Superlative Dubbing/English Dubs

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• FUNimation's dub for Dragon Ball Kai! After their original dub, which was often So Bad It's Good, and the uncut redub, Funimation NAILS it with this one. The original sound is left untouched (except for the kickass dubbed opening and ending), the scripts are accurate and well-translated, and the voice actors give sensational performances. Many recasts (like Bulma and Gohan) are for the better, Christopher Sabat gives his best voicework as Piccolo and Vegeta (the latter sounding much more awesome and appropriate than how he sounded like in the Z redub), Sonny Strait owns the role of Krillin, and Sean Schemmel IS Son Goku, here more than ever. And of course, there's Christopher Ayres' delightfully wicked portrayal of Freeza, which finally lets the US experience Freeza the way he's meant to be seen!
  • Also of note: Kaioh-ken is finally pronounced correctly even in the TV airings. The uncut DVDs have the untranslated attack names, like Makkankosappo instead of Special Beam Cannon and Kienzan instead of Destructo Disc. Names and words ingrained in the English dubs, such as Saiyan, Tien, and Master Roshi, remain unchanged, however. Finally, we get to hear Son Goku's full name dubbed in an English Dragonball product!
  • Since series composer Kenji Yamamoto (山本健司) was fired when his plagiarism finally caught up to him, all but the commercial bumpers, opening themes, and closing themes have been replaced with the original Dragon Ball Z score by Shunsuke Kikuchi. The FUNimation dub also followed suit. As of now, the USA finally gets a high-quality dub of a Dragon Ball product that fans have been clamoring for for almost 15 years!
• Atlus and Nippon Ichi Software are pretty famous for this. Even if a game has the option to change the spoken language to Japanese, you'll rarely do so, the dubbing is so good. Specifically, the Shin Megami Tensei and Disgaea series are incredibly well dubbed.
  • Special mention to Soul Nomad and The World Eaters with Token Evil Teammate Gig, whose English performance is largely regarded as superior to the original version.
• Namco Bandai has some hits and misses. But, boy! When they hit, they hit really hard! Examples would be the Xenosaga trilogy, the Ace Combat series and some of the Tales Of games, specially Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Vesperia.
• Beck Mongolian Chop Squad has a great English dub. For one thing the English VA's can actually sing.
  • A lot of complaints about the dub stem from the fact that Funimation was forced to replace the song at the climax of the series in both the dub and sub tracks — it was John Lennon's "I've Got A Feeling". NO ONE can afford the rights to that! Funi did the best they could with what they had, and the purist fans punished them for it. Still, the English replacement at least turned out pretty good (the same unfortunately cannot be said for the Japanese replacement, which is by far the worst song any of the BECK cast sing, mostly due to its repetitiveness and lack of emotion).
• The Bandai dub of K-On has received mixed reviews from fans. It has a very good cast (Cristina Vee, Stephanie Sheh, etc) with some wonderful scripting. After the Animax dub, which was sub-par, it's about time we get the dub we deserve.
  • There is a reason why few (if ANY) Animax dubs ever make it to North America (outside of the few offerings on Crackle).
• Zeta Gundam has an excellent English dub. Pretty much all the dialog was changed to sound more natural in English without anything being lost. Jonathan Lachlan-Stewart as Kamille is brilliant, which helps the War Is Hell theme hit home. Jonathan Love as Scirocco nails down what kind of man he is as soon as he appears, and can ham up a room faster than Lelouch, as well as gaining a harem of women to fight for his ideals. Though the entire cast was good, Tom Edwards' performance of Char/Quattro takes the cake.
  • It's even funnier when you realize the usual Gundam dub cast was on strike at the time, so an new VA lineup was brought in. Zeta to this day STILL has arguably the best dub in Gundam.
  • And another gem gained in the English translation is Mauve Shirt Apolly Bay now has a hilariously clueless voice, which helps the few moments he has something to say be a lot funnier, which isn't to say he can't sound epic or sad well either, he can do that too.
• Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket also has an amazing English dub. For one, David Hayter as Bernie Wiseman as came out PERFECT. Two, all the characters lines convey the emotions that come with them to the audience, which is very important considering the show's message that war is bad.
• The Read or Die OAV deserves mention on this list. Of course, it's one of those shows where the characters explicitly inhabit a mostly English-speaking world. Every part is well-cast and well-acted, and even after a recent rewatch, it still holds up; none of the parts sound off
  • If anything, the dub for its follow-up R.O.D the TV is even better. This show makes up for the totally different cast by bringing in actual British ex-pats for the British characters (not shocking considering another title this studio dubbed). Special props for using actual kids—that can actually act—for the kid parts, including lead character Anita (an extremely challenging role even for the best VA's; that's why the original Japanese used a seasoned veteran). These two things give the ROD dub a layer of authenticity that's rare in pretty much any cartoon, let alone a dub.
• Rumbling Hearts: Every character sounds perfect, and the script is unbelievable. Even in the midst of all sorts of crazy melodrama, each and every character sounds like someone real - especially the high school/college-age kids, which anyone will tell you is particularly unusual in anime dubs. This is quintessential in a series that plays itself as a "slice-of-life" drama. Particular highlights include Kevin Connolly as stoic-yet-sensitive Takayuki, Carrie Savage both playing and powerfully subverting her typecast role as the "shy, delicate moe girl", the always-great Luci Christian teaming up with Monica Rial to deliver a collectively hilarious performance as Ayu and Mayu, and Colleen Clinkenbeard, who does one of the best performances running the gamut between spunky and high-spirited tsundere and desperate, emotionally broken woman since Allison Keith as Misato Katsuragi (see above). By contrast, the Japanese cast was lifted from the corresponding hentai game, and as such delivers with all the subtlety and passion you might expect. (Okay, they're not THAT bad, but they're hardly as exceptional as the English cast turns out to be.) The script is fantastic and filled with extremely well-done Woolseyisms. You know who wrote it? ERIC VALE.
• Steamboy: Many of the actors are actually British, and those that aren't can at least pull off a British accent convincingly. More importantly, it has PATRICK fucking STEWART (and Anna Paquin, for you X-Men and/or True Blood fans out there). It also breaks what the expected sacrosanct rule of anime dubs: it makes a bratty, 12-year-old female character ACTUALLY SOUND CONVINCING. Thank you, Kari Wahlgren!!
• Akira (2001): Many people think it sounds cartoony, but having seen the entire film in both languages, the English version actually sounds less so - this is particularly unusual, since the animation was actually synched to the Japanese dialogue. Joshua Seth and Jamieson Price (Tetsuo and Col. Shikishima, respectively) deliver particularly notable performances, but the real star of the show is Johnny Yong Bosch as heroic punk Kaneda.
• Cowboy Bebop, natch. Not the zenith of voice acting perfection it's so often held up to be (especially after over a decade of the industry actively working to surpass it), but still damn good.
• The Animatrix, if you can really consider that a dub, or for that matter any dub directed by Jack Fletcher (whose portfolio also includes most major Final Fantasy games and spinoff media, the majority of Team Ninja games, and the Miyazaki films Kiki's Delivery Service, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and Princess Mononoke).
• Summer Wars quite simply has one of the best English dubs I've ever heard. EVER. There's barely a single moment of awkwardness and all the performances are full of life.
• Death Note also has a first-rate dub, with nearly all of the characters excellently cast and performed - especially Light (Brad Swaile) and L (Alessandro Juliani). One of The Ocean Group's all-time best dubs.
• wanbli - ADV Films's dub of Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's so well-done, and nothing is really left out. But ADV was started by fans, so what did you expect?
• Magic User's Club has a dub that is better acted than the original Japanese, fairly undeniably so.
• It's really a shame that the Naruto uncut English dub doesn't get as much love as it should. All the main characters are cast perfectly; standout performances include Kate Higgins as Sakura (woman can do a damn good cry) , Dave Wittenberg as Kakashi, Yuri Lowenthal as Sasuke, Steve Blum as Orochimaru, and Maile Flanagan as Naruto.
• Funimation also managed to outdo the original Yu Yu Hakusho by actually having edgier dialogue, making Yusuke a wise-cracker, and using the "Freeza voice" from DBZ as Genkai. Also Koenma sounds believable more like Really 700 Years Old. Byakko is definitely more menacing as well. The added Dub Text also put more emotion into the exchange between Genkai and Toguro
• Digimon. The voices now fit the bodies (IE, War Greymon, Aldamon, ETC are not voiced by a woman doing her best little boy impression), the jokes are pretty funny, the banter witty, and the new image songs just fit. The only real problem is Lull Destruction and poor choice of putting what music where.
  • The Digimon Movie, particularly the Our War Game! (Bokura no Uō Gēmu!) is one of the best examples of how much the English dub did right: Izzy actually points out that Keramon/Diabolomon is being affected by a computer virus, explaining why he grows and digivolves abnormally fast, as well as making him a real threat than just some online Digimon; you have all of the Digimon calling their attacks which is just plain cool (as opposed in the original where they don't say anything)

Agumon: (to Tentomon) Let's sneak up on him (Keramon) quietly. Tentomon: (Attacking Keramon) Super Shocker! Agumon: That's quietly? (Attacking Keramon) Pepper Breath!

• • • Agumon, Tentomon and Gabumon have very clear, expressive voices that are actually not painful to listen to (read: the Japanese voices) and Tai and Izzy get voices that are actually done by voice actors of their gender; all of the dialogue has an added level of humor to it, for instance when Matt and T.K are at the barbershop to use the computer:

Barber: You kids have fun, usually I just use that thing to play solitaire on that thing, but- Man being shaved: Careful, Floyd, you almost cut my ear off!

• • • Whereas in the original, the dialogue is quite different:

Barber: Man, why do I have to let these kids use it here? Man being shaved: Just let them use it already!

• • • There is a whole level of humor that the dub adds and in doing so, they dialogue becomes more enjoyable, memorable and the characters become more multi-dimensional and interesting. The dialogue also fit the scenarios better than the original Japanese. For instance, after WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon are defeated (temporarily) by Diabolomon, Izzy begins to insult them, saying:

Izzy: Your Digimon's a loser. How could two Mega level Digimon lose to a single bug. WarGreymon went out like a coward- Tai: (grabbing Izzy by the collar) You take that back or I'll- Izzy: I was just reading an email! Tai: Well you didn't have to read it so well.

• • • In the original, Izzy says that he is reading emails before reading each one, as well as noting their country of origin, but Tai gets mad at him even though he knows that Izzy is just reading them. When Infemon takes over the phone companies and calls every phone number connected, in the original there is a computerized voice that asks "Moshi Moshi" over and over again, but in the dub, he asks "Did you create me?". Here he is actually trying to find the person responsible for making him what he is, whereas here he is just trying to prank call people. This is more of a dub thing as it connects Our War Game! with Hurricane Touchdown (the next movie) which were originally not connected in Japanese, but were connected in the English release. Even though it is mainly an aspect of the dub, it adds to Diabolomon's character as it shows that he isn't just any malicious Digimon, but one who is looking for his creator, and thus more tragic as well as multi-dimensional. Finally, the dub added much more sound effects and dramatic background music (sometimes a bit over-dramatic though), which can especially be seen towards the end, right before Omnimon kills Diabolomon, which was mostly silent in the original save for Izzy being the only one counting, thus making Tai's open-mouth scream silent and looking like some sound should be heard, but isn't. And Diabolomon gets to say his Last Words, "Willis", which reminds the viewer of his search for his "Creator" and his tragic existence, where as in the original, where he just dies. In short, the dub of Our War Game! used better voices, better dialogue and better sound effects and background music to make the characters more realized, multi-dimensional and interesting and the movie memorable, funny and entertaining.
    • Having an extremely good Evil Is Hammy dubbing in Adventure 2 for Daemon actually makes him entertaining to watch, even though he's a Giant Space Flea From Nowhere that shows up, fights, gets sealed away in the Dark Ocean having contributed nothing to the story.
• Say what you will about the shows themselves (and opinion is divided) but the dubs for Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny are spot on. Matt Hill and Sam Vincent are excellent as feuding best friends Kira and Athrun, with their voices making an excellent contrast with one another, Trevor Duvall is the perfect Big Brother Mentor as Mu La Flaga, and Mark Oliver as Rau Le Creuset...? He's damned good, outhamming the original dub by far, while still keeping the general feel of the character. Then again, Gundam in general gets pretty well dubbed.
• Mobile Suit Gundam 00 is exceptionally well-dubbed. The Gundam Meisters sound not too different from their japanese voices. Brad Swaile nails Setsuna's voice perfectly, Sam Vincent does Tieria pretty well, and Lockon and Allelujah are also quite well-voiced. On the other side, we have Trevor Duvall (who voiced Mu La Flaga from SEED and SEED Destiny), who makes Patrick actually not sound like a complete idiot, Graham Aker's voice sounds almost identical to his Japanese voice, the personalities of every single character remains intact, or in some cases actually get improved a bit. Season Two gives the show a few negative points, though, as the endings (and thus the post-credit scenes) were removed, thus giving dub-viewers no idea what happened to Seraphim Gundam... All in all, though, it is worth watching, if nothing else, then for the even more hot-blooded version of Graham Aker. Ali-Al-Saachez actually manages to sound like not-a-treacherous-bastard when he's talking to Kinue or the Throne Meisters. It doesn't sound like he's planning to kill anyone, making him become one of the sneakiest bastards in dub-history.
• The English dub of the You're Under Arrest OAV's were so well done that when the they developed the TV series, one of the voice actresses, Etsuko Kozakura, was told to voice her character, Yoriko Nikaido, like the English VA, Pamela Weidner, had done.
  • This also happened with Natsumi (it's been said her Japanese VA, Sakiko Tamagawa, was shown a clip of her English counterpart, Tamara Mercer, and told basically "Do that."). In fact, I've heard that when the YUA movie was recorded, the Japanese producers had the entire cast listen to the English dub of the OAV.
  • It's no coincidence that YUA has one of the very few anime fandoms where the lion's share of fans like the English dub, and were genuinely upset when it was announced that the long-awaited 2nd and 3rd series would be released only in subtitled Japanese.
• Ah! My Goddess has had no fewer than three separate English dub casts over the various parts of its franchise, and (rare for this sort of situation) all of them are considered "good" by somebody. Fans will still argue over which of the casts is best, but each one has defenders. The TV series dub cast, being the latecomer of the franchise, is by far the most Love It or Hate It.
  • Just for reference, the OAV's were recorded by Coastal Carolina (the same group that dubbed You're Under Arrest, see above), The Movie and Mini-Goddess by Animaze, and the TV series by NYAV Post. None of those studios are within 1000 miles of each other.
• The English dub for Wolf's Rain. It was dubbed by the exact same crew that did the perennially-praised Bebop (except for the ADR scriptwriter), and had a cast made up entirely of industry veterans (as opposed to the Japanese cast, which intentionally used newcomers in the leads). Special praise in particular goes to Tom Wyner's portrayal of wolf hunter Quent Yaiden, which manages to completely outshine Bebop alum Unsho Ishizuka.
• The Funimation dub of Fairy Tail is one of the best English dubs. The main cast does a superb job at capturing the spirit of the characters: Todd Haberkorn plays Natsu like the happy-go-lucky, goofy, super-passionate guy he's supposed to be; Cherami Leigh's "everygirl" take on Lucy leaves viewers eagerly anticipating every witty remark and priceless reaction she makes to the madness that is her life; and Colleen Clinkenbeard totally is the tough yet sweet Erza. The last two took a couple of episodes to work out the kinks in their performances, but after a handful of episodes, they really hit the nail on the head. Of course, that's not to say of the supporting cast, and while it does have its kinks (Kristi Bingham does sound a tad too deep for Levy, and the voice actors for Alzack and Bisca are bland), there are simply too many awesome performances to list. Of course, good dubs aren't limited to just good voice acting; the transition from Japanese to English is a virtually flawless one. The whole script is very faithful to its source material, and when they can't make a joke work, they ad-lib it.
• There needs to be more love for FUNimation's dub of One Piece. After 4KidsEntertainment's back-alley abortion of a hack dub that we were forced to endure for three years, the redub is brilliant. Is it as good as the Japanese? Not quite, but it is very good: well-written, well-acted, and well worth your time to listen to. If you're in the USA, you can watch it for free on Funimation's website (if you're not, there are... other methods). What's stopping you?
• The producers of El Hazard the Magnificent World consider the English dub the definitive version of this series and no wonder with great voice acting and canny Western media jokes like Jinnai naming his immediate Bugrom flunkies after the Marx Brothers and their straight woman, Margaret Dumont.
• Monster. The fine folks at Viz Media actually pulled it off, with every voice fitting very well even when it sounds nothing like the Japanese one (Reichwein and Grimmer most noticeably).
• The FUNimation dub of Sengoku Basara was fantastically executed. All of the characters were full of life and energy. Most of them were screaming their lungs out for half the series and still managed to keep sounding Badass. One must wonder how their voices survived that show. Robert McCollum pulled off Date Masamune's coolly sarcastic and hot blooded sides, and Johnny Yong Bosch nailed the loveable Hot-Blooded Idiot Hero that is Sanada Yukimura.
• ADV Films' English dub of Kanon is surprisingly WAY better than the original. Like someone above said, the girls in the Japanese original are too high pitched for teenager girls, while ADV's voices actually sound their age. Chris Patton's Yuuichi has the perfect sarcastic tone to his voice, but can also do very emotional scenes as well. Jessica Boone's Nayuki sounds the most age approiate, with a voice full of energy and cheerfulness. Tiffany Terrell's Makoto has the immaturity that her character needs and also doesn't sound like a brat. Maggie Flecknoe's Shiori sounds more like a soft-spoken woman than a teenager, which, considering Shiori's quietness and mild passive-agressiveness, fits real well. Melissa Davis' Mai gives a great acting job of not showing emotion, but giving the sense there's something underneath that coldness. The secondary characters - Joanne Bonasso's Akiko, Natalie Arneson's Sayuri and Caitlin Glass's Kaori - all do their job well.
• FUNimation's dub for Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt is definitely better than the original. It is more profane and vulgar and the voice work by Jamie Marchi and Monica Rial is awesome. It was Gainax’s idea to have the English dub more raunchy and it paid off.