Castor, thanks for visiting; we're glad you like what you see so far, and it's only going to get better as we refine this over the coming months.

You bring up a few things in your email that I want to discuss while we're on the subject... first is the "crazy Otakus" bit. This is actually the third house I've lived in; the first two were indeed set ablaze by Otakus, all of whom were changing "All Dubs Are The Spawn Of Satan" on both occasions, so I know where you're coming from. Seriously, though, there are crazy folk on both sides of the "Great Debate". People like what they like, and there's nothing wrong with that. Some people choose to attack others for having a differing opinion-- that's just part of human nature; there will always be people who do that. It's not right, no matter who's doing it, and it's particularly foolish to do so now that we have DVDs. Whether you prefer dubs or subs, you'll get what you want out of almost every anime DVD on the market today, and we think that's a great thing.

If you buy an anime DVD, take it home, pop it in, and find that you don't have a choice... then that's wrong, in our opinion. We love dubs as much as, or more than, anyone else, but the great thing about DVD is the choice it offers. Dub-only discs don't offer that choice. The same goes for sub-only discs; and as a dub fan, you probably know what I mean when I say that it's frustrating to not be able to watch your anime in the manner you prefer. So while we may prefer one or the other, one thing that we'll never consider acceptable is the lack of a choice. Most of the time, when there isn't a choice, it isn't because of a conscious decision on the part of the publisher to make their title less accessible to a certain group of people; but still, we would find it unacceptable. We hope that you'll join us in encouraging domestic anime publishers to include both language tracks on every release it at all possible.

The other bit in your email that I'd like to touch on... Anime on DVD is a Website dedicated to, just as the name says, anime on DVD. Founded, owned, and operated by a man named Chris Beveridge, it has become one of, if not the best source of information on upcoming anime releases, around the Internet. We think it's a great site, and that Chris does a great job with it.

For his reviews of titles, Chris usually watches his anime in the original language. Obviously, that's Japanese most of the time. If he watches a title dubbed and he thinks the dub is lacking, he says so in his reviews. This has led many people to assume that he hates dubs. Honestly, we don't understand that line of thinking; his reviews are reviews of the DVD itself, not the language track, and he does what needs to be done to get accurate reviews of those DVDs. He watches the disc in the language he prefers, then he spot-checks the other language tracks (and sometimes listens to them in their entirety). When the original language is English, he's watched it in English for the review. For his recent review of Rune Soldier, his review was based on the dub, even though it isn't the original language; part of his review examined the dub in much the same way we would in our own reviews. Also, the English Track forum found on Anime on DVD is where we all used to hang out (and still do) before we founded Dub Review.

Chris has been accused of being a dub-hater in the past and he's responded by telling his critics the same thing I'm telling you now. The concessions he's made to dub fans haven't been made because he's trying to please the critics, but because he's trying to please his readers. He himself has never struck me as someone who hates dubs, or as someone who loves the original language and nothing else. I'd say he's more like us-- he loves anime, and if he finds both language tracks to be of high quality then he'll watch both.

On a related note, he did check out the site, and though I doubt he "crapped in his pants" he did link to us, so I guess he liked it.

Thomas, your question is a good one, and I'd like to thank you for writing in. As I received your letter, I was preparing to jump off of my roof with my cat under my arm to see if our proximity would enable me to also land on my feet. Of course, I was also drunk.

The fans you describe are probably of the variety that feel that a dub is by its very nature a vandalization of a work of art. I wouldn't worry about influencing their opinion-- when they're ready to judge a dub fairly, they'll do it on their own. In the meantime, we-- as fans who desire the best possible dub-- have to consider whether they're right or wrong: Would imitation of the original Japanese seiyuu help the overall quality of the dub?

We don't think so. The Japanese seiyuu are doing the same thing that the English voice actors are: they're interpreting source material. They're giving life and voice to a character and a situation that someone else has written. The difference for the dub is that it's being done in English instead of in Japanese.

The quality of the acting is dependent on how accurately the voice actors portray the character they're playing. For a particular role, a voice actor would be going for, let's say, a sixteen-year-old straight-A student who's just fallen in love for the first time. That's who's being portrayed, and if the director feels that the most accurate way to portray that character would be to take the same approach as the original Japanese actors, then that's the approach that will be taken. But it will be because both parties felt that it was the best way to approach the character-- not because the director (or the actors, for that matter) felt that the best thing to do was to imitate the original seiyuu.

Townsend Coleman. Definitely Townsend Coleman. This guy's pedigree is a mile long and includes some incredibly diverse roles: the title character in The Tick; Gobo from Fraggle Rock; Michaelangelo, Rat King, and Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... and if you watch NBC, he does the voice-over for many of their promotions. Great, great voice actor.

Cam Clarke is another one of my favorites. Though not as diverse as Townsend Coleman, he does have one of the most distinguished voices in the business. Most of you know him as the voice of Leonardo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and you can probably name a bunch of different shows you've seen with him in it just based on that. Of course, he's also voiced Liquid Snake in the Metal Gear Solid games, as well as Kaneda and Prince Milo from the old dubs of, respectively, Akira and Warriors of the Wind.

Of course, if you're talking about voice actors that primarily focus on anime, the usual fan favorites apply: Ruby Marlowe above all, followed by Dorothy Melendrez and Hilary Haag. Among the males, I've been extremely impressed with a lot of newcomers, particularly Dave Lelyveld and Mark Diraison; these guys have a LOT of potential, in my opinion. Then again, Bryan Cranston was on his way to being one of the best anime voice actors I'd heard, before he took a gig as the father on Malcolm in the Middle, so anything can happen.