How Do You Prefer Your Miyazaki?

Plenty of collector-minded obsessives here, great place to start...

So many ways to enjoy the Studio Ghibli films, although understandably most in the U.S. take the easy route, and just go with the Disney English voiceovers (presumably assuming this is the most logical platform).

Anybody here have a preference for the original Japanese with subtitle option?
DVD, or are the Blu-ray's a significant improvement?
I've seen a few (probably bootleg) box sets on amazon from time to time, but tonight I saw a legit Studio Ghibli box for the Asian market, non-Disney English versions included(!), but no idea if they are region-code-free. Quite pricey though...$344, I believe ( )...

Just like the Criterion Collection calling out to me whenever I stop by B&N, I have no need for these...but ohhh, they'd look so spiffy on a shelf! Would you prefer buying film-by-film, or would a box be more suitable for you? Any post-Miyazaki Ghibli releases worth your dollar, from Suzuki, Takahasta or Tokuma?

Essentially...who's a serious Ghibli obsessive here?

 

The Japanese Blu-rays are considered the best versions, but they also lack the English dubs. Disney's individual BDs aren't terrible but they occasionally use dubtitles instead of translating the Japanese audio.

The new reissues from GKids fix most of the problems with the Disney BDs, though a few special features are lost in the switchover.

 

Generally-speaking, there's a ton of snobbery when it comes to English dubs. Back in the old days when I'd watch a lot, they were hit & miss. Some were amazing like the Tenchi Muyo series and some were ridiculously terrible. It's largely considered uncool to like a dub unless you're ready to be ridiculed by others. There's stuff like that in any hobby and this one is no different.

Having said that, I'm much more impartial than most in that regard. I have no problems stating a dub is great or terrible. The Disney-bought Ghibli movies (remember Miyazaki isn't the only director who made movies which were brought over to these shores via the Disney deal) have fantastic dubs.

My favorite movie of his is Kiki's Delivery Service and Kirsten Dunst did an amazing job. The Cat Returns is hilarious. One I'd recommend when you're by yourself is Grave of the Fireflies. It was made by Ghibli and released as a double-feature with Totoro but it is an extremely sad movie. I've said before that it's the greatest movie I'll never watch again... but I'm quite glad I did. Miyazaki wasn't in the director's chair for that one either.

There are some differences between the (what I'll refer to as the) Americanized versions VS the originals. You can find a list of the differences online but using Kiki as an example, in the very last scene, Jiji comes back. In the original, he doesn't say anything and we're left in limbo as to whether he can speak again (via Kiki's powers). Miyazaki stated that was done to let the viewer deduce that because she's more mature having been through that coming of age that she doesn't need to have conversations with her cat anymore. However, in the Americanized version, Jiji says "I'm baaaaack!" to bring closure and an easy happy ending to it all. Personally, I prefer the latter but it's entirely subjective.

Again, sticking with Kiki, there are *2* English dubs. One by Disney and one by a short-lived company called Streamline. You can buy Region 2 DVDs or BluRays which I believe feature that dub as well so you can choose. I've listened to it and was quite disappointed with how much more adult Kiki and Jiji sound since they're supposed to be young but it has a lot of die-hard followers.

I liked Totoro, Laputa, Kiki, Grave, Whisper of the Heart, The Cat Returns, Spirited Away, From Up On Poppy Hill.

I was underwhelmed by Porco Rosso (protagonist I never rooted for), Princess Mononoke (too long - too vague in tension/drama, although I loved the serious tone), Howl's Moving Castle (not enough exploration of the child trapped in an old body and a rather boring plot), Earthsea (a write-off - could've been much more), Ponyo (technically well done but it didn't charm me and the protagonist was way too young to have any depth), Arietty (lighthearted and OK but not great), The Wind Rises (Miyazaki's last movie was a total bore - no tension/conflict whatsoever as the protagonist is superhuman and never fails in any way).

I haven't seen yet Only Yesterday (interesting), Pom Poko (so silly, it looks plain dumb), Yamadas (see Pom Poko), Kaguya (interesting), Marnie (interesting).

As for buying a box set, I don't see the point of such things. Buy the specific movies and versions you want. It'll be cheaper and more rewarding, IMHO.

If you like Miyazaki, you owe it to yourself to watch the following two animes ; Your Name (Kimi No Na Wa) and A Silent Voice (Koe no Katachi). The latter is a super serious movie while the former has a mix of extremely serious and super silly moments. Both are absolute masterpieces and my wife who doesn't care all that much for anime thought they were wonderful. Your Name is probably the best anime I've seen in about 10 years.

 

I would never watch a dubbed live action film, subtitles always, but all animation is by definition dubbed - it is someone adding the voices after. So I don't see the problem if the English version is done well (I prefer a native accent though).

 

Howl's Moving Castle's English dub is awesome. The other Disney dubs are hit or miss.

 

It’s not always that clear cut, especially with older international productions. I can think of several live-action films where cast members spoke varying languages on set then certain characters were dubbed in post.

An even more extreme example is Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, Wrath of God. The entire cast spoke English on set then Herzog had the dialogue re-recorded, in post-production, into German. Klaus Kinski demanded too much money for the post-sync session, so Herzog used another voice actor for Kinski’s lines. The film’s main release was in German, but, personally, I prefer the English soundtrack when watching on Blu-ray.

Where do/would you stand on these issues?

 

Which Disney dubs did you dislike? I believe I've watched all of them and thought they were all very well done... although my only minor complaint is they kept hiring real actors instead of seasoned voice actors for the jobs which seems unnecessary as the marketing for these movies doesn't have anything to do with star power but rather the brilliance of the Ghibli works.

Interesting but a different topic altogether. Start a new thread for that. It'll make for an interesting conversation.

 

Wow, that is confusing. I have Aguirre on DVD but haven't seen it in a while, I did find it funny that you had Germans speaking English pretending to be Spanish.

And I watched Argento's Deep Red the other day which is a case of I think your first example.

You can't go back and correct these things now so it's a case of what ever is the lesser evil I suppose.

 

I realize that most people would consider the original Japanese audio to be the most "pure" way to watch the Ghibli films. Problem is, unless you speak Japanese, you have to read subtitles, which I believe detract from the visual experience of the movie. Miyazaki's films in particular are so visually sumptuous, it's a disservice to his art to keep your eyes on the bottom of the screen.

 

Our local indie/arts cinema (who doesn't bring in nearly enough animation or anime, IMHO, was lucky to get both Your Name and The Red Turtle this past year, so, 'yay me'. Yes, I'm interested in Marnie, and have not seen Nausicaa yet. Surprised you were not more pleased with The Wind Rises; between the music and those magical Miyazaki moon scenes, I think it was a marvelously mature end to his tenure at Ghibli (which, as it turns out, won't be his last. Yay.).

And yeah, I'd sooo love to have my choice of Disney or Toho or Ghibli-distributed films, but sadly not until they decide we deserve a no-region choice.

 

There was zero tension in The Wind Rises. The protagonist is superhuman. He solves every problem easily, always with a smile, gets the woman he wants, escapes mayhem, etc. When I watched Totoro, I had no idea how it would end. With Kiki, I didn't know how she'd end up. A perfect person with remarkle intelligence, looks, strength, and the ability to easily plot through any would-be obstacle was unsatisfactory.

It was beautifully drawn and animated but there was nothing interesting, no internal conflict, nothing of the kind. It was whimsical but without much substance, IMHO.

Go watch Your Name and let me know what you think.

 

True. However, his stories can be quite engrossing and having a substandard dub could lessen or eliminate any drama in the movie which would be a shame. Thankfully, in my view anyway, Disney did do great dubs. If I remember correctly, they were supervised by Brad Bird who's a gigantic Miyazaki fan and did all he could to make them as high-quality as possible.

 

Ummm, I did; late Spring, I believe. Unfortunately, I have no reccolection of what we were talking about on the way out, that struck us as particularly interesting at the time. It was certainly heads-above schoolgirl anime. And if I recall correctly, it seemed to me that the maturity of the plot managed to make it easy to get drawn in, even without explanation. Past that, all I remember was I loved it.

But not for the same reasxos I loved Wind Rises, which was I think more about a man's progression, and less about the conflict they were all living in. So I can't comment any further about your objections to it.

So, these two, with The Red Turtle, were three very unique Japanese animated films with an even lesser "tee-hee-hee!"-quotient to them.

 

Strat, I wish I'd remembered this sooner, but it bubbled-up to the first page again today...I actually started a thread about it back then!
New Japanese animated film, "Your Name"

 

Subs only here, apart from most of the theatrical releases if I'm seeing it when released. We have a nearly-complete set of the earlier (up to Mononoke Hime) movies that we got so long ago that I can't remember where.

The Disney dubs are okay, but I have a thing for Japanese voices.

 

Me, I don't have a problem with either Japanese voices or not understanding the language...but, I just don't get exactly where all that punctuation comes from in the sub-titles...because I sure don't hear it in the original voicework.

 

I agree. I’m less bothered about the English dub for the reason you stated, and yet I always select the original Japanese version on the blu ray. However, I have gone to the cinema and went for the English option, simply because it was the only one on offer.

 

No probs with subtitles, hate dubbing.

 

Technically, "dubbing" is not really what Disney is doing here, considering it's animation, thus no live actor performance to sync to. And if you still think it qualifies in this context, then, it would be the exact same work the original Japanese cast would have been doing.

 

Not really accurate, in animation they usually (though not always) record the original voicework before doing the animation, while a foreign dub is done over the locked picture. And an anime dub is still called a dub, any fan could tell you that.