Okay, I know a million people have said "THE DUB" a lot already, but no one has covered a specific pet peeve I have with it.

ANTHY'S VA.

I read so many reviews of the English dub pointing her out as one of the better actresses (as compared to her "flat" Japanese VA, WHAT?) when I think she's the worst. Yes, even worse than 30-year-old Mitsuru. As Anthy ties with Juri as my favorite character, her English VA annoys the ever-living crap out of me. Her Japanese VA had line readings that were full of subtle nuances that got the character's layers. Her English VA OVER-ENNUNICATES and OVER-READS every.single. line. She plays Anthy like a fucking melodrama. It's the worst in the final episode, which I watched the dub for just out of curiousity. Racheal Lillis, while perhaps miscast as Utena, acts the ever-loving fuck out of that episode and she's pretty amazing. Anthy? Sounds dead. IN THE MOST EMOTIONAL SCENE OF THE SERIES. BLARGH!

*whew* Maybe went a bit overboard there, but it's good to get that off of my chest.

BalamiyaVardihi wrote:

azuresquirrel wrote:

Okay, I know a million people have said "THE DUB" a lot already, but no one has covered a specific pet peeve I have with it.

ANTHY'S VA.

I read so many reviews of the English dub pointing her out as one of the better actresses (as compared to her "flat" Japanese VA, WHAT?) when I think she's the worst. Yes, even worse than 30-year-old Mitsuru. As Anthy ties with Juri as my favorite character, her English VA annoys the ever-living crap out of me. Her Japanese VA had line readings that were full of subtle nuances that got the character's layers. Her English VA OVER-ENNUNICATES and OVER-READS every.single. line. She plays Anthy like a fucking melodrama. It's the worst in the final episode, which I watched the dub for just out of curiousity. Racheal Lillis, while perhaps miscast as Utena, acts the ever-loving fuck out of that episode and she's pretty amazing. Anthy? Sounds dead. IN THE MOST EMOTIONAL SCENE OF THE SERIES. BLARGH!

*whew* Maybe went a bit overboard there, but it's good to get that off of my chest.

YES! I agree totally. I love her original voice actress, and her dub voice...no.

Yea...
Me, personally, I like the original voicings for the characters better.
I don't mind the english, in fact...there are some english voices I like in there. The one that scares me the most, though, would have to be Saionji's
(Kevin Simon XD)

I think that Anthy's VA, much like a few others, weren't exactly awful, but I feel like they were picked to fit one specific part of the character. There are a few times in the series where I actually found that (don't kill me!) Akio's English VA may have been more suited than the original. Not all the time, certainly for Akio and Anthy, but at certain moments, it felt really right, and I think that this may be what was heard in the casting. I've expressed before that I have nothing but praise for Shiori's English VA because I felt that her Japanese counterpart was too... whiney, too girly. However, Lisa Oritz was able to really capture Shiori's cruel side, which is why I feel she was cast. Her innocence differed greatly between the two versions; her Japanese came off as childish, if not peurile, while the English was more that of a teenaged girl who didn't understand. Sometimes, she could be compared to Utena. But, anyway, this isn't a post about Shiori, I swear! Point being, Anthy sounded really out of place through a lot of the scenes, but there were a few key moments when I felt her English voice wasn't all bad.

Well....I guess it's better than the fact that every time I hear Utena speak (In English)...I think of Jessie from Pokemon.
I want to think of Utena when I hear Utena! D=
Not some psyco with a bad perm! @~@ (sorry...not a big Jessie fan)
That and she sounds too womanly for her age.
But I agree that Anthy could have gotten a better actress.

It really really bothers me that when they had Nanami stumble *coughpeepcouch* in on Touga in the shower, they made him look like he had no penis.  I mean, the wall-shower-screen-semi-see-through-divider-plot-device-thingy had some darker colored rose designs on it, couldn't they have had one cover that area as opposed to censoring it in such a ridiculous fashion by removing it?


Maybe there wasn't a rose design big enough?

BenHo wrote:

Maybe it's the fact that I'm a visual whore, but I was never impressed with the animation. seriously, the only reason I got into the show was to laugh at the horrible animation in season one. I got attached to the characters though. I'd love to see the utena anime reanimated. the stories great, characters are wonderful, art makes me throw up in my mouth.

If the remake had the same quality animation as the movie but without the escessively large eyes.

Tamago wrote:

BenHo wrote:

Maybe it's the fact that I'm a visual whore, but I was never impressed with the animation. seriously, the only reason I got into the show was to laugh at the horrible animation in season one. I got attached to the characters though. I'd love to see the utena anime reanimated. the stories great, characters are wonderful, art makes me throw up in my mouth.

If the remake had the same quality animation as the movie but without the escessively large eyes.

I agree; the movie's animation was breathtaking and spectacular. But then again, there were some parts when the anime's animation was really decent.

I really only mention that because on the Long Legged Older Man site, in the section dedicated to his voice, the only clip of his English dub was from episode 13-- where he had no character, and his voice certainly wasn't right. As he was developed more in the series, especially in the last two arcs, I have no shame in saying that his English voice was sexy. His VA came more into the character and learned to voice him. I don't think he was poorly cast at all. Frankly, I can't think of a single English VA better suited.


I didn't know where this would be fitting, but this is as good a place as any... one thing that drives me crazy for no apparent reason is the whole identical-twin thing. Miki and Kozue are male and female respectively, meaning that they are fraternal twins. They don't have to resemble each other any more than Touga and Nanami do. But still, everyone always comment on how they look just alike, Utena going so far as to imply that if it weren't for the different gender, they would be exactly the same (not in these exact words, but she does say that "the only difference between you is that you're a girl"). I mean, as far as anime goes, they do look alike. But as far as twins go, I don't think they even look identical-- their eyes are different shades (in the movie, I think they might actually be two different colors entirely), Kozue's hair is significantly darker (and in some scenes, it becomes purple), the cuts of their hair are similar but not the same, and because Kozue is female, she is often colored slightly more fair-skinned. I adore Kozue and Miki, don't get me wrong. But I can't help how much this gets under my skin. I mean, if Touga and Nanami are the standard for how much siblings should look alike, I suppose that could make Miki and Kozue a hell of a lot closer to twins... but considering that their main differences also apply to Akio and Anthy, I think my frustration is still valid.

Last edited by dollface (03-21-2008 08:03:14 PM)

I always thought that Kozue and Miki had the same haircut, but Miki keeps his brushed down while Kozue makes hers all wild and flippy. It's an amusing dichotomy because they're two halves of the same whole; Kozue is the wild and Miki is the mild, as represented by their hair.

Last edited by Raven Nightshade (03-21-2008 08:37:51 PM)

OnlyInThisLight wrote:

> Nanjiminkin should have done the english dubbing for Utena and ChuChu.

I agree XD Nanjimikin should have done the whole dub

OnlyInThisLight wrote:

> I cannot honestly believe that such a huge, up-scale academy like Ohtori that has UNIFORMS would not include a rule in the dress code saying that girl's and boy's had to wear their specific gender-assigned uniforms. My school doesn't have uniforms, and even it bans blantant cross-dressing in it's dress code. And even then.....Utena's outfit is so drastically altered that it can hardly be described as that school's male uniform.

As far as I can tell there is one since the counsellor is always telling Utena off for crossdressing.

OnlyInThisLight wrote:

Nanami's council uniform would have been so cool looking if they had just chose a more flattering shade of yellow. Anthy's and Akio's outfits grew on me as the series progessed but her's always grated on my nerves.

I have a terrible feeling I'm the only one who likes that uniform, I always thought it was pretty kickass.

Epi_lepsia wrote:

Okay so my main complain about the series are the goddamn UNIFORMS. I mean, they are HORRIBLE!!! Specially male uniforms.

Omg yes. And what gets me the most is that Utena's uniform if it had trousers instead of shorts, would probably be more closer to a typical male uniform than those green alien monstrosities.

My_Friend_Todd wrote:

Okay...one last thing before all of my posts obliterate this poor topic D8

Sainji (Kevin Simon XD)'s english voice in the movie! Umigawsh!! *saws ears off*
He sounds a little too much like Muraki (Yami No Matsuei) for me to tolerate it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44BS88TOCKs

(Muraki's the guy in white, for those of you who either don't know or are under-informed)

I can't stand Muraki and he kills our poor Saionji by having the same nasally voice

Take that back this instance!! *rage* Do you honestly believe any self-respecting Yami no Matsuei fan would touch that piece of trough known as it's dub. Do you know how many fans have monitors wearing holes from various parts of their anatomy connecting with the screen in a hopeless desire to make what was once a sexy and deep and frightening Muraki now turned into something akin to chalk on a black-board stop. Well do you. Do you!! *__* that man shouldn't be let anywhere near animated art. (currently suffering flashbacks)


On another note I think I might go youtube now and check out the dub. I'm kinda curious now.

Coco Melancholy wrote:

OnlyInThisLight wrote:

> Nanjiminkin should have done the english dubbing for Utena and ChuChu.

I agree XD Nanjimikin should have done the whole dub

OnlyInThisLight wrote:

> I cannot honestly believe that such a huge, up-scale academy like Ohtori that has UNIFORMS would not include a rule in the dress code saying that girl's and boy's had to wear their specific gender-assigned uniforms. My school doesn't have uniforms, and even it bans blantant cross-dressing in it's dress code. And even then.....Utena's outfit is so drastically altered that it can hardly be described as that school's male uniform.

As far as I can tell there is one since the counsellor is always telling Utena off for crossdressing.

OnlyInThisLight wrote:

Nanami's council uniform would have been so cool looking if they had just chose a more flattering shade of yellow. Anthy's and Akio's outfits grew on me as the series progessed but her's always grated on my nerves.

I have a terrible feeling I'm the only one who likes that uniform, I always thought it was pretty kickass.

Epi_lepsia wrote:

Okay so my main complain about the series are the goddamn UNIFORMS. I mean, they are HORRIBLE!!! Specially male uniforms.

Omg yes. And what gets me the most is that Utena's uniform if it had trousers instead of shorts, would probably be more closer to a typical male uniform than those green alien monstrosities.

My_Friend_Todd wrote:

Okay...one last thing before all of my posts obliterate this poor topic D8

Sainji (Kevin Simon XD)'s english voice in the movie! Umigawsh!! *saws ears off*
He sounds a little too much like Muraki (Yami No Matsuei) for me to tolerate it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44BS88TOCKs

(Muraki's the guy in white, for those of you who either don't know or are under-informed)

I can't stand Muraki and he kills our poor Saionji by having the same nasally voice

Take that back this instance!! *rage* Do you honestly believe any self-respecting Yami no Matsuei fan would touch that piece of trough known as it's dub. Do you know how many fans have monitors wearing holes from various parts of their anatomy connecting with the screen in a hopeless desire to make what was once a sexy and deep and frightening Muraki now turned into something akin to chalk on a black-board stop. Well do you. Do you!! *__* that man shouldn't be let anywhere near animated art. (currently suffering flashbacks)


On another note I think I might go youtube now and check out the dub. I'm kinda curious now.

pssst. that nasally chalkboard voice kinda turns me on.

Coco Melancholy wrote:

jayskittles wrote:

pssst. that nasally chalkboard voice kinda turns me on.