Your Top Ocean Productions Dubs

[Jackson_H]

Simple. Just list your top anime dubs by Ocean Productions (also known as The Ocean Group and Ocean Studios), #1 being "the best".


My Top 10:


(will add reasons later)

1. Death Note

2. Galaxy Express 999 the Movie

3. InuYasha

4. Black Lagoon

5. Sword of the Stranger

6. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

7. Shakugan no Shana

8. Master Keaton

9. Ranma 1/2

10. Boys over Flowers

[Pokejedservo]

Ah yes Vancouver Voice talent how I love thee let me count the ways, after all some of my favorite voice talent work there such as Scott McNeil and the like. Anyways I shall do a top ten in no particular order...

10. Monster Rancher / Hamtaro

9. Ronin Warriors

8. Gundam 00

7. Zoids Zero / Death Note

6. Ranma 1/2 / Inuyasha

5. Maison Ikkoku

4. 1st 3 DbZ Movies (Uncut)

3. Fatal Fury movies

2. Nightwarriors Darkstalkers Revenge

1. Gundam Wing

And there is probably more than I am not thinking of already, of course I loved their work in NA animation before especially those such as Reboot, Beast Wars and the 2K2 He-Man series.

[PurpleWarrior13]

Ocean has done some great work over the years. I guess my top dubs from them would be:

10. Project A-KO sequels (their cast was so much better than the British cast used for the first movie)

9. Hamtaro

8. Saber Marionette J

7. Ronin Warriors (the TV series, their OVA dub was decent, but not quite as good)

6. Dragon Ball Z (Saban edited version, not as good as FUNi IMO, but still respectable)

5. Maison Ikkoku (after the hiatus, though they were still decent before)

4. Gundam Wing

3. Galaxy Express 999 movies (Oh, why didn't anybody dub more Leijiverse stuff with them? WHY?)

2. Inuyasha

1. Ranma 1/2 (especially the first 3 seasons, everyone was so perfect for their characters)

Hey, Poke, wasn't that you that wrote that (VERY informative) article about Ocean on RetroJunk.com?

It's a shame Ocean isn't used hardly at all any more. There was a time when they were responsible for pretty much every non-Streamline anime English dub out there. Seriously, even Central Park Media used to use them for their earlier stuff (imagine how weird it would be if they got to do Slayers and Revolutionary Girl Utena). Their dubs sounded much more professional than any of the ones recorded at InterSound, and they seemed to have a knack for getting the lip movements right. Since their talent pool was also being used for some western animation as far back as the late 80s, it was only ideal. I'm not sure why they aren't being used for much stuff any more. Maybe American anime companies would prefer to stick with American voice actors? Even Ocean's recent anime dubs, Pretty Cure and Deltora Quest, were recorded at their "budget" studio in Calgary, with inferior voice acting and production quality.

[Pokejedservo]

Yep that was me PW I did that article on RetroJunk a few years ago (I haven't written anything for that site for a few years now I sometimes wonder if someday I should try something again for that site). Oh and you watch Maison Ikkoku? Awesome, not as many people know about that show as much as Inuyasha and Ranma 1/2 (but as much as I liked those shows I do find Maison Ikkoku to be one of Rumiko's better works). I actually watched the whole series' fine english dub back when I use to work on Maison Ikkoku Voice Compares a while back.

And yes it is an absolute shame that Canadian Voice Talent especially Ocean is no longer being used as much as they use to be. I heard that the reason why is due to one of the reasons why Ocean was used often back in the 90's and early 2000's was due to how the foreign currency exchange rates made using Canadian Talent such as Voice Actors to be quite inexpensive. However due to various issues with the Economy the currency exchange rate has changed for the worse and it no longer worked in Canada's favor so in other words they got a lot more expensive to use. Which is why for example Viz went from almost always using Ocean to occasionally using Ocean, though keep in mind I do normally like their dubs with Californian VA talent. (Though this is also probably why Viz's dub for Inuyasha Final Act is taking so long since Viz did decide to try to use the same cast as their dub of the original series, at least for the most part.)

[PurpleWarrior13]

You should totally write more articles similar to that Ocean Studios article. I've read it quite a few times over the years! It's really well written and very interesting.

Yes, I've seen several episodes of Maison Ikkoku. I actually thought the voice acting got a little better after the hiatus, which was surprising because I was initially pretty disappointed that they recast a bunch of characters (similar to Ranma, though I still, to this day, refuse to watch Richard Ian Cox's Ranma episodes. It's just not the same without Sarah). Canadian voice pools generally have a track record of frequent character recasts. Just look at the Ocean DBZ! Sailor Moon was also pretty bad about recasts (to the point where fans point out the major characters NOT recast at some point over the course of the series).

I'm very happy and pleasantly surprised that Viz actually had all of Maison Ikkoku dubbed and released to DVD. It wouldn't have a ghost of a change being fully released to DVD these days, especially with the way Viz has handled Blue Dragon and Monster (that might also be because Warner Home Video, a company I absolutely CANNOT stand, is in charge of their distribution).

Ocean seems to be the "official" talent pool of Rumiko Takahashi's work. I wish they could've dubbed Urusei Yatsura. AnimEigo only dubbed two episodes and the movies before they gave it up, and released the rest of the series sub-only (interestingly, it's the very first thing Michael Sinterniklaas ever voiced in).

The Toronto talent pool seems to be getting a lot of work these days. They've recorded the vocies for Total Drama, 6Teen, Bakugan, Stoked, and Beyblade, among MANY MANY MANY shows over the last 50 years. Unfortunately, the only anime they've ever done are Sailor Moon, Knights of the Zodiac, Bakugan, Beyblade, Power Stone, and a few other "toyetic" series. Optimum's not the best at dubbing anime, but they're a decent alternative to Ocean. Though when they dubbed Sailor Moon, everything was a mess.

I'm not sure why DiC had Sailor Moon recorded at Optimum Productions in Toronto instead of at Ocean Studios in Vancouver. Ocean would've been MUCH better since they actually had a LOT of experience in anime and were VERY in demand. I do know that DiC wanted the series recorded in Canada, like most of their other series, and they DID work with the Vancouver talent pool for two of their three Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons. I honestly think the Sailor Moon English dub would be more accepted if it were recorded by Ocean... just think of the possibilities!

[Pokejedservo]

DiC using Ocean instead of Optimum? That would be a very interesting idea however DiC has a bit more experience with Toronto-based voice talent but to be fair they have used Vancouver-based voice talent before such as their episodes of G.I Joe so its not impossible and it would be very interesting.

And oh yes I too wish that Viz was given the chance to dub Urusei Yatsura back then as they would've done very well with Ocean back then. It could potentially happen nowadays but it is looking to be highly unlikely since Viz is only doing okay at beast (that and on how companies are seemingly avoiding older anime releases in general nowadays).

I recall that when Capcom bought Blue Castle Games when they made Dead Rising 2 and they called it their own studio in Vancouver. I do hope that Capcom will be using their new Vancouver studio a little bit more at least more than just new versions of Dead Rising 2 (though I do rather enjoyed that game). Okay I understand if Capcom can't really afford to use Capcom Vancouver to make a different brand new release but it would be cool if they did something like use Capcom Vancouver to at least do the voicework of a game. (Like picture if they did something like a compilation of one of their series' such as Mega Man Battle Network or the Ace Attorney series but add in a new voice track from the fine folks at Ocean. Its a little potential something that is at least somewhat likely and a bit more inexpensive.) To be fair Capcom still does occasionally use them such as Paul Dobson in Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 and Brad Swaile in Street Fighter X Tekken though.

[Trami0501]

Sailor Moon is a DiC dub?