(03-29-2015, 08:46 PM)Ha Wrote: Japanese. I speak some, plus as it's the original, I feel the voice actors were chosen with the most precision and correct inflections, etc.Now, I'll admit I'm only basing this off a panel I attended with Sonny Strait and his Japanese counterpart (they both did Maes Hughes in FMA, Sonny also did Krillin in DBZ and like a million other dub characters) but I have it on good authority that Japanese voice acting is just as much of a clusterfuck as it is in America. You have a handful of good voice actors who dominate the industry because they can do a wide range of voices really well, and everyone else is somewhere between decent and terrible. This is true for both Japan and America. And I honestly can't see the Japanese actors for XIV being any higher quality than the American ones, because they're being paid roughly the same. Â
Now, one big argument brought up alot in anime with 'subs vs dubs', is that the subs are better, not because the actors are better, but because they can be directly coached by the writer to sound how he originally intended. But... here's the secret. That never happens. That's not how it works on either end. Even in Japan, the voice actors come in to the studio, they sit alone in a sound booth with a script of their lines, and they read them off as quickly as possible. A sound director will sometimes be there to coach them, but that's true for the dub actors too. The writer, however, is in no way involved in this process. He's left them some notes in their script, but the Americans got those same notes.Â
In fact, here's the kicker with anime: The Americans get to watch the show before they dub it, because it's already been made. The Japanese teams are usually trying to record voices for an episode that hasn't even been animated yet. Though, to be fair, this doesn't apply to XIV. In XIV, neither the Japanese nor the Americans get to see any of these cutscenes before they record them. Â
Now, if you genuinely prefer the Japanese version, I have nothing against that. I promise I'm not trying to insult you in any way. I just want to be sure there are no illusions that the Japanese team somehow produces a superior product.
