The English - language screenplay, in which new dialogue by American voice - over actors had to painstakingly match the mouth movements of the animated
characters speaking Japanese, was written by Karey Kirkpatrick.
Yet there are some quirks that are hard to explain away, like the fact that various
characters speak Japanese, English, Italian, and Chinese, all interchangeably, and with everyone understanding what the other is saying.
Not exact matches
The
Japanese characters are heard
speaking their native language and Anderson does not rely on subtitles.
Heisel reported a study comparing
Japanese and American children's TV programs, whose results revealed that there were even few older
characters on the
Japanese shows: 4 per cent of all
speaking roles, as compared to 9 per cent for the U.S..
Japanese characters speak their native tongue in Anderson's friend - finding epic, which means we're only allowed to understand their dialogue when * American * Interpreter Nelson (Frances McDormand) translates overtop.
Most all of the
Japanese characters speak in their native voice and we the audience only get interpretation from Interpreter Nelson (Frances McDormand).
Speaking of
Japanese voices, here's the voice actors for the three
characters revealed in this trailer:
They team up with Atari (voiced by Koyu Rankin in
Japanese - like all
characters speaking in their local dialogue, for better or worse), an adventurous boy in search of his four - legged friend who come together as a team, even if these emotional bonds never quite satisfactorily gel.
But Anderson's choice to have the dogs, played by American actors,
speaking English while the
Japanese -
speaking human
characters are frequently untranslated feels awkward and isolating.
And yes, the dogs
speak English while the
Japanese human
characters speak their native tongue, only receiving occasional translation from an interpreter (voiced by Frances McDormand).
Though the actor is terribly miscast in the role, he's hardly to blame for some of the script's more perplexing decisions — like having his
character narrate the story as if he's a detective in a film noir, or the fact that he barely
speaks a lick of
Japanese despite being the military's expert on the local culture.
In fact her function is borderline insulting, not simply to the few
Japanese characters who actually do get
speaking roles, but to those of us who are even decent at reading body language and facial expressions.
At various points, he
speaks Japanese and everyone understands him, despite no suggestion that these other
characters are capable of
speaking the language back.
Zelda however never really struck me as a game where the
characters would
speak japanese.
If you choose
japanese as the language, when you play the game next time, the
characters will
speak with their
japanese voices.
While the game's anime-esque plot and graphical style are undoubtedly served well by sticking to the
Japanese audio, the fact that so much of what goes on is
spoken about while you're trying to avoid a hundred bullets makes understanding the plot and the
character's relationships extremely difficult.
The main campaign chapters have
Japanese voices with English subtitles when
characters speak.
Street Fighter IV will feature both English and
Japanese tracks, even allowing players the choice of which
character speaks which language, so you could have a
Japanese -
speaking Ryu squaring off against an English -
speaking Ken.
If in the
Japanese version of VCII they have all these additional codes for
characters that we have not seen yet in the US version, there's a possibility that they are in the US Version as we
speak, just the code has not been found.
That is if you wanted the
characters to
speak in
Japanese.
The
Japanese Guilty Gear fans have
spoken, as Dizzy will be a future playable
character in - REVELATOR -.
Both
characters continue to only
speak Japanese in current Super Smash Bros..
Though some believe they had always intended to release Sword of Flame internationally, and included the
characters as a marketing ploy, both
characters only
speak Japanese no matter which language setting is selected in the game, leading me to believe otherwise.
In the
Japanese Animal Crossing games, the
characters of Gracie (the giraffe) and Sahara (the camel) are actually male, but they
speak in an effeminate manner.
While the in - game text and
spoken dialogue are both presented in
Japanese, the gameplay footage showcases two of Gunvolt's main offensive abilities; not only is the title
character equipped with a blaster, but Gunvolt is capable of releasing a charged, electrical psionic blast, used to dish out screen - clearing damage, power objects and open gates: