What Are The Best And Worse Dub Recasts?

[Neo Ultra Mike]

This is a question that came to mind when thinking about The recent Funimation redub of One Piece. It brought me back to the first day of Dragonball Z's third season when the Ocean voices were replaced by Funi's group and how that changed the show. As well as many other times voices/casts change over the year and how even the show's style can change if someone else is dubbing it. And how it isn't even always a good thing. So I decided to make a thread about it. Which are the Best recasts and which are the worst. Guess I'll go first.

BEST: 4Kids One Piece being recast by FUNimation: Some people may disagree about one or two voices, but when pretty much anyone can agree that 2/3rd of the cast is much better off in the new dub it's pretty much a surfire winner. Add to that removing all the ignorant puns the 4Kids version had, keeping the actual original soundtrack (as well as english versions of the original Opening and ending and not the infamous "Gum Gum Rap"), and lessening on the edits and you have an overall better dub in pretty much every aspect. Unlike the DBZ dub change which carried over problems from the Saban/Ocean days, the Funi One Piece hits the ground running with a solid preformence that can only get better.

WORST: Plastic Cow's Duel Master Being Recast By Elastic Media: Duel Masters used to be one of my favorite anime. It actually knew when to parody it's own card game original self with funny/deconsturcted jokes and had it's own sort of unique charm. Which pretty much came crashing down in season 2. Not only were most of the voices quite inferior to the first season cast, but the writing itself went down a few notches. Less time was spent making the laughs and more time was spent just straight adapting from the original script, which wasn't a good move. The 2.0 Season by Howling Cat is better but still no season one, but at least tried staying with original english adapted DM's Spirit. I also note that unlike a lot of other recasts, the only reason DM changed studios was for purley finical reasons: CN wanted the show to cost less and asked Plastic Cow if they could make the show while cutting they're budget in half. When they said no they got someone who could. Which is probably reason 85 of why CN has fallen so downhill.

Well those are my picks. Vote for your favorite or least favorite dub recasts here. I'll probably add a poll at one point if enough people start posting about it.

[Golgo13]

BEST: Streamline's Lupin the Third recast by Geneon: The dub work a lot better with a good script, good voices, and great acting. When I listen to that dub, I don't hear some voice actor just spewing out Zenigata's lines, I actually believed that the character was animated to his voice. Maybe it's the fact that Zenigata was very expressive, but it worked for me.

WORST: Streamline's AKIRA recast by Geneon: The voices are too realistic and the VAs try WAY too hard to stick to the lip-sync that the acting feels forced.

[Dark Fact]

BEST RECAST: I'll have to ditto for One Piece. The recast has helped bring this series around in a much needed way. With the actors finally sounding more natural, the show has become enjoyable to watch for the first time on American broadcast. :)

WORST RECAST: Sailor Moon S and up. I'll be blunt: I liked the DiC cast. Sure, they weren't given a good accurate script to work off of but I thought they performed their roles with the best effort around. The S seasons and up were just rushed with bad actors trying to imitate the DiC cast with disastrous results plus major character development screw ups for the sake of maintaining censorship. This just felt like a bad fandub to me. I hope whoever license rescues Sailor Moon gives it a good dub that it deserves. FUNimation, I'm looking in your direction.

[CyberCubed]

While I wouldn't call it the best, I do have to say the PUSA Pokemon dub has handled the show nicely since the 4kids cast left. There are some voices that started off weak (like Ash) and improved over the season. There are some good voices like Brock, May, Jessie and Misty that sound nearly identical to the originals, while Meowth and Ash are ok and the only one I truly disliked was Max's new voice.

[Juu-kuchi]

This is an interesting line of worsening, although I'm not sure which would be first, since the first two are interchangeable.

Animaze's Saber Marionette J Again worsened to Ocean Westwood's Saber Marionette J worsened to Ocean Blue Water's Saber Marionette J to X.

[Ragebot]

This is an interesting line of worsening, although I'm not sure which would be first, since the first two are interchangeable.

Animaze's Saber Marionette J Again worsened to Ocean Westwood's Saber Marionette J worsened to Ocean Blue Water's Saber Marionette J to X.

But.. Ocean's SMJ came before Animaze's dub for Again. So do you mean that Again was an amelioration after Ocean's original dub?

[FidoMcCokefiend]

I don't have any for best, But I hated the change from Comic Party to Comic Party Revolution. I loved the original voices, and the ones in Revolution, especially Yuu, just didn't work for me.

[drakh]

But.. Ocean's SMJ came before Animaze's dub for Again. So do you mean that Again was an amelioration after Ocean's original dub?
Well, no, the Again (http://www.crystalacids.com/database/title/595/saber-marionette-j-again/) dub came out on VHS 99, while the original series (http://www.crystalacids.com/database/title/594/saber-marionette-j/) wasn't dubbed until the DVD release in 2001. However, the first part of the franchise to be dubbed was actually Saber Marionette R (http://www.crystalacids.com/database/title/597/saber-marionette-r/), which Ocean did using a cast similar to the one which later did J.

And speaking of recasting (hopefully not worst), it was recently revealed that Bandai produced a completely new for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man recap movie... Using Ocean. Alison Matthews (http://www.crystalacids.com/database/person/2794/alison-matthews/) plays the major, David Kaye (http://www.crystalacids.com/database/person/2261/david-kaye/) is Batou, and Trevor Devall (http://www.crystalacids.com/database/person/1076/trevor-devall/) is Togusa. A rather puzzling move, since I would think the cheapest option by far would be to simply recycle the old dub and only have the actors record dialog for the handful new scenes (like was done for the Gundam SEED movies).

[Juu-kuchi]

But.. Ocean's SMJ came before Animaze's dub for Again. So do you mean that Again was an amelioration after Ocean's original dub? That's what I meant. Again got worse with SMJ (which wasn't too bad, but had many awkward points) which got worse with SMJ to X.

But like I said Again and J may be interchangeable for chronological story purposes and I'm not quite sure which is worse.

[Dogasu]

Best: One Piece. Even though I have a problem with a lot of the new VAs' performances and still remain married to the Japanese cast, the improvement is so great that it can't be ignored. It's made me very happy to go in threads and read comments like "Y'know, I only saw the 4Kids version and thought the show was crap because of that, but after seeing the FUNi dub, I'm beginning to change my mind..." You know a dub is good if it can convert fans after almost three years of absolute crap.

Another redub high on the list is My Neighbor Totoro. Dakota Fanning was SOOOOOO much better than whoever the hell voiced her in the old Fox dub.

Worst: Dragon Ball Z. God...where do I begin? From the worse-than-fandub cast to the horrible dialogue ("Mondo cool!" and Freeza's monologue about "caressing the balls" top the list) to the monkeys-banging-on-trashcans music, the new dub was amazingly bad. So bad, in fact, that I stopped watching mid-Cell saga and went Japanese-only from then on out.

[RomanMack]

Best: One Piece

It's only been one episode so far, but... Come on. It's a given this one is probably going to win them all given how crappy the 4Kids dub was. Add to the fact that the dub itself is actually really really good and you got yourself a straight winner.

Worst: Duel Masters

As others said, it just stopped being funny after awhile. Particularity after the first dub switch.

[HistoryFollower]

I don't know about full cast dubs, but the change of VA's for Horio in Prince of Tennis is really bad. I hurts my ears and watch in fear for when he is given lines.

[DrTooth]

I gotta say, the transition from the Saban dub to the funimation dub of Dragon Ball was kinda weak. The canadian voice actors were pretty faithful to the originals (especially Oolong), but Funimation pretty much just copied those voices adn didn't do well with them (their Pilaf sounds like Gonzo to me)...

But then again, they did use the original music, including the theme song, so it's pretty mixed. You go from great voicing with hideous fake music, to not as good acting with the intact original music.

[Luna]

WORST RECAST: Sailor Moon S and up. I'll be blunt: I liked the DiC cast. Sure, they weren't given a good accurate script to work off of but I thought they performed their roles with the best effort around. The S seasons and up were just rushed with bad actors trying to imitate the DiC cast with disastrous results plus major character development screw ups for the sake of maintaining censorship. This just felt like a bad fandub to me. I hope whoever license rescues Sailor Moon gives it a good dub that it deserves. FUNimation, I'm looking in your direction.I totally agree....I loved the dub for the earlier two seasons of Sailor Moon,even with the edits....the S and SuperS episodes just felt like a completely different(and not as good) show....though at least a couple of the VAs remained the same for all the episodes and the movies (Lita/Sailor Jupiter,Luna,and Artemis)...and I did like the new VA for Rini (it was a cute voice without being annoying)...

[Rae78]

Best: One Piece (with some exceptions)

Worst: Pokemon (no exceptions)

[Kaiser0120]

Best: One Piece (with some exceptions)

Worst: Pokemon (no exceptions)

For Pokemon: Well, we did get the original announcer back, which was great. :D

[lordsmurf]

Transformers Headmasters.
Transformers Masterforce.
Transformers Victory.

Worst. Dubs. Ever.

Some of the fan dubs are higher quality than the professional Star-TV dubs.

[Karl Olson]

Transformers Headmasters.
Transformers Masterforce.
Transformers Victory.

Worst. Dubs. Ever.

Some of the fan dubs are higher quality than the professional Star-TV dubs.

That's not really the topic of this thread. We're talking english language recasts (IE: it's dubbed with one group of people, then another group of people.)

[HellCat]

That's not really the topic of this thread. We're talking english language recasts (IE: it's dubbed with one group of people, then another group of people.)

Actually, I believe these are English dub cast changes. I've seen a few clips and they basically dubbed the Japanese series that follow G1 with the same actors they use for kung fu dubs.


Not a flat out re-dub, but Bandai reverting to apparently the original planned actors for G Gundam in Gundam Musou. Domon especially. The guy is ok when talking but when doing battle cries he sounds like a vicious animal/thug.

[Karl Olson]

Ok, I suppose if we're referencing against the original show, yeah, Transformers has had a lot of terrible recasting.

[Hades]

Best - One Piece even though the new dub could have been better.
Worst - Sailor Moon. Her voice in original and R were decent, but the lady in S and SuperS was just down right terrible. It sound like her nose was constantly plugged.

[Rae78]

For Pokemon: Well, we did get the original announcer back, which was great. :D

Oh, well, the guy who has three lines in every episode, yeah, that just makes the whole show. :shrug:

[Ishtar]

Best: One Piece. This is self explanitory.

Worst: Sailor Moon. Serena/Usagi's new voice was just far too gratting to bare, and she's the main character.

[macattack]

Best: One Piece (from the looks of it). I was also impressed with ADV's recast of Shadow Skill and Macross.

Worst: Duel Masters. Honestly, that redub was pretty freaking bad.

[Brent Long]

Not a flat out re-dub, but Bandai reverting to apparently the original planned actors for G Gundam in Gundam Musou. Domon especially. The guy is ok when talking but when doing battle cries he sounds like a vicious animal/thug.

Well, judging from the credits, Domon was the only character recast, and Phil Fulton (http://www.crystalacids.com/database/person/8902/phil-fulton/) is a Calgarian, so it's likely Gatha just wasn't available. It's real shame too. It's very difficult for me to imagine anyone else playing the character.

[Eddy]

Best: One Piece - A show I otherwise couldn't stand is now watchable thanks to FUNimation. Now I can finally see if I'll be able to get into the show and, from the looks of things, I think I'll be able to enjoy it.

Dragonball Z Remastered - I always liked FUNimation's casting for DBZ, and the remastered episodes are even better. Getting rid of the lame "mondo-cool" talk and such. It's also amazing how much more enjoyable they show becomes when the use the original Japanese score instead of Faulconer's crap.

Worst: Pokemon - Say what you want about 4Kids, but their cast for Pokemon was perfect. Of course, I might be saying this because it's what I grew up with. I stopped watching Pokemon a long while back, but now I can't even stand it. The voices are that terrible. The new Ash has gotten better? I see no improvement. It's as monotone as ever.

[Conan-san]

On Sailor Moon S and DoubleS, yeah, I can see where you can come from that. Honestly, the only improvement was ChibiUsa, Stephene Bard actauly nailed the mix between brat and growing adolencent.

[Novapocalypse]

Best:One Piece(wow,no surprise here!)This dub basically captures the excitement and adventure the original version has.On top of that,the series is great.That mixed with a golden dub is a home-run hit there.

Worst:Pokemon:As much as I like Pokemon,I just thought there was no change from 4Kids.Same weird edits and bad voices.I actually liked 4Kids version better.*hides*


Seriously,why all the DBZ?I liked the FUNi DBZ dub.Of course,I liked Saban's DBZ to so...............C'mon,I was only 5!

[Kaiser0120]

Worst:Pokemon:As much as I like Pokemon,I just thought there was no change from 4Kids.Same weird edits and bad voices.I actually liked 4Kids version better.*hides*

Why are you hiding? Everyone liked 4Kids version better!

[Jacob T. Paschal]

Why are you hiding? Everyone liked 4Kids version better!

Not me, at least when it comes to Takeshi and Kojiro, but that's all opinion.

[Alex Toon]

WORST: Streamline's AKIRA recast by Geneon: The voices are too realistic and the VAs try WAY too hard to stick to the lip-sync that the acting feels forced.
Hmm...I didn't think there was that big a problem with the voices. I actually liked Joshua Seth as Tetsuo.
BTW, is there anyway to find the original Streamline dub on DVD to compare the two?

[Karl Olson]

Hmm...I didn't think there was that big a problem with the voices. I actually liked Joshua Seth as Tetsuo.
BTW, is there anyway to find the original Streamline dub on DVD to compare the two?

You're either tracking down an old VHS copy on ebay or some other website, or you're breaking the law by pirating it somehow.

The latter is highly against the rules of Toon Zone to discuss. :sweat:

[Brent Long]

You're either tracking down an old VHS copy on ebay or some other website, or you're breaking the law by pirating it somehow.

The latter is highly against the rules of Toon Zone to discuss. :sweat:

Well, if you have the means to play it, you could buy the Madman DVD release from Australia. It contains both dubs.

[Karl Olson]

Well, if you have the means to play it, you could buy the Madman DVD release from Australia. It contains both dubs.

That I did not know.

Yeah, that release + regionless DVD player, there you go.

[Duke]

Worst:Pokemon:As much as I like Pokemon,I just thought there was no change from 4Kids.Same weird edits and bad voices.I actually liked 4Kids version better.*hides*
Eh? What edits? There's been two questionable edits recently, but before that the only edits have been painting a sign to reflect the English names of two towns and a bunch of transition cuts that are the result of Cartoon Network's commercial break format. Oh yea, and lengthening the "To Be Continued..." screen by 3 seconds.

Compare that to 4Kids, who whittled away 30+ seconds every single episode and erased any and all text, despite the creative staff using a gibberish language just so 4Kids wouldn't have to paint it away, PUSA's editing has been golden.

They're translation could use a little work, but I attribute that more to them rushing through the season so that Cartoon Network can play all 52 episodes in 3 weeks. -_-


Why are you hiding? Everyone liked 4Kids version better!
I prefer a dub where Brock and James can actually emote. Sorry, Eric Stuart, but you apparently lost your acting ability while Brock was trying to get busy with Professor Ivy.

As for the best dub recast: It may be partial, but I'm going with Slayers. Crispin Freeman and Veronica Taylor make the dub 1,000x better.

Worst is also a partial, but I'm going to say DBZ as well. I just cannot stand hearing FUNi's cast during the Saiyan and Freeza sagas (a.k.a. Seasons 1-3), but I will say that I liked it a lot during the Cell and Buu sagas. In particular, I hated how the FUNi VAs just couldn't get the raw emotion the Ocean Group did in Seasons 1 and 2. A prime example is when Vegeta discovers Krillin stole his Dragonball. Chris Sabat made Vegeta sounds really, really angry. Brian Drummond made Vegeta sound pissed. I still get chills whenever I hear his "YOU WON'T ESCAPE....MY WRATH!!!!!!"

[CyberCubed]

I don't know why people are still bashing the new Pokemon dub.

The only voices that were bad at first was Ash, who improved tremendously over the course of Battle Frontier and into D/P...and Max, but he's gone now so it doesn't matter.

What exactly is wrong with the other characters? Jessie and Brock are as good as they'll get, May's voice was very well done, Meowth is ok, and aside from sounding snobbish the new James is fine too. The secondary characters like Jenny, Joy, Drew/Harley, Paul etc. all sound very good as well.

Considering how laughably bad the voices were in that original Mastermind special dub, its amazing how good they got between that and the transition into Season 9.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

I totally agree....I loved the dub for the earlier two seasons of Sailor Moon,even with the edits....the S and SuperS episodes just felt like a completely different(and not as good) show....though at least a couple of the VAs remained the same for all the episodes and the movies (Lita/Sailor Jupiter,Luna,and Artemis)...and I did like the new VA for Rini (it was a cute voice without being annoying)...

I kind of wished DIC had held onto Tracy Moore through both seasons. She had potential, and managed to come off sweet-sounding even when Serena was being really annoying. Terri Hawkes was good at first, but she simply could not keep that smirking tone out of her voice throughout Sailor Moon R.

Also, I'm gonna cry if Black Lagoon Season 2 is brought out of Geneon license hell and redubbed. I don't care if the new cast is even pretty good, season 1 nailed it and I believe Ocean has already finished recording season 2 now.

Same could be said for the danger of any possible future GITS seasons being recast, what with the recent Laughing Man OAV debacle.

[Rae78]

I don't know why people are still bashing the new Pokemon dub.

Because it's terrible, dear.

Let people have their opinions.

[JTurner]

Another redub high on the list is My Neighbor Totoro. Dakota Fanning was SOOOOOO much better than whoever the hell voiced her in the old Fox dub.

I don't know if I'd say that she did a superior job to Lisa Michelson, but her performance as Satsuki was definitely good, much better than MANY naysayers have made her out to be. I don't think the Disney dub of Totoro is the equivalent of the old dub, but it doesn't have to be; it's charming in its own right, and I liked that they had two actual sisters playing the roles. (If people say I'm not a true Miyazaki fan by liking both dubs equally, well, too bad for them.)

I actually think all the Disney-Miyazaki dubs are well-done; keep in mind that the only "old" Ghibli dub I've seen was Totoro. I saw bits of the first dub of Laputa, and it didn't really impress me at all--Disney's was much better, even with the sometimes chaty dialogue and mature-sounding leads.

Other dubs that I can think of which had superior re-casts:

Akira -- Sorry, but I can't watch Streamline's dub of this film. Geneon's version has a cleaner translation and far better performances. I know people will tell me that the first dub has more "emotional" acting, but I just didn't feel it from the first dub.

Nadia -- This is another. Streamline's dub had its moments but was overall too weak: ADV's dub is superior by far: the children are spot-on, as are the supporting characters. The accents are still pretty shaky, but they grew on me after a while.

-Jon T.

[River26]

BEST - One Piece [FUNimation]
The actors did a really good job this time. They kept the original intact. There was no corny punchlines

WORST - One Piece [4Kids Entertainment]
This lead to their ultimate demise - FUNimation rescuing the product. The acting wasn't there, people would be seeing merged episodes. Not to mention corny unnecessary punchlines that would not go well with the main plotline.

Luffy's Voice Actor - Known for making ridiculous and immaturish noises everytime Luffy was charging to attack his enemies. Also, the actor was known to make foolish and unheard of punchlines. Making Luffy sound like a fool.BEST - Characters of Several Games [Chaos Wars - PS2 SRPG]
The original actors that did these characters, which're now in their chibi form in Chaos Wars did a more better job. Characters of such series;


Shadow Hearts: CovenantWORST - Characters of Several Games [Chaos Wars - SRPG]
Now the acting for this game just falls flat. And is un-emotional. Somtiems they would stretch their sentences.

[Light Lucario]

Best: One Piece. I very rarely saw the 4Kids' dub, but nearly all of the voices sounded awful. The only exception being Zolo/Zoro. Anyway, FUNimation's cast is so much better that its not even funny. Those voices do match the characters better, from what I can tell, and they did a good job of getting used to their specific character.

Worst: Pokemon. Yeah, I'm sure that this isn't a surprise. I don't think that the new voice actors are horrible and I do agree that they've improved quite nicely since Mastermind, which was the worst Pokemon thing that I've ever seen, but I just prefer the majority of the 4Kids' cast for the emotion that they brought for their characters. In all honesty, outside of the new voice actors and some parts where I hear they keep the original background music, which isn't that important for me to enjoy an anime series, I don't see much of a difference between the PUSA dub and the 4Kids dub.

[Daxdiv]

The Best has to be One Piece recast for the moment, since FUNi honors the regular series more, I enjoyed the voices more than the JPN Version, and is more enjoyable. So far the edits made on the Broadcast version seem more logical, and not filled with errors (Jumping Hachi anyone).

The Worst had to be for me the DBZ recast, it was during the era when the FUNi cast was basically asked to copy the Ocean Group voices, luckily after a while they got into the groove of things and made it their own, I started to like it better.

[AxeltheNavy]

BEST: ONE PIECE! plain...and...SIMPLE!

WORST: SONIC EXCKS! (Sonic in general) Ugh!