I just found out that at Amazon you could pre-order the US release of the 2010 live action version of Space Battleship Yamato, AKA Starblazers. I thought to myself "big deal, I don't do subtitles. I don't care if it only costs $9.96." Then I looked around and found out that this release will be dubbed in English!! Apparently Funimation has the US rights and has dubbed it. Order placed.
See, I won't do dubbed. I want to hear the original lines as delivered by the original actors. Doesn't matter if I can't understand it, I want the emotions and the tones. Subtitles are the way to go.
Dubbing is murder. But then, I do understand people who don't want subtitles. I find them distracting and I'll always watch in the original language. Languages I don't know that well, well, so what. A good opportunity to learn. Since I have never heard of this movie before, I googled it. It looks like a real ship... in space. Huh?
The anime this is based on had the original Japanese battleship Yamato raised from where it'd been sunk and turned into a spaceship to save the Earth. So . . . yeah.
I LOVED the English voice work for FMA then i heard the original. Hated it. I'm not gonna be a purist. OTOH my kids watch undubbed anime al the time.
I watched it subbed (unofficially) in 2010 when it came out. It's pretty good, though it changed some stuff from the original anime. I'll describe it as someone else did. It has a very Japoanese ending.
If I wanna read, I'll read a book. If I wanna watch a movie I'll watch a movie. I don't want to miss half the action because I'm trying to read the sub before it goes to the next line. I'm not a fast reader, and I'm a tad dyslexic if I try to read fast. I must have dubs.
Yeah, I get what Lanz and Aurora are saying, but to me, this particular genre has to be dubbed. The original Starblazers cartoon, and so much else in the anime pedigree is dubbed. That is how it is meant to be seen.
You can always watch it with the Japanese voice track. I've gotten a couple of Miyazaki films that were out on Laserdisc long before a dub came around, impatient to see the master's artistry. I found I really prefer hearing it in English.
Oh, and god forbid you're watching a subbed anime when a song starts. Then you have the dialog subtitles to read, plus the translation of the song popping up at the top of the screen. My head almost exploded the first time I tried to follow that. You have to watch the scene three times to read everything AND see the action. Fuhget it!
Okay so I watched it. Not bad considering I've been wanting this for 34 years. Some parts dragged on, but I can understand that in a foreign film. Their market wants something different from us. The CGI was okay. Then again Japanese studios don't have the budget that Hollywood does. The plot was okay. A bit rushed in places but nothing to make me just stand there with my jaw a gape. The dubbing was pretty damned good.
I enjoyed the hell out of it. Saw nothing wrong at all with the effects. I was a little taken aback by the main character evoking the memory of the real Yamato's kamikaze run against American forces on Okinawa in '45, though. I'd think the Japanese wouldn't want to bring that kind of thing up in a light entertainment.
Just a tidbit, when you watch dubbed anime and the characters say "Oooh", "Aaaah", or anything else like that. It isn't in the script, but is added in to make up for when the dubbed translation is shorter than the original speech. That way the dubbed audio matches the animation of the mouth better.
Dubs have come a long way since the days of Sailor Moon's lesbian cousins and that hideous abortion that was Cardcaptors (). While I prefer original Japanese, I admit that the companies today are making efforts to preserve the spirit of the shows they work on. "Death Note" is the one exception to the sub rule, as every single voice choice was spot on, especially the lead character.
