Dub vs. Sub Reviews - Slayers (1st Season)

An Otaku's Guide to Anime & Manga

Dub vs Sub Review:
Slayers (1st Season)

Voice Acting

Japanese - The Japanese cast has several big names, including Megumi Hayashibara as Lina Inverse, and Hikaru Midorikawa as Zelgadis Greywords. All the actors are talented, and their voices fit the characters nicely.

English - The English cast is very good. All the VAs are of considerable talent, and their voices fit the characters very well. The only VA I can complain about is Joani Baker, Amelia's 1st voice. However, she only lasts for 3 episodes; she is then replaced by Veronica Taylor (who is much better, IMHO)

Music

The same music is used in both the English and Japanese version.

Dialogue Translation

The dub of Slayers stayed true to the original dialogue. The only real difference are the occasional (not very often) jokes added. But everything of any importance is left as-is.

Important Names

They kept all the names, and did a great job of pronouncing them. The only name I might nitpick about was 'Mazoku'; they translated it as 'Monster', which isn't how I would translate it, though they could have done worse.

Plot

The plot was left entirely alone. Nothing changed, or deleted.

Censorship

Since the dub of Slayers was never intended for broadcast, there was no censorship.

Kat's Opinion

I actually like each version equally. The dub was done so well that I actually think it is just as good as the subtitled version. In fact, Slayers is one of the only titles that I watch almost exclusively in English, even with my dual-language disks...the dub's just that good.