A Defense of the English Shenmue II Dub.

[oliquidrusho]

Whew, been awhile since I been back in here.

I bet a ton of people already think I'm crazy for this post already, but I figure I might as well defend the oft-bashed english dub of Shenmue II.

Quite often in many message boards concerning Shenmue II, everyone tells how horrible the English dub is compared to the Jap dub. I can't help but feel, that while I personally think maybe the Jap dub is indeed better, people extremely exaggerate how bad the English dub is.

Don't get me wrong, I used to be in the same camp as many in regards to my feelings of the English dub. That said, it had been awhile since I played Shenmue II so I figured I'd play Shenmue II for the Xbox. Keep in mind that I had played the Dreamcast version multiple times while only playing the Xbox version once, pretty much making me very used to the Jap dub. To my surprise, I actually didn't find the English dub as "horrid" as before. Sure some of the voices sounded extremely silly, but certain things weren't bad as well.

Now I'm not gonna so much defend the English dub as I'll be comparing it. I think an actual defense would be hopeless in here.

Personally, I've always been ok with Corey Marshall dubbing for Ryo Hazuki. In fact I'd say that his voice practically matches the voice of the Japanese version. So kudos to him.

The best dub of all the main characters obviously goes to Fang-mei. Fang-mei got the best dub out of everyone, as she sounds how I imagined Fang-mei to sound like. The voice actress brings out the joy and warm-heartedness of the character very effectively. There are even times during the English dub that I was genuinely was touched with the character. I really can't comprehend anyone bashing the english dub of Fang-mei.

Joy isn't dubbed that bad either. There are times she sounds a little flat here and there, but for the most part, the voice is tolerable.

On to Ren. Frankly, lets be a little honest. His English voice actor wasn't bad at all. In fact, I'd say the voice actor did a pretty damn good job. The only problem is that the Jap voice-actor suited Ren better - he had a deep almost menacing voice, and a voice that was amusing when meant to be without sounding silly. I'd go so far to say that if we didn't know how Ren sounded like in the Jap version, we wouldn't have minded Ren's english dub one bit.

Now people, say Delin sucks in the English dub, but come to think of it, the Jap sounds way worse than the english. However I prefer the Jap dub to him, since it matches the silly physical look of Delin.

However, there is one TERRIBLE DUB for sure, and perhaps one of the greater crimes of the dub. Xiuying Hong. This is the ONE character Sega should've made sure was done well, as Xiuying is essentially the turning point for Ryo's character arc, and arguably the Shenmue saga. The English voice actress obviously tries to give Xiuying a cold, stoic, yet gentle voice, but fails in the end. Xiuying sounds like a robot devoid of emotion. The Jap voice was able to give Xiuying a soul and heart while still giving her a serious and stoic tone.

As for the overall voice acting, I thought it isn't that bad. Now before you jump on me, allow me to say this - I think we all don't realize how the unfamiliarity of a foreign language benefits us when we listen to it. For example, we believe the Jap dub is better, but I'm quite sure that many Japanese probably think the Jap dub sucks. Hell does anyone remember that there was an actual demand for the English dub version of Shenmue I to be sold in Japan? Even Yu Suzuki himself thought the english dub was better in Shenmue I, while all of us here in the States or in England thought it sucked. There are a lot of things to take into account when hearing another foreign language.

I think we have a terrible knack of thinking almost anything foreign is good. Take Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. American audiences loved the film, thought it was beautifuly acted, and was critically acclaimed. Over in China? The movie didn't impress Asian audiences and I knew quite a few Chinese (China-born) who told me the acting is not as good as we made it out to be..

Oh and as far as people saying that the Shenmue II Jap dub is more authentic, HELLO, they're in Hong Kong speaking in Japanese? They're supposed to be speakin in Cantonese or Mandarin.

In closing, I'd like to see if some other people in here actually can tolerate the English dub like me. I can't be the only one who thinks many have blown the whole "english dub" argument out of proportion. So is there anyone else out there that agrees with me?

[myshtuff]

Wow weird. I was thinking all the same things you were. I agree with you 100%. I thought the englsih voices were very good and it was good that I could understand what they were saying and not have to read subtitles. Even though I still play the versions where they speak japanese I really did enjoy the english voices.

[Martin]

But it is still worse. Alot worse. Also, I disagree with your point about Corey Marshall; I don't think he captures the same character that the original actor portrayed, and I also think he's just downright crap. He sounds completely robotic. I remember at first thinking how awful it'd be having to play Shenmue II in Japanese. I also remember what a revelation it was. Sure, some of the Jap voices still sound gay, but all of the important characters are done really well.

[KiBa]

However, there is one TERRIBLE DUB for sure, and perhaps one of the greater crimes of the dub. Xiuying Hong. This is the ONE character Sega should've made sure was done well, as Xiuying is essentially the turning point for Ryo's character arc, and arguably the Shenmue saga. The English voice actress obviously tries to give Xiuying a cold, stoic, yet gentle voice, but fails in the end. Xiuying sounds like a robot devoid of emotion. The Jap voice was able to give Xiuying a soul and heart while still giving her a serious and stoic tone.

Funny that you say that. For me, the shining light of the English dub was Xiuying. In English, Xiuying has a very mature and serious voice as it should be. I can't help but laugh when I hear the Jap Xiuying as she sounds like a little girl as all Japanes female voice actors apparently sound, I've found. Sorry, but that's what I've always thought.

[Captain Lars Kegstealer]

I thought the english voices were fine UNTIL I played with the Japanese voices on.

[Joe Pesci]

The Japanese seem to express more emotion, but I wouldn't want to play Shenmue whilidst having a different voice than the one I am used to, which is Corey Marshall. Also, Lan Di has a pretty good voice actor on the English side, I never saw really anything too wrong with it, and you grow accustomed to it.

[tatsuya]

Japanese dub is better because their specialities are mostly oriented with mangas and games.
As for European or US, Dub speciality are oriented with movies.
That's not the same acting cos of the mouth's moving for example.

Also If only most of the games in europe could be dubbed in the same quality of Shenmue that would be excellent.
That's not the case so I won't complain about Shenmue's dubbing.

[Kiyuu]

As I said a couple of times before, Japanese voices have a definite advantage
in regard to the voices of the 3 main characters, ie, Ryo, Ren and Shenhua.
Since the voice actors also did the motions, the voice and the motion should
fit perfectly. How could any other voice fit motions better than the one which
belongs to the person who actually did the motion?

[Xtremo]

(...)I think we all don't realize how the unfamiliarity of a foreign language benefits us when we listen to it. For example, we believe the Jap dub is better, but I'm quite sure that many Japanese probably think the Jap dub sucks. Hell does anyone remember that there was an actual demand for the English dub version of Shenmue I to be sold in Japan? Even Yu Suzuki himself thought the english dub was better in Shenmue I, while all of us here in the States or in England thought it sucked. There are a lot of things to take into account when hearing another foreign language.(...)

I totally agree with you! It is the same with movies... Almost everywhere on german movie-sites you can read, that Germans like the original english voices better, if it's about dubbed movies. So, if this is true or not, it's kinda hard to dub someone, even if you're a professional.

I'm from Germany and have played the english-dubbed-version of Shenmue I and the japanese-dubbed-version of Shenmue II and I liked both dubbings very much. Ok, if I think about the english dubbing precisely, there are some points, where it sounds a bit odd, but as oliquidrusho just said, the japanese one sounds odd too, if you're used to speaking japanese. I bet, if you listen to the german dubbing of Fahrenheit, you'd think it'd be good. But if a German that is capable of speaking english listens to it, he'd prefer the english one.

In my opinion, the english dubbing of Shenmue is good. Especially if you think about the large amount of text that has to be spoken. Of course, there are games that are dubbed better... like MGS or my beloved example Fahrenheit... but those games have far less text to be spoken...

Besides... you have the choice, which dubbing to hear: Either you play Shenmue II on DC or you play the XBOX version... so please stop saying how bad the english dubbing is. ;)

[Andy Hughes]

I think the dubing in shenmue 2 is crap.

[WHirl]

I think the dubing in shenmue 2 is crap.

Wow, what an original and enlightening opinion!

The main thing that annoyed me about the English dub was the way everyone seemed to have a knack for putting emphasis on the completely wrong words, that really got on my nerves. Other than that it's not too bad.

[BlueDragon]

I didn't think the voices were TOO bad. In my opinion, it's only really Corey's voice that needs all the work.

[JoeMDesign]

I have no problem with the actual dubbing (although Joy does sound like she needs to "cut the dose" and I keep expecting Ren to shout "Surf's up, Dude!" and "Cowabunga!" every time he opens his mouth), my main problem is the badly translated script which features the crazy name swapping (Yuanda Zhu? He's not going to find him if he's mixed that up!) and cleaner language (for Ren) as well as the "Yuan ain't a man" situation which really seems like madness when you see "her" weilding the chainsaw near the end.

I don't mind the voices at all, and I've always defended the rights to have the games released in English rather than subtitled (because the Japanese don't read subtitles when THEY play it, so why should we?) but I'd like an accurate translation next time.

I believe Sega of America translated the game and not the same people who translated the first one, correct?

[Virtua Hazuki]

The English Dub wasn't too bad in Shenmue II, at first it sounded awful compared to the original Shenmue II Japanese voices, I got used to it eventually. What amused me most was that Ren was voiced by the same person as Fuka San

On a sidenote, I have to admit Sega really messed up it with the Yakuza English dub, hearing from the trailers, its nowhere near as good as the Japanese voices.

[Kenny]

Eeh, I always thought the English and Japanese take on the voices were never very different from each other.

I'll always think that the English dub for the sequel is slightly worse though, despite its tolerable points. Once you play a game like Metal Gear Solid and see how its SUPPOST to be done, you'll then realize that the dub they did for the Shenmue series is near inexcusable. Especially since it was suppost to be a high calibur game.