xparrot: Chopper reading (zutto)
[personal profile] xparrot
To all those watching the Yu-Gi-Oh dub, wondering what you're missing--I can assure you now, it's not just the dub. The show really is that bad. Do I keep watching it? But of course!

That being said, even in the bad little kid shows, in which most of the action is moving mouths and monsters duking it out in recycled footage, the Japanese seiyuu still act their little hearts out. They maybe can't compare to the talent of One Piece, but definitely worth listening to.

Jounouchi's voice (Morikawa Toshiyuki) bugs me a bit, he's a good actor but it's too deep for a 16 year old kid's. On the other hand, his "Shinuna, Yuugi!!" at the end of their Domino port duel is one hell of a scream.

Yugi's voice I didn't care for at first. He wasn't much for acting; as Yami he just sounded permanently pissed off. Some of that could be that Kazama Shunsuke apparently isn't a seiyuu at all, but a J-pop star? Though I can't complain about him not sounding his age, he was 17 at the start of the anime's run! (Ah, nothing like Japanese idols to make you feel like you've done nothing with your life. When Oda-sensei was my age, his single series was well on its way to becoming the most popular in Japan... >_>) Anyway, I don't know if Kazama grew into the role and improved his acting as the show went along, or if I've just gotten used to his voice, but I've gone from disliking it, to tolerating it, to, er, really liking it quite a lot. As Yami he drops his voice significantly to sound different from Yugi, into this sort of raspy forced growl that is really much more appealing than I make it sound. Some of his battles I don't fastforward through just so I can listen to him holler at his cards/opponents.

I don't know why Bakura's voice in the beginning sounded like an evil grandmother's. It's improved. Eh. Bakura bores me. Yami Bakura is marginally more interesting, but I'm watching this show for the cute friendshipping, not cheesy mad villains (...Okay, so I like Malik. Malik is hot. And wears a belly shirt. And is doing the 'mwahaha I know the best way to hurt you is to hurt your friends, so that's just what I'm gonna do!" psychopath routine, which is a personal fave of mine.)

And Kaiba's voice is just the sex. As expected. His is about the only voice that sounded pretty much exactly like I thought it would. (Mokuba's doesn't count, since I knew what to expect of Takeuchi Junko. She doesn't disappoint.) Except in the first ep Seto was using "boku" (maintaining his schoolboy identity, I guess), which was extremely wrong. But it's always "ore" now *phew*. Tsuda Kenjirou isn't a seiyuu I know, he's been in almost nothing - recent guy, or maybe he's got another gig? Don't know. His voice has a slightly stuffy quality that suits Seto's arrogance, and he's good enough at the boasting, though I prefer his more thoughtful internal tone when he's musing in his head. And he has a great mad laugh, which you hear a lot of in Battle City. I wonder if Mokuba is worried to realize his oniisama is clearly losing sanity points every time he plays Obelisk? But my favorite Seto-sound has to be the "hnn," which he makes whenever he's amused by someone foolishly challenging his might. That is to say, all the time. Mmm.

I also just picked up v.6 (or rather v.13. Confusing, much?) Definitely prefer the manga to the show. Not only are the wretched card battles shorter, but the characters have more edge. Yugi's resolution to become stronger than his 'other me' (and Jounouchi offering to beat up the other Yugi, if Yami let his pride get in the way of what Yugi needed to do!), Honda asking Yugi to save the Kaibas because he owes Mokuba - good stuff. It's a shame the anime didn't have Death-T, because it set up a lot of running threads, and the story is weaker without them.

Date: 2005-07-08 08:15 am (UTC)
ext_3572: (Default)
From: [identity profile] xparrot.livejournal.com
*squeeshes the confuzzled Pharaoh in your icon. ZOMG SOCUTE*

Hmm, the difference is that Jounouchi's Japanese voice doesn't want to make me spork my ears. Actually I quite like the seiyuu and have enjoyed him in other roles (Alex Row. mmmmmm). And he's got Jou's attitude down. It's just not a teen voice, so every time I hear it I go 'Wait, who's that speaking? Oh, yeah...'
I really oughta see the dub. For the shock value. I'm so easily traumatized!

The only trouble with Death-T is that both the Kaiba bros are ugly. No problems with them being obnoxiously evil, just makes their changes of heart later more interesting; I love me a good redemption story. But they're so hot/cute later that going back is jarring. --Yes, I really am that shallow.

Date: 2005-07-08 11:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] immicolia.livejournal.com
You should. You really, really should. Its not the absolute worst as far as awful dub voices I've heard go (what they did to poor Sanji wins that honor. God, I caught a random One Piece episode one Saturday morning, and he only had one line in the whole thing. And just that one line had my jaw on the floor and me screaming "what the hell?" in a mixture of shock, horror and rage. because, man, I may have a high dub tollerance but that was just wrong. and I don't even know what he originally sounded like) But I digress. Dub!Jou probably holds second place. And then there's Yami's utterly overdramatic sounding voice that makes me laugh my ass off every time I hear it. (which is also why I can't play the YGO PC games with the sound up. The voice clips. Oh god...)

And the weirdest thing about Death-T is that in the last chapter of it, Mokuba is totally cute. And actually looks pretty much the same as he does through the rest of it. It's like, "oh, he's going to start being marginally nicer now. lets have him not be such a mugly little bugger anymore." And Seto just looked like he needed about five years worth of sleep. (actually, I've noticed the evil = overtired looking thing in there before)

Date: 2005-07-10 01:59 pm (UTC)
ext_3572: (you did not just do that)
From: [identity profile] xparrot.livejournal.com
Aaaaahhhh, do not mention the One Piece dub! It is an abomination on the face of this earth! --not that I've actually seen more than the first couple eps. I couldn't survive more; OP is pretty much my favorite series and the voice 'acting' takes second stage to the story censorship mutilation. But I've heard audio clips of the dub Sanji. And. Good gods. I have no words. Not to mention in the original Sanji is played by Hirata Hiroaki, who is pretty high in the running for 'sexiest voice in anime'

Yah, the final pages of Death-T Mokuba's face unscrunches and he becomes completely squishable. And seems to stay thus for the rest of the manga. Seto--well, he still looks like he needs sleep, but, yeah, point. The total wardrobe overhaul didn't hurt, either. Hmm, maybe Mokuba bought him new threads when he was in the coma? 'Ah, niisama won't be needing this weird white outfit anymore. Let's just buy a bunch of trenchcoats. And buckles. He'll need lots of buckles to really compete with that Yugi guy."

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