For anyone on this site that feels like RPing Yu-Gi-Oh, let's brainstorm something together.

[Grey]

i too am more familiar with the dubs

[Ammokkx]

i too am more familiar with the dubs

@Grey

alright you're extra banned from the rp

[webboysurf]

<Snipped quote by webboysurf>

alright you're banned from the rp

@Ammokkx

Oof. This'll be such a tough loss. Dunno how I'll live with it.

[Amaranthine]

The only reason I am more familiar with the original voices is because my friend who makes me watch some arbitrary episodes always links them to me like that, and I'm too lazy to look for another version...

[Ammokkx]

<Snipped quote by Ammokkx>

Oof. This'll be such a tough loss. Dunno how I'll live with it.

@webboysurf

In all seriousness, I don't hate dubs.

I just hate every YGO dub because they're actually terrible compared to the original.

Cut scenes, awful performances, headache-inducing script changes, a vastly inferior soundtrack and all around just incredibly dumbed down. Some people defend it by going "lul look at this guy complaining a show for kids is being dumb/has a lot of jokes" but my god I hate that defense. The humor in GX, for example, works because they play the absolute lunacy completely straight. They don't poke fun at the thing already being poked fun at any further than they have to.

There's also blatantly retcon'd plotpoints. A really infamous one is how in the duel with Mai back in Duelist Kingdom, in the dub, "Yugi" was dueling her and getting his ass kicked. He didn't want the spirit of the puzzle to take control again and brutally go to town on her like he did with Kaiba.

Only that never actually happened; the original plotpoint was that Yugi's other self was playing terribly because he wasn't even considering Mai as an opponent in the moment. He was so hyperfixated on fighting Pegasus that he forgot to respect the duelist he was actually fighting, Mai. It's nonsensical changes like this that grind my gears into fine powder. Not every voice performance in DM is awful, but I'm gonna be honest with you, Dan Green just doesn't do it for me with how screechy he made Yugi and how hoarse he made Atem. Sounds fine in Darkside of Dimensions, but not in the original.

then there's also just outright terrible voice choices, like the absolute butchery that is the 4 Yu-boys from Arc-V. Or, if you want an early one, how about the guy Ryo(Zane) fought in the underground duel ring? They made this absolutely shredded hulk of a man sound like a literal child and it just seeps away all the threat from him.

The dub also grossly simplifies every character's dialogue to the point they get just one character trait. Seto, in the original, actually admitted the existence of magic, but he still considers it "Occult nonsense" because technology can surpass it. In the dub he just staunchly refuses to acknowledge the reality that magic exists at all.

[King Cosmos]

A really infamous one is how in the duel with Mai back in Duelist Kingdom

@Ammokkx

I don't remember them even having a duel. Wasn't Yugi unwilling to duel Mai after his loss to Kaiba, so Tea dueled her instead?

[Ammokkx]

<Snipped quote by Ammokkx>

I don't remember them even having a duel. Wasn't Yugi unwilling to duel Mai after his loss to Kaiba, so Tea dueled her instead?

@King Cosmos

Quarter finals were Mai Vs. Yugi and Jonouchi Vs. Keith.

[webboysurf]

<Snipped quote by webboysurf>
I just hate every YGO dub because they're actually terrible compared to the original.

Cut scenes, awful performances, headache-inducing script changes, a vastly inferior soundtrack and all around just incredibly dumbed down...

how about the guy Ryo(Zane) fought in the underground duel ring? They made this absolutely shredded hulk of a man sound like a literal child and it just seeps away all the threat from him.

@Ammokkx

I'm glad you enjoy the originals. Thing is, I never watched the originals because I was a child when I first watched the show. You know, the 4Kids stuff on Saturday mornings. I've not really gone back to watching the shows as an adult, but have found time every now and then to watch episodes I enjoy. In the age of the internet, I even went to watch some Subs (especially to watch some GX that never made it to the states). This is going to be crazy to hear, but...

The show itself has nonsensical scenes, similarly awful performances (like the blatantly offensive and dated "haha, Cyrus is so non-manly we'll get a girl to voice him"), a script that is held together with the thinnest of thread that has highly contextual nuance that only people who care to learn about Japanese culture would be familiar with (or, you know, Japanese children) that could frustrate and confuse American children, a not at all superior soundtrack, and is just overall a show that's "dumb."

As for that fight... I hated the voice too. Willing to admit that any day of the week. But I also have an idea of why they did it. Mad Dog sounds a bit like they're pointing to a cultural icon Mike Tyson.

At the end of the day, there's always going to be problems with Dubs. Just like there are problems with the original show. Some of just move past the problems and enjoy the show anyways.

[Ammokkx]

@webboysurf brother

don't even try to defend it lmao

You are not changing my mind on this. I am perfectly willing to admit I'm an elitist prick on this particular issue that will never budge. The dubs are objectively vastly inferior products that bring a butcher knife to it, and as grateful as I am for them introducing me to the franchise, I refuse to see them as anything approaching good or competent.

Good dubs are like One Punch Man, as they respect the original. The Yugioh dubs don't. The only one that gets even close is the Vrains dub, which I have a begrudging respect for. At least with Vrains, while it's still not quite the same, it at least makes genuine attempts at emulating the tone of the original. The script changes are less blatant, the voices are (mostly) fitting, and while the performances are still kinda stilted, at least they're competent.

The other dubs do not have this advantage and I refuse to acknowledge them.

[webboysurf]

I am perfectly willing to admit I'm an elitist prick

@Ammokkx

Hey, at least you're willing to admit it. Better than some.

[Ammokkx]

<Snipped quote by Ammokkx>

Hey, at least you're willing to admit it. Better than some.

@webboysurf

It's better to lay your biases on the table than it is to pretend you don't hold them. The fact I feel this strongly, and this negatively about the dubs shapes my view on the franchise as a whole. As silly as it sounds, I take YGO very seriously. If I didn't, I wouldn't be nearly as invested in its plot or characters. Since the dubs take an objectively much lighter tone and actively plays down elements of the story to have less impact, I fundamentally can not get invested in them. I am taken out of the experience in every way possible, and in my eyes, they become bad because they can not engage me. The originals can suck me into their world even now that I'm an adult, and the dubs cannot, which is why I consider them bad.

I grew up on the dubs too, for the record. It's not like I don't still hold a special place in my heart for those memories. It's because I did, however, that it frustrates me they're so bad looking back on it. If they were better I'd bet even more people would still be invested in the show, rather than just the "oh hey isn't that yugioh from yugioh?" that you occasionally see.

[Kaggs]

All of you fighting about Sub v Dub

Imma just leave this here

[Ammokkx]

<Snipped quote>

Imma just leave this here

@Kaggs

Japanese people suck at directing English speakers. Look at the dub for Final Fantasy XIII for example; It was directed by the Japanese staff who wanted the VA's to emulate the Japanese mannerisms. Vanille is the most obvious example of how this can go to complete shit, as she does all the cutesy sounds her Japanese counterpart makes, but they come across as super jarring because anyone who speaks English doesn't make those sounds.

Another example I'm familiar with in the immediate moment is the freshly released Ashley Taylor for the NA servers of Magia Record. Sally Amaki must've been told to have all her sentences to inflect upwards, 'cause the performance sounds so fucking weird. It's like a Japanese speech pattern superimposed onto normal english sentences, and you just get the feeling "nobody speaks like this" which would've sounded fine if the lines were Japanese instead.

EDIT: OH YEAH SHENMUE WAS DIRECTED BY JAPANESE PEOPLE TOO. That dub is infamously terrible.

[ItMeGritty]

What if we have a character from America? Are we forced to give them a Japanese name?

[Ammokkx]

What if we have a character from America? Are we forced to give them a Japanese name?

@ItMeGritty

i'd be amazed if a character from america would come to the collar willingly

[mickilennial]

i too am more familiar with the dubs

@Grey

The subs are better. As they usually are.

[Kaggs]

EDIT: OH YEAH SHENMUE WAS DIRECTED BY JAPANESE PEOPLE TOO. That dub is infamously terrible.

@Ammokkx

OH GOD OH FUCK NOT SHENMUE

But yeah dubs be dumb unless they make up for it in some way, like cringey 2010 memes being put in high school of the dead.

[mickilennial]

But have you guys experienced true terror?

[Kaggs]

@Inkarnate Ink, hijacking threads with lolis. Shameful. Now tuck in your gut and raise your voice that high.

[mickilennial]

@Inkarnate Ink, hijacking threads with lolis. Shameful. Now tuck in your gut and raise your voice that high.

@Kaggs