‘The Boy and the Heron’: How GKIDS Pulled Off One of the Most Important Dubs in Anime History

[naveedchick]

We're taking you inside the story of how an American animation company laid it all on the line to make the English-language version of Hayao Miyazaki's "last" film a devastatingly beautiful must-see event: https://t.co/xZFh5KNDFh pic.twitter.com/7EhsNBGHRa
- IndieWire (@IndieWire) December 8, 2023

• The English language version came together rather

Comments

[hiimtish]

People wanna be snobs about dubs so much but as someone going blind they’re SO important and I’m so glad that they put so much care into this.

I’ve been saving this movie as a treat because it feels like forever since we’ve had a good Ghibli movie, just wanna savor it.

[sibylblack]

Yeah, I don't understand why people hate dubbing so much. My ex boyfriend who's British was always complaining about us Italians dubbing everything and he didn't even want to listen to me explaining that our voice actors are considered some of the best, to the point they sometimes actually improve the actor's performance

[invisiblegirlx]

I get the necessity of dubbing for some people but i prefer subs cause i like to hear the original language and the dubs i grew up with were truly terrible.

[kjesta]

I generally prefer subs, but I greatly value dubs for making foreign media more accessible to people who may not be able to make use of them for all sorts of reasons. My father's English is great but since his stroke he's struggling to read quickly enough and finds it very tiring to watch subs, my brother has a disability and can't read that quickly either. And as you mention, if you physically can't read the text, dubs are a godsend too.

[hiimtish]

They really help so many!

The irony is I prefer subs myself because I have an auditory processing disorder so at some point I’m just gonna have to be halfway lost by only listening lol. But that’s better than not being able to enjoy them at all!

[bodyline]

I think the problem with dubs these days is that a lot of times they’re still mediocre at best, and that isn’t fair to people who have to watch something dubbed for one reason or another. Being able to choose between subs or dubs based purely on preference is a privilege that lots of people don’t have, and it often feels like those people are being saddled with an inferior product.

There’s a reaction channel couple that had to watch Squid Game dubbed because the husband used to play football and had some cognitive issues from head injuries that made it impossible for him to keep up with reading the subtitles, and the dub was embarrassingly bad. I was so frustrated on their behalf.

[hiimtish]

This is all a good point but…definitely not why most are snobs about it. I wish that was why!

[bodyline]

Oh for sure, it’s definitely mostly an argument born out of elitism. These days tho, dub fans can be just as bad. There’s a pretty big sub vs dub debacle going on in the Yakuza/Like A Dragon fandom right now and the dub fans are out here acting like Sega of America are paying them personally to defend it. It’s pretty wild.

But yeah, elitists on both sides are extremely snobby and dismissive and the result is that you can’t have any kind of nuanced discussion about how dubs are necessary and still need to be improved a lot of the time. Saying all dubs are inherently bad is stupid, but dismissing all criticisms as sub elitism doesn’t help either.

[du_fric]

I have a friend that's newer to watching anime and she's always dogging on me for watching dubs. I think it's like a new fan elitist thing, which I get, but I've been watching anime for so long that I don't care too much whether I'm watching the sub or dub. I'm usually doing something else (I know, second-screen content is awful) so I'll generally go with a dub.

I feel like with animation I'm already losing the connection of a performance without a real human face, and while I can appreciate a performance of the VA I'm hearing and the writing I'm reading, it doesn't always click for me! But it does bug me how she's constantly saying all dubs are bad which is just factually untrue. The Cowboy Bebop dub surpasses the sub, imo, and FLCL is wonderfully dubbed.

Maybe I'm doing a lot of hoop work here trying to justify to myself why I watch dubs over subs lolol I always watch the subs for live-action foreign media!

[qaladriel]

I think most people's problem with dub is liberties taken in the translation to flatten nuance or sanitise the content. also, sometimes the performances - I find the voice acting in the totoro dub unbearable. I'm glad for dubs for a host of reasons (namely, though I like subtitles, I don't want to miss any of the visual and I also think it's important for kids to be able to watch dubs), and I sincerely hope they are presented true to the original film for those losing their vision too! everyone deserves to have access to how the film is 'meant' to be insofar as is possible.

[piratesswoop]

same, i love dubs. it makes it accessible to children too-i always show spirited away during halloween for my students. it’s not really a halloween movie but it has some spooky elements and it’s not another charlie brown pumpkin movie that everyone else always shows, so they absolutely love it. i don’t think they’d be able to connect as much if it were subbed, especially when i have kids who don’t read quickly or struggle to focus on a film and read the subs at the same time. it’s something new and unique to them.

[goodbye22]

Yeah the whole dubs vs subs thing is too much , I don’t think it’s that deep as some anime fans make it. It all depends on your preference. I personally like subs, tho I grew up with dubs as a kid but as long as there’s an option in watching the thing with subs or dubs I don’t see the problem with it.

[lieselmeminger]

in the case of ghibli films, they're aimed at children, the youngest of whom can't read yet lol so making sure the dub is good is really important! i generally perfer subs as well but a good dub is always a benefit

[hiimtish]

Such a good point! Both my kids went through huge Ghibli phases before they could read and like they’re just supposed to miss out? Okay🫠