I don't dislike L, I'm just not enamored with him. I actually liked the fact that he didn't learn any kind of lesson. He had 0 development but he was interesting. Not many writers could make a character like that both believable and engaging. But in the end characters with more feelings and flaws are more interesting for me, even if more common. A lot of L fans like him because they insert emotional capacity that I just don't think is there; they love his quirks. And admittedly his quirks are a lot of what characterize him and keep him interesting, because lacking much in the way of feelings does make him rather dry. It highlights what a weirdo he is in more obvious ways than he lack of shounen manga hot passionate sentiment.
A dub that tries to adapt the original well is just going to end up, at best, close to the original. It can't surpass the original at being the original. So I'll just take the original, thanks. If it's trying to surpass it while maintaining the best parts of the original, then liking the dubbed version is like saying "I like Shiki because it'd be awesome if Seishin and Ozaki got into an epic battle in the church at the end because he was there instead of Ohkawa, and Seishin had to kill him instead to save Sunako." You're liking it for something that's not there canonically, and the entire build up to that "awesomeness" is blatantly taken from the original. That "awesome what-if" won't make sense if you present it to someone not familiar with Shiki as the context. The beloved dub-only line, dub voice, etc. is in the stolen context of the story, the stolen context of the basic character, etc.
If it's a manga or anime or move adaptation, then new elements are added--even a "perfect" port from a novel or manga to anime involves motion, timing, color, voice, sound, music. From anime or novel to manga involves picking the "key frames" of each scene to draw into the panels, involves body language, setting, character design, angle. I'm fine with changes in adaptation as long as that adaptation has something that justifies it on its own. I may not LIKE the adaptive choices (see: Brotherhood), but can accept its own direction and attributions even if I think they're poor ones (see: Brotherhood). No dubs outside of parodies which provide a unique comedic (or at least commentative) context have provided anything I can say stands on its own merits.
So even with good actors, I wouldn't like or approve of dubs. But it helps my anti-dubbed anime position considerably that English dub actors also happen to be in general poor actors. If I enjoy an actor, I want to hear them make a character their own as a given liberty by the creative staff as many US Cartoon actors do, or hear them in a role the director supposes they suit. There are good actors in unsuiting roles, and those aren't enjoyable unless they're so ill suited they're funny... like the dramatic Youtube argument renactment series by those two older guys.
Coincidentally, the Weiss Kreuz dub is terribly acted, but the outtakes gag dub scenes are hilarious. I'd rather the dub just not exist at all but I can acknowledge that something funny came out of it. But then, if some fans who didn't wreck the whole series with their audio-error track had recorded the same thing, I'd laugh just as hard. Harder, probably.
I'm also not against fandubs as fans ways of enjoying the character, the same way people write fanfics and enjoy fanworks. But everyone accepts those as not canon, not an acceptable substitute for canon. Sadly most people think of dubs as an acceptable alternative to the original for discussing canon, characters, quotes, etc.
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A dub that tries to adapt the original well is just going to end up, at best, close to the original. It can't surpass the original at being the original. So I'll just take the original, thanks. If it's trying to surpass it while maintaining the best parts of the original, then liking the dubbed version is like saying "I like Shiki because it'd be awesome if Seishin and Ozaki got into an epic battle in the church at the end because he was there instead of Ohkawa, and Seishin had to kill him instead to save Sunako." You're liking it for something that's not there canonically, and the entire build up to that "awesomeness" is blatantly taken from the original. That "awesome what-if" won't make sense if you present it to someone not familiar with Shiki as the context. The beloved dub-only line, dub voice, etc. is in the stolen context of the story, the stolen context of the basic character, etc.
If it's a manga or anime or move adaptation, then new elements are added--even a "perfect" port from a novel or manga to anime involves motion, timing, color, voice, sound, music. From anime or novel to manga involves picking the "key frames" of each scene to draw into the panels, involves body language, setting, character design, angle. I'm fine with changes in adaptation as long as that adaptation has something that justifies it on its own. I may not LIKE the adaptive choices (see: Brotherhood), but can accept its own direction and attributions even if I think they're poor ones (see: Brotherhood). No dubs outside of parodies which provide a unique comedic (or at least commentative) context have provided anything I can say stands on its own merits.
So even with good actors, I wouldn't like or approve of dubs. But it helps my anti-dubbed anime position considerably that English dub actors also happen to be in general poor actors. If I enjoy an actor, I want to hear them make a character their own as a given liberty by the creative staff as many US Cartoon actors do, or hear them in a role the director supposes they suit. There are good actors in unsuiting roles, and those aren't enjoyable unless they're so ill suited they're funny... like the dramatic Youtube argument renactment series by those two older guys.
Coincidentally, the Weiss Kreuz dub is terribly acted, but the outtakes gag dub scenes are hilarious. I'd rather the dub just not exist at all but I can acknowledge that something funny came out of it. But then, if some fans who didn't wreck the whole series with their audio-error track had recorded the same thing, I'd laugh just as hard. Harder, probably.
I'm also not against fandubs as fans ways of enjoying the character, the same way people write fanfics and enjoy fanworks. But everyone accepts those as not canon, not an acceptable substitute for canon. Sadly most people think of dubs as an acceptable alternative to the original for discussing canon, characters, quotes, etc.