Central Park Media Lets Fans Cast "Outlanders"

Peter Tatara writes to let us know that Central Park Media is holding a public casting call for the English version of "Outlanders." For each of the four main characters you get a choice between four different voice actors. Seems like a fun way to generate interest and ensure that the majority of enthusiasts like the dubbing.

Comments

Re:"Battia: a sexy friend"

[DoktorTomoe]

A kind of perception that actually comes close to most women' character. However, with nekomimi (not sure if slashdot could handle kanji) it is actually way cuter, isn't it?

I wouldn't say that

[Ogemaniac]

I live in Japan and know a fair bit of the language. English is just as "expressive", in my opinion. The problem is that we express things in such fundamentally different ways that one-for-one translation is impossible. I agree with you - subs are better - but not because they are more accurate or expressive. They are better because you still get the emotion as it was emoted in Japanese, with the neutral English translation below. When it is dubbed, the emotion must be placed directly atop an English phrase, and they often do not match or sound really silly.

Wow.

[MasamuneXGP]

Putting aside the anime-haters and sub vs dub arguments, this is a MAJOR step in the right direction for anime in the US. Dubbers who actually care about what the already-existing fans think?! Unthinkable. I can only hope more dubbing companies start doing this. I can only imagine how awesome it would be if a popular anime such as Naruto got similar treatment.

Re:not expressive enough

[Minna Kirai]

I don't think its possible to do a good dub,

It's certainly possible, as can be heard in Disney's Ghilbi dubs. Although weak points can be found in Mononoke Hime, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Porco Rosso, they are all basically decent (and, I can't recall any shortcomings in Spirited Away).

There are a few chronic obstacles that prevent typical anime companies from doing similarly good jobs.
(a) Cheapness. Typical anime are dubbed in just a few takes. Keeping the actors and director together long enough to do proper emotions would require much more time, meaning must bigger paychecks. The importer gets enough sales already, so they have no incentive for more investment.

(b) Bad actors. This is subjective, but for a bit of objectivity, consider that English anime actors are basically in their own job category, separate from those who do voices for native English animations (including video games). For example, look at anime dubber Mary McGlynn, as opposed to voice actors for native projects, like Scott Menville or Phil LaMarr (wow, he's also a real actor!). There isn't much crossover. If anime dub voices were any good, they'd also get jobs for domestic projects- but they essentially don't.

(c) Wrong editing priorities. The editors and directors who handle the dubbing care too much about matching the soundtrack to facial movements, and not enough on the attitude and emotion expressed by the speech itself. This links back to the brief studio sessions: once they've got a line reading that's basically OK, the actors go home, and then the editor goes about digitally squeezing it into place on the soundtrack. To match speech to lip-flaps, Software is used to change the speed of individual words while holding pitch constant. Anime importers claim that the modern software is so good that no distortion remains, but that's not quite true. Although a listener can't generally describe the nature of the problem, it's easy enough to distinquish the "before" and "after" line readings in a blindfolded test.

Fool All of the People Some of the Time

[Doc Ruby]

Democratic voting is far from a guarantee that the majority will be happy with their selection once its made. But it is very handy in making people feel like the selection is their fault, that they should get defensive, and protect their selection from the others, even when they become the minority through attrition.

Re:Terrible idea

[Hatta]

You don't understand voting for 4 candidates. What happens is that the minority (~26%) likes the dubbing and the majority (the other 74%) hates it.

It would be a good place to use something like Instant Runoff Voting, which solves this problem. The american government has the same problem, see the 2000 election. Using IRV in contests like this would be a great way to teach people about it.