The Utena movie dub is terrifying and hilarious. I found that everyone had their names changed in pronounciation. Wakaba and Touga's names were pronounced so badly....

Haha, my first time through I watched the whole series on the old dubbed videos, and the movie too. I'm partial to the dubs for Utena, actually. They're not as horrific as some I've heard, but they're not among legends of greatness either. I'd say watch the dub. I think Utena herself is better in English (her japanese actress makes me want to kill her), although Anthy is annoying as hell. I think they keep the intentions and inflections intact though, there's no great loss really.

I've seen some clips of the dub and I also have the feelings that Starfire described. I liked Utena's voiceactress in the original and while the dub Utena isn't the worst, I still can't bring myself to like it. :/ Also, I noticed that all the fun details get lost or deformed during the dubbing. The only Utena dub I like is the fandub.

Maarika wrote:

I've seen some clips of the dub and I also have the feelings that Starfire described. I liked Utena's voiceactress in the original and while the dub Utena isn't the worst, I still can't bring myself to like it. :/ Also, I noticed that all the fun details get lost or deformed during the dubbing. The only Utena dub I like is the fandub.

They have a fandub?? No, no, I defintely don't want deformed details. Is it obvious I'm indecisive??

Coco Melancholy wrote:

Maarika wrote:

I've seen some clips of the dub and I also have the feelings that Starfire described. I liked Utena's voiceactress in the original and while the dub Utena isn't the worst, I still can't bring myself to like it. :/ Also, I noticed that all the fun details get lost or deformed during the dubbing. The only Utena dub I like is the fandub.

They have a fandub?? No, no, I defintely don't want deformed details. Is it obvious I'm indecisive??

Yes, there's a fandub of the first two episodes. Someday you'll watch them, alright? ;D
I wonder why there haven't been any updates for so long, though. We want our fandubs! :/

Ugh.  The dub.  I adore the original Japanese voice actors, but the English ones make every character sound slow.  It's like they're purposefully enunciating EVERY word so they make sure you understand what they're saying.  We can hear, we can comprehend what's going on (well, some of us)... come on!

Coco Melancholy wrote:

Maarika  wrote:

Yes, there's a fandub of the first two episodes. Someday you'll watch them, alright? ;D
I wonder why there haven't been any updates for so long, though. We want our fandubs! :/

I dearly want to hear this fandub, I was totally unaware they even exsist, and done well as well, are they done better than the actual dubs in some cases, because if they are I think the original dub voice cast should just, like, hang their heads in shame.

I think it's better than the actual dub. Here's the link: http://forums.ohtori.nu/viewtopic.php?pid=27576#p27576

If I had to rate the Utena dub compared to other animes it would look like this:

BEST DUBBING
+ Azumanga (I seen both dub and Japanese versions on DVD and I rate the dub higher as they matched voice and personality so well)
+
+
+ Evangelion (Good solid dubbing)
+ Hellsing (High points for Walter, Seras and Integra.  Crispin is a good actor but no where near as good as the Japanese Alcard)
+
+ Utena (The dub Mitsuru sounds way too old, Ruka sounded like a snobby prick, I kept expecting Shiori to do a Dragon Slave and Akio lacked sex appeal)
+
+
+ Sailor Moon (WTF is up with Naru err I mean Molly and Luna is supposed to be like a teenager not Mary Poppins and well the script changes)
+
+ One Piece (The horror...THE HORROR!)
WORSE DUBBING

Ah Maarika I have no sound on my laptop, not unless there's anywhere I can download that so I can move it onto my computer that does have sound.

I'm not too bothered with the series dub since I've seen the whole thing in sub and really enjoyed it. I abosulutely love Juri and Anhty sub. I'd only watch the dub out of curiosity, (or extreme cases of bordom.....masochism if its really bad).

Its the movie I'm most interested in since thats what I got, though I requested it in sub just because I'm that scared.

Could someone try to write how they pronounce Wakaba's name?? I'm quite curious since that seems to be a repetitive criticism.

everyone here has good points about both the sub and dub versions of utena.
I personally prefer to watch the sub when im alone. but since i hardly ever am, i end up watching the dub.
now, personally i think the dub in the first 13 suck! most of the cast did WAY better when Ikuhara was over their shoulders for the movie. all except the voice for nanami. her pronounciation of names SUCKED! never once did she get anthy's name pronounced correctly!

on a quick side note, i plan on making a .wav of the horrible dub saionji laugh from the utena/saionji duel in ep 1 (or was it 2?). I want to use it as a ring tone on my cell. that way my phone will laugh when someone calls

ok, so now i totally derailed myself here.... um... Lisa Ortiz did the voice of Lina Inverse from Slayers, right?

oh! and one last thing that annoyed me on the series... all the characters in the dub talked like they needed prozac.
but there are worse voice acted animes... Bible Black (i know... hentai. still its animated), yu gi oh was bad, pokemon (come on! do we need to change the main cast with EVERY new series/season?), Digimon... pretty much anything that can be chopped up to main stream. yeah. pretty bad. outlaw star--

Last edited by guardian_rose (06-05-2007 12:36:26 PM)

I don't like Rachael Lillis as Utena's voice but I will agree that Lisa Ortiz is excellent as Shiori. Actually, she's just excellent at whoever she voices.

And yes, dub Integra, Seras and Walter from Hellsing are all awesome. Especially Integra.

I never understood the hang-up on dub Shiori. Most people don't think Lisa Oritz was right for the role, but I think she was perfect. Don't throw stones, but I found dub Shiori to be much more accurate than sub Shiori. Lisa voices the innocence just fine, but she does magnificently with the cruelty. Kumiko Nishihara really shows little to no malice, which shouldn't be the case for cruelly innocent. This isn't to say I dislike Nishihara, but I just find Oritz portrayed her closer to how I would imagine her voice.

I think Rachael Lillis did a good job. Yes, she could have stood to be a little less feminine, but she made it work. I'll say that Anthy lacked the monotone she had with Yuriko Fuchizaki, but even then, she still didn't sound quite right. I don't think Anthy was cast the way I'd pictured her in either version, though both Sharon Becker and Yuriko did play this incredibly complicated character to the best of their ability. I certainly couldn't have done it better.