Do You Guys Actually Engage With Good EN Dubs?
I have seen so many people praising the new Paimon VA's performance & long dumping on the performance of \[redacted\].
**What do you like about the new performance?**
I cannot wrap my head around it, because it's truly a bottom 5 performance in the game to me. Personally, I'd rank it only above Xiao's (simply miscast) & Escoffier's (her VA was done dirty, it's not her fault they won't let her use her natural accent). I am constantly shocked at how distractingly bad Paimon sounds. From extreme inconsistency, to truly strange pronunciations, to weird inflections where she practically talked like tHiS aT oNe PoInT when pronouncing "weapons" in the Act VI of the latest quest.
**Do you guys engage with EN dubs of other similarly translated games/anime?**
I do, & wouldn't ever compare this to the VA seen in Final Fantasy games (not X), Persona, Tales of, any of Funimation's old work (legendary DBZ & Haruhi EN dubs), etc.
I find that people who have, have told me they don't think it's good either. Paimon either ends up sounding like Minnie Mouse or sounds unnatural & inhuman. While yes, Paimon isn't exactly human she still has many human traits & logically has & should continue to sound human, the same way Xianyun, many of the angels, etc all still sound human. You guys make me feel crazy when I see you posting about how great the performance is, when it's this bad. So just give me more context please.
How do we go from Venti, Zhongli, Furina, Mavuika, & yes the old Paimon to this new Paimon?
**Please don't use this as an excuse to dump on \[redacted\]. Just tell me why you like current Paimon.**
**What do you like about the new performance?**
I cannot wrap my head around it, because it's truly a bottom 5 performance in the game to me. Personally, I'd rank it only above Xiao's (simply miscast) & Escoffier's (her VA was done dirty, it's not her fault they won't let her use her natural accent). I am constantly shocked at how distractingly bad Paimon sounds. From extreme inconsistency, to truly strange pronunciations, to weird inflections where she practically talked like tHiS aT oNe PoInT when pronouncing "weapons" in the Act VI of the latest quest.
**Do you guys engage with EN dubs of other similarly translated games/anime?**
I do, & wouldn't ever compare this to the VA seen in Final Fantasy games (not X), Persona, Tales of, any of Funimation's old work (legendary DBZ & Haruhi EN dubs), etc.
I find that people who have, have told me they don't think it's good either. Paimon either ends up sounding like Minnie Mouse or sounds unnatural & inhuman. While yes, Paimon isn't exactly human she still has many human traits & logically has & should continue to sound human, the same way Xianyun, many of the angels, etc all still sound human. You guys make me feel crazy when I see you posting about how great the performance is, when it's this bad. So just give me more context please.
How do we go from Venti, Zhongli, Furina, Mavuika, & yes the old Paimon to this new Paimon?
**Please don't use this as an excuse to dump on \[redacted\]. Just tell me why you like current Paimon.**
Commentaires
New Paimon barely had 4 patches worth of dialogue
Them: "I love this new performance, it's not the old one!"
Me: What do you like about it?
Them: "It's not the old one!"
Me: But what do you specifically like about it?
Them: "It's not high pitched!"
Me: Huh? It's certainly still high pitched. Am I crazy? It's just now inconsistent & sometimes Minnie Mouse sounding
I'm simply not blaming the VA for issues with their performances, or conflating personal opinions with facts(Xiao been "misscast")
You simply dislike their performances and thats fine, blaming the VA for it tho? Not so much
Specially saying purely its just "bad" compared to other games with far more established franchises
early Paimon of \[redacted\] > new Paimon of Penelope Rawlins > later Paimon of \[redacted\]
A lot of people did not like the shrill from the old paimon. Simple as that, even if I personally didn't mind it.
I highly suggest you read [this](https://old.reddit.com/r/HonkaiStarRail/comments/1nfgu0r/hello_dear_friends_argenti_here_with_a_message/) post by the Argenti VA in regards to challenges to voicing a recast character.
We are discussing the voice itself, not the person behind it.
"Paimon" is not the VA & the VA is not the character. Them being recast in the simplest of ways serves as a reminder.
That is exactly my issue. You praise it simply for not being the old one, not for what it actually is.
You say the old one is shrill (high-pitched & piercing), but is suddenly randomly jumping into a Minnie Mouse-esque voice not piercing in a different way? Are we saying her current voice is not still on the rather very high pitched side? This is what makes me feel crazy. You guys criticize the old performance for the supposed same traits the new one literally exhibits.
Maybe read carefully next time before you start assigning opinions.
And yes. Some people prefer the "Minnie Mouse-esque" voice over the shrill of the last one. It's a matter of taste, like how some people prefer dominos or Pizza hut. How is this a hard concept for you to understand?
Tonality is what I wish people would focus on. Depth, nuance, etc. Old Paimon was simply better voice acted in every way imaginable.
Example:
Singer A: Hits a note flawlessly, but you do not like her tone
Singer B: Hits a note less well, but you more enjoy her tone
Why is Singer A being criticized because you don't like her tone, & Singer B being praised for hitting the note well simply because you like their tone (as you said, this is not a fact just my view of things)?
I truly believe it'd ruin Genshin for the EN dub enjoyers if we get more situations like the Paimon one & so I wish to encourage people to make sure that's what they really want to put out there.
Some people prefer different "tonality" over others. How are you not getting this?
If you find someone who like pecans over peanuts but you prefer peanuts, do you demand them to specifically explain why, and argue with them when you thin the flavor texture is better or something?
People have hated the old voice for years, so it's obviously a lot of those same people would prefer the old one, yet here you is treating your opinion like it is some provable fact.
Who the fuck do you think you are?
Honestly, Paimon and her shrieks were much worse in the beginning of the game and it improved massively by the time Fontaine rolled around.. but people would go on to rant as if it was anywhere close to what it once was in the beginning. I assume because they were so conditioned to hate her voice by the time Fontaine rolled around because of how long we had to deal with such a shrieking voice.
There is no feeling/personality in the new voice direction.
However, I would say that the new VA did improve ever so slightly with delivery in Nod Krai compared to the end of Natlan, but the personality in the voice is still missing a bit.
>However, I would say that the new VA did improve ever so slightly with delivery in Nod Krai compared to the end of Natlan, but the personality in the voice is still missing a bit.
This.
Fontaine Paimon was peak Paimon for me iirc
It's hard to have meaningful conversations about it because people get in their feelings over it or say dumb stuff like "oh, that's just like.. your opinion, man."
But just like it took "Old" Paimon 4 years to get into a good spot, I have hope that this new VA can find a good spot as well.
The thing about subjective matters is there are some level of objective facts in the little nuanced parts. Of course ones enjoyment of something is subjective but their are a lot of tried & true truths/techniques/methods in the arts. If there wasn't we wouldn't have arts schools.
You would probably get better conversation about it talking to someone who actively lives in Japan than America, for example.
Although i would prefer to switch to another language, when i switched to JP for a while and sometimes you had dialogue while running I missed them and it got irritating fast.
But yea some EN dubs get on my nerves. Mika's is horrible. I especially hate the forcibly cutesy voices like Kokomi, Columbina and Nahida. Durin is also one i dislike. It's probably not even the VAs but the direction
Mihoyo's voice direction is just slow and dull in general, I don't know, because they want to match their voice delivery to their obnoxiously slow text display speed?
And their bad screenplay also probably plays a role. Mihoyo still can't fully act out cutscenes, so when dialogue has to be mixed with actions, if they can't make the actions flow together, then they can't make the dialogue flow together. Case in point, Jahoda's introduction scene in 6.0.
The scene was obviously intended as: "Jahoda barges in talking about something, then notices customers in the room before shutting up". Except, the way it was implemented, it was more like, "Jahoda runs in talking about stuff > Interrupts herself > animation of her running into the room with customers and notices them > 'oh, you were with customers, oops'".
I play Genshin in JP, and even that sounds boring. Genshin's dub is actually noticeably easier for me to understand because it's so slow and formal in comparison to how people usually speak in other JP media, never mind real life.
Even when there's a VA I typically enjoy listening to, in Genshin, I have to force myself to stop and listen.
I don't quite think I understand #3, but thank you for the response