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My Thoughts on Yaoi -- Literally
Feb. 5th, 2012 11:52 pmEmbedded in this ramble is a potentially interesting observation and a question for those who watch a fair amount of amine. Really. :P
A few days back, I got sucked into watching an anime series. I don't watch/read a lot of anime/manga, not because I don't like it, but purely due to lack of that sort of free time. But I do watch/read some, and as I said -- sucked into one last week.
This particular anime is one that has a lot of male/male content going on -- not outright explicit yaoi, but certainly more than mere subtext, with a lot of insinuations and romantic implications. The two main characters/pairing/potential pairing/what-the-heck-ever have an age disparity thing going on -- the older is late 20s (at least; it's complicated...) while the younger is 16.
I started watching the English overdub version of the series, purely because that's what I came across first. I prefer subtitled, though, when possible. So when I realized I was getting sucked in, I went in search of the subtitled version. And that was when I noticed something interesting...
In the English overdub version, the voice actor playing the older character sounded younger, and the voice actor playing the younger character sounded older than in the original Japanese recording. My immediate thought was that the people marketing it for a Western/English-speaking audience were trying to downplay the age disparity.
So, my question to anyone who might have some idea: Is that sort of thing common?? Has anyone ever noticed this phenomenon??
It's only one anime, so it could, of course, be purely coincidental. To tell you the truth, I actually like the voice of the younger character in the English overdub version more. It just suits the character's personality better, in my opinion. So it could simply be that the people doing the casting for the overdub thought the same thing, and that's all there was to it. But... it smells awfully fishy!
Your thoughts (on yaoi)?
A few days back, I got sucked into watching an anime series. I don't watch/read a lot of anime/manga, not because I don't like it, but purely due to lack of that sort of free time. But I do watch/read some, and as I said -- sucked into one last week.
This particular anime is one that has a lot of male/male content going on -- not outright explicit yaoi, but certainly more than mere subtext, with a lot of insinuations and romantic implications. The two main characters/pairing/potential pairing/what-the-heck-ever have an age disparity thing going on -- the older is late 20s (at least; it's complicated...) while the younger is 16.
I started watching the English overdub version of the series, purely because that's what I came across first. I prefer subtitled, though, when possible. So when I realized I was getting sucked in, I went in search of the subtitled version. And that was when I noticed something interesting...
In the English overdub version, the voice actor playing the older character sounded younger, and the voice actor playing the younger character sounded older than in the original Japanese recording. My immediate thought was that the people marketing it for a Western/English-speaking audience were trying to downplay the age disparity.
So, my question to anyone who might have some idea: Is that sort of thing common?? Has anyone ever noticed this phenomenon??
It's only one anime, so it could, of course, be purely coincidental. To tell you the truth, I actually like the voice of the younger character in the English overdub version more. It just suits the character's personality better, in my opinion. So it could simply be that the people doing the casting for the overdub thought the same thing, and that's all there was to it. But... it smells awfully fishy!
Your thoughts (on yaoi)?
