Berserk voice acting

CnC

Ad Oculos
For every time this topic keeps being brought back up and people make the exact same argument I will kill a really cute puppy...
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Skullgrin140 said:
Does anyone know where I can get audio clips of the English voices of Berserk? Because I have only ever seen Berserk when I downloaded it and Its subbed
The English DVDs have embedded sound clips for every piece of dialogue. You should look into it.
 

CnC

Ad Oculos
Skullgrin140 said:
Does anyone know where I can get audio clips of the English voices of Berserk? Because I have only ever seen Berserk when I downloaded it and Its subbed

Dear god man. Buy something!
 

Wraith King

I exist in the shadow of my unrealized dream
Makes sense to watch it in the English version.. i dislike people who make gross generalizations about dubbing but i did find the outtakes amusing..

nana nana nana nana nana.. BATMAN!!
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Wraith King said:
Makes sense to watch it in the English version.. i dislike people who make gross generalizations about dubbing but i did find the outtakes amusing..
I didn't think they took the voice acting very seriously in the English dub. And when they did, the dramatic monologues, Guts' in particular, are heavily over-acted.

I'm a firm believer that for every language translation, something of the original flavor is lost in the process. That goes doubly for english voice actors who bring their own bullshit interpretation of the character to the table.

That's not to say I think even the Japanese dub got the voices exactly right. Guts sounds different in my head, for instance :guts:
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Wraith King said:
Makes sense to watch it in the English version

Actually it makes more sense to watch it in Japanese since that's the language it was intended to be presented in. I'm not saying you should, I'm just saying that's the language it was meant to be listened to in. I do, however, agree with you about the outtakes. :serpico:
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Wraith King said:
Makes sense to watch it in the English version.. i dislike people who make gross generalizations about dubbing but i did find the outtakes amusing..

Well the English dubbing for Berserk has blatant defaults and is overly just not very good, it's not a matter of generalization. The voice actors don't act very well... I mean whatever people like or think isn't the problem here, nobody's going to bring credibility to some of those lines where aside from all the rest they even mispronounce words. I've yet to see anyone successfully arguing against that, and there's a good reason: it's not possible. A beherit isn't a "baylet". Also, why would it make more sense in English than in any other language apart from the fact it's obviously more convenient to watch for English speakers? Or is that what you meant?

Anyway like Walter said, that doesn't mean the Japanese dub itself is perfect, it has its own defaults, but the dialogue, emotions, etc are delivered more much convincingly even from a neutral point of view. The fact the original voice actors got their instructions from the director while the people doing the English dub could just listen to the original and try to emulate it doesn't help either. It's not like they have no merit, but I don't think it can be compared. Now people can have their personal preferences independently from the rest, that's not an issue, but that never constituted a serious point regarding the overall quality of the dubs.
 

CnC

Ad Oculos
Gaddes said:
how many have been killed so far? =P

10%20puppies.JPG

10 of em so far (since I posted that).

I really should throw that pile of corpses out, its starting to stink.
 

IsolatioN

Last Soldier Standing
A little late to the topic, but just felt I'd add my opinion.

I felt the voice acting was acceptable. By no means was it great, and I've probably heard better, but it could of been worse. Some scenes the voice "acting" was great, but others it felt empty. Overall, I felt it wasn't too bad though.
 

Wraith King

I exist in the shadow of my unrealized dream
Aazealh said:
why would it make more sense in English than in any other language apart from the fact it's obviously more convenient to watch for English speakers? Or is that what you meant?

Heh im just trying to ser up some reactions! actually i ( its a personal preference ) prefer seeing anything so visual as Anime in English simply because i cant speak Japanese and anime, series and films in general in my opinion aren’t intended to be viewed with subtitles, there a visual experience so anything that takes away from that’s not good - i don’t have any problem watching films with subtitles - i do it alot actually, but although its not noticeable there is a loss of taking in the imagry and it takes away from the experience in getting lost in it - not a lot just a preference - also - i have no idea if this was true with Berserk but occasionally the dialogue will be simplified for easier reading...

Walter said:
I didn't think they took the voice acting very seriously in the English dub.

heh yeah your probaly right about that..
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Wraith King said:
i ( its a personal preference ) prefer seeing anything so visual as Anime in English simply because i cant speak Japanese
I know what you mean. There are several foreign language films that I have to give a second or third viewing to understand it as well as a native speaker would have (but, personally, I never choose a dub over a sub for the reasons I've listed in my previous post).

However, the Berserk anime in particular features very little animation. I don't see how it'd be difficult to follow with subtitles, as opposed to a show with more animation like, say... Furi Kuri.

Not trying to berate you for your dub choice, I just don't see that as a valid reason. But, to each their own :void:
 

CnC

Ad Oculos
Yea, the animation in the berserk anime was absolutely terrible...
But thats another debate entirely.

Shit, the only thing the show had going for it WAS the voice acting. That doesn't say TOO much.
 

Tirade

Hai Yai, Forces!
CnC said:
Yea, the animation in the berserk anime was absolutely terrible...
But thats another debate entirely.

Shit, the only thing the show had going for it WAS the voice acting. That doesn't say TOO much.

The animation style itself is meant to depict a more old fashioned, artistic feel. Unlike most anime, Berserk is bereft of gigantic eyes and highschool boys. There is no computer CG effects or cell shading. It's all hand painted.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Tirade said:
The animation style itself is meant to depict a more old fashioned, artistic feel.
Says who?
There is no computer CG effects or cell shading. It's all hand painted.
None of those features were very prominent in other series either, in 1997.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
CnC said:
Shit, the only thing the show had going for it WAS the voice acting.

And the soundtrack. :guts:

Tirade said:
The animation style itself is meant to depict a more old fashioned, artistic feel.

I don't think you got what he meant. The animation in the Berserk anime is cheap, it's technically not good (budget limitations didn't help). I don't find the anime to be very good either artistically speaking (the character design...), but that's completely different.

Tirade said:
Unlike most anime, Berserk is bereft of gigantic eyes and highschool boys.

That's not a feature of the anime, the reason it has no big eyes and highschool boys is because the manga itself (which the anime is an adaptation of) doesn't. Thank you Kentarou Miura. Anyway I don't really see the relation with what CnC said.
 
Aazealh said:
And the soundtrack. :guts:

Really enjoy the soundtrack, it is so distinct.

Aazealh said:
I don't think you got what he meant. The animation in the Berserk anime is cheap, it's technically not good (budget limitations didn't help). I don't find the anime to be very good either artistically speaking (the character design...), but that's completely different.

No question about it being cheap. The frequent appearance of static paintings with sound overlays, certainly doesn't feel like it was a stylistic choice. Berserk's animation is better than some of the other things on the market (which isn't hard considering some of the crap out there), but it certainly isn't anything to write home about (and if you did write home about... well never mind). To me the Anime is somewhat entertaining, but there is no way that it can even touch Miura's work.

Having only seen a little of the series with the Japanese Language track I am not the best to judge, but I think it sounds more genuine (I don't know Japanese but I prefer subs to dubs - they just sound more natural, that was not intentional rhyming by the way). The English track is more amusing than anything else, but certainly not well preformed. Certainly it doesn't hold up to any critical analysis of said performances. Adding all of that to the fact that the story was watered down, I can't say that I lament it's passing.
 

Tirade

Hai Yai, Forces!
Clearly you boys aren't Anime fans :serpico: True, the budget may have been lacking. However, what Anime shows don't reuse animation? Anyhoo, I'm not going to defend the anime and say it's superior to the manga. That's absurd. I judge the anime based on my experience as a viewer of the genre.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Tirade said:
True, the budget may have been lacking. However, what Anime shows don't reuse animation?

Really, it's not just a problem of reusing frames here... I don't want to insist on stuff that's already been explained in the past, but the animation in that series wasn't up to par with the other shows broadcasted at the time (Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, or even Neon Genesis Evangelion in 1995...), and there's nothing surprising with that considering its low budget and how the project was considered in the first place (airing late at night, etc). Not to mention the teams that worked on it (i.e. not Madhouse, Gainax, Gonzo or Sunrise... VAP and OLM). That's why its success at the time was so gratifying for Berserk fans, it was all due to the story itself, not to the rest.
 

Wraith King

I exist in the shadow of my unrealized dream
Walter said:
However, the Berserk anime in particular features very little animation.  I don't see how it'd be difficult to follow with subtitles, as opposed to a show with more animation like, say... Furi Kuri.

Yeah i actually though about that recently - the stament is just my general policy there are exceptions and Berserk would make an exception if i got round to seeing it again maybe..
 

IsolatioN

Last Soldier Standing
I hope we can all agree that, while the Manga beats the anime very easily, the anime was excelent simply for being Berserk. You can't go wrong with Berserk :)

or atleast thats how I see it. Sure it had its faults, but I enjoyed it. I can't speak for everyone I guess, but its better then no anime (imo).
 
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