This is an unbiased review on the new dub. Since I have watched the whole season back in 2009 when it was only in fansubs, why not take advantage of viewing it in English? It seems fun, right?
The dub wasn’t all that bad. I’m pretty lenient and don’t complain why it doesn’t sound like the original because it’s difficult to imitate the pitch since it’s a different language. As long it’s not 4Kids, we are fine.
Episode 1
- Tomoya’s voice (performed by David Matranga) is a bit deeper than the original, but it fits him unlike Yukito’s English voice in Air.
- Nagisa’s voice performed by Luci Christian and it’s fits Nagisa’s character rather well.
- Sunohara’s voice (Greg Ayres) is pretty amusing since Sunohara is the monkey of the show, am I right?
- Ryou (performed by Brittney Karbowski) sounds vastly familiar since she done the voice for Tsukimiya Ayu. That similar voice coming out of Ryou made me expect that she is going to say “Uguu~” next.
- Kyou’s voice (performed by Shelley Calene-Black) sounded like she is some kind of female villain that wants to beat the crap out of you. No, really? I don’t remember of her sounding that harsh before. A bit too deep for my liking, but hopefully it will improve.
- Furukawa’s parents, Sanae (Kara Greenberg) and Akio (Andrew Love) sounded good… even the scene with Sanae running out the bakery. It worked rather well.
- I noticed that a few lines were missing, but they were pretty minor and not important.
- The names: They sound somewhat awkward. Tomoya and Tomoyo almost sound the same that its pretty difficult to tell them apart compared to the Japanese version. Lastly, the way the pronounced “Nagisa” somewhat strange since I say it as “Na-gee-sa.” In the English dub, they pronounce it as “Nag-ees-a.”
Overall, Episode 1 was a bit a rough start, but pretty decent. Its gets slightly better in Episode 2 and 3.
Episode 2
- The scene where Kyou crashes into Tomoya… I was like what happened to her voice when she was screamed “Tomoya, get out of the way?” I’m guessing that she is still getting used to her role. It will get used to it, she just needs more time. When she left, the laugh sounded pretty evil…
- Kotomi’s voice (Emily Neves) fits her personality for the most part. It may not be Noto, but it sounded pretty good.
- Although the “Kyou is Bi” scene sounded pretty funny. The one thing that irked me a bit is when Kyou said it’s a bike. It seems that she didn’t finished her explaination.
- Nagisa’s English version of the dango song is okay, but sounded somewhat awkward in English… I still wonder how it’s going to sound like when they dub Clannad After Story… Oh boy!
- Fuko (voiced by Hilary Haag) is just Fuko… Not much to say about it, except that she doesn’t refer herself by her first name like in the Japanese version.
- Towards the end of Episode 2 when Nagisa collapses, the way Tomoya screams her last names is awkward. Its similar to the complaints in the first episode except that it is not nearly as bad.
Second episode was slightly better than the first with a few minor flaws.
Episode 3
- The first running gag with Sanae running out of the bakery after Akio said something about them… I laughed…
- That guy that complained about the dent is rather annoying… On the other hand, Yusuke (voiced by Illich Guardiola) sounded pretty cool about it and yea, it’s a big cat… Nyaaa~
- Fuko comes back for the knife and the scene to check if her hands still hurt still sounded pretty funny. Childish, yes but Fuko has a childish personality after all.
- The scene where Sunohara wake up saying the world ended in English sounded just as funny as the Japanese version.
- Botan (voiced by Melissa Davis)… Not much changed and it kept the same cry… Puhi! and pretty much comparable to Potato from Air.
- Wait? Botan is female? That’s news to me since in the dub and the sub, Sunohara refers to it as a male. Not so much in the fansub version as he refers Botan to “it.”
- Yukine (voiced by Maggie Flecknoe) makes an appearance which sounds somewhat similar to Shiori’s English voice… Yukine is not the only voice that sounds familiar to a character from the Kanon Engllsh Dub. Ryou is the other character that had very similar voices.
In the end, I feel mostly confident that this dub will turn out pretty decent. Besides Kyou’s English Voice, most of the voices pretty much clicked with me. The English dub shouldn’t be a problem for people who are watching Clannad for the first time. In my opinion, they perform best when they don’t imitate the original Japanese Cast.
Stay tuned next time when I evaluate the next three episodes.
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