Ah. My version is in English (though I think the menu allows you to listen to it in Japanese with subtitles)
Oh, yeah, so are my DVDs and I take the Japanese option. I generally avoid dubs on principle, because with the original language I feel I'm getting something closer to what the creator intended, rather than with another layer of interpretation from voice actors in between. Having seen what CN did to Gundam Wing with the dubs, I know how very differently the same scene can be played depending on the intonation. Plus, I saw Trigun as fansubs originally before I bought the DVDs and listening to it in English just feels wrong. And then there's the not inconsiderable point that Hayami Shou (Wolfwood) has one of the sexiest voices ever, and I'm such a voice whore. (Listen to 'Goodbye for Now' in Japanese, especially the scenes where Vash strips and Wolfwood tells Lina it's not her fault, and the later scene where he's trying to persuade Vash to go with him. He has this perfect degree of slight roughness to his voice like he's breathing through all the words. Pretty much my definition of audio sex *g*) Dub Wolfwood the bland tenor just does not cut it!
Japan has a lot of distinct regional dialects - it's more like England than the US in that you can travel from one city to another just 30 miles away and find obvious differences. Wolfwood speaks Kansai-ben, from western Japan, specifically the Osaka variant. It is a distinct accent in the pronunciation, I believe, but I don't have enough of an ear in Japanese to be able to pick that up myself. But like most regional dialects, it's not just the pronunciation - Kansai-ben uses words and phrases that standard Japanese doesn't, and has variations in the way sentences are structured and grammar is used. It's very slang-filled, which makes translating him something of a nightmare for me! Wolfwood speaks Kansai-ben in the manga, which is why they kept him that way for the anime.
Because of the strong yakuza associations with Osaka, the dialect carries certain connotations of gangsters - it would be kind of like making him a Sicilian, I guess. In England, he'd be something like a Cockney, with its overtones of East End gangsters. In fact Cockney works very well as a comparison, because of course the other association with Cockney speak is as a comic relief character, and Kansai-ben is used for that too. So when Wolfwood shows up speaking Kansai-ben and acting like an idiot, you can either take him at face value and assume he's more of the Trigun silliness, or you can start looking for the more sinister side to him. The accent's a way of dropping hints.
Ack. I mean, those are just awful. Don't think I've seen Vash as a kid with adult Wolfwood before. The other way round is fairly common.
I've never been impressed with anything by Urban Knights. Their yaoi Vash looks consistently all frail, pretty and 'Oh, Wolfwood!' from the scans on ebay, and the one book of theirs I ended up with from a batch buy was indeed like that. I'm not too surprised to see them producing other nauseating stuff.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-02-13 05:50 pm (UTC)Oh, yeah, so are my DVDs and I take the Japanese option. I generally avoid dubs on principle, because with the original language I feel I'm getting something closer to what the creator intended, rather than with another layer of interpretation from voice actors in between. Having seen what CN did to Gundam Wing with the dubs, I know how very differently the same scene can be played depending on the intonation. Plus, I saw Trigun as fansubs originally before I bought the DVDs and listening to it in English just feels wrong. And then there's the not inconsiderable point that Hayami Shou (Wolfwood) has one of the sexiest voices ever, and I'm such a voice whore. (Listen to 'Goodbye for Now' in Japanese, especially the scenes where Vash strips and Wolfwood tells Lina it's not her fault, and the later scene where he's trying to persuade Vash to go with him. He has this perfect degree of slight roughness to his voice like he's breathing through all the words. Pretty much my definition of audio sex *g*) Dub Wolfwood the bland tenor just does not cut it!
Japan has a lot of distinct regional dialects - it's more like England than the US in that you can travel from one city to another just 30 miles away and find obvious differences. Wolfwood speaks Kansai-ben, from western Japan, specifically the Osaka variant. It is a distinct accent in the pronunciation, I believe, but I don't have enough of an ear in Japanese to be able to pick that up myself. But like most regional dialects, it's not just the pronunciation - Kansai-ben uses words and phrases that standard Japanese doesn't, and has variations in the way sentences are structured and grammar is used. It's very slang-filled, which makes translating him something of a nightmare for me! Wolfwood speaks Kansai-ben in the manga, which is why they kept him that way for the anime.
Because of the strong yakuza associations with Osaka, the dialect carries certain connotations of gangsters - it would be kind of like making him a Sicilian, I guess. In England, he'd be something like a Cockney, with its overtones of East End gangsters. In fact Cockney works very well as a comparison, because of course the other association with Cockney speak is as a comic relief character, and Kansai-ben is used for that too. So when Wolfwood shows up speaking Kansai-ben and acting like an idiot, you can either take him at face value and assume he's more of the Trigun silliness, or you can start looking for the more sinister side to him. The accent's a way of dropping hints.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-14 09:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-14 08:56 pm (UTC)I've never been impressed with anything by Urban Knights. Their yaoi Vash looks consistently all frail, pretty and 'Oh, Wolfwood!' from the scans on ebay, and the one book of theirs I ended up with from a batch buy was indeed like that. I'm not too surprised to see them producing other nauseating stuff.