Brotherhood - in dub

[dragonimp]

The only thing I've consistently enjoyed in Brotherhood is the voice acting, so I didn't have much motivation to watch the dub. However, the talk about Al's new VA got me curious, and the episode that was showing Sunday was Scar's introduction, which was one I did like, so I went ahead and recorded it. My reactions?

• Vic's "little kid" voice still gets on my nerves. Like, fingernails on a blackboard kind of irritation. I'm just glad that scene was brief.


• I still don't like the way Hawkeye comes across in the dub. She's way too harsh.


• Al's new VA is quite good, I really like the range of emotions she pulls off. But if Al's supposed to be 14 (instead of the eternal 10-year-old he was in the first anime) then the voice she does sounds a bit too young in places. Still, if I hadn't been listening for it I don't think it would have intruded. And maybe it balances the way Vic's Ed sounds too old. (I liked Aaron fine in the first anime, but there were places where his reading came off flat or awkward. So far as I could tell from one episode, the new VA doesn't have that problem. I think that's going to be much better for Al's character in Brotherhood, even with the too young/feminine sounding moments.)


• Everyone else's acting was great, and there weren't any translation moments that jumped out at me.

I probably won't be watching any more of the dub. I can't even be bothered to catch up on the Japanese episodes, and Ed without Paku Romi's voice is just wrong to my ears. Still, it looks like they're doing a good job with the dub; it's too bad the quality of story is so hit and miss.