Do you think the Anime needs better humor and dialogue?

One of the worst things about Diamond & Pearl is most of the humor and dialogue (especially for the dub). It absolutely ruins the whole story for me because it sounds like they weren't even trying. I know that it's for kids but they could at least try to attract teens with engaging dialogue. Pokemon's for all ages. If you agree with me, please reply to this thread saying why. If you don't, then reply anyways but state a specific reason why you think so.

And remember, no flaming.

P.S. I like DP storytelling but the dialogue... UGH! I just hope Best Wishes makes up for it in time.

I agree with you, I'm really sick of the poor dialogues of the Anime, especially Team Rocket. They just keep repeating the old gags and humour. They require to spice up to attract mature audiences. This is what I think.

UGH! I just hope Best Wishes makes up for it in time.

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Well, that is just what I'm thinking.

I'm very okay with the dialogue, if it isn't Team Rocket's dialogue anyway, so I'm fine with that. The humor sucks though. The show isn't very funny but I'm okay with that as well because I watch for the Pokémon battles, which suck too for the most part, and I don't watch expecting this show to be funny at all.

Vernikova said:

I don't watch expecting this show to be funny at all.

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Neither do I but I do think you should have humor sometimes on a show to lighten the mood.

The show almost always has a light mood. It isn't overly serious or anything.

The most frustrating thing is if my little sister comes in my room when i was watching pokemon, she would laugh at probably every line that they say when i don't even think it is funny.

Yeah, the only funny episode I can think of in DP was the Mismagus episode and the Togepi episode.

On the dialogue side, apart from Team Rocket (which is a whole issue on its own) I've noticed that the dub seems to add in random words or phrases (like Paul saying "see?" continuously) to fill in the time in more noticeably than how 4Kids used to, which I find annoying.

WonderGirl said:

I don't know why English dubbed animes just aren't as good as Japanese ones. They don't need to change so much stuff around.

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They have to try to have the same meaning as the original, while taking up the same amount of time as it does to say in another language. One phrase could be short in Japanese, but the same meaning phrase could be much longer in English, or vice versa. That must come into it sometimes, at least.

WonderGirl said:

I don't know why English dubbed animes just aren't as good as Japanese ones. They don't need to change so much stuff around. Original is better. And yeah, Pokémon seems to try to avoid real funny humor ">.>

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That's just perception on your part, I think. The lines probably sound just as corny/weak in Japanese to a native speaker as they do in English to an English speaker.

As for Pokemon avoiding "real funny humor", what is "real funny humor" to you, anyway? If you pay attention, there's a subtle wordplay joke every 6th line or so of dialog in Pokemon, to soften the blow to adults who have kids obsessed with the show, and who watch it with them.

WonderGirl said:

I don't know why English dubbed animes just aren't as good as Japanese ones. They don't need to change so much stuff around. Original is better. And yeah, Pokémon seems to try to avoid real funny humor ">.>

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Oi! I take offense to that! There may be bad dubs but there are good dubs. Even great dubs! Don't believe me? Cowboy Bebop.

Dialogue? Maybe. Humor? I am satisfied with a chuckle once every few minutes, so I wouldn't play with that. Of course, I am talking about the dub.

But I honestly get the feeling the BW dub will be alright. Don't you peeps worry.

Well, considering that it originally comes from Japan and its a bit harder to translate directly without sounding utterly retarded, I'd say its fine the way it is. Its not easy to translate directly, because Japan have so many in-jokes that we just don't get, so they won't be be able to get it directly word for word without it sounding just plain weird.

Besides, corny jokes are the best jokes imo.

Just to clarify, I never said that Team Rocket's dailogue was completely bad, it is just boring the way it was being repetitive. Especially that "Blasting off again" stuff. :\

I guess some humor was childish. But I don't really mind the dialogue that much but Team Rocket is usually saying random things about catching Pikachu.

I've made this point before.

The humour and dialogue in the new dub (PuSA) is poor. Team Rocket are a shadow of there former selves, gone is the humour and snappy wordplay instead replaced by cliched poetic and arty phrases. A lot of the original humour is gone and the dialogue can be extremely boring.

I'm not exactly sure if this is an intended outcome from PuSA or whether they simply don't have the same calibre and quality of writers as 4kids had. Probably the later, despite the venoumous criticism directed to them at times 4kids were an expereinced company and had been making these shows for years and so had a team of some of the best writers reflected by the quality dubbing of the earlier series.

I suspect some of it is also due to PuSA rushing the dub out too fast probably after fan criticism of the time taken by 4kids. It's now out within the 6 months of the original whereas previously you'd be lucky to get it within a year. Nice as it is to watch the dub earlier for me I'd rather wait longer to watch a better produced and well done dub.

Furthermore possibly in an attempt to appease the criticism directed out by the Pokemon snobs who worship the Japanese original version and constantly castigate the 4kids dubs, they could have purposely tried to keep the dialogue and other elements as close as possible to the original and hence that's why the dialogue seems so artificial and contrived. What may seem to make sense and seem normal in Japanese may not literally translated seem approrpriate for a Western Audience. Instead of ignoring the snobs and using their own creative license and freedom to adapt the script and dialoge for a Western Audience like 4Kids they may have stuck to rigoloursly with the original.

If they could only bring the past, pokemon can do better than that *sighs* I completely agree that pokemon is dried out of humor nowadays yet the DP season had a good story plot and the dialogues were okay but still a wee dull. I can survive the too-innocent draggy dialogues because they still make sense right? Especially to children.

I still like the show but I'm not as avid as before when watching pokemon. Maybe that's because I fall asleep after hearing TR's exhausting motto? haha

WonderGirl said:

I think it's actually because of our lack of knowledge in Japanese that makes us think the dialogue is poor, but in English, it does suck quite a bit. And if you're talking about Pokémon, unfortunately, it's even worse ">.< I don't know why English dubbed animes just aren't as good as Japanese ones. They don't need to change so much stuff around. Original is better. And yeah, Pokémon seems to try to avoid real funny humor ">.>

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Honestly, I prefer english dubs but maybe because I don't really watch japanese ones. But I agree with you, I mean, we can't blame eachother for having different tastes in language/dialogue. English dubs are just cleaned-up versions of the japanese ones I guess.

Pokemon lost its humor and now losing its touch, ey?

In my opinion, the Pokémon anime has had its ups and downs in many different cases.
I never seen much of the show as a kid, so I only know very little about it.
I have a seen a few Diamond and Pearl episodes online (the show, for some reason, isn't on any of our stations at this time) and it's dialogue is okay at times, but it can be a bit annoying as well.
The humor of the show has somewhat lost it since the old days. Team Rocket used to be clever, witty, and amusing villains. But of course, their humor has gotten rather dumb through time. You just can't smile at it anymore like you used to.
I've watch the first couple episodes of the new Black and White anime (there was no english subtitles, so I had very little idea of what they are saying) and, for an unknown reason, I seem to have faith in this series. I don't know why, but I think this one will do much better than from the past.

mervyn797 said:

Just to clarify, I never said that Team Rocket's dailogue was completely bad, it is just boring the way it was being repetitive. Especially that "Blasting off again" stuff.

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That gag is a bit old now, but it's still classic!

I just don't watch the show with the expectation that the dialogue is going to be extremely insightful or intriguing. I watch and expect some lighthearted silliness and fun. And the show's pretty good at delivering that, in my opinion. Sure, sometimes it can seem repetitive, but you can't name an anime going on as long as Pokemon that has not gotten repetitive. I enjoy for what it is, and don't expect more of it.

I have no problem with the humor and most of the dialogue isn't that much different from past seasons. Except for Team Rocket. I've probably mentioned it a million times on this forum. The dub writers seriously have to improve TR's dialogue. It's downright horrible! All of the rhyming thrown in is just so unnatural, and it makes Jessie, James, and Meowth seem even more pathetic than they already are.

Team Rocket needs better lines!