(In which Jezzy has a lot of
feelings and is a complete anime geek.)
If you really don't care about any of this, feel free to skip... most of this entry.
Time for the rare fandom post.
I realise that the dub of Tiger and
Bunny has been kind of a base breaker among the fans (most either love it or
hate it) but I have to say, I'm fairly impressed with it so far. All dubs are
going to have their issues - I never expected it to be perfect - but I am really glad to see some very smart decisions
made on the part of the script writers, translators and voice actors.
For the purposes of keeping this post a reasonable length, I'll just be focusing on our main two Heroes.
Some of the dialogue reads a little
like it was from a comic book which is sort of a nice callback since the show
was based heavily on American superheroes and the culture surrounding them.
Three episodes are out now.
Here we go (keeping in mind that this is by no means a comprehensive review - I'm just having feelings):
Episode One
Kotetsu -
In episode one, when we're first
introduced to Kotetsu Kaburagi (Wild Tiger), his English voice is a bit of a
jolt if you're used to the original Japanese version. His voice is lighter and
maybe a little friendlier than in the original, which makes sense given the
difference in language in general. Besides, his original voice actor (Hiroaki Hirata)
has a rather distinctive voice which would have been hard to match in English.
Wally Wingert has done a very solid
overall job with bringing the sense of old-fashioned heroics and the kind of
adorable single-father-trying-too-hard silliness that was present in the
original Japanese version. He also manages to bring the sarcastic, tired side
of the character through without dragging the entire performance to that snarky
level.
Wally has a few weaknesses as
Tiger, of course, namely that his lines sometimes aren't as smooth as they
technically should be. Overall I think these issues balance out nicely and
anytime it is obvious, the comic book 'origin' could be called in to cover any
slightly awkward reading. All in all, even these smaller 'slip-ups' tend to work with Kotetsu's
character for the most part since he is rather 'old-fashioned' in a lot of
ways.
Favourite Lines:
'Seriously?' '
'Oh, boy.'
‘I caught the criminal – doesn’t
that count for anything?!’
Barnaby -
Barnaby sounds his age, something I
am infinitely happy about. He has a natural flow to his voice that one would
expect from someone who always projects the image of, essentially, a pop star.
He's much like what you would expect a young American star to be like.
In the first episode, he's
portrayed as the classic young upstart hero - the talented rookie with too many
fans for his own good, basically. Masakazu Morita did a very solid original
reading and showed Barnaby as a real character, apart from his stage persona.
Yuri Lowenthal's portrayal of him in
the English dub seems to have blended these two personae a bit more, leading to
a very interesting reading of the character himself.
Favourite Lines:
(Tiger: ‘Who are you supposed to
be?’) ‘The guy who just saved your life.’
‘Times are changing. Better keep
up, Old Man.’
Episode Two
Kotetsu –
In episode two some of Kotetsu's
lines reflect much more bitterness at being relegated to the sidecar,
essentially replaced by a rookie, than his original lines did. This, to me, is
a very smart decision as it shows Kotetsu still seeing himself as the hero he
was when he first started out.
As we see more of his life and his
relationship with his family, we’re able to see different sides of his
personality in a more consistent light.
Lines like 'How'd I get stuck with
you?' when speaking to Barnaby further reflect this. There's a fair bit of
animosity between them early on, which was brought through quite nicely.
Kotetsu is out to help; Barnaby is out for the points.
Wally has also made some very good
decisions with regard to how Kotetsu talks with his daughter and brings him
across simply as a single father with a demanding job in those scenes.
Favourite Lines:
'That's a brilliant idea - why
don't we wait until the whole city's destroyed?'
'(to Barnaby) You sure? You don't
want to touch up your makeup or [something]?'
'How'd I get stuck with you?'
'Sidekick to that showboat?! That guy's a costume clown!'
Barnaby -
Barnaby is of special interest to
me because of Yuri's choices of tone for certain lines in this episode. In
particular, in the famous 'My name is not Bunny! It's Barnaby!' scene ('I am
not a bunny! My name is Barnaby!' in English), Barnaby's voice is fairly even,
if annoyed, for those two lines however, once Tiger mocks him (I am not a
bunny! I'm a Barnaby!), his next line - 'I don't talk like that!' - has a much
different sound to it. He sounds as though he's largely dropped the act. He
sounds younger on this line - his voice is higher for most of it - which leads me to wonder if Yuri will continue to
play with the differences between the stage persona of Barnaby Brooks, Jr. the
Hero and the real Barnaby.
Another example I've noticed is in
the next episode preview. The preview for episode three has Barnaby reading. He
sounds a bit bored and almost sarcastic at the last, especially over 'See ya!',
which was almost always some degree of flirty or at least friendly in the
original. I'm hoping that this was a conscious choice as it would reflect a
certain level of annoyance. It would also be a good callback and
commentary on young stars who are apparently very annoyed with their fans.
Of course, that snarky personality
trait has been seen before, mainly around Kotetsu.
All of this seems to hint that Yuri
understands the character in at least these two levels which bodes well for
future episodes.
Even things that are very 'classic
young American star' in my opinion (like, 'Hey! Who planted the bomb? I'm right in
the middle of a freakin' interview here!') don't seem out terribly of place due to the
delivery and the character's apparent attitude.
Favourite Lines:
'Just three and a half minutes of
my life that I'm never going to get back. But, hey, don't worry about it.'
'Yeah? Good luck with that.'
'Great plan - worked out real
well.'
'Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold it! What did you just call me? Did you just call me 'Bunny'?'
‘I don’t talk like that!’
Episode Three
Kotetsu –
We finally get to see a little of
Kotetsu being a Mr. Legend fanboy. Wally’s starting to really find his stride
here. Not perfect by any means, but good enough – which is really all I was
hoping for in the first place.
He and Barnaby are slowly learning
to trust each other here and I was a little concerned about the English version
trying to make the jump too fast and throwing the pacing off but that fear’s
been mostly stepped on. Things are evening out but they’re by no means settled,
which is where they should be by this episode.
Wally still has lines where it
doesn’t come across as natural as it maybe should have but one could also write
the majority of those off as just being Kotetsu’s speech patterns by this point.
Favourite Lines:
‘Eh – I got nothin’.’
‘Yo, Homie… wanna, like, hang out?’
‘(to Barnaby) Yeah, well, I’m not
you.’
Barnaby –
As we learn more about him, more of
Yuri’s choices make sense. I was initially
a little worried since there were scenes where it had that ‘acting’ undertone
to it. However, it seems to work with the character better than I thought it
would, even in English.
Little by little, we’re being given
glimpses into his past and what his life may have been, which makes this kind
of reading understandable, especially for someone his age.
(At any rate, it isn't enough to bother me.)
The characters and actors seem to
be sort of smoothing out as everyone finds their stride. Barnaby’s speech
patterns vary widely depending on the situation and who he’s speaking with.
Already, he speaks differently around Kotetsu, though it isn’t as noticeable now
as it may become later.
Favourite Lines:
‘Okay… I guess I don’t get any privacy.’
‘Why are you talking like that? It’s
creepy, man.’
‘Thanks for the sentiment but if I
were you, I’d ditch me.’
TL;DR - All in all, I’m pretty happy with the job.
What more can I say?
It's very possible that the dub
will turn out better than its current detractors believe it to be. I certainly
hope so. In any case, I'm currently a fan of both versions (and will hopefully
be making the Blu-Ray release a kind of late Christmas present).
And this has pretty much been a
fandom post.
And please do remember that these
are just my opinions - likely to be just as flawed as anyone else's.
*****************************************************
That was really rambling and I’m very sorry if you don’t care at all about this. But I had a lot of feelings. As you can probably tell.
Basically, both Wally and Yuri have moments where their lines just don't flow but because of the (sometimes very amazing) job they do on other lines and in other scenes, I can easily overlook these types of issues. It's by no means constant and will likely even out as the show goes on. Everything else is pretty stellar (in my opinion).
But yeah. This might be one of my longest posts yet.
On a completely different note, what I'm thinking I should do with my current issues with getting things done is just start from the top of the list and start doing outlines. If nothing else, it'll really tell me what ideas are workable and whether or not they're meant to be novels or would work better as short stories.
I wonder if I could do an outline a day? They really don't take me that long if I'm focused on them.
...
I love that when I get to work with a character, I suddenly want to know ALL THE THINGS about them.
Well... I should probably get back to some semblance of work that doesn't involve rambling about anime (although that section alone is nearly 1,500 words by my word counter. So yeah.)
I am sorry for the insane post length here guys. Seriously. I will try not to ramble so much in the future.
Your next entry should be delivered to you soon.
See ya~
