4 ms·
>I don't understand much Japanese personally. But it seems like Japanese voice-actors over-rely upon "vocal tics", like a character drawing out a particular sou
by s_m_t 7y ago
>I don't understand much Japanese personally. But it seems like Japanese voice-actors over-rely upon "vocal tics", like a character drawing out a particular sound or having a catch-phrase.
>Ex: "Dattebayo" from Naruto, "Arimasu" from Shana, "Nyan" from many, many cat characters (Hellsing Ultimate, Stein's; Gate, Log Horizon), "Desu", etc. etc.
Arimasu and Desu aren't vocal-tics... It's just differing levels of politeness or formality. A character always using them can signify a lot of things like haughtiness, noblesse oblige (misplaced or not), deference, a failure to integrate with/judge the nature of their relationship with one's peers. It really depends on the situation.
stuff like "dattebayo" and "nyan" is sort of a humorous spin on the whole concept of explicitly encoding these things into grammar. They don't generally add these into the dubs because it wouldn't make any sense as English doesn't really have this sort of thing to the extent Japanese does. Honestly I have no idea how you would translate "dattebayo" because it is a corruption of Japanese to begin with to show Naruto as having trouble fitting in, being mischievous, childlike, while also having a level of ambition wildly out of place with his position of practically village leper.
- dragontamer 7y ago> Arimasu and Desu aren't vocal-tics... It's just differing levels of politeness or formality. A character always using them can signify a lot of things like haughtiness, noblesse oblige (misplaced or not), deference, a failure to integrate with/judge the nature of their relationship with one's peers. It really depends on the situation. But even then, Arimasu and Desu are abused to "catchphrase" levels by Wilhelmina (Shakugan no Shana) and Suiseiseki (Rozen Maiden). For example: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlk6RcSLrpw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlk6RcSLrpw) If you wanted me to point out a particular "Vocal Tic", then I'll choose Deidara's "Hmph" that is added to a huge number of his lines (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU1LF-NnlvY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU1LF-NnlvY) ---------- What I'm saying is: the original Japanese seems to lean extremely heavily on the use of catch-phrases and/or vocal tics. A lot of anime-watching (even in full Subs) almost feels like Donald-Duck or Loony Tunes level of vocal tics and/or catch-phrases. I mean sure, we all love "I'm a Doctor not a X" (McCoy from Star Trek). Or Homer's "Doh". But its an issue of how often they say it IMO that kind of draws me out of Japanese Subtitles sometimes. There's a level of "campiness" whenever a character leans on a catch-phrase. In the American Dub, the use of catch-phrases is almost always toned down. So there's less "campiness" and I take the result somewhat more seriously.