To start, when the season preview came out I knew right away I wanted Assassination Classroom but I also knew I have a very bad track record with comedy. Something about funny shows leaves me going ‘well that’s nice’ and without a lot of room to come back and talk about it. This show recently became a Simulcast dub for Funimation, and as a subscriber I figured ‘What better time than now’? Immediately I regret thinking I could not cover this show, because it’s absolutely amazing.
Most of you who follow the show know it’s about a monster who destroyed the moon- and intends to destroy the Earth next. No one can kill him, but he has a single request that allows for him to potentially be killed; Koro-‘Sensei’ wants to teach the misfit kids in a certain class. The catch is he cannot harm any in that class, and so the government gives them all a deal ‘Kill this guy before he destroys the Earth at the end of graduation and you will win a ton of money’. So what does it end up being but an Assassination Classroom! Title Drop. Of course if you want a regular cover of the series, Berry and Midnight are covering it normally and you can watch for their posts every week. I’m here to talk about the dub and it’s contribution to the show.
It’s hard for me to think of a better dub than this one. This season’s simulcasts from Funimation have been nothing short of spot on, and that’s really impressive. But when you have a show with such a huge cast like Assassination Classroom the stakes are higher. Can you possibly, by any stretch of the imagination, manage to perfectly cast and simulcast such a huge project? I haven’t seen the sub but I can say this- nothing about the dub cast seems anything but extremely perfect. I’m pretty sure every single role in this was a premeditated stroke of genius. And you know what? Sonny Strait has some pretty big roles in the anime industry, but nothing tops his Koro-Sensei.
This one is difficult for me. I legitimately enjoyed the show enough that finding flaws in the dub was hard. It’s hard to give a non biased critical review when there is nothing to be critical of. This show didn’t even do what a lot of dubs are forced to do and simply reuse well known actors repeatedly. No, the Assassination Classroom dub is a well thought fresh faced addition to the industry show casing both Funimation’s drive for a new air of ingenuity with their simulcasting as well as a desire for translation and performance perfection. No actor failed to show their ability thus far, with special notes of recommendation for Austin Tindle and Sonny Strait for the performance in episode 3 ‘Karma Time’.
Once the dub has finished airing I can give a full run down, but so far the opinions of the sub watchers and the dub watchers on this blog are consistent, Assassination Classroom is a show worth checking out ; and the dub does nothing but promote the shows best qualities. So far, Funimation’s simulcasts for the Winter 2015 Season are nothing short of a home run.
Oki
The only Dib voice I don’t like is Koro-Senseis. The guys not a bad actor but he just sounds to ordinary.
I think Koro-sensei was perfect! Namely I think Sonny Strait played his darker scenes as dark as they needed to be and yet he also sounds normal enough to give the air of mystery surrounding Koro-sensei’s past.
I can see why some people would like his voice but it just rubs me the wrong way how he sounds like an ordinary person especially with the over the top performance played by the original voice actor. The rest of the characters sound good though.