Grave of the Fireflies Dub

[WTK]

In an interesting move, Grave of the Fireflies is getting a new dub. Per Blu-ray back cover, the ADR Director is Steven Foster. The Blu-ray release will still retain the original dub.

[FUNiOP]

I definitely wasn't expecting that. Since it will still have the Japanese and the original dub, that's just another welcome feature in my eyes. I hope they treat it well.

[Buckeye]

Originally Posted by WTK

In an interesting move, Grave of the Fireflies is getting a new dub. Per Blu-ray back cover, the ADR Director is Steven Foster. The Blu-ray release will still retain the original dub.

I didn't think that this movie would get a new dub, but I suppose that since this is a movie that they would be more willing to dub this using more updated dubbing techniques that were absent back when it was originally dubbed.

[JTurner]

Wow, I wasn't expecting this at all. But as long as they keep the CPM dub, then I'm OK with it. That older dub was flawed, but I did like Veronica, Dan, and Crispin.

I'm a little iffy about Steve Foster dubbing this, though, especially given his tendencies to be RATHER loose with his translations... to the point that it's not the same work anymore.

Still, a lot of people seem to insist that Japanese is the only way to watch Grave of the Fireflies; the CPM dub was not well received, partially because of its average quality, but also because of the notion that since this is a true story (sort of) clearly set in 1940's Japan, a modern day dub would be distracting. The latter argument may hold a bit of a point, but it is still possible to do this film justice. The problem with the CPM dub is that it feels VERY rushed; there's hardly any walla in the crowd scenes and even though the VA voicing Seita does an acceptable job, Setsuko, unfortunately, doesn't fare anywhere nearly as well. Even some of the minor characters seem more like a quick and dirty affair, even though, as I said, Taylor, Green, and Freeman do give solid performances.

Even with all that said, I'm sure that the same people who dismissed CPM's dub will probably dismiss Sentai's newest effort, too, regardless of how it turns out. Either way, it's very, very, very, very rare for an older film like this to get a new dub these days, especially with today's economy.