Cool... she outshines everyone... Nice find Jon...

she sounds like a disney voice/singer from back in the day. good stuff

I would blame the localization of the God Bless over Wendy Lee, I think she has an adequate voice for it, it's just what she was singing horribly overshadowed how she was singing it.

While there are people who may like this idea I would bet there are more people out there who would rather have Wendee Lee stay as the voice of Haruhi. Personally I don't think songs should ever be dubbed.(they should be done like they are in Lucky Star) The only time it has ever worked was for BECK and that is a rare exception.

I like consistency and it will be very annoying to have 2 different voice actresses playing Haruhi because if you decide to marathon both seasons(which alot of people might do) and you are a dub fan(like me) then it's annoying have the voice change all of a sudden.

Also let me state that I think that English version of Super Driver sounds horrible compared to the original Aya Hirano version. But like I said songs always work better in Japanese for me.(Again the exception is BECK)

I wasn't expecting much, but that was pretty impressive for English VA work. Good job :)

I don't know, I wasn't too keen on Wendee Lee. I'm hoping Christina can bring some real genki energy to the Haruhi role that just wasn't there in the first dub. If she does get the part, I would also encourage Bandai to consider redubbing the first season, and having Christina do all the songs. I would really like to hear her version of "God Knows" and "Hare Hare Yukai".

Another reason(damn edit button or lack thereof) I like the idea of Wendee Lee staying as the voice of Haruhi is the link with Lucky Star.

Those who follow both series will know Aya Hirano played Haruhi and Konata and this played a big part in Wendee Lee getting the Role for Konata(it's in a video interview extra on one of the Lucky Star discs). I Thought it was a clever idea and thought it worked quite well. There is no way Bandai will redub Lucky Star to keep this connection(Hell they never even dubbed the OVA which really need to be dubbed because of the amount of text on screen during the MMO segment)

Actually, Lucky Star is another example of what I was talking about. The English dub was competent... but it completely lacked the energy that the Japanese dub had. Hearing Aya & company go crazy was one of the best parts of that show, but all that was stripped out of the English version. I think English dubbing studios need to start following the Japanese practice of having all the VAs record their lines at the same time, so they can build up a good camaraderie and put more effort and energy into their roles.

DO NOT WANT!

Seriously though, no offense to anyone, but I can't see why anyone can't love God Knows by Wendee Lee, but love Super Driver by Christina Vee. Personally it baffles me! I usually agree with everything on this site, but on this issue I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!

Aya > Wendee > Christina

In that order, always!

OLD. Like, older than the internet old. :b Gotta miss MilkyCabbage.

I didn't think Wendee Lee did a bad job, but I will admit I didn't watch much of the dub (maybe an episode or two). The Christina Vee dub songs do sound good also, but to be honest it doesn't matter much to me. What I really want is it see Bandai release the show in Blu-ray along with the DVD release.

@bu8wk: NO U

@Brett Chalupa: Haruhi hasn't even gotten a Japanese bluray yet, so I doubt we'll be seeing one anytime soon.

Those are actually old, but the fact that the Super Driver one is used in the ASOS brigade episode .888888 is proof.

I like how Christina Vee does some dubbed version of anime OP themes she does them really well. Although someone else is writing the lyrics.

Wendee Lee wasn't that awful, I thought it was passable but not excellent either.

@Jon Snyder

Due to the nature of dubbing it's literally impossible for the English VA's to dub something as a group. They have to time to the lip flaps and that's hard enough with a single person. Doing it with a group of 4+ people would be impossible.

Unless the show is animated to the dub like it is in Japan or like US cartoons are it's merely impossible to do it with more then 1 person in the booth at a time.(By impossible I mean would cost millions of dollars in time to get it right which in anime might as well be impossible.)

For some reason I don't care.

Not bad, not bad at all, really.
But no thanks on the whole dubbed OP and ED thing. Hate that. Original OP/ED or bust.

She copped to it last week at AOD in SF.

Nice lady, great voice, very friendly. Here's wishing her the best of luck!

I WANT NOW!!!

Ohgod. O hadn't seen that God Knows video... why did you just show me that.... why? .n. CAN NOT BE UNHEARD!

I see no trouble in having two actresses taking on one role as long as they do great in their jobs.

Not really a huge fan of her style. Little too Disney Pop Idol Flare. Now that I wrote the words "Disney Pop Idol Flare" we can be assured that they will make this move to help pull in the Hannah Montana crowd.

I would like to see how she does with some other projects. I only know her from some small bit Eureka Seven roles and BlazBlue.

Why have I never heard of her? She doesn't even have an iMDB page.

It's really not even close.

This is how God Only Knows should be sung: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbz28M_gfq0&feature=related

@Baka Tensai: Ah, so Vee HAS done "God Knows". Awesome.

Yo Jon, you a pretty cool guy. But you needz to do ya research home boy!

Vee has totally done "God Knows" and "Hare Hare Yuki"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbz28M_gfq0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH27L5thFg0

She's even done "Lost My Music".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smIJ0oUGpUs

She's even done...y'know what? Here's her Youtube Page.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ValliereVee#g/u

Hope you Enjoy :D

Uh-oh, it appears I've suffered a CRITICAL RESEARCH FAILURE!

I am shamed.

@Jon
Don't worry, it happens to the best of us :D

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. I found her first. Well, not first, okay. But I found her alright, and before all of you did! It comes from my strange compulsion to Google every voice actor I come across ever; so upon Googling her name after learning of her role as Noel in BlazBlue, I came across her YouTube channel.
I think I love her version of Super Driver more than Hirano's, actually. I can't stop listening to it.
And news that she could be the new voice of Haruhi just makes me scream in joy. I've talked about her on Skype way too much about how she should steal the role of Haruhi from under Wendee Lee. If this happens to be true, I will joy myself to death.

I love the dub...and as much as I love Wendee Lee, I can imaging Vee doing Haruhi. The thing is is that me and probably all of the fans of the dub would be picky and favor Lee for sake of continuity.

A hell of a dub, tho...

But, yeah... one of the reasons is flat out because Haruhi's dub voice really, really bothers me. I don't know it bothers me so much, but it does. I mostly feel it's too nasally, though part of it is because there isn't that much energy into it. Well, it's energy alright. But... it doesn't feel right.
Yeah.

@Moonlight

How dare you take credit for finding her! I totally found her before you! FIGHT TO THE INTERNET DEATH!

*Equips Internet Flame Armor,Flame Shield,and for some reason a Banana*

Welcome to die!




:)

An admirable performance, but Aya Hirano is my God.


Literally.


Haruhism
My God is hotter than your God.

"Made your ears bleed"? Drama queen much? It wasn't THAT bad. And most of it wasn't Wendee Lee's fault either. Vee's version sounded just as clunky, the issue is with just translating the lyrics in a way that doesn't sound crappy.

The best dub songs I can think of off the top of my head were Ouran's ending and most of Lacus's songs in Gundam Seed, and those were pretty good.

Lee's mix was the real error, the vocals are way too under-produced, and far to high in the mix

I could say Aya's voice was high in the mix...

>_>

Arg. Sounds messed up. I wouldn't watch in English anyways.

Christina can actually pronounce Mikuru properly, so I have no qualms with her being the new Haruhi.

My bet: Wendee Lee continues dubbing Haruhi, and Christina Vee takes over for the songs.

After all, Audrey Hepburn needed help from Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady.

I'm not a big fan of dubbed anime, but Cristina Vee does a great work on those songs and I yanked my headphones when Wendee Lee started singing, god that was AWFUL.

I'm not a fan of Haruhi, but I absolutely LOVE God Knows. Anyway, I think even Aya Hirano doesn't sound like her other songs while singing it. It's awesome she is capable of doing that kind of tone, but her other songs are almost all happy go lucky, while God Knows is more serious.

With that said, I heard the english version by Weendee Lee, and I think it's not her fault that sucks. The lyrics sucks. Her voice is quite enjoyable. But I must admit Christina Vee sounds EXACTLY the same as Aya on her other songs besides God Knows.

If it comes to be, which may be unlikely, that she replaces Wendee Lee, I would be very suprised. I imagine people would hate that, and I see no reason why they should. Changing voice actors is like changing the lead singer to a band./

You know, I would agree with the "changing voice actors is bad" point... except for the fact that very few people actually bothered to buy the R1 Haruhi DVDs. Almost every otaku in existence watched the show via fansubs, but American DVD sales were mediocre.

Wow that Super Driver was actually pretty good, she sounds a lot like Aya Hirano

@Jon Snyder

The sales for the R1 DVD's could not have been that bad. If they were so mediocre then Bandai would not have even bothered licensing the 2nd season. I personally bought all of them and I even got one of the volumes in special addition form.

@Reibooi

"The only time it has ever worked was for BECK and that is a rare exception."

I see your BECK and raise you a Nerima Daikon Brothers (another anime with a focus on music, starring Greg Ayres)

Otherwise, yeah, there's the occasional super-rare OP that works as well (or almost so) in English as in Japanese, but they're basically never better in English, so why bother?

@Reibooi: The Haruhi DVDs sold enough to be marginally profitable, but considering how everybody in the otakusphere was raving about the show like it was the next Evangelion... it should have sold a LOT more than it did.

About the discussion of R1 DVD sales - even among those of us who bought them, how many people really watched the dub? Even I, who was very interested in how the dub would come out, watched one episode, was like "neat," and went back to subs because Aya Hirano just can't be matched.

Vee's version of "Super Driver" sounds amazingly Haruhi-ish, wow.

Didn't Vee start off as an amateur/fan VA online? (I may be thinking of someone else.) That is pretty cool if that is the same girl! :)

Even though I think her singing is better than Wendee, I have almost never liked a Japanese song to English. It just never sounds right to me and the way most Japaanese lyrics are put together makes it sounds super clunky in English.

Have you ever really read some Japanese lyrics while not listening to the music? They can be so random and sometimes really lame. Not saying there aren't plenty badly/awkward lyrics songs in other languages/countries, I just noticed that most Asian music has weird lyrics and jumps topics and throws in random English, etc. It's just the style, but I don't like it translatedin English so much, no matter who is singing it.

Wenda Lee is win, if they get rid of her imma go suicide bomber

it just fits...way better than in the wendee vid

not bad for dub.... but hirano aya is way better.... subs still rock

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