With the Audio:English series, PenguinTruth takes a critical look at the English
dubs which grace some of anime’s most defining series in North America.
There isn’t a group of animated programs that dominate the world of entertainment for me quite as much as the Gundam franchise. What started as a passing interest in Gundam Wing‘s hamfisted philosophical debates and cool mecha evolved into an obsession, much as man is meant to evolve into the Newtype. (Or maybe not. Don’t even ask Yoshiyuki Tomino about that one. He doesn’t know.) What are essentially elaborate (some more than others) robot toy commercials have so my anime fandom that I’ve forgotten what life was like before Gundam. Did I dream? Did I breathe? Now I have several DVDs of Gundam material and a mind filled with useless trivia. And I’m not even the biggest Gundam geek. I’ll save that honor for the guys who can give you the exact specs of the engines of a Zaku II.
Maybe because I’m the breed who, perhaps foolishly, watch Gundam for the plot(s), for the characters and themes, the presentation of the English versions of these show are important to me. I want to be sure that the voice actors who portray these roles, many of them iconic anime characters, do at least some justice and show the proper respect for them. Whenever available, I’ve heard the English dub for every Gundam anime I’ve ever seen.
