Actor Tiffany Grant spends much of her career voicing dubs for anime
shows, so she's a good source on which makes an English-language version
good and not good. At Anime Central, Grant said much of the quality comes
from the parts where actors aren't speaking, but grunting and groaning.
"Sometimes if the voice acting is good, if the incidental stuff isn't,
that'll blow it for me," Grant said. In the business, sound effects are
called "foley," and it's not easy to do. After Grant won a Sailor Moon
tape and watch it, she found "...the voices were cute and it was the weakest
foley I had ever heard. Later someone said if they did this blood curdling
foley they would scare the kids."
The rise of DVD's, which have subtitled and dubbed version of shows,
and the rise in popularity of dubs has made the old sub-versus-dub argument
obsolete. Grant said that dubs have improved in popularity in recent years.
The fans are more demanding, the studios are taking more time with the
projects, making sure they're done well - and ADV is run by fans. They
know they want the shows to be done justice and they're taking extra care
with them." Outside of ADV shows, Grant said her favorite dub was the English-language
version of the Oh My Goddess OVA series that featured Juliet Cesario and
Scott Simpson.
Soon to be Mrs. Matt Greenfield, Grant said "It's up to the director
to find the place where it's realistic and not overdone. It also depends
on the show, like Slayers - is it possible for that to be overdone?
While Princess Nine is a serious reality-based show. The line in that case
between realism and over the top is a lot different. In Gamera (the 1990's
version of the science-fiction story), because it was live action it had
to be underplayed. It was more underplayed than any anime I've done." Regardless
of the acting - and despite what some fans might think - Grant said that
ADV strives to keep their dub stories as close to the original intent as
possible."
