Considering that Bandai was previously disappointed with Lucky Star sales and are expecting even less sales with this. If they don't dub it, its because they want to keep costs low since they know it won't sell well anyway and its a waste of money to hire a dub cast.
K-On is a show that should never be dubbed in my opinion. The voice actors would most likely butcher it, like they did with Lucky Star. Their voices still haunt me. It would just be a waste to dub it all together. It would most likely be completely ruined. I'll stick to my Japanese voices, thank you.
[highlight]No big loss. Subs are better than dubs. Also, isn't K-ON music centred? Meaning singing? Meaning the dub will be horrible to hear?[/highlight]
Fullmetal Alchemist and Hellsing say hi. I could also get into the usual arguments and why they really don't stand, but that's irrelevant. First season, yes. Second season, so far, not really. Because English singing is always bad and vastly inferior to a language you probably don't even understand.... The only real problem is that the singing is painfully lighthearted, which more or less ruins otherwise decent songs (and also the reason I can't stand most Japanese pop.) I can't imagine how much worse it would be if I could actually understand the lyrics.
Those two are really just exceptions, most dubs normally do suck. Naruto says hi. It's not only the singing though, most of the time when a show gets dubbed, the characters just don't sound right. Bringing up Lucky Star again, the twin with the short purple hair's voice was awful. I remember hearing it the first time and was like "What the heck..." Subs help with that, just saying. And I do not believe he was referring to all english singing bad, just with what generally happens in all of these types of anime, the singers for the english dub is awful along with the lyrics. Haruhi says hi. But perhaps if you could understand the lyrics you wouldn't find it so bad.
I thought I read somewhere that anime that's only subbed doesn't generally sell as well as stuff that's dubbed. If that's true, then they're sort of condemning the sales potential to begin with. I always consider a dub a plus because, hell, you can watch the subs if you want anyway... It's just extra content for people who want it and widens the potential audience. As for the license though, freaking FINALLY. I have been waiting ages, I thought nobody would pick it up ;__; .
Lucky Star was filled with references only a select few would get. K-On however could potentially do well in America if handled well, considering how well shows like Glee, Victorious, etc. do here. Hence why I think FUNimation should have gotten this series, because they seem to handle their licenses very well. Even if Bandai just uses the English dub made in Singapore, it shouldn't be a sub-only release.
English isn't bad. I would just prefer the original songs with subtitles just because I think it work better since the show is about Japanese pop. It would be kinda weird if the songs were in English IMO. Most dubs get better with time especially with long running series like Naruto. A lot of dubs do a good job though like Cowboy Bebop and Code Geass. People in Japan actually liked the dub of Code Geass better than the original because it seemed more natural. In the end, I wouldn't mind if they made a dub. I just hope they don't dub over the songs and make new ones since I like the originals.
Actually, Naruto's dub improved greatly as time went on as the actors started to understand the characters more. That's a common part of long running series. FUNimation's Roronoa Zoro says hi. That's more likely because you're used to the characters' Japanese voices and has nothing to do with the quality of the dub in the first place. The lack of major music based anime makes this a very difficult argument. I would bring up Beck, but I've never seen that dub. Likewise, I've never seen the Haruhi dub, so I wouldn't know which the better version is. Most singing in anime tends to have subtitles along with it, so I get the general idea of the lyrics and understanding them would probably make things even worse. Which is a fair enough view, but it would be very disorienting if they were to switch from the dubbed acting to subbed singing. Assuming that's what you're suggesting in the first place. And here we have a great example of how weak the "Japanese actors are better" argument is. The only reason people make that argument is because they don't understand the language, so they assume that it is automatically better. The American fans of Code Geass ***** and moan about minor mistakes with the acting while praising the Japanese acting, while Japanese fans hate their dub and prefer the English dub, particularly Lelouche I might add, because it feels more natural (of course it does help that it makes more sense for many of the characters to be speaking English. In the case of Code Geass a bilingual version would be ideal with English for the English speaking characters and Japanese for the Japanese speaking characters, but such a thing would cost quite a bit of money.)
I agree... K-On is a "school life" anime, which I have yet to see a good dub of. Not to mention most of the dialogs throughout the series can get really random, the English dubs just can never catch the atmosphere of the situation like the jap versions. But hey, I've been proven wrong on dubs before.
[highlight]One Piece.[/highlight] [highlight]Please stop putting words in my mouth. If you have a Japanese song in an anime, what happens to it if it's dubbed? If they translate it, they have to somehow fit the English words into the rhythm of the song, then get the voice actor to actually sing it. Factor in that voice acting as a profession is more widely accepted in Japan than the west, so unless it's a really high-end anime, you now have a badly sung song that has lyrics that are squeezed in. Alternatively, they replace the song with something else. Then you get complaints of not staying true to the source. The lack of music based anime does not make this a difficult argument. Openings and Endings, if translated, are good enough examples.[/highlight]
Like Naruto, it got better and you also got to remember that it was redubbed by Funi after 4Kids butchered it.
[highlight]4piece didn't get better. It got cancelled after it almost completely ruined any chance OP had of becoming popular in the west.[/highlight]
Yes, 4Kids destroyed One Piece, but at the same time, FUNimation's uncut and redubbed DVD sales are quite strong and the FUNimation cast is (save for Zoro somehow) universally better that the 4Kids cast. On a side note, why Marc Diraison signed on as Zoro for 4Kids is beyond me, but he was the only positive part of the 4Kids dub. Because you didn't strongly imply that you think all English anime sucks and that all translated versions of Japanese songs universally suck, nope. Not at all. As for the "voice acting is more accepted in Japan" thing: Bullshit. The quality of Japanese voice acting is very dependent on the series in question's budget, much like it is here in the west. Again, there are Japanese dubs that Japanese anime fans hate because they sound forced and unnatural or the acting is just bad. Again, you don't notice this because you don't speak the language. Not to mention that anime is the only major part of Japanese culture to also be popular outside of Japan, so you're getting a pretty skewed view of Japanese culture as a whole. No, actually, the openers and closers are not good enough examples because they rarely mean anything in the context of the show.
Bit of a bump, but I checked the Bandai website and it has American VAs being confirmed for many characters, so apparently K-ON! IS getting a dub. What's more, Cristina Vee is Mio. Honestly, this is looking to me like it could turn out to be an awesome dub.
That's pretty interesting, I'm actually looking forward to seeing how they're gonna do this. I like K-On, the dub will probably be another reason for me to re-watch it. Cool story brah.
