The Oshi no Ko English Dub is Hilariously Terrible

Anime Sub vs Dub is a debate as old as time itself. We have many example of good and bad anime dubs. So what category does Oshi no Ko's English Dub fall into?

#oshinoko #anime #dark

Love you all so much thank you for all the support!

[FrizFroz]

When you said the Kana VA is legitimately good, it made me think about Kana's actual role in Sweet Today and how she complains that "everyone else on screen with me is a ham actor!"

[Heightren]

Kana VA suffering like Kana in Sweet Today

[whyyoumadbro]

Nah, that "scene" with Aqua saying "abdominal aorta, SHIT" got me cackling. It sounds like it fits an abridged version more

[tribopower]

Damn, props to everyone to go so hard for an abridged parody for the full episode, mad respect

[FlexingToday]

There’s no reason to be laughing during Ai’s death, but then there’s the dub 😭

[dawn]

Ikr when I first heard Ai's English voice I thought it did not fit her at all.

[akinokenshi]

I didn’t think Ai’s English VA was the best fit for the majority of that episode, but I do think she did a great job on “that” scene. No Rie Takahashi, but I feel she really tried given how monumental of a scene it is and it came through. She got the emotions across.

[DemonQueenIshino]

Kana’s EN VA carrying the dub the same way Kana and aqua carried “I’ll go with sweet today”

[Voider]

As someone who watches and enjoys sub and dub equally these days, when it was announced that Oshi No Ko would get dubbed, and knowing the title went to HiDive, I knew in the back of my mind that the dub quality was probably not gonna be up to snuff, and sure enough, my worst fears were realized.

For those of you who are less knowledgeable about the anime dub sphere, let me explain things. There are currently 3 big centers of dubbing Stateside (2 if you only count states), Funimation’s former office, which is now CR in Dallas, Texas, CR’s commonly used studios like Bang Zoom/Studiopolis in LA, and Sentai over in Houston, Texas. Of these 3, Sentai is by FAR the smallest as well as the weakest in terms of dub quality, and they’re also the ones who do dubs for the HiDive platform.

You can further break that down into 2 other aspects, which is voice direction and audio production.

I've tuned into dubs from all platforms, including Sentai's, for over 7 years now. As far as Sentai's dubs go, in terms of direction, I’ve always had the impression that they treated their dubs almost like they’re theater productions, because almost everyone speaks super clearly and loudly all the time, even in what are supposed to be quieter, subtler moments. Ai in the first episode is a perfect example; she sounded weaker and weaker as time passed after she got stabbed in the sub, which was NOT reflected in even the most remote way in the dub; her dub VA spoke in the same loud and clear voice she spoke in for the rest of the episode. So much nuance winds up being lost as a result. It’s incredibly frustrating for me knowing that while dubbing, the dubbers HAVE the original performance to reference and to help guide the delivery, and yet Sentai STILL refuses to follow it. I guarantee you, if this show went to CR and any director from CR, they would’ve been much more sensitive to the original performance and they would’ve done their absolute best to recreate the same kind of feeling and nuance in their own dub; their direction is generally way sharper and more polished-sounding. I also know its a direction thing and not a VA thing because Sentai’s voice talent who I thought did meh in their own dubs that went on to work on dubs for Funi/CR did SO MUCH better, it was crazy. I can think of at least 5 of their VAs off the top of my head who fit that description.

Audio production is another shortcoming of Sentai’s dubs. Their dub tracks always sound boxy and mid-heavy to my ears because they don’t cut out enough of the problematic frequencies. This makes them sound much less polished than the original or the dub tracks of every other major dubbing studio Stateside, and makes them sound like they always sit on top of music and sound effects, rather than being level with them.

As someone who watches dubs, I REALLY wanted to like to like this one, but there were just too many problems with it. If I had it my way, this show’s dub would’ve gone to a more capable director in a more capable studio. Sadly though, licensing just wasn’t in this show’s favor.

[Heightren]

I think Ruby acting like a herald of the gods fits to be so uncanny

[ArchonKujo]

I honestly do not want to consider anything bad if the actors did their best, however I feel like they're not even trying, to me that's how I see it, not all dubs are great nor bad, however I kinda like how it's trying to sound more hilarious than normal lol

[calebderochea]

Kana was really good. Ai had different vibes in English but I can see someone reading AI’s character in that way from the manga so I liked it. All of the VAs who were only in the first episode and won’t be in the show afterwards should be given an opportunity to redo their scenes, because those are the only moments that fell flat. Let’s see if the VAs who are in it for the long run can give this show the dub it deserves. (And, of course, Sentai Filmworks.)

[lilveltheplayer]

Sentai Filmworks don't have the best track record for English Dubs. It's usually Studiopolis, Bang Zoom, and Funimation who does the most popular dubbed anime. But they do have a few gems like Akame Ga Kill, Haikyuu, and Food Wars imo.

[henlostinky]

the most unintentionally jarring part for me is that Ai and I being homonyms makes it sound like Ai is taking in third person all the time ('what else could I want?' sounds the same as 'what else could Ai want?')

[bengll]

"I don't think the dub is THAT bad."

and yet the title says the opposite

[SahzD]

I think a lot of times we prefer subs because it hides how cringey the dialogue writing can be. A lot of times the stuff they say just sounds corny once said allowed in English versus just in my head.

[nekomajinc]

I used to be middle of the road, too. English dub, Japanese with subtitles, I took my anime any way I could get it. However, recently, and by recently I mean since Crunchyroll started mass simul-dubbing, I started preferring the subtitles to the dubs. Not because I dislike the English voice acting, because I do not dislike the English voices, but because the English dubs are lazy about subtitling the onscreen Japanese text. Most of the time, they do not even bother subtitling anything. Especially if there is a lot of onscreen text. And when a character breaks out in song for some reason, they neither dub over it nor subtitle it, and that gets very annoying. And that is why I prefer the subtitles to the dubs.

[PopularDiamondGM]

my friend is dyslexic so i now appreciate a good dub because that means we both can enjoy the anime together.

[chimera]

I like how accurate the va for the Japanese while how inaccurate the English ones

[YayoCT]

I think a major part when it comes to the DUB of anime series it's that unlike in Japanese, the English language and its people have a much different range when it comes to voices, so for example when it comes to do a younger character voice, the Japanese people, both male and female, can somewhat recreate more the voive of a younger person and give a feeling that the specific character is actually of that age, meanwhile in English this becomes somewhat more complicated since a lot of the times the younger is interpreted by a women whose voice has clearly reached a level of adulthood making it a bit less "accurate" (that's the only word I can come up rn) and just not being so appealing for a wide range of people. Maybe my explanation was not the best, but at least I hope someone managed to somewhat get the point of it.