Callandor

Having recently bought The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya at a Best Buy sale ($38 for the box set), I just watched it over the weekend. I watched it dubbed, and in DVD order.

Bottom line: I prefer the dub, though it has its flaws.

As a digression — DVD order isn’t the same order they broadcast it in. I prefer broadcast order for a few concrete reasons:

• In broadcast order, the climax is at the end instead of at the seventh episode,
• They must have had their reasons for airing it out of chronological order,
• I can keep up with out-of-order storytelling, and
• The last episode in DVD order is arguably the weakest (it’s like they ran out of animation budget).

But I watched in DVD order because of laziness and to help the person I was watching it with, who doesn’t like out of order telling.

Back to the dub — overall it was well done. Short version: guys done perfectly, girls not. Long version:

Crispin Freeman as Kyon – C-C-CRISPIN FREEMAN GET OUT OF MY BEDROOM makes this show. He is perfect as Kyon. Kyon is not a badass, but he is bored, cynical, sarcastic, and caught up in things beyond his control, and Freeman hits the nail out of the park. 30 seconds of Freeman after I popped my new DVDs in and I wanted to watch it all right then.
Johnny Yong Bosch as Itsuki – JYB appropriately cast, unlike with a certain other, er, character. ‘Nuff said.
Michelle Ruff as Yuki – I don’t think it’s hard to play a wooden plank. No issue here.
Stephanie Sheh as Mikuru – The only bad voice in my opinion. She’s a poor frightened kitten, sure, but her voice is annoying.
Wendee Lee as Haruhi Suzumiya – Here is where many fans have an issue. I think Lee got the titular character’s exuberance down, but sounded a little old. Also, it was hard not to hear Faye Valentine. Her voice is get-used-to-able, except for God Knows… which you should switch to Japanese for.
Minor characters – Brianne Siddall as Kunikida and Sam Regal as Taniguchi did well as Kyon’s (male!) high school friends. Bridget Hoffman as Ryoko and Kari Wahlgren as Tsuruya were fine.

Overall, I’d watch it dubbed over subbed (except for God Knows…). Of course, I’m a Crispin Freeman fanboy and I prefer dubs any time they aren’t bad. But this is by no means a bad dub.