Category T&B the Anime

Nov 28 2012

This is Sternbild watches the dub (and other things)

Aki and I have been watching the English dub of Tiger & Bunny. Neither of us expected to get this into it, but here we are. Dying for episode 9 dubbed.

The start with the dub was pretty bumpy – which I think was a combination of the voices sounding unfamiliar after seeing the original so many times (read: we lost count how many times), and the voice actors themselves still settling into the roles. By episode three that had evened out. The translation has some minor issues and a couple of derps a fan will notice, but we can forgive those. As a whole it works, and the important character chemistry is still there.

The dub cast is also really good. Wally Wingert may not sound anything like Hirata, but he’s gotten the feel of the character down. Yuri Lowenthal is excellent as Barnaby. What really blew us away was Liam O’Brien as Lunatic. Yusa Kouji was awesome in the original, but the dub version is better in our opinion. Yuri Petrov and Lunatic actually sound different in the dub, and the choice of voice and style of speech for Lunatic make him more menacing. Or as Aki put it…

Aki_the_geek: NO LUNATIC YOU SHOULDN’T SOUND LIKE YOU WANT TO BANG EVERYONE

Yeah. I was going to add some snippets of our dub watching chats here but since they mostly consist of capslock keysmashing because of FEELS, I’ll just leave it at that. The dub has gone from being an excuse to rewatch the series to something we’re looking forward to every week.

Live-Action Buddy Cops

Earlier this month, ANN posted some news about T&B’s character designer Katsura Masakazu appearing in a TV series written by Nishida Masafumi. So far we’ve seen two episodes of Jikken Keiji Totori. Nishida seems to like the age gap theme, this time the rookie is the older of the duo. For a Japanese drama, Jikken Keiji Totori doesn’t really have that j-drama feel, it’s more Western. That’s not very surprising, though, Tiger & Bunny wasn’t the first Western style thing Nishida wrote. He’s also written and directed one of the few Japanese sitcoms filmed in front of live studio audience. The acting in Jikken Keiji Totori is pretty good, too. We’re really enjoying watching it, and if you like Nishida’s writing it’s definitely worth checking out.

(I tried to keep this short and sweet, because I’ve been down with a flu for the past week and that doesn’t really enhance my ability to stay coherent.)

Oct 4 2012

English dub impressions

We’ve been a bit quiet here at This is Sternbild recently. Mainly for two reasons: I spent the last two months on my bachelor’s thesis, and Aki was getting ready to go to Japan for a year. Now my thesis has been defended and Aki’s getting cozy with all the Taibani available in Japan so we’ll be more active. So, down to business.

The English dub of Tiger & Bunny premiered a couple of days ago on Viz’s Neon Alley PS3 service. I don’t own a PS3, nor do I live in North America where Neon Alley is available. There’s a rip on the interwebs that I watched instead. This is all my personal opinion, Aki hasn’t been able to watch the dub yet.

I think that when you rate the dub, you have to take into account that the English dub actors had an advantage over the original seiyuu. The original version was recorded with the seiyuu getting only the information necessary to play their characters correctly, they didn’t get any extra information until they received the scripts. The English VAs on the other hand have had the opportunity to watch the series and build their performance from that, and there’s a lot more background material available now. The Japanese version is also more subtle, the English dub is blatant with some things compared to the original. It’s a cultural thing, Japanese language just works differently from English. I think they also added some lines to make some things clearer or to substitute things that wouldn’t have worked in English.

Individual voices

This is a short version because Kotetsu’s got the most lines in the first episode, hard to judge the others based on just a few lines. Continue reading →

Jun 25 2012

Dub cast completed!

Viz finished the announcements on the Tiger & Bunny English dub cast on their official T&B Facebook page. I figured that instead of the mess that is the ongoing discussion post, I’d compile them all in a tidier list. Some smaller roles are still missing, but this is what the main cast looks like:

Viz also published two short video clips from the dubbing studio on their Facebook page. Here’s Yuri Lowenthal as Barnaby and Wally Wingert as Wild Tiger.

We are really looking forward to the dub now. How about you guys?

May 22 2012

Let’s talk dub cast

Viz has started to trickle announcements on the Tiger & Bunny English dub cast on their official T&B Facebook page. So far we have:

At the current speed (announcement every other day) they can drag this on for weeks – and Kotetsu and Barnaby’s VA’s will probably be the last ones to be announced.

We don’t usually watch dubs, and the American voice actors we recognise we have learned to know from game dubs. Because of that we don’t really have any expectations, other than that we don’t want to hear Vic Mignogna in any role, and we would absolutely love to hear Yuri Lowenthal in some role, preferably as Ivan.

What do you think of the cast choices so far, and who would be in your dream voice cast?

Update: More cast announced.

  • Laura Bailey as Dragon Kid/Huang Pao-Lin
  • Kari Wahlgren as Blue Rose/Karina Lyle
  • John Eric Bentley as Fire Emblem/Nathan Seymour

I don’t know if my google-fu is failing or if John Eric Bentley hasn’t done notable anime work before, I only found an IMDB page that seems like it’s the right person.

Update 2: Another cast announcement adds…

Update: Back to the heroes (and crushing my casting hopes) with…

Ivan was the only role that I really had someone in mind for, I was hoping for Yuri Lowenthal… I’ll still keep hoping he’ll appear in some other role. Now the only heroes that haven’t been announced yet are Wild Tiger and Barnaby, and we’re also still missing Lunatic.

Update: Tadah! Another cast announcement, and they’re still hoarding Tiger & Barnaby…

Update: I think we are nearing the end of the announcements! Today adds…

A very good choice indeed in my opinion. Maybe the next announcement will bring us Kotetsu & Barnaby.

Update: Viz issued a press release about T&B panel at Anime Expo and it included the following cast announcement:

Personally I wasn’t 100% sure if Yuri would be the right Barnaby but then again, I didn’t really think Morita was the right Barnaby either before I heard his performance. In any case, Yuri Lowenthal is our #1 favourite American VA here at This is Sternbild and WE ARE EXCITED, OH YES WE ARE. Now they just have Kotetsu to announce and the main cast will be complete.

Update the FINAL: And the cast is complete.