Karneval is one of those series that is special. When I watched it during Spring 2013, I fell in love with it. When the anime finished, I immediately jumped to the manga. Now, I know that Karneval isn’t anything spectacular. It’s not groundbreaking, and I admit that it does have its flaws. But what really drew me in this show were the characters. I loved the character designs, the strong friendships, and character development. Gareki’s character development really drew me in, and he’s really become one of my most favorite characters. Plus, the anime was all colorful and pretty (still waiting for a second season). It’s just fun, and it’s even more fun in the manga, so Karneval has really grown to be a very special series to me.
When it was airing, Funimation had licensed it for streaming, and knowing these guys, I was happily awaiting the dub. Come April 1st, and Funimation has released both the cast list and the trailer. Just seeing the first name on the list, and I knew this wasn’t going to go well. Go down the list and it wasn’t getting any better. I watch the trailer, and it had to be one of the worst things I’ve ever heard in my life. I just…can’t even describe how I felt.
Now, I’m always on Tumblr. I’m not really part of fandoms because shit always goes wrong somewhere so I always avoid it. But the Karneval fandom is one where I’m fine with. It’s a small group, people make edits, gifs, there’s an awesome translating team for the manga. Other than stupid ship wars that are pretty rare, and me telling the people who keep saying Karneval is a yaoi (which it’s not and if you say it is I will punch you) to shut up, it’s a pretty friendly and chill group. Everyone’s all happy…..until this trailer shows up AND IT’S A SHIT STORM. BUT WE ALL AGREED.
IT WAS AWFUL.
Alright, so enough of that, let’s actually talk about the dub. It’s just…terrible. Awful. I’ve never even finished watching it. There’s so many things wrong, it’s painful…what in the world happened? Oh, and I’m going to be talking so much shit so I’m going to add cute screenshots to lighten things up a bit.
First, let me get this out of the way. Ian Sinclair was a perfect match for Hirato. He was seriously the only good one in this show, acting and voice. Of course, Hirato’s lines were a little off at times, but they weren’t so bad compared to everyone else. So Hirato was the saving grace. Okay, that’s the only good thing I can say. Now…
I won’t go into all the characters, so I’ll speak for the main ones. Surprisingly, Vic played Karoku. This surprised everyone, because we ALL thought he was a shoe-in for Yogi. Maybe they wanted to avoid character types (energetic blondes)? I can’t say he was bad as Karoku, but…it just didn’t seem right? Not because I was anticipating him playing Yogi, but it just somehow didn’t sit well with me. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either.
Tsukumo, my lovely Tsukumo, didn’t sound like herself. She was a little monotone in the original, and was more softspoken, but in the dub for some reason they made her more feisty and sassy I guess? It just wasn’t her, like they changed her personality WHICH IS ONE OF THE HUGE PROBLEMS OF THE DUB WHICH I’LL TALK ABOUT IN A BIT.
As for Nai, oh god he was so FORCED. First off, the voice didn’t work. His actor tried too hard to sound extremely young, and it didn’t work at all. His voice was still old-sounding for him, and it was super raspy. Plus, the acting wasn’t working for me too. Like I said, it was forced.
Yogi, oh poor poor Yogi. How they’ve ruined you. RUINED. Yogi is a loveable, sweet, caring, 21-year-old man-child. That’s who he is. Dub Yogi…I don’t know who he is. Who who who. Now, it’s hard to beat a talented man like Mamoru Miyano, but there’s a lot of talented English voice actors too. Christopher Bevins…he’s played minor roles in shows I hadn’t seen in awhile, and he’s in other stuff I haven’t seen/interested in. I’m not sure I should blame him for acting, or for his shit script. His voice just was NOT working for me either. I imagined him to sound not so…ah, I don’t know. He just tries too hard. And oh god…his lines were painful. They changed Yogi from being a cute man child, to an embarrassing father trying to say slang. He said stupid shit like “totes”, “cray”, and…ugh, they bascially made him sound like some 16 year old preppy girl! And…that wasn’t Yogi. That’s not him! I didn’t even bother watching the episode with Silver Yogi in it because I couldn’t take it anymore. Everything was going wrong. They changed his personality, and this was probably the biggest problem this dub had.
The script. WHO in the HELL was in charge of the script? The dialogue is so awkward, it doesn’t fit the setting or the characters, and it makes everything disjointed. I think they wanted to make the show a little funnier or something, and some lines were laughable and not because they were funny but because how terrible they were. Mentioning Yogi and making him sound like he came out of a shitty MTV show, it didn’t match the setting. Karneval is a strange world, where it possesses high technology but the world is sort of a mix of an old/modern European setting. Extremely modern terms from slang used in this world…is not right. Like…if the show was set in 2010’s America or something, then the dumb shit they say would make sense. But no, it just doesn’t work. And the problem with some of their lines just really changes their personalities, and it’s like I’m watching a completely different show than the one I’m used to. I don’t know what it is, but is Funimation trying to be hip or something? Because it’s not working AT ALL. It’s a huge mistake, and just hearing them talk makes me pause the video to just cover my face in second-hand embarrassment.
Oh, what else am I missing? Oh yeah, one of the main characters of the show. The one I just said was one of my most favorite anime characters. Gareki. This tsundere fool…ugh. Okay, let me just describe him. He’s a guy who’s had a terrible past, saw his family be ripped apart in front of him, and he has trouble trusting people. He’s kinda rude, and cold on the outside, but like all tsunderes, he’s actually very sweet and the friends he’s made through Circus (though he doesn’t admit them as friends) have really helped him, and he’s actually extremely caring of the people close to him. He wants to become stronger so he can protect his loved ones. His development gets even better in the manga, and I just love him.
Dub Gareki is a completely different person. Like I said with the script, the characters say the stupidest shit. I don’t know why they thought this was okay, but they made Gareki say the worst things out of everyone in the show. “Nice bit of bing ya got there” (did he really just say bling?), “Haul ass”…like I said, Gareki is actually kinda rude. But he hardly swears that much like they made him in the dub, and he just didn’t talk like that. But they just made him even more rude than was necessary in the dub. He was just awful. And one line that really struck me, that really hurt me was “Whine like a bitch, and I slap you like a bitch.” …That…was what really made me despise this dub. First of all, that wasn’t even close to what he originally said (“You’re lucky it was just a slap!” he said to Yogi). Second, using offensive and derogatory language? The last time I heard a phrase like that was toward a woman, and let me tell you…Gareki is NOT like that. Gareki is actually the protector of women, but I can’t say because spoilers. But it just felt as though my heart had been ripped out. And what was scary for me was that I started hating him. I was hating the character I loved. He swore excessively, used offensive terms, and was just plain unlikeable, and I was actually getting annoyed at him and I wanted him to shut up. And that’s when I knew the dub had been a complete failure. Everything was beyond wrong. Plus, Greg Ayres played him and let me tell you he’s never been my favorite voice actor. Actually, he’s my least. I don’t like his damn ugly voice, his acting, nothing. Whoever did the casting for this show should be slapped honestly, because they made poor choices, especially with Gareki. Greg always plays the whiny as fuck characters, so him taking Gareki was really strange, and of course it didn’t work.
Oh yeah, and the pronunciations were shit. I absolutely hated how they said Gareki’s name. You pronounce it how it’s spelled, but noooooo, they just went and changed it to GUH-reki.
The series that I loved, the characters I loved, all turned upside down to being…just something else. This may sound much, but for people having a deep love for a series, this dub actually offended me. It offended me because it didn’t take any consideration of the characters’ personalities and just made their own, and they didn’t care. They just didn’t. I had been so excited about the dub, and then I got this shit. The trailer had come out on April 1st, so I was hoping it was all just an April Fool’s joke from them, and sadly it wasn’t. What’s worse, in the summer that the dub was going to be released, I was going to have major surgery, and I had wanted to buy the show so I could cheer myself up during recovery (which was painful). But no way in hell, man. That just would have been more painful.
I’m sorry this was so long-winded, but I’m still upset by this. Of course I didn’t buy this shit, no one should buy this shit, Funimation just did not care, and I’m hurt. So hurt. Luckily, Yen Press has finally licensed the manga, so maybe I can buy a couple volumes?
