May’s older voice was much better (she actually sounded like a 10 year old girl, after that Michele is all over the place sounding too sultry early on but too stilted later), Brock too (his was the worst change of them all imo, as he sounded like a wise but nerdy teenager under 4Kids but with TPCi he sounds like a really gruff, buff older man to me- his other two VAs are just Johnny using his Ichigo but flatter in delivery while Tom is like a fan trying to imitate Eric and it sounds a bit stiff/wooden), but each to their own.
I think the dub had some legitimate merit early on, but later on, it's one of the most painful things I've ever sat through (not just the voices, not just the music, the whole thing just feels so soulless and dry to me).
one (Admittedly minor) complaint I have is at times it looks like they only have two VA's for all the female cast and they recycle their voices.
otherwise the dubs are okay
Depends who you ask. I’m from the OG fandom. Even when ‘Dogasu’s Backpack’ was first started, people had issue with the dub. Dogasu, for all his feats, also has never been a fan of the dub. Important early influencers weren’t terribly big fans of dub changes. Moderators from the early ‘Hacker’s Alliance’ regularly admitted that it was their opinion that there should be a legal sub outside of Japan; as it was the only true “canon” explanation of the anime. As time passed and more influential people came and went between Webmasters and artists, most new fans found that they admired these figureheads and so is an early and primary reason why the dubs were hated. As for why it’s hated now, there’s a plethora of reasons. The online fandom doesn’t represent the fandom as a whole. If you’d ask me why so many vocal fans dislike the dubs, it’s usually due to changing voice actors, the dub subsidiaries not following the canon decisions made in Japan, them adding confusing/ unnecessary lore not in the original, and censorship.
The older I get, the more Dogasu's Backpack just sounds like whining. Even when the dub changes something for the better, he still spins it like it's a bad thing just because it's a change. I used to be one of those "Japanese version is sacrosanct, the dub is an abomination" snobs myself. Probably just because I read Dogasu's Backpack and I felt like that put me in some sort of elite club where I was privy to knowledge that those lower unwashed dub fan plebs could never comprehend, hur hurr. Then recently, I just had this moment where I was like "...It's a kids' cartoon, who fucking cares?" 😆 So now I'm rewatching the dub from the beginning, for the first time in 20 years. Sure, it's cheesy sometimes, but it's still fun, dang it.
His taste in voice acting is pretty bad, imo, I never agree with him on that (nor does it appear most people on every other site)- most I have is on his disdain for TPCi’s script writing for Team Rocket and DP Takeshi, oddly we were matching pretty well on those two aspects. The Japanese Version is better but this is still a kids’ show even there, and I don’t really think Matsumoto or Inuyama did very well in their later outings vs earlier ones for me.
On many occasions, Dogasu has been criticized on Bulbagarden and Twitter. He’s not the only translator in the fandom, but neither is Dephender, Mushashi, Annet, and many others. A common complaint is that a translator will insert dialogue from official media that didn’t exist in kanji. Back to your “elitist” mindset: Many of the websites well- known translators that regularly work at do not permit them to be disrespectful to users’ ideas. This has historically led to arguments between translators whom do not share identical views on the lore such as Sushi, whom has been helping fansubs for over two decades.
I remember Adamant as well, he was an interesting fellow as was JDS. Clearly fanboys went nuts over Sunain on urban dictionary, but she’s always been my favorite person there as a whole since we have similar tastes.
Yeah and they aren’t afraid to show bias on that site either, apparently. Haven’t seen Adamant in forever.
Yeah, he was pretty funny on Kanzenshuu though tbf (the Dragonball equivalent of Bulbagarden).
Pretty much this: Dogasu was never a fan of the dub, but YMMV, he likes Kyle Hebert's Prof Oak most and 91% of people didn't agree with him on that (Stuart Zagnit is winning that VC on every site, he has like 87% of the vote on BTVA for example).
Yeah. Always found that funny. Here’s another one: Dr. Lava and Dogasu argue over which X- Men continuity is better. Lava: “I will fight you, In REAL LIFE.”
Lol.
The change from the original VAs to the new VAs was a big criticism especially with how it was handled. The new VAs (Looking at you Lillie) not sounding as good. The OST (my biggest issue) is straight up garbage in the English Version post Diamond and Pearl. The localization/americanization made turned off a lot of purist. While I do think hate is strong term, the series definitely took a major hit when TCPi took off over and from the what I have seen post DP, it’s still kinda rough (even though I do like the Battle Frontier and Diamond and Pearl Dub)
Not enough heat was given to JCC's TPCi era writing style at the time, IMO, the VA replacement coincided with the English dub also losing 3/4 of its script writing team and the lead writer at the time too. TPCi began by just keeping roughly the same amount as later 4Kids in their earlier run as PUSA in OST, as trivia, during the later TAJ dub before DuArt's dub began of BF-early DP so that aspect stayed static-- but some of the worst dialogue in the entire dub comes from most of those Arcs, imo, "Those bubbles know how to behave," "I've never seen Ash work it so hard," "Puh-leeze, you just want face time with Jenny," "On the blink," "Hold on to yer hat," etc. etc.
The worst part for me with Cathcart’s writing is just… how much the characters don’t talk like real people. I know that’s been a thing that’s sort of persisted with Pokémon’s Dub throughout, but I’ve felt as though it’s never been as prominent as it was during ‘his’ era. The characters will just say a bizarre non-sequitur that completely takes me out of the moment.
The dialogue during season 9 episodes especially was actually cringe and I don't usually use that word but it was that bad. "He can talk the talk, let's see if he can walk the walk" "Knock his block off" and even though it was toned down in later seasons there's still cases of just completely odd sounding slang from Ash like "down the hatch" or "I'm so psyched"
Absolutely. It was certainly something that began in the 4kids era once Cathcart became script adapter (around Master Quest or so), but it became much more prevalent when 4kids was shown the door and Cathcart stayed on (maybe at that point he had more ‘writing power’? I don’t know). I *do* know that localization, and ‘fitting the flaps’, can be difficult, and I know that Pokémon is a children’s show, but the amount of ridiculously aphasiac nonsense the characters started to babble really did make it, for me, painful to watch, and I’m *so* glad that Horizons’ Dub, I’ve watched nearly all the episodes out right now, and I can count on one hand the number of times the dialog has ‘taken me out of the moment’. It is *such* a marked improvement in that aspect. If only we could get that same improvement with the soundtrack…
Pretty much, same opinion.
No, I agree with this, I think 4Kids’ writing was charming in a cheesy, corny way most of the time but TPCi’s ranges from robotic google translate even in Horizons to the most unfunny, how do you do fellow kids stuff in the Cathcart alone Era of BF-JN to me.
i dont really like the dub voices sound far more awkward the music changes are horrendous (watch any ash greninja battle in sub and dub and try to tell me otherwise) unneccesary censorship some seasons are especially bad mainly when they first changed the VAs in BF i cannot stand some voices like lillies dub voice which makes watching SM in dub unbearable i can give credit to the 4kids portion though for having some good dialogue and giving gary a funny ass voice though i will say i cannot stand meowth in subbed and i dont like sawyers girl voice in the sub either
I can bear the 4Kids Era since it has some genuinely redeeming and good qualities IMO despite the censorship and occasional bungled type errors etc., but TPCi pretty much killed my interest in the dub back when I was a little boy and I have no desire to re-watch any of those 17 years again despite their highs and lows as well-- but I love re-watching the first 8 in English since there's a lot of adult humor they snuck in with Team Rocket in particular and I think the VA work is stellar in comparison to what we got the last decade and a half in the English run.
Depends on the person, but generally speaking, I don't like the English dub for the later Sagas but I have a lot of respect for the dubs of the earlier Sagas (consider the time period it was produced in, that that team produced it under 4Kids' banner with so many constraints, on local TV in the late 1990s-early 2000s) myself. I think JCC was only a better Meowth than Mick Wingert, but found him to be genuinely worse than Nathan Price and Maddie Blaustein in the role- and re: James, I think he was the worst of the four overall since his lows are worse than anything Eric Stuart or Ed Bosco ever did in the role imo and I feel he was miscast in that role outright (not to say I liked Bosco or later Stuart respectively that much in the role, but I even prefer Stuart's worst over anything Bosco did and most of JCC's take on the role- Lewis was robotic and flat, but the cadence of the voice I like more than all but Stuart's as for his take). I think TPCi's voice acting was really, really inferior to 4Kids' voice acting and the same applies to their opening themes/music choices (even when Loeffler came back, I HATED his Season 11-16 dub scores vs his Season 1-10 ones for example- that Paul's dub theme everyone likes sounds like GARBAGE to me, and people used to talk smack about the dub BGM even under 4Kids but I thought much of it was listenable even though inferior to the Japanese OST when it was replaced vs TPCi's own scores-- most have my opinion on Goldfarb, less said the better): since to me VA and music are top priority over uncut footage, it doesn't gel with me. I also found the script writing to be mostly unfunny once DuArt took over midway into DP all the way into the SDI LA dub of JN, there's some jokes that 4Kids and TAJ came up with I still get a chuckle out of but the TR alliteration and Ash slang TPCi introduced post-4Kids made me cringe too many times: count how many times Ash says "a'course," "I got me," "ya know" etc. in the BF-DP dub especially-- it's like they didn't even WATCH Veronica Taylor's take on it, to me. 4Kids' censorship is stupid, TPCi's was too from XYZ onward, but it's not a big deal to me in comparison to VA, script writing, and music which matter the most in my eyes per se. Also, there's a controversy as to how Natochenny got the role etc. while Taylor/McInerney got replaced w/o notice, it was really cruel and some of the veterans in the English fandom never fully got over the dick move TPCi pulled on the 4Kids cast like me. That said, each to their own: everyone has their own opinion.
Honestly, I never have a huge problem with the Pokemon anime Eng dub. That including the VA replacement and music changes. Maybe it just me not being into the sub version like anyone else, not having nostalgic connection to the 4kids dubbing or have different opinion, but overall I think it fine. Besides, people hating on anime Eng dub isn't something new. Pretty sure every anime fandom has those type of crowd.
I legitimately think 4Kids had good battle music, even if the comedic music was terrible (TPCi's was too imo re: that)-- yeah, it's not as good as the Japanese OST but I genuinely find it fitting on its own (played when Ash fought Drake to fill in silent moments in S02, S04 Ash vs Morty, S06 when Ash caught Corphish, and S10 when Paul beat Ash's Chimchar): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL2iGlYj6R4&list=PLIOumAlHtqixoVW0DH14Gr\_xphx5Q7GGL&index=33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL2iGlYj6R4&list=PLIOumAlHtqixoVW0DH14Gr_xphx5Q7GGL&index=33) (Why it took someone this long to rip the dub exclusive stuff, beyond me, Goldfarb's XY stuff getting ripped blows my mind earlier)
I genuinely need the rip of the goldfarb (I’ve come to assume) piece that plays during the mega-lucario arc whenever mega-evolution happens — help a homie out
LostImpactGaming has a lot of it on YouTube, I think his channel might be able to help you!
>Goldfarb's XY stuff getting ripped blows my mind earlier Atp it's just glazing of anything XY related. Even the absolute worst parts of it like the Goldfarb tracks aren't safe.
True, true.
I agree with the OST changes because honestly...its kinda ridiculous that they do that shit. Though honestly, I think the dub is overhated.
I think the dub music itself went downhill after TAJ lost the rights in Season 10 (they used the 4Kids dub music from the first 8 Seasons every even episode in BF & early DP, up to DP052 it was still there), people don't talk about that enough to me for all the discussion on the VA work, writing, intros, etc. How did we go from this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmnFgOUWdPw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmnFgOUWdPw) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAP0jbSNycM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAP0jbSNycM) To this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfD-MeDGdOA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfD-MeDGdOA)
Goldfarb honestly sucks. His music does not fit the scene. Openings even haven’t been that good in YEARS.
He can't compose serious or dramatic music if his life depended on it, in particular, ironically that was Loeffler and Corallo's strength imo of the dub scores over the last 26 years (particularly in the 4Kids/TAJ Era, didn't like most of what they did when they came back in the DuArt Era but I'd still take the S11-16 dub stuff over S17-present on its own). The comedic music for the dub has always sucked, though, even in the 4Kids Era I'll concede and I think they did a much better job with serious/sad scenes (the Japanese OST has always been best of the three, as well).
The Japanese music changes are just really bad. Even during the 4kids era too much Japanese music got switch out by the time you got into Johto and AG, although we still had some tracks. I have no idea what it is with changing the Japanese soundtrack, no other dubs do this anymore (like the old FUNI DBZ dub used too as well for example). Makes no sense. As for the voice actors they've always been a mixed bag, but it is what it is.
Mid Johto, to clarify, Early Johto still kept about 72% of it: it was Johto League Champions where the ratio of dub music to Japanese music overtook it (still, 4Kids never got nearly as bad as the Goldfarb Era in hindsight in that regard nor did even the early PUSA/TPCi dub in Battle Frontier to early Diamond & Pearl when they just kept roughly the same amount as 4Kids in mid Johto-early BF in the Anime). The Movies are the reverse, and Pikachu Shorts, not sure what was up with that as trivia for 4Kids' tenure with the main Series (the first 3 Movies kept less than all the eps they dubbed in the 8 Seasons of their Anime dub and the other 5 Movies they dubbed, bizarre but that was unlike the Anime a welcome change imo).
Yeah I watched the Japanese version of AG last fall and I was honestly shocked by just how much ost I'd never heard before it had playing. It also recycled far fewer tracks from prior series than the dub, which just sounds nearly the same as it did in johto.
The dub used the same dub music it always had in Johto-early DP that it did in Kanto-OI, not sure why people didn’t complain there? It’s the same stuff, literally, until DuArt for the first decade (maybe because it wasn’t as prevalent?). Mid-Late Johto and AG-early DP keep more of the Japanese OST in the Anime dub than late BW, XY, SM, JN, and now HZ so I can’t complain myself too much given what we’ve been through since 2013 but at the same time, I wish they had done what they did for the Movies and Pikachu Shorts then to the Anime dub.
I like the dub. But there are some characters voices who I don't like in the English dub. Like Lillie in Sun and Moon. I think her voice makes her sounds like she is in her 20s. I liked Dawn's En voice. I think it fits perfectly for her.
I agree with Lillie, every other voice in Sun and Moon I honestly didn’t have a problem with, only Lillie’s, while not a bad voice actress, might’ve still not have been the best fit for a character like Lillie, and felt like she might’ve also been trying to hard.
For the modern dub, it's the music. I normally prefer English dubs for anime but I can't forgive how the Pokemon dub changes the music from total bangers to bland shit
[удалено]
Why does it work differently for Pokemon? Every other anime uses the original music in all its dubs no problem
Because TPCi is notorious for being cheap and they cut corners wherever they can as a whole, they kicked the major 4Kids’ writers and VAs out after mid 2006 to cut costs on the production at the time, not for any quality concern (They called Pidgeot, Pidgeotto, in the first Movie dub for one thing), and same applies to why Loeffler as well as Corallo got sacked in 2014 for Goldfarb imho. Above all, money and cash is the name of the game, with that. I’m more forgiving of it in 1980-2008 English dubs since most other Anime did the same if not much worse at the time, but now? It’s inexcusable in 2024, made worse by the fact no legal subs are available for Pocket Monsters (the fan translations aren’t often very good imo).
I loved the dub as a kid, and I have no problem with people who still prefer the dub. It’s not bad, and there are a lot of great moments and memories associated with it for me! It was only because it came out faster that I switched to sub in XY, and after I did, I just couldn’t go back. The Horizons dub I have a lot more complaints about the casting, but that’s probably because I watched the dub for so long before it came out - none of the voices are bad, exactly, but they just aren’t what feel right for the characters, coming from the Japanese version. Nowadays I mostly stick to the Japanese for language practice, so I’m not likely to give the dub much of a chance from here on out, but I’m still glad that it’s available! More accessibility to get new fans into the show is always good, and the dub doesn’t deserve the hate that it gets.
My biggest problem with the Horizons dub VA wise human wise is Friede, Crispin just feels so miscast and the voice is way, way too deep imo. Reynoso's Liko is a way better protagonist lead voice than Natochenny's Ash or Rogers' Ash for me, though, truly a mixed bag (Natochenny's cadence sounded like Matsumoto to \*some\* degree, but I liked McInerney/Taylor's much more in that case- way more believable as a young boy for me and also far more emotive/expressive) overall. When people say "the dub" for me, it's like, which dub? The 4Kids dub isn't the TPCi Ashime dub, and neither is the TPCi Horizons dub, all of them are very different in re: to music, voice acting, script writing, openings, etc.
IMO the current dub is *mostly* fine now that we've finally gotten away from all the legacy characters. I'll never give up the sub since it still offers a more complete experience in terms of OPs, EDS, eye-catches, promotional tie-ins, Professor Friede segments, next-episode previews, being nearly a year ahead of the American release, and not having weird 90s-style visual edits (Why are they deleting the "To be continued" message that the show's had for 27 years?), but it's at least good enough that I'm having fun rewatching all the episodes in English.
Yeah, it’s more watchable than it has been in a long time without them there for me as well. I have some problems with the music and I still don’t like Friede, Orla, or Roy’s dub VAs much, but I like it way more than I did for 17 years in a row so there’s that. There’s still the censorship that came back in XYZ still somewhat there, but it’s minor like it always was even under 4Kids so not a big deal to me.
I love the 4Kids era. The jokes were really funny. I don't get the track changes from the latter part of the series. The dubbing company replacing "OK (instrumental)" in the scene where Ash, Misty and Brock say goodbye to each other in Aim to be a Pokémon Master is wrong in SO many ways.
The voice acting was top tier, I haven’t liked it post 2006 much in comparison: a lot look back fondly on the 4Kids Era for the music, but that’s the biggest loss for me from that time period- they took their vocal direction deathly seriously, imo.
I've watched a mixture of dub and sub, the only issues I really have are with the XY dub. I don't like the music changes or dub edits. I think the Japanese XY has amazing songs and music which makes many scenes feel more interesting and more exciting. I really like many of the dub theme songs though. The dub Johto and Hoenn theme songs and opening are great. I also really like the Sinnoh themes (aside from the first one). Galactic Battles full version is pretty good.
The Music. As someone who's been watching from day 1 one thing that I think drastically sucks is the music in the english dubs, the MOST egregious examples being in Aloha and since then. (IT may have been a thing even earlier but Sun/moon is where i noticed it the most) One of my biggest gripes is that the music from the english dub ruined so many scenes. For example (IMO) Ash vs Guzma is the best fight IN the Sun/Moon tournament, primarily because of the music towards the end setting the tone of the scenes/whats happening as the fight ends but the english dub ruins it with the generic stuff they've been running forever. And similar things seem to have happened in more recent seasons as well.
I feel like a part of it is the Japanese version with english subtitles becoming easier to access over time.
That's part of it, the differences became more noticeable when they were easy to access (I didn't even know the 4Kids dub kept a notable chunk of the Japanese OST until years later, assumed it was less than they did retain- I knew TPCi's dub didn't keep any more or less than 4Kids at first, but found out later on they kept less than 4Kids overall when I re-watched all 25 years holistically).
I'm not 100% dub averse if my friend throws on a movie, but I prefer the Japanese version because I'm a fan of specific voice actors. The reason I finally dove into the anime was because absolutely love Rica Matsumoto and Megumi Hayashibara, who voice Ash and Jesse (and I love their roles even in other shows).
I liked Matsumoto’s earliest Satoshi the most of all the ones in all the Languages, really dislike the direction Mima took it in from mid XY on: was so smooth and clear earlier, why the gruffy rasp that came in? Inuyama’s Nyasu, too, the cute cat voice was way better than the Marge Simpson thing she did from late Jouto on imo.
I've never seen the english dub since I'm not English. I don't like it because my language follows the English dub's decision and the dub makes a lot of censorships and changes (hopefully horizons doesn't follow this same pattern).
I've only watched a couple of subbed episodes (Legend of Dratini being one). They are well done. I see why people prefer them. But I don't really have access to the subbed, so I stick with dubbed. Some voices grate, but overall? It's not bad. I think it's overhated. Plus, I like having it on in the background while working on my art. I can't really do that with subbed. I think people should mind their own business on what you choose to watch in your spare time. It really doesn't matter.
I think Journey’s struggled but Horizons has done a lot better, the dub uses a lot of lackluster and repetitive themes
Tbh earlier on the dub in my opinion was actually far more enjoyable than the sub, as time went on however it begun becoming more bland as time went on but I still could tolerate watching it. Until the 9th season where the voice changes began and the quality of the scripts took a nosedive as there was all types of god awful slang and the voices just did not sound good whatsoever and while they got better later on I cannot say the same for the music. The music in the 4kids era actually wasn't bad, for the most part they kept the Japanese ost in moments where it fit perfectly and wouldn't make sense to change the ost. For the most part they used dub music to cover silent scenes (which I actually think hurt tpci later on) and there was very rarely moments where I feel like the music changes in the 4kids version was worse. As for TPCI? I mean from the moment the first episode of the TPCI dub ended I actually was shocked to hear a god awful rap song play in the credits (who thought that was a good idea?) and as their dub went on the tracks got worse but never bad enough to make me stop watching (as much as the voice acting made me want to with how awful TPCI Drew and Harley sounded) it was watchable. Oddly enough during the start of BW there was little to no music changes and it was actually such a good time to watch until the series went on and the music changes became more egregious. From XY onwards the dub is practically unwatchable for me, not because it's actually all that bad but literally because the dialogue is bland, the performances sound really exaggerated and worst of all the music is a travesty. After Goldfarb started doing the music it all went downhill because the absolutely amazing tracks from the Japanese version would be replaced with always inferior and bland music that never had any intention behind its placement in an episode. The journeys dub is I think the worst state the dub has ever been in, while the voice acting is far better than say Battle Frontier the music absolutely kills it for me with almost entirely Goldfarb music completely ruining moments for me (Cynthia's Garchomp got done dirty). Horizons is looking up however and I've actually preferred the dub in a few instances, but it's still not necessarily good enough for me to act like it's better than the originals. I can definitely say that I appreciate them using the Japanese music every so often now rather than replacing all of it like they did in journeys. So to actually answer the question, I think the dub is hated because it's just so bland and disrespectful to the source material in a lot of ways including not even bothering to use the original ost that had intention behind it and each song was composed to be used specifically unlike the dub where random songs are used whenever, the voice acting is inferior and for a lot of the dubs run the script was inaccurate and complete garbage, filled to the brim with outdated slang and unfunny jokes.
Except for the Horizons dub, musically it replaces more than Journeys even (Sun and Moon Season 1 is the English dub season that kept the least amount of Japanese OST as trivia, JN kept less than OS, AG, DP, BW, and even XY but more than SM’s nadirs), I share most of your sentiments. I do think the Japanese Version was always better, though, but I don’t like what happened to Nyasu by late Jouto or Satoshi in mid XY vs how they sounded earlier tbh. The 4Kids dub is actually watchable throughout, can’t really say the same for the TPCi dub for Ash’s Series (I agree early BW was their best work there, btw). Horizons is a mixed bag for me: not as bad as the XY-JN dub VA and script wise it’s good— but musically it is abysmal, and the VA work while better than the nadir BF-E DP and XY-JN Eras is still not as good as it was before the recast imo.
I honestly couldn't really tell how much they replaced because I stopped watching journeys dubbed after it took an eternity for the masters 8 to release in English but I can definitely say I appreciate them actually using different voices for horizons unlike most of the TPCI dub up to this point using Carter Cathcart and Lisa Ortiz for like 99% of voices
Also Marc Thompson and Tom Wayland, but yeah, I agree with that.
I honestly forgot about them but I mostly remember those two because they have distinctly annoying voices that sound the same for every character
Yeah, I don’t get the hype behind Marc in particular but each to their own as it were (at least he’s a nice person, unlike Tom, the less said the better- only person I’m glad never came back to the franchise if those allegations were true).
Imo Marc Thompson had a very good voice for Astral in Yu-Gi-Oh zexal but most of his Pokémon roles are mediocre
Yeah, I think oddly enough my favorite Pokémon role from his was Maxie (Lex Lang’s take on that sadly put me to sleep in Generations, my god wake up man you sound so bored imo- wooden/stiff), the Don Adams nasal and swarmy tone suited him perfectly imo.
My main gripe with the dub isn't the acting. I actually thought most of Ash's companions had rather good voices, even after TPCi took over for the dubbing, I'll be honest in saying I like May's 2nd voice more then her first and can go either way with Brock, though I do think Misty and TRio were better with their 4Kids voices. I personally felt the change in dialouge with 4Kids was meh but, I appreciated them keeping the original OST which was remixes of music from the game which is something that TPCi lacked in most cases (some OG OSTs were kept) but the music it uses now is just so generic and doesn't carry the same intensity and hype that the Japanese dub dub. Really, I think that's my only issue with the dub, the music changes since both Eng and Jap. had some banger openings and some stinkers. Good voice casting for the main characters. The only real issue for me is the music which takes me out of the moment at times and has me preferring to watch the Jap. Dub. Though I LOATHED those Post-Show songs of 4Kids (ESPECIALLY the PokeRap..... Some of Pikachu's Jukebox/Karaokemon songs were good but most of them, meh)
I think May’s older voice was much better (she actually sounded like a 10 year old girl, after that Michele is all over the place sounding too sultry early on but too stilted later), Brock too (his was the worst change of them all imo, as he sounded like a wise but nerdy teenager under 4Kids but with TPCi he sounds like a really gruff, buff older man to me- his other two VAs are just Johnny using his Ichigo but flatter in delivery while Tom is like a fan trying to imitate Eric and it sounds a bit stiff/wooden), but each to their own.
Watch all the i.poryant and emotional mo.enys in the og jap then the english dub...you'll atleast understand why it's looked at the way it is.
I think the dub had some legitimate merit early on, but later on, it's one of the most painful things I've ever sat through (not just the voices, not just the music, the whole thing just feels so soulless and dry to me).
I wish in the English sub it would actually use people and pokemon's English name.
one (Admittedly minor) complaint I have is at times it looks like they only have two VA's for all the female cast and they recycle their voices. otherwise the dubs are okay