A potentially unpopular opinion

Carl Macek's dubs were actually pretty good, and I do not
understand why, in this post-4Kids day and age, Macek is
still occassionally held up as the quintessential example
of the "Bad Dub."

Reasons Macek's dubs were good:

1. Macek was a fan, not just some guy who got in for the
money. He usually understood what the creators were
going for, and usually did a durn good job translating that
message.

2. His translations, while not necesarily as word-for-word
"accurate" as some would've liked, were at least natural-
sounding when spoken by humans. There are rarely any
instances in a Macek dub where I think "no human being
would say that."

3. The voice actors he chose, usually, could actually ACT...
unlike 99.9% of the anime VAs out there.

4. When Macek made a change, there was a reason for it.
It was never totally pointless like in most dubs.

5. He was good at matching voices to the characters. You
never had the "five-year-old girl who sounds forty" syndrome
like you do with some other people.

6. When a Macek production replaced the Japanese music
with American music, the American music was usually just
as good (both in matching the show and in just plain being
good) as the original Japanese music... and in a few cases,
was actually better (in my opinion).

And that's my case.

On Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:40:30 -0800 (PST), 8-Bit Star
<nesstar@gmail.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
>Carl Macek's dubs were actually pretty good, and I do not
>understand why, in this post-4Kids day and age, Macek is
>still occassionally held up as the quintessential example
>of the "Bad Dub."[/color]

He changed the plot of Robotech/Macross.

David Johnston wrote:[color=blue]
> On Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:40:30 -0800 (PST), 8-Bit Star
> <nesstar@gmail.com> wrote:
>[color=green]
>> Carl Macek's dubs were actually pretty good, and I do not
>> understand why, in this post-4Kids day and age, Macek is
>> still occassionally held up as the quintessential example
>> of the "Bad Dub."[/color]
>
> He changed the plot of Robotech/Macross.[/color]

Plot? Who needs plot? It's not like anyone watches anime for stories,
anyways. I know the only reason I watch anime is to see how well the voices
match.

8-Bit Star wrote:[color=blue]
> Carl Macek's dubs were actually pretty good, and I do not
> understand why, in this post-4Kids day and age, Macek is
> still occassionally held up as the quintessential example
> of the "Bad Dub."
>
> Reasons Macek's dubs were good:[/color]

<snip>

Frankly, I don't see what's wrong with the all-new Ford Macek. I mean,
sure... it doesn't actually go forward in any gear, but:

1) It's made by people who really like cars.

2) It's really shiny and has lots of chrome.

3) It's got leather seats

4) It's got the finest English detailing.

5) It's got power everything.

6) Kicking stereo.

I mean, WTF gives? It should be flying off the lots, even if it has to
leave in reverse....

8-Bit Star wrote:[color=blue]
> Carl Macek's dubs were actually pretty good, and I do not
> understand why, in this post-4Kids day and age, Macek is
> still occassionally held up as the quintessential example
> of the "Bad Dub."
>
> Reasons Macek's dubs were good:
>
> 1. Macek was a fan, not just some guy who got in for the
> money. He usually understood what the creators were
> going for, and usually did a durn good job translating that
> message.
>
> 2. His translations, while not necesarily as word-for-word
> "accurate" as some would've liked, were at least natural-
> sounding when spoken by humans. There are rarely any
> instances in a Macek dub where I think "no human being
> would say that."
>
> 3. The voice actors he chose, usually, could actually ACT...
> unlike 99.9% of the anime VAs out there.
>
> 4. When Macek made a change, there was a reason for it.
> It was never totally pointless like in most dubs.
>
> 5. He was good at matching voices to the characters. You
> never had the "five-year-old girl who sounds forty" syndrome
> like you do with some other people.
>
> 6. When a Macek production replaced the Japanese music
> with American music, the American music was usually just
> as good (both in matching the show and in just plain being
> good) as the original Japanese music... and in a few cases,
> was actually better (in my opinion).
>
> And that's my case.[/color]

To be honest, I've never had a problem with most (not all) of Macek's
dubs (Jean from Nadia certainly being a hoary exception). As for
Robotech being crunched and changed, well, we could have had the option
of not having it at all (since at 36 episodes he wouldn't have been able
to sell it to the networks). And if that had happened, well, a whole
generation of potential anime fans would possibly have been lost, and
instead of anime growing in popularity in America during the 90s
we'd just possibly be still at the local meet, synopsis in hand,
following what is on the screen instead of relaxing at home (or having
the meet at your home) watching the show on your much better TV.

Of course, that's simply conjecture ^_^.

I wouldn't say that his dubs were the greatest (though I really
enjoyed Castle of Cagliostro), but for the most part, they weren't
horrible either (again, Jean from Nadia being the exception ^_^).

Wonder what he's doing now. Last I saw, he worked on the first 25 or so
eps of Bleach...

He was good for the time and he was able to apeal
to the American mainstream so he was successful.
There are lots of people who probably know of
Robotech but do not know or realize it is anime
or Japanese.

--
All Purpose Culture Randomness
[url]http://www.angelfire.com/tx/apcr/index.html[/url]

"David Johnston" <david@block.net> wrote in message
news:bbe4s397hid54v8sslcseickn8e32k19kc@4ax.com...[color=blue]
> On Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:40:30 -0800 (PST), 8-Bit Star
> <nesstar@gmail.com> wrote:
>[color=green]
>>Carl Macek's dubs were actually pretty good, and I do not
>>understand why, in this post-4Kids day and age, Macek is
>>still occassionally held up as the quintessential example
>>of the "Bad Dub."[/color]
>
> He changed the plot of Robotech/Macross.[/color]

Most of the people in North America who care about Macross do so only
because of Robotech. To say nothing of the fact most people would never have
heard of Southern Cross or Mospaeda without it. The existence of new
Robotech material after two decades is proof enough that he was doing
something right.

That being said, I think 8-Bit was talking more about Streamline stuff.

-
Blade
(Liked the Streamline Nadia's voices, for the record.)

If I don't respond to this 8-Bit Star post, the terrorists win.
[color=blue]
> Carl Macek's dubs were actually pretty good, and I do not
> understand why, in this post-4Kids day and age, Macek is
> still occassionally held up as the quintessential example
> of the "Bad Dub."[/color]

<snippage>

"Not as bad as people say" and/or "At least it's not 4Kids" is as far
as I'm willing to go in defence of the man who inspired the term
"Macekre". ([url]http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/MAin/Macekre[/url])



--
My name is:
____ _
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| |__ _ __ ___ ___ ____ ___ _ __ | |
| __|| '__/ _ \/ _ \/_ // _ \| '__|| |
| | | | __/ __/ / /| __/| | |_|
|_| |_| \___|\___||___|\___||_| (_)
And my anti-drug is porn.
[url]http://www.geocities.com/mysterysciencefreezer[/url]
[url]http://freezer818.livejournal.com/[/url]

On Feb 25, 6:55 am, "Blade" <kumonr...@hotmail.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
> That being said, I think 8-Bit was talking more about Streamline stuff.[/color]

Pretty much, yeah--I was inspired to make this post after seeing
Doomed Megalopolis for the first time.

Though the Harmony Gold stuff I've seen (Robotech and
Magical Princess Gigi) weren't so bad either.

In article
<9acfa3c9-89d8-4738-b276-4a6005a3ce46@72g2000hsu.googlegroups.com>,
8-Bit Star <nesstar@gmail.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
> On Feb 25, 6:55 am, "Blade" <kumonr...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>[color=green]
> > That being said, I think 8-Bit was talking more about Streamline stuff.[/color]
>
> Pretty much, yeah--I was inspired to make this post after seeing
> Doomed Megalopolis for the first time.
>[/color]
Macek did do some good dubs: Doomed Megalopolis I agree is great, and I
quite liked the cast for Lupin and the entire supporting cast of Nadia
(the two leads needed a couple episodes to catch up, but by episode 4
were also good). However, he had two flaws:

1. While he always had good actors, they were sometimes put in the
wrong roles.

2. He thought he was a writer, and could "improve" on movies.

Over all, though, without Macek and Streamline we wouldn't have the
anime boom. They not only marketed to non-hardcore fans, but pushed
anime into video rental stores and kept lowering the prices.

--
Chris Mack "Refugee, total shit. That's how I've always seen us.
'Invid Fan' Not a help, you'll admit, to agreement between us."
-'Deal/No Deal', CHESS