Akadot - Column - The Dubtrack: Lost Universe page 3

I got nowhere near as many corrections on my overview of North American dubbing studios as I expected. I made only one huge goof, and boy, did I get taken to task for it. I'll let the email from Justin Sevakis of Central Park Media speak for itself:

I just finished reading your column on Akadot, and I have to wonder where you got your "information" about CPM dubs, or if you simply didn't have any information and just made something up. CPM has never just "brought everyone into the studio." Like everyone else, we have a set of dub vendors that we contract out to.

In defense of our dubbed product, I have to admit that prior to about two years ago, most of our dubs that weren't licensed from Manga Video UK (and were produced over there) were somewhat sub-par. However, since then we have started using some of the most popular studios in the country. Currently, our dubs are being produced by TAJ Productions ("Pokemon," "Slayers") and Mercury Productions, and our older vendors, such as AudioWorks, have made considerable advances. You also neglect to mention that in the past we have used Ocean Studios ("A-ko" 2-6) and Animaze ("Blackjack") to produce dubs, with good results.

If you try some more of our recent product, I'm sure you'll see that we've made great improvements in this area, and we'll continue to do so. I believe the comments in your article were unfair and unprofessional.

That aside, I found your article to be very ill-researched and slightly out-of-date. Urban Vision uses SkyQuest Productions for their dubs, the director being Jack Fletcher, who is famous for the Miyazaki dubs for Disney. Media Blasters has been using Bang Zoom more and more (for "Kenshin," I should point out), and is trying other studios as well, such as NYAV Post and Swirl. Manga Video produces a lot of dubs in the UK.

Ouch. In further correspondence, the source of the confusion became clear. CPM uses a different style of crediting from that used by most other distributors. Where Pioneer, for example, credits the studio at the top ("Produced by Pioneer in association with ZR0 Limit and Animaze...iNC"), CPM gives their studio the rather unglamorous credit of "Audio Post Production" near the bottom. Justin also cleared up my confusion about the "dubbing committee" (see my review of "Maze"), explaining that the "ADR Director" should get the credit for directing the actors.

Just to let you know, Bang Zoom has also done work on the "Rurouni Kenshin" TV dub. At this point, I'd give it a mediocre review, even though it has some Animaze talent (like Dorothy Melendrez - Merryl from "Trigun") in it. On the other hand, the dub OP/EDs are incredible as of right now...

Hello sir. I've just read your Dub Track column for 2/5/01, and while I agree with most of what you had to say, I must take issue with something you stated in your description of the Ocean Group:

Now, I'll admit that Ocean may not be the best at dubbing anime (though I very much like their work on "Key: the Metal Idol" and "Gundam Wing"), but this sentence disturbs me. You seem to be implying that a television cartoon does not require the level of acting ability that anime needs, and this is just not true. My case in point: "Beast Wars" and "Beast Machines," two extremely well written, high-quality programs with outstanding acting by the Ocean cast.

David Kaye's "Megatron" is one of the most diabolical foes portrayed by any voice actor, American or Japanese. Scott McNiell provides the voices of no less than four main characters, and all have distinct voices and personalities. For five years, Gary Chalk has given a heroic but sometimes misguided voice to Optimus Primal, and in recent seasons, Brian Drummond has made Jetstorm one of the most amusing characters on Saturday mornings. I could keep going, but I think this is enough to lead me to my point:

It may be true that Ocean's dubs don't rise above the level of a typical television cartoon. But their actual television cartoons themselves are leaps and bounds beyond what anyone would expect. When given the chance to act before the animation exists, rather than dubbing over what is already there, Ocean is an amazingly talented group; in fact this may be the reason their dubs don't seem quite up to par. They are probably just more comfortable when given the chance to create the character rather than reinterpreting him/her.

So basically, I was set off by your offhand remark about the quality of acting in American cartoons, and I just wanted to get my two cents in regarding these shows and the Ocean Group's capacity in some of them. I apologize for the length of this message, and thank you for your time.

I didn't mean to impugn the quality of Ocean's US television work, as I'm unfamiliar with most of it. Rather, I was pointing out that most of Ocean's recent anime dub work sounds to me as if it was made for Saturday morning television, and that's not a good thing.

It's been my experience that the average quality of acting on US television animation is still far below the average quality found in anime. There are plenty of exceptions to this rule, but it's still the rule. And in most cases, it's not a problem, as US animation plots tend to be simpler and aimed at a younger audience. Listen to the dub of "Escaflowne" (an Ocean dub) for an example of what I'm talking about. Fans hate this dub. Yet, on Saturday morning, I don't think it sounded out of place.

I haven't seen "Beast Wars" and "Beast Machines." But if they're truly as good as you say, they must be a great deal better than the average US television animation acting job, and a great deal better than Ocean's current dubs.

Pretty good stuff, but I'm surprised that you didn't mention Screenmusic, the studio that's done all of the dubs for Urban Vision (except for recycled Macek stuff) and all three of Disney's Miyazaki dubs.

Also, I don't quite agree with your sentiment that CPM dubs are uniformly awful. I've found that the dubs of "Utena," "Slayers" and "Harlock Saga" have all been flawed, but still worth seeing.

Finally, I suggest you check out the dub of "Sol Bianca: the Legacy." It's typical, good Animaze work, and features Wendee Lee doing yet another amazing job as April.

If you haven't done so already would you mind checking out the English dub on the "Saber Marionette J" DVD by Bandai and then explaining how Bandai could produce something this bad given their other English dubs? This dub will take you back to the days of Streamline dubs.

BTW... Since there seems to be Spanish dubs popping up on some DVDs now, do you plan on commenting on those as well? The Spanish dub on the aforementioned "SMJ" DVD is quite good. Also any information on the actors performing dubs in languages other than English would be interesting to know as well. This may be a trend given that anime is starting to turn up in Spanish language TV programming.

I am curious as to why English voice actors still aren't getting the kind of recognition received by their Japanese counterparts. It's still rare that a dubbed anime will list the dub actors with the characters they portray the way subbed anime does. You can't even be sure that the actors are using their real names. Would English voice actors even want the kind of celebrity status conferred on Japanese seiyuu? Are English voice actors familiar with their Japanese colleagues? Do they recognize names like Hayashibara Megumi, Koyasu Takehito, Inoue Kikuko, Iwao Junko, etc?

Given the growth of anime's popularity and the increased demand for their talents to give English voices to these characters, are English voice actors looking to get out of the industry ghetto they've been consigned to? And if so, is there anything the fan community can do to help?

"Saber Marionette J" - another Ocean dub. The last dub Ocean made that got mostly good reviews from those who watched it was "Key the Metal Idol." Since then, it's been a string of lackluster efforts, not awful by any means, but never reaching much beyond mediocrity. "Gundam Wing" is a well-liked dub in some circles, but I'll quibble. By the end of the show, the dub was quite good, but at the beginning, the actors struggled to find their voices, a sign of poor directing. Look at Zechs. In the beginning, he was played as a stereotypical masked bad guy, as if no one bothered to tell the actor "Oh, by the way, Zechs has honorable motives and is a good man at heart." When we learn his true identity, boom, the voice begins to sound right. You can almost hear the actor slapping his forehead in frustration.

As for why the English voice actors aren't getting the recognition they deserve, I wish I had answers for you. Instead, you've pretty much asked all the questions I've been screaming to the rafters for years. I know that part of the answer is tied up with the actors' union. But why the union would care whether or not the roles are listed next to the names, I have no clue.

Thanks for the review and constructive criticism on "Bebop." I agree with many of your observations. I must tell you though, that the wonderful actor who played Jet did not voice the part of the Doctor in "My Funny Valentine." That was another frequenter of the anime realm who's name I can't quite recall.