The Boy And The Heron (Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli, Dec. 8, 2023) Movie • Page 2

Yeah, surprising no one, this looks great.

 

Well well well

 

The man just cannot stay away lmao Hayao you deserve to rest!

but I’ll gladly watch however many more he wants to make of course

 

I hope this happens to Tarantino. The greats should never stop.

 

Amazing news

 

Francis Ford Coppola, Hayao Miyazaki and Scorsese keep making movies in your 80s plz

 

Would love for another film after this but I’m not going to hold my breath. Given his age and the time between movies it takes with the art, I’d be shocked to see another full movie done by him. Would love to be wrong though.

 

Dude will die midway through a project that we’ll never see the completed form of

 

The Wind Rises is probably my favorite movie of his. Love that he’s putting out masterpieces so far into his life.

 

Absolutely stacked

 

Holy shit

 

Definitely a stacked cast but anyone who goes dub over sub is lame in my eyes

 

Judging people for how they personally choose to watch anime is pretty lame in my eyes

 

Dubs are cool when they’re done well. Some definitively are not done well, and some people should be more willing to watch movies with subtitles in general. But, I’ve definitely loved me a good dubbed anime thing.

 

I feel this way for live-action films but not animated ones. It's not like live action, where you're cutting the original actors' performances in half if you dub over their voice; in animation, you're getting both groups of voice actors' whole performances. The only time it becomes an issue is if the script changes some lines to sound more natural in English and muddles the meaning of them in the process. This was a pretty big issue with older Ghibli films but the modern ones have seemed to avoid it.

 

I’m just teasing. I’m sure dub-watchers have their reasons…especially if it’s not for “convenience” and more an accessibility thing. That said, watching with subs is always more faithful to the original translations, cultural references and colloquialisms are not localized to fit an American audience, and the vocal performances actually fit the animation and are generally more emotional.

 

Ghibli always has great fun work. I could watch a dub or sub and enjoy each film.


Having said that, this film itself is an example of Miyazaki at his finest. I was able to watch it over the weekend and I’d say it’s easily the best Ghibli in 20 years. No offense if you love anything after Spirited Away, but this felt like it could easily fit in the bundle of 90s releases. Some moments reminded me of Grave of the Fireflies (yeah, I know it’s not Miyazaki, but still), some reminded me of Mononoke, and some reminded me of Spirited Away. He checked plenty of boxes.

Hisaishi also delivers with the same ambition, but I don’t think anyone here would have any doubts on that

 

Man that sounds unbelievable

 

It was also confirmed that all production of the English language version was done in compliance with SAG-AFTRA.

 

I cannot wait

 

I figured there was a joking element, lol, and I know what you mean by “faithfulness.” That being said, I simply do not believe that literal, direct, word-for-word translation is intrinsically “better.”

Funny enough, the most recent episode of the Mangasplaining podcast I was listening to this morning touched on this, because they were covering a manga that was heavier on gags. Three of the hosts have a history in the manga industry (and the podcast has a publishing spinoff that works directly in localizing), and they talked about how humor is tricky. Especially because the humor is often dependent on puns, like “curry” sounding like “boyfriend.” So, calls have to be made it being “faithful” but losing meaning, or honoring the spirit of what’s happening and inventing a new, similar gag. The fourth host, Canadian comic creator Chip Zdarsky, mentioned that occasionally people in other countries will email him asking for permission to change gags in his Sex Criminals comic so it translates better.

(I’m also primed to think about these things because of historically being a Christian nerd, lol. Because no two languages or cultures line up one-for-one perfectly, there’s always tension in how “thought-for-thought” vs “word-for-word” to be with the Bible in order to translating meaning, and also in interpreting what that “meaning” even is.)

All this to say… I’m alway interested in how a work of anime I love feels with the original voice acting. And, the potential for “faithfulness” is higher in sub. But, a well done dub will always be a different-but-equal alternative, and in some works will land better.

 

(Sorry for the “tl;dr” post, but when I see bait for a topic I find interesting, I’m gonna take it!)

 

I’ve seen both versions of every Ghibli movie, but that’s pretty much where I stop. I’m a dub watcher, sue me.

 

It is very interesting. I can see benefits to watching both versions. Would be an interesting comparison experiment