Voice Acting in Berserk Animation

Personally I always found the dub to be nothing other than a mixed bag. There were some voices that worked and there were some voice actors who played characters that I felt were incredibly miscast, Carolyn Keranen being one of those. I felt her performance was incredibly too shrill and way too over the top and just felt like the voice was going on & off the rails at any given moment, the few voices I felt that worked were Marc Diraison as Guts hands down perfect I feel.

In alot of ways he really helped the character flow abit, Kevin Collins as well as Griffith I didn't really have any problems with. I admit the dub did have its ups and downs but nonetheless it was a clever try and it was doing something okayish.
 
Skullgrin140 said:
Personally I always found the dub to be nothing other than a mixed bag. There were some voices that worked and there were some voice actors who played characters that I felt were incredibly miscast, Carolyn Keranen being one of those. I felt her performance was incredibly too shrill and way too over the top and just felt like the voice was going on & off the rails at any given moment, the few voices I felt that worked were Marc Diraison as Guts hands down perfect I feel.

In alot of ways he really helped the character flow abit, Kevin Collins as well as Griffith I didn't really have any problems with. I admit the dub did have its ups and downs but nonetheless it was a clever try and it was doing something okayish.

I thought Diraison,Collins and Keranen did a great job along with Christopher Kromer who played Judeau. I'll defend the dub till my dieing day cause I felt as thought it was well done, save of course for Goku and a couple others haha.

Groovy Metal Fist said:
So to all the people who think that the Berserk dub was good:

So then what do you consider a bad dub?

Cardcaptors, Sailor Moon, One Piece, Naruto, Pokemon, Gundam Seed and Destiny.........shall I go on? English dubs are notoriously bad granted, but I still like Berserk's dub. Anyway its pointless complaining about the dub, its a preference. Some people bash Evangelions dub and others love it. Just watch it with subs if that floats your boat.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
JoeZeon said:
I thought Diraison,Collins and Keranen did a great job along with Christopher Kromer who played Judeau. I'll defend the dub till my dieing day cause I felt as thought it was well done, save of course for Goku and a couple others haha.

Cardcaptors, Sailor Moon, One Piece, Naruto, Pokemon, Gundam Seed and Destiny.........shall I go on? English dubs are notoriously bad granted, but I still like Berserk's dub. Anyway its pointless complaining about the dub, its a preference.

You're suffering from an obvious lack of objectivity here. It's not a matter of preference. That dub is terrible. It's horrendous. Good for you if you like it, but there's no question that it's very bad.
 
H

hellrasinbrasin

Guest
While I adored the dub cast from the 97 series and not for the reason you might think... They are the perfect fit for a perfectly botched project. Rich characters, and the story of the worlds they inhabit be it TV-Series, Film or Video Game are only done justice by actors when you have the right people giving them life. That having been said hiring actors to portray characters that are a hollow shell of themselves in this production is a disservice to everyone.
 
The english Dub cast for the first film courtesy of the facebook page

GUTS
MARC DIRAISON

GRIFFITH
KEVIN T. COLLINS

CASCA
CAROLYN KERANEN

JUDEAU
CHRISTOPHER KROMER

CORKUS
DOUG ERHOLTZ

RICKERT
MICHELLE NEWMAN

PIPPIN
PATRICK SEITZ

ZODD
MICHAEL ALSTON BALEY

KING OF MIDLAND
CHRIS SMITH

BAZUSO
RUSSELL NASH

JULIUS
JESSE CORTI

CHARLOTTE
RACHAEL LILLIS

HASSAN
MICHAEL SORICH

ADONIS
COLIN DEPAULA

SIR RABAN
MARC THOMPSON

GASTON
SEAN SCHEMMEL

GENERAL GIEN
SEAN SCHEMMEL

GAMBINO
RUSSELL NASH

YOUNG GUTS
COLIN DEPAULA

MAJOR GENERAL
MARC THOMPSON

GIEN
SEAN SCHEMMEL

BLACK RAM CAPTAIN
PATRICK SEITZ

ANNA
LISA ORTIZ

ADDITIONAL VOICES
CHRIS JAI ALEX
JAMISON BOAZ
MARIA DENTE
SEYQUE DEVUEX
CURTIS FORTIER
NATHAN JOHNSO
JUDE B. LANSTON
GARY LITTMAN
RUSSELL NASH
CHRIS NIOSI
PATRICK SEITZ
DIETRICH SETO
MICHAEL SINTERNIKLAAS
MICHAEL SORICH
MARC THOMPSON
AARON UMETANI
 
Oh god, despite what we already knew about the english VA's, I thought Guts was terrible, I am not excited that they have brought them all back.
 
Jaze1618 said:
Oh god, despite what we already knew about the english VA's, I thought Guts was terrible, I am not excited that they have brought them all back.

Yeah, for this movie's dub Viz Media could have found new and much better English VA's from Canada's Ocean Studios, than these New York-based Media Blasters VA's that they've brought back. Their obviously limited vocal and acting abilities might make them passable for voicing kiddie shonen anime like Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh!, but it will never fly with Berserk.


puppet12ca said:
.......

GAMBINO
RUSSELL NASH


.......

Gambino? Really? :ganishka:
Aside from one very blurry shot of his dead body appearing in a single frame, during Guts' nightmare while he's in bed with Casca, Gambino (along with several other important supporting characters) isn't shown anywhere in the movie. This movie's dub cast listing looks just like that of the '97 TV series' English dub cast list that they've just copied and pasted from IMDB.
 

Gobolatula

praise be to grail!
Well to be fair, they list Anna there and she only says like 1 thing. I guess someone needs to voice that garbly bullshit they do during the childhood "sequence."
 
Gobolatula said:
Well to be fair, they list Anna there and she only says like 1 thing. I guess someone needs to voice that garbly bullshit they do during the childhood "sequence."

Yeah, we can guess that in English dub they'll likely have Gambino repeat the "you should have died" line over and over during that scene. Really, it would then just be a time honored tradition of English anime dubs containing "extra" dialogue lines where there were actually none in the original Japanese versions :ganishka:
But in this instance I actually wouldn't blame Viz if they did so, since that "childhood nightmare" scene was so poorly produced in the first place.
 
Rodrigo said:
Yeah, we can guess that in English dub they'll likely have Gambino repeat the "you should have died" line over and over during that scene. Really, it would then just be a time honored tradition of English anime dubs containing "extra" dialogue lines where there were actually none in the original Japanese versions :ganishka:
But in this instance I actually wouldn't blame Viz if they did so, since that "childhood nightmare" scene was so poorly produced in the first place.

It was a nightmare in two senses
 

Gobolatula

praise be to grail!
Gobolatula said:
I do not want the old VAs back. I don't care how funny their outtakes are; they didn't do a good job with the TV series. Why would they suddenly do well with the movie? I hope Viz does the right thing and hires better actors.
Wow, you were right, Gobs. That dub trailer sure did suck.
 

MrWeatherby

What's up, ketchup?
Gobolatula said:
Why would they suddenly do well with the movie?

It's been over ten years, and I'm sure many of them have spent that time involved on various projects that have allowed them to hone their craft. Also dubbing anime in the 90s was pretty much the dark ages, not a whole lot during that decade sounded anywhere in the spectrum of "acceptable."

I guess I'm the voice of dissent here, because I actually enjoyed everyone in the original dub. Their lines weren't delivered very well, but their voices fit the characters to the point where I can't hear them as anybody else.
 

Darkman

Obey the one Law of Tooth & Claw
I agree, I got into Berserk through the original anime with the english dub. Berserk was the anime that got me into other anime series and mangas. I liked the original cast, perhaps over the top at moments, but I really liked Griffith,Foss, Void, and the other members of the God Hand. And to add to that the Score was great.
 
Darkman said:
I agree, I got into Berserk through the original anime with the english dub. Berserk was the anime that got me into other anime series and mangas. I liked the original cast, perhaps over the top at moments, but I really liked Griffith,Foss, Void, and the other members of the God Hand. And to add to that the Score was great.

I enjoyed the original dub as well, but so far I'm disappointing with the new version. Collins seem to be REALLY overacting and Keranen sounds a little old for a young Casca. Diraison had two lines so I'll give him a pass till I hear more. I sat there watching the trailer thinking "O man why did I ask for this?". And this comes from someone who's defended the original dub. Though it is a trailer so I'll wait till the DVD comes out.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Unsure if it's been discussed here yet or not, but the voice actors for Silat, Skull Knight and Erica were announced recently:

[quote author=http://kohada.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/comic/1347510956/l50]劇場版ベルセルクキャスト
シラット:中村悠一
エリカ:竹逹彩奈
髑髏の騎士:大塚明夫 [/quote]
So, that confirms Silat and Erica having appearances in the third film.
 
If google translate hasn't let me down and that is indeed Akio Otsuka playing Skull Knight....that's an awesome choice in my book. Otsuka has previously played Black Jack in the various adaptations of Osamu Tezuka's well-known series as well as Batou from Ghost in the Shell. More recently, he was cast as Uvogin for the currently ongoing Hunter x Hunter remake. I think he should do very well as Skull Knight.
 

Dar_Klink

Last Guardian when? - CyberKlink 20XX before dying
Julalien said:
If google translate hasn't let me down and that is indeed Akio Otsuka playing Skull Knight....that's an awesome choice in my book. Otsuka has previously played Black Jack in the various adaptations of Osamu Tezuka's well-known series as well as Batou from Ghost in the Shell. More recently, he was cast as Uvogin for the currently ongoing Hunter x Hunter remake. I think he should do very well as Skull Knight.

That's pretty okay news, although I see him more as the yelling hotblooded type rather than the calm voice that I picture Skully with. It is nice that they're going for more well-known talent though rather than newbies or Toku actors when it comes to the voice cast.
 
Dar Klink said:
That's pretty okay news, although I see him more as the yelling hotblooded type rather than the calm voice that I picture Skully with.

He's also Solid Snake, Antonio Banderas and Wesley Snipes, so I'm very thrilled about knowing he will do Skull Knight's voice.
And I think he's not linked to the hotblooded stereotype. From Wikipedia:
"The astringent and calm quality of his voice has landed him many roles in films, dubbing, animation, and video games. (...) Apart from voicing villainous or jokester characters, he also occasionally does narration for anime shows."
 
I used to think the roughness in the animation and voice acting really fit the setting and story, but after having read the entire manga finally with professional translations and in an actual printed form, going back to the anime is pretty hard. My opinion that rough art is something that is the best fit for Berserk went out the window after seeing the manga's two page spreads in all their glory!

That being said, the english dub holds a special place in my heart and, low budget notwithstanding, I prefer the anime's telling of the Golden Age more than the manga's. I think it's more focused because it doesn't have to set up lore and events for the continuing story :schnoz:
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
metime00 said:
I prefer the anime's telling of the Golden Age more than the manga's. I think it's more focused because it doesn't have to set up lore and events for the continuing story :schnoz:

The TV series actually added filler to the story (making Adon into a bigger deal than he really was), so it's more diluted if anything. Meanwhile, the lore you mentioned is very tightly embedded in the story and I don't think it detracts from it in any way whatsoever. What the TV series did remove however are some of the coolest fights in the Golden Age arc, like Guts vs Silat, the sewer escape against the Bakiraka, and the confrontation with Wyald.
 
I guess I'll never truly know which medium would do the golden age arc better for me since I can't experience it fresh but the one time, and I'd watched the show first. I think when I first read the manga I thought those "coolest fights" were filler-y, but the difference between those three fights in the manga and Adon in he show is that the fights all introduced elements in the story that were important either later on, or to flesh out Guts's character.

Present day me realizes that having an important function in the narrative is the very definition of something not being filler. I imagine both that the anime will always hold a special place in my heart, but also that when I have the money to complete my set of the dark horse volumes and get volumes 4-9, reading the manga will get me to the point where it will be my favorite telling of the golden age.

The gap in quality between scanlations and the anime is not as great as between the dark horse volumes and the anime, which is probably a major enabler of people liking elements of the anime better. Still, the largest advantage of the anime over the manga is and always will be that I don't have to read through a scene first to realize it's a touching monologue that I need to read it again while playing Guts theme.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
metime00 said:
Still, the largest advantage of the anime over the manga is and always will be that I don't have to read through a scene first to realize it's a touching monologue that I need to read it again while playing Guts theme.

It is completely inconvenient when I can't intuit the intention of a scene without a musical cue. I'm not sure how anyone made it through the Harry Potter books without the mysterious music that lets us know that something magical is about to happen.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
metime00 said:
I guess I'll never truly know which medium would do the golden age arc better for me since I can't experience it fresh but the one time, and I'd watched the show first.

To each his own I guess. I also watched the TV series before I read the manga, but I was actually shocked when I found out how much better the manga's story is compared to the adaptation.

metime00 said:
the difference between those three fights in the manga and Adon in he show is that the fights all introduced elements in the story that were important either later on, or to flesh out Guts's character.

That and they're infinitely better in every conceivable way, don't you think? Like, those are badass fights that actively contribute to making the series awesome.

metime00 said:
Still, the largest advantage of the anime over the manga is and always will be that I don't have to read through a scene first to realize it's a touching monologue that I need to read it again while playing Guts theme.

I see. And the pictures move by themselves, too.
 
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