The anime industry hasn’t been thrilled with the implementation of artificial intelligence in many cases, with fans especially routinely sharing their disdain for the technology. With organisations being created in Japan to help fight against the misuse of AI, the backlash to the tech doesn’t mean that companies aren’t trying to implement it within the anime world. Perhaps the biggest and most notorious example in recent memory has landed thanks to Amazon, as the company’s streaming service has created an English Dub for a popular anime using the technology. Needless to say, considering the quality of said dub, fans aren’t thrilled at the result.
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Banana Fish first arrived as a manga series back in 1985, running until 1994 thanks to creator Akimi Yoshida. Following protagonist Ash Lynx in a mystery series involving street crime in New York City, the anime adaptation arrived decades after the source material’s conclusion in 2018. Running for twenty-four episodes, the series was brought to life by none other than Studio MAPPA, most well known for series like Chainsaw Man, Attack on Titan, and Jujutsu Kaisen, to name a few. While the original Banana Fish Japanese dub used real voice actors, the same cannot be said for its English Dub counterpart, with AI creating a dub that has to be heard to be believed. You can listen to a sample of the artificial intelligence creation below.
One Voice Actor Has Had Enough
Voice Actor Daman Mills couldn’t hold back his ire for Amazon’s decision to go with artificial intelligence dubbing for Banana Fish, especially considering anime fans had been waiting for an Englsh Dub for years. Having worked on major projects such as The Summer Hikaru Died, Ubel Blatt, Sakamoto Days, Pokemon, One Piece, Solo Leveling, and Digimon, Mills has certainly made a name for himself in the industry. Perhaps most famously of all, Daman is the voice responsible for Frieza in the Dragon Ball Super series and much like his shonen villain, Mills couldn’t hold back his anger when seeing the Amazon decision in action, stating,
“Shame on you, Amazon. After years of fans hoping for an English dub of Banana Fish, you give it to us as AI-generated garbage? It’s disrespectful as hell. Was a queer trauma narrative handed to a machine because paying real actors is too hard? Fix this, or I personally will not work with you as an actor EVER AGAIN on any of your dubs. This is not ‘the future.’ This is erasure.”
As of the writing of this article, Amazon has yet to release an official statement regarding Banana Fish’s English Dub and whether the company plans on recreating the long-awaited dub using actual voice actors. Banana Fish, as an anime adaptation, has yet to confirm if it will further adapt its source material to the small screen, and while it is still making headlines, these aren’t the sort of headlines that an anime project is looking to receive.
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Image Courtesy of Toei Animation
