Anyone else prefer the English dub?

[MiTT3NZ]

I suppose that's the main difference between translations and localisations. If they'd gone for the latter then the English dub probably wouldn't have sounded stupid. Then there's the whole thing about hiring "good looking people" as opposed to actual talented voice actors.

[Sonikku]

They didn't get just anybody for the Japanese original, they got top of their game, true masters of the craft for Shenmue. Yet, for whatever reason, there's a rule that VA has to be phoned in when coming the America. Not even Sonic is spared. The voice actor that provided Sonic's voice in the Japanese version of Sonic Adventure provided his voice for their version of Sonic X. When Sonic X came to the States they basically got whatever dreg they could find and they all sounded awful. No matter. It was a crappy show any way.

[OL]

It seems to be that a lot of people that prefer the Japanese dub don't even speak Japanese. If so, how can you have an educated opinion on that?

For me personally it's usually not even a case of the Japanese voice acting being "better." Like you say, how does one who doesn't even speak the language judge an actor's technical merits?
But more important than any of that, to me at least, is the subject of authenticity. Does the game take place in Japan? Then I'll take a Japanese voice track if it's available. It's just a matter of what makes more sense. So yeah, I would prefer Japanese in Shenmue's case. And in terms of SII taking place in China (so neither Japanese of English really makes sense anyway), at least a Japanese track would lend a certain "foreignness" to it, keeping the exotic appeal intact.
Although, that being said, if there were ever a Shenmue re-release or remake and they just had to do a dub for it, I'd still want the original one with Corey Marshall. Regardless of how bad the acting is (and let's not kid ourselves, the acting is pretty damn bad), they still managed to strike a certain tone that matched the Japanese track to some extent. The dub is just as much a part of Shenmue's legacy as anything else about it, so I don't dislike it or anything.

[C..]

Corey Marshall FTW.

[Supa]

It isn't a dub, it's the original track. Speaking Japanese has anything to do with it - the work's identity, singularity and cultural connection suffers from being stripped of the original expressions and mannerisms (which people are keen on hearing regardless of their mastery of the language), much like any dubbed French, Italian, Russian, Japanese or Korean films would.


Voilà!
Ecco!
Ni Pukha, Ni Pyera!
Wakarimashita.
Ah... Shibaloma.


What blandness, having these replaced with "Here you go" or "Got it".

Got me on the original track, whoops. And I was still very interested in the Asian cultures through this game while playing it in English. Sure, it's a little more influenced in its native language obviously, but if someone wants to be exposed to a foreign culture, they will surely strive to experience more than playing a video game in Japanese. It's not that much of a cultural renaissance to play Shenmue in Japanese. As I said, how do you know phrases like that aren't "boring" to hear or very common in the Japanese language?


I would definitely play it in Japanese, I think it would be a neat experience, but not something I would go and claim to be "cultured" by. I'm not gonna be an armchair tourist.

It's just certain phrases that sound really awkward and robotic. For instance, when Ryo says "I see..." it just sounds so off and out of place in the dub. The reason for that I think, is cultural. "I see..." is something you'll hear crop up in a conversation with an average joe in Japan (I'm certainly no expert on the language but I have lived there for a year and picked up a few bits here and there) and it makes Ryo's interactions in the Jap version sound a lot more smoother to me. That's just my lame opinion though.

There are a few lighhearted moments in the game where Ryo comes off as having more personality for me in the Japanese version, too. The incident with Delin and some of Ryo's interactions with Joy, for example. For me it's both a combination of the lifeless tone of Corey's voice and the fact that the game was first and foremost, intended for a Japanese audience and some things don't translate that well into the dub. I don't know if that makes sense or not e_e

I don't think "I see" sounds that out of place, and I have lived in America all of my life. See, this is what I don't get about some people complaining about the dub. They try and act like the English spoken in Shenmue is so inferior than the golden tongue they speak up on their precious pedestal and join in on the bandwagon hating on it. They say such declarative statements as "let's be honest....it was atrocious", and I just flat disagree with that. Get off your high horse, people.

Rant over. Chaikilla, that really wasn't aimed at you, but your point just caused me to say it. I don't see much of a translation issue with Corey/Ryo, and don't think his reactions are weird at all. If anything, Delin's interactions are more awkward than Ryo's, since he is so in to the job. And Ryo has some funny interactions with Joy, I think. Like I said, he's just stoic and way more obsessed with revenge that he isn't very thrilled to be constantly having to endure Joy talk at you every other scene in the beginning of the game.

For me personally it's usually not even a case of the Japanese voice acting being "better." Like you say, how does one who doesn't even speak the language judge an actor's technical merits?
But more important than any of that, to me at least, is the subject of authenticity. Does the game take place in Japan? Then I'll take a Japanese voice track if it's available. It's just a matter of what makes more sense. So yeah, I would prefer Japanese in Shenmue's case. And in terms of SII taking place in China (so neither Japanese of English really makes sense anyway), at least a Japanese track would lend a certain "foreignness" to it, keeping the exotic appeal intact.
Although, that being said, if there were ever a Shenmue re-release or remake and they just had to do a dub for it, I'd still want the original one with Corey Marshall. Regardless of how bad the acting is (and let's not kid ourselves, the acting is pretty damn bad), they still managed to strike a certain tone that matched the Japanese track to some extent. The dub is just as much a part of Shenmue's legacy as anything else about it, so I don't dislike it or anything.

I don't see your opinion of the acting being that bad, as most of the main characters were fine for me. I know some of the more random NPCs aren't that great, but come on.

I can understand having the realism of the Japanese language spoken in fictional Japan, but as you said, it kind of goes away in China. While I am not trying to say people shouldn't play the Japanese version ever, I just find it a little half baked when hearing people say they only play the Japanese version. I feel some of those people are the same armchair Japanese fanboys who claim to be so much more culturally knowledgeable than us lowlifes who played the English version, even though hardly any of us have actually been to Japan, and even less of us have a clue as to how that language works.

Again, obviously these generalizations are just generalizations. That is just the impression I get from some.

[OL]

You have a unique talent for insisting that everyone is entitled to their own preferences, then telling everyone they're wrong anyway.

[Nahovil]

Supa, you infer too much on your post.

If someone wants to be exposed to a foreign culture, they will naturally strive to experience more than a videogame, but I wouldn't expect that reason from a 12 year-old. Back then, continuous exposition to a language one knew nothing about doubled the impact, at least to me.

Maybe you misunderstood - phrases like that may very well be boring and are common in the Japanese language or we may not know "how the language works", but that's irrelevant to the point. Regardless of commonality, having the original language gives you one additional site-specific element of experience, since it pertains to the environment in which the game is set. In this line of thought, it gives you a more thorough experience.

No one claimed cultural knowledge. You get "cultured" by it insofar as you start to recognize expressions and phrases of other languages, which is what's supposedly fun and pleasurable. Most obviously, none of this would, in the least, replace a first-hand experience.

It's got nothing to do with the English language... I wouldn't like playing Shenmue in Portuguese all that much, either.

[Supa]

You have a unique talent for insisting that everyone is entitled to their own preferences, then telling everyone they're wrong anyway.

I'm not saying people can't enjoy or even prefer the Japanese version. All I'm saying is that there are a lot of people who prefer the Japanese one because "The English one is so awful". Those people need to get off of their sky high pedestals. It's not that bad.

Supa, you infer too much on your post.

If someone wants to be exposed to a foreign culture, they will naturally strive to experience more than a videogame, but I wouldn't expect that reason from a 12 year-old. Back then, continuous exposition to a language one knew nothing about doubled the impact, at least to me.

Maybe you misunderstood - phrases like that may very well be boring and are common in the Japanese language or we may not know "how the language works", but that's irrelevant to the point. Regardless of commonality, having the original language gives you one additional site-specific element of experience, since it pertains to the environment in which the game is set. In this line of thought, it gives you a more thorough experience.

No one claimed cultural knowledge. You get "cultured" by it insofar as you start to recognize expressions and phrases of other languages, which is what's supposedly fun and pleasurable. Most obviously, none of this would, in the least, replace a first-hand experience.

It's got nothing to do with the English language... I wouldn't like playing Shenmue in Portuguese all that much, either.

You make total sense. Maybe I came off as too harsh, sounding as if nobody who doesn't speak Japanese should prefer the Japanese version. As I talked about in the above quote to OL, some people are just too eager to claim the English is so bad that it hurts their ears, or whatever. Which is about as old and false as saying Shenmue is a forklift simulator.

[Nahovil]

I understand. Indeed, it has nothing to do with the quality of the English dub (which I actually like and have never understood its harsh criticism). It's just a matter of authenticity.

[Axm]

I'll say it again for good measure, I do like the English dub on occasion. It has its own character to it.
However..

I live in Japan, my wife is Japanese, I have Japanese friends, I can speak Japanese etc.. but how did I ever get to this point in my life as a born and raised American? I played Shenmue when I was 14 and it opened my eyes to Japan more so then anything else had ever done with me. Before Shenmue I probably couldnt tell you the difference between any of the Asian countries besides what I knew from school history textbooks.

So if someone wants to play the game in Japanese because its interesting to them then I absolutely say to go for it. It might change your life to at the very least give you a more authentic experience. Somewhere in between there.

And really for any forgien movie like ie. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Downfall, whatever, I'll choose the original language track. I dont mind subtitles at all. Infact for some movies even still in English ill put subtitles on just so I can catch every word.

[Supa]

I agree with you there, Axm.


I don't understand how people can think Shenmue's dub compares to really bad foreign movie dubs.

[Axm]

Well, really bad dubs work well in Wu-Tang tracks, so they should be universally forgiven on that basis alone.

[Chaos]

The only problem I have with subtitles these days is my attention span has degraded to that of a 5 year olds and it's rare that I watch something and I'm not browsing some forum/reddit/talking to people online, so I don't like having to read subtitles if I don't have to.

It's pathetic, and I admit it, but there you go. I'll put up with a dub in an anime if it's not godawful. If it's a live action movie, I'll force myself to pay attention and read the subtitles.

[ShenGCH]

I've never played the Japanese dub of Shenmue or the English dub of Shenmue II - I've heard them, of course - but I definitely prefer the English voice acting over Japanese. Of course, the English voice acting is... well, it's terrible by any standard, but I just loved it so much that having that turned on its head in the next game was a big shock. I even remember frantically scouring the options in Shenmue II in search of an English voice acting option ( ) the first time Ryo opened his mouth because I had absolutely no idea it was fully voiced in Japanese. I thought my copy was an import or something .

But, yeah, I prefer the English voice acting.

[Supa]

Again, don't see how it is so terrible...I've heard several people that talk with some of the voice acting quirks many call out in the English Shenmue games. Does that mean they talk wrong and are terrible at talking?