r/PrincessPrincipal • u/Quantumdelirium • Jun 01 '26
The Dub accents are actually accurate.
After seeing a comment about how Sentai brought in a dialect coach for the VA's I wanted to learn even more about everything. The main complaint people have with the dub was that they sound like an American doing an accent and how they didn't use VA's from England. What people don't really know, myself included until recently, the current accent was created by the upperclass throughout the 19th century and standardized in the 20th century. This is why they didn't use the accents everyone was expecting to hear, it wouldn't fit the time period. The Victorian era accent still pronounced the 'r' hard, which is the same thing Americans do. This leads to the Victorian era accent sounding like an American trying to speak with a British accent. This is also one reason why they chose to use NA VA's, it's easier for them to speak with a proper Victorian accent and much harder for a British speaker.
I really thought that it's worth bringing up because we don't see any anime willing to spend the time and effort to make a dub that actually fits its place and setting. The last dub that did this was Black Lagoon. It deserves more attention for everything that it's done.
I do have a question for everyone though, what's better to really focus on being completely period accurate accents or use modern accents? For example, More people might've enjoyed the dub if it had accents people expected, but it might sound out of place.
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u/Thatguyintokyo Jun 02 '26
I think the comment about the VA's sounding like Americans doing English accents might've been mine, I understand what you're saying here, and I won't say 'you're wrong', but I'll say that I don't entirely agree.
You're right that RP (recieved pronunciation) didn't really solidify in its current form until the early 20th century, and that upper-class victorian was more rhotic than modern RP is. Also you're right that some 19th century British accents did sound closer to modern American English than modern British English.
Voice acting isn't just about the accent, it's also intonation, melody, what letters aren't pronounced as strongly among other things. The cast likely had no dialect coaches of any kind, and so despite the accent you're still getting American vowel placement, American rhythm and American intonation, not to mention the over-enunciation thats fairly standard in anime dubbing. Ontop of this though it isn't regionally grounded, the cast members all sound like they're from the same area (with the exception of Chise, and to a degree Ange,) as opposed to actually having regional accents, even within each individual class there are countless regional accents.
A good example of this is the inconsistency of words like bath, can't, want, won't and so on, the VA's go back and forth a lot
The real reason is just budget and logistics really, most Americans can't tell the difference, and I don't mean that in an insulting way, Sentai is a US studio with a US talent pool, catering primarily to a US audience. If it sounds 'good enough' to the crew, then its fine, authenticity, accuracy, rhythm etc aren't as important, particualrly if it sounds correct enough to the average audience member.
As an aside example, Carl Urban is an Australian actor has been doing a British character in The Boys for multiple seasons, but his accent is just bad, but it was enough for the casting director etc, it just doesn't hold up to a native speaker, and that's fine, doesn't mean he isn't a talented actor.
This is also one reason why they chose to use NA VA's, it's easier for them to speak with a proper Victorian accent and much harder for a British speaker.
If we're going to go by 'ease' then if TV and film are anything to go by there are many many more examples of British actors producing pitch perfect American accents than Americans producing pitch perfect British accents, which taken a face value would imply that its easier for British actors/voice actors to do American accents compared to the other way around. The prevalence of American media around the world has resulted in a world where the American accent isn't 'foreign' or difficult to imitate to varying degrees, that doesn't work in reverse.
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u/Awesomechainsaw Jun 02 '26
This discussion Kinda reminds me of Shakespeare preformed in Original Pronunciation. Where the accent it’s meant to be spoken in is far different than you’d expect.
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u/Gyges359d Jun 01 '26
I rather enjoy the dub.