Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Holy crap

I just watched the opening gambit of Case Closed, episode one. And by Case Closed, I mean the Detective Conan English dub.

This is the best dub I have ever seen.

Seriously. This show has better voice acting than some shows that were made in English!

Intonation that makes sense! Voices that don't sound like people trying to sound like something else! Meguire (Megure)'s accent is a little weird, but it works.

I am so impressed I think I'll watch the whole episode like this.

This is one of the most surreal experiences of my life. :>

Edit: Jimmy (Shinichi) just said "Huh?" -_-

Edit #2: Rachel: This isn't an office, it's a pig sty! No wonder you haven't had a case in months!

Richard: You're wrong; I just polished off a whole case!

XD

Edit #3: I like Rachel's voice acting, though the timbre of her voice seems a little too mature sometimes.

Conan's voice actress is pretty good! Maybe a little too cutesy.

I'm getting a kick out of all the accents in this show.

Edit #4: One thing I don't like is that I can't skip past the end credits to see the final scene and the next episode preview. If I hit next, it goes to the next episode. Bollocks! Edit #11: I need to stop editing this post. But I wanted to mention that I can skip to the preview on my regular DVD player. Still can't skip to the final scene though!

Edit #5: I do like how they did the OP and ED! Same music, reorchestrated and played, with English lyrics that seem to match the originals, albeit they're not direct translations. The singer isn't bad, which helps. (Of course, I don't get to hear a guy yelling "mune ni doki doki dake!!!") I wonder how Nazo is in English...guess it'll be awhile before I find out :>

Edit #5: Another like: they say "Next Conan's Hint!" :D

Edit #6: Meguire: Got the cause of death?

Random Cop: We're pretty sure it's the knife in his back, sir.

Edit #7: Amy (Ayumi): What do you think Conan is doing?

George (Genta): He's been doing it for so long I forgot he was even here!

Mitch (Mitsuhiko): Maybe he's figured out the hidden message!

Jimmy (thinking): Why can't I figure out this hidden message?!

(Note: They actually use Jimmy's voice for his thoughts, which is interesting. Makes for a more clear separation between him and Conan.)

Edit #8: Okay, here's a major dislike. When watching the Japanese version, I want to see all the signs and titles and things in Japanese. But the episode titles and various things you're supposed to read in the background have been edited to be in English. That's annoying; it means I can't watch a "pure" version of the episode.

Also, the Japanese version of the OP isn't the original version, either. The timing of the music is off, and at the end they put up the Case Closed logo instead of the Detective Conan logo.

Oddly, they leave the Detective Conan logo in for the eyecatch...

Edit #9: Richard (Kogorou, asleep): No, sir, I'm sure I gave my math homework to the pink monkey in the golf cart. He said he was the new football coach.

XD XD XD XD XD

That was not in the original...:>

Edit #10: Client: It's really a beautiful painting. Do you follow the arts, Richard?

Richard: Ahh...no.

I swear, Richard's voice actor is spot on. The man is brilliant!

7 comments:

Dyson said...

I was lucky enough to see some of the Case Closed episodes on YTV, a Canadian channel that has a block of more mature animes and cartoons every Friday night. Sadly, Case Closed aired around 12:30 at night, so it was sometimes a pain to stay up to watch it. Having only seen a handful of episodes subbed a while back, I enjoyed the televised dub as well, perhaps because it was so unexpected. I mean, it looks like a kids series with a murder every week, I didn't expect it on TV ever.

Dub quality is constantly going up, I think. There are some really nasty errors here and there (4Kid's One Piece, small portions in the Naruto series, etc) but Case Closed certainly survived well during the translation.

Heather Meadows said...

I tried to watch a dubbed episode of Naruto once, but the voices were terrible. They didn't sound natural at all.

thestraightpoop said...

Hey Heather! Just wanted to come over and say thank you for backing me up on the MM issue...I cannot believe that people would think it's acceptable to go to his parents' funeral. It's mind-boggling, and I wanted to word my comment so much more strongly, but this was the best I could do at the time, with a very bad head cold too!! Not so eloquent, but it worked.

Thank you for your comment, and nice to make your e-acquaintance!
Tamara the Straight Poop

Heather Meadows said...

Absolutely. Sorry I didn't have a relevant post here for you to comment on, but I'm...not up to writing about it here, I guess. Though I did refer obliquely to discovering MM's secret identity in a previous post.

Nice to meet you, too :) I've always enjoyed your comments on the Masthead.

Anonymous said...

I have always wanted to get into anime voice acting, especially since dubs typically are so so so so so very bad!

But now that they are getting better, there goes that dream...

Merujo said...

I think I've just determined one of your interview questions... :)

Heather Meadows said...

Ross, why would the dream have to die just because there are others out there who can do it? :>

I've actually thought about trying to dub something myself. But first I would need video editing software and recording equipment...

Merujo, that sounds ominous ;> But I'm nothing if not painfully honest. I'm looking forward to it!