Yeah, I heard that, too. Same with the FMA manga (though she originally said she didn't even want to go past 100 chapters). I have to wonder if a symbolic chapter number is really worth gumming up your entire story, though? A forced ending puts the entire work to waste... I think the best DN arc for me was Naomi's, that was just beautiful. Misa's one over on Higuchi was masterful, too. Not brilliant on a logical puzzle level like Light and L's games, but just really compelling. I play from the second half, but my heart's in the first half, even if I'm not one of the "L IS THE BEST EVER AND THE SERIES IS TRASH WITHOUT HIM" types.
I liked the Samurai Pizza Cats dub of Kyatto Ninden Teyande; they apparently completely threw out the script and made it up from the animation, added a sarcastic narrator, and made it very tongue-in-cheek. It's both funny, AND doesn't have to suffer just being as close to the original vision as it can get. It's its own work with its own merits, and doesn't rely heavily on the original's script to succeed.
I've seen some Japanese dubs that seemed pretty close to their English equivalent; in the Japanese dub of The Jungle Book, they got someone who is a dead ringer for Louis Prima, and Moguli's spot on, too. Sadly, Balloo, my favorite, sounded terrible, just stupid without any of that lovable slyness. The Japanese dub of Boondocks opted to just keep a lot of the English terms like Nigger and Fuck and Bitch, and even "A Pimp Named Slickback" was said in full English; songs were kept in English, too. I thought that was a good choice and they were sincerely trying to maintain a lot more of the original flavor compared to most dubs, but I still honestly wouldn't call it good so much as interesting. Most of the side characters were badly acted, too.
Anime and video games in general not only tend to lack fidelity in word choice and vocal choice, they tend to scrape the very bottom of the barrel in acting talent. There are amazing English language voice actors, but they're not working in anime and games or, when they are, it's really not their best work. It's nost just the dub hate talking. There are a lot of English language original games whose acting are solidly terrible; Nier Replicant, No More Heroes, Devil May Cry. No More Heroes's Japanse dub might be what I'd call "well acted" but not "good." I've said before, I have mixed feelings on whether it's appropriate given the original acting may have been intentionally terrible, and the characterization feels entirely different. I assume the English characterization is what the director intended, and so the "better acting" is still a "bad dub."
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I liked the Samurai Pizza Cats dub of Kyatto Ninden Teyande; they apparently completely threw out the script and made it up from the animation, added a sarcastic narrator, and made it very tongue-in-cheek. It's both funny, AND doesn't have to suffer just being as close to the original vision as it can get. It's its own work with its own merits, and doesn't rely heavily on the original's script to succeed.
I've seen some Japanese dubs that seemed pretty close to their English equivalent; in the Japanese dub of The Jungle Book, they got someone who is a dead ringer for Louis Prima, and Moguli's spot on, too. Sadly, Balloo, my favorite, sounded terrible, just stupid without any of that lovable slyness. The Japanese dub of Boondocks opted to just keep a lot of the English terms like Nigger and Fuck and Bitch, and even "A Pimp Named Slickback" was said in full English; songs were kept in English, too. I thought that was a good choice and they were sincerely trying to maintain a lot more of the original flavor compared to most dubs, but I still honestly wouldn't call it good so much as interesting. Most of the side characters were badly acted, too.
Anime and video games in general not only tend to lack fidelity in word choice and vocal choice, they tend to scrape the very bottom of the barrel in acting talent. There are amazing English language voice actors, but they're not working in anime and games or, when they are, it's really not their best work. It's nost just the dub hate talking. There are a lot of English language original games whose acting are solidly terrible; Nier Replicant, No More Heroes, Devil May Cry. No More Heroes's Japanse dub might be what I'd call "well acted" but not "good." I've said before, I have mixed feelings on whether it's appropriate given the original acting may have been intentionally terrible, and the characterization feels entirely different. I assume the English characterization is what the director intended, and so the "better acting" is still a "bad dub."