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Vol 2 Issue 7
[ANIME REVIEWS]

oh my goddess!
AnimEigo Dubbed Release
— by Roderick "Agitator" Lee



When it comes to "pure fans," dubs will always be a hard sell. Throw in a favorite character voiced by a popular seiyuu, such as Hayashibara Megumi or Tsuru Hiromi, and said company might as well have been thrown to the wolves.
   AA! MEGAMISAMA's Belldandy is not only a fan favorite, but she is also one of the most popular anime characters of all time. She topped the ANIMAGE character polls for many months during her heyday, and still sits in the top ten; in the 17th Anime Grand Prix in 1995, Belldandy was third on the all time Best Character list. Furthermore, she is originally voiced by the illustrious Inoue Kikuko, whose quiet, reserved portrayal brings a graciousness to her character that no doubt contributes to her popularity. Thus, AnimEigo had its work cut out in attempting to bring Belldandy and her sisters to the English speaking world with their dub release of OH MY GODDESS! Last year, though, AnimEigo silenced many of its critics with their dub version of GODDESS creator Fujishima Kosuke's earlier work, YOU'RE UNDER ARREST.
   Does the OH MY GODDESS! dub meet the quality standards that they themselves set? Or is the ARREST dub a fluke?
   For the benefit of those unfamiliar with the series, OH MY GODDESS! is a five-part romantic OVA series based on the continuing fifteen volume manga series, AA! MEGAMISAMA, by Fujishima Kosuke. Currently, Dark Horse and Studio Proteus release the manga series, also under the name OH MY GODDESS!
   In the opening of both anime and manga, college student Morisato Keiichi dials a wrong number while attempting to order food for delivery. Instead, a female voice answers "Relief Goddess Office," and says she will arrive shortly for a consultation. Suddenly, the goddess Belldandy (the voice on the phone) pops out of the mirror and promises Keiichi that he has been granted one wish. Thinking that he has been set up by his dorm mates, Keiichi declares "I want a goddess like you to be by my side always." Thus, begins the new life and budding romance between Keiichi and Belldandy. Later, the series introduces Belldandy's sisters, Urd and Skuld, also goddesses, not to mention a wide assortment of romantic complications.
   Obviously, what makes or breaks a dub are the voices, and casting director Scott Houle deserves recognition for his selection of—despite their inexperience to anime dubbing—principals Scott Simpson as Keiichi and Juliet Cesario as Belldandy. In two words, Simpson and Cesario are "Dead On." And their outlook on what they do and how they approach it (see EX's profile from earlier this year) is refreshing and promising. Cesario will never replace Inoue Kikuko for this reviewer or for many other longtime fans, but it is easy to see (or rather hear) how fans who view the dub can prefer Cesario. Simpson also performs commendably in comparison to his Japanese counterpart, Kikuchi Masami, but as this is a shonen series, the emphasis is naturally on the female voices.
   It used to be that dubs were such a hit-or-miss issue that better than average performances by a series' main characters independent of the supporting cast were enough to classify a title as a "good dub." But, AnimEigo helped raise the bar on dub quality with their stunning ARREST dub. And, conversely, AnimEigo clears their own bar. Lanelle Markgraf infuses Urd with a tarnished elegance, very appropriate. Meanwhile, Pamela Wiedner, who seems miscast as ARREST's meddling Yoriko, is just the opposite as Skuld, another great voice match. Keiichi's younger sister, Megumi, as played by Amanda Spivey, is too immersed in youthful slang (For example, she first greets Skuld with a very timely, "Tsup?"). She suffers from an overly colloquial dub script; if the translations were more literal like the sub, her voice would probably sound more appropriate and less jarring. Marc Matney's Tamiya even sounds like the original. Scott Bailey as Aoshima is disgustingly arrogant, like he should be. (Unfortunately, in reviewing OVAs 1, 3, and 5, the reviewer missed the chance to hear Sayoko.) Only Ootaki seems to have been played one dimensionally, the typical "hey dude" approach. But at least in the anime Ootaki is a one dimensional character, so that can be mostly forgiven.
  The second component of a dub is the script, which for reasons that will never be completely clear, always has to be markedly different from the sub script. Granted, there are some cases where voice synchronization issues force creative translation techniques, but this does not happen with every line. For all the good that they did in keeping the sub and dub scripts of ARREST as similar as possible, this effort did not appear to carryover to GODDESS. In fact, some critical changes even modify characterization and plot.
   Take, for starters, the signature line and entire premise of the series: "I want a goddess like you to be by my side forever." (This is a fan translation, but it is not far from Studio Proteus's "I want a goddess like you to be with me always.") Rendered this way, Keiichi, who still thinks this is a joke, is asking for a girlfriend to be like Belldandy, not necessarily Belldandy herself. AnimEigo's sub is: "I want a girl like you to be with me forever," swapping "goddess" for "girl," but not really changing any meaning. Contrast this with: "I want you to be my girlfriend forever." And just like that, the relationship (and some extreme purists might even say the entire series) is different.
   And this is not an isolated incident, either. In the "Burning Hearts on the Road" dub, Bell lectures Aoshima that the Goddess of Victory does not smile on those who only think of winning because "real victory is compassion for others." What??? Where did that come from when the sub script reads: "The Goddess of Victory smiles on those who already have burning hearts."? Granted this is not critical to plot like the previous example, but it is just a "translation" from nowhere. More striking is the scene from "For the Love of Goddess" in which Bell is preparing to depart. In the dub, she tearfully recalls "nine months of memories, and I can't even leave those with him," focusing on the fact that she will soon be not even a memory for Keiichi. But, change just a few words and the sub says, "nine months of memories, but I can't take them with me," shifting the focus from Keiichi to herself. If there was ever any doubt of Bell's love for Keiichi, then this sub line erased those doubts. The dub line, while certainly emotional in its own right, does not quite have the same effect since it reveals less about Belldandy's own feelings.
   Cheap humor appears to be another reason for some translation changes. When Megumi first shows up and explains that it is better for her to live with Keiichi because she would be safer, the dub response is: "That's me, a real samurai warrior." Not at all like the sub's "I'm not safe at all." Or in a slightly earlier scene, the more literal "If you say so, I'm sure it will be all right" is replaced by the joke "I make it a point never to argue with goddesses when it comes to luck." This is the kind of creative liberties that fans complain about from Viz. Now, we have to put up with it from AnimEigo, too? Finally, there is "Tamago no Uta," Bell's cute little baking song from the opening to "Burning Hearts." Already tweaked once in the sub, the song undergoes a full overhaul in the dub, and one that longtime fans will likely be none too pleased with.
   AnimEigo is to be commended for finding surprising voice talent. Longtime fans should be suitably impressed by Juliet Cesario. But this reviewer cannot get past the inexplicable and unnecessary translation changes. For that, AnimEigo earns an A for voices, but a C+ for dub translation. Newcomers unfamiliar with the subs should have no problem picking the series up since they will have no preconceived comparisons. And since most dubs are aimed at new fans rather than old ones, AnimEigo has done its job well, despite the translation transgressions.

  Scott Simpson
Juliet Cesario
Lanelle Markgraf
Pamela Wiedner
Amanda Spivey
Marc Matney
Sean P. O'Connell
Scott Bailey
  Keiichi
Belldandy
Urd
Skuld
Megumi
Tamiya
Ootaki
Aoshima

  AA! MEGAMISAMA / OH MY GODDESS!
Copyright © KSS / Kodansha Video
Released in North America by AnimEigo
Episode 1, "Moonlight and Cherry Blossoms"
Episode 2, "A Midsummer Night's Dream," 30 min each, Hybrid CLV LD $34.95
Episode 3, "Burning Hearts on the Road"
Episode 4, "Evergreen Holy Night," 30 min each, Hybrid CLV LD $34.95
Episode 5, "For the Love of Goddess," 40 min, Hybrid CLV LD $34.95
VHS, one episode per tape, $13.45


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