Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Japanese Dub Review)

You know I swore off these Marvel films. They aren’t my thing anymore and my dislike of them was just turning me into an unfun stick in the mud. Just a smarmy hateful little loser. So after that 4th Thor movie, I said enough is enough and called it quits. Like Pontius Pilate, I washed my hands of this film series. But now here I am, crawling back like a starving rat begging for scraps. 

But I have a good reason this time!!! That’s right I am not reviewing the film itself, but the Japanese dub. This seemed like a good segment to bolster the site. All big blockbusters come to Japan with a Japanese dub, and for the most part, they understandably go undiscussed. I have always found dubbing to be a fascinating process. Seeing how a different culture chooses to transfer over ideas and tropes. This is present in all translations obviously, but there is something so much more direct when it comes to dubbing. This can be seen in more obvious examples, like Brock’s “Jelly Donuts” in the English version of the Pokemon anime. However, my interest truly peaked when I was watching clips of the Japanese dub of Spongebob of all things.  

Specifically in the dub’s interpretation of the character Plankton. Now as any English speaker in their mid to early twenties should know, Plankton has a deep booming voice. His voice actor Mr. Lawrence gave him a deep menacing voice evocative of older American cartoon villains like Dr. Claw or Megatron. This of course enhances the comedy when he has to talk casually in that voice.

Now shift over to the Japanese Plankton and we move to the opposite end of the vocal spectrum. Far from deep and booming, his voice is incredibly high-pitched. It’s like he has been sucking down on helium. More specifically he sounds somewhat similar to how many prepubescent boys sound in anime. This can partially be traced back to the kawaii culture in Japan. Plankton is a very cute small creature. It makes sense that they saw his design and decided to make him sound like an adorable five-year-old and not a middle-aged divorcee. However, I was shocked to find in my research that Plankton’s Japanese voice is pretty much identical to the Japanese voice of Dragon Ball’s own Emperor Pilaf. Now both these characters share similar characteristics. Both are small in stature and have even shorter tempers. Both are also parodies of other cartoon antagonists. Running with the joke “ what if your generic cartoon villain had all the same bravado, but also completely sucked.” 

Now at this point, I assume some of you may be wondering, “why has this man spent so much time talking about Spongebob in his Ant-man review?” Well, I mainly want to establish the types of exciting changes you see when you cross the cultural line. In the case of Spongebob, the idea of a maniacal mustache-twirling villain, who is also kind of pathetic, can be interpreted in two completely different ways. I also want to emphasize this idea in regard to humor, seeing as that is one of the key calling cards of the MCU and the Ant-Man franchise in particular.

But okay no more preamble. Let’s talk about the dub. I am going to separate this into an easy-to-parse list. I’ll talk about all the major players’ voices in a ranked list, from worst to best, Starting with …

Modok

English: Corey Stoll Japanese: Hitoshi Yamanoi

I instantly forgot almost everything about this character and both performances for it. I do have the perhaps controversial opinion that I actually kind of dug the design. It gave off the silly cartoony energy that the comic book character is known for, and that this film works best in. However, that’s about it. At least he wasn’t annoying. Next. 

Cassie Lang

English: Kathryn Newton Japanese: Rie Takahashi

I want to start this off by saying that I don’t think any of the dub actors did a bad job here. In this case, I would even say Rie Takahashi did better than Kathryn Newton. The problem here really lies in the character herself. Pretty much most of the horrible marvel style dialogue was placed purely on Cassie and Scott’s lap. We’ll get to Scott eventually but this harms Cassie as this is essentially our introduction to the character. Another problem is I don’t think Newton was really on set with the rest of the cast much. At least that’s how it comes off in the final product. It’s pretty rare to see any close-up shots of the cast sharing a frame, but it’s almost like playing Where’s Waldo with Cassie. It doesn’t seem like Newton was acting against actual people and thus didn’t really know the context or intended tone of her lines. This is actually where the Takahashi has an advantage. Being able to dub the film with knowledge of the full story means there are fewer awkward line reads. However, I think my real problem with Takahashi’s Cassie is just that she sounds younger than the character looks. This is Marvel’s problem. Cassie is supposed to be a teenager in the film, and Takahashi plays her like that. For example, she constantly refers to Scott as “Papa” instead of the more formal “Otousan” and it just feels off. The problem is just that Kathryn Newton looks like she is in her early 20’s. There are age-specific vocab and mannerisms in the film that don’t match with how the character looks visually and it becomes quite distracting after a while. 

Kang The Conqueror 

English: Jonathan Majors Japanese: Kazumasa Nakamura

Next, we sadly have Marvel’s next big bad Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathon majors and dubbed by Kazuma Nakmura. In this case, we don’t have an issue with performers, both these men are very talented. I think the issue lies with marvel’s interpretation of Kang. they go for quiet menace and that doesn’t really work with a film and concept this silly. Kang is a multiversal conqueror who was apparently so chaotic that he was banished by his alternate selves to a place called the quantum realm. Now reading that you can hopefully see the issue. We’re getting into some hardcore genre of sci-fi. Real nerdy stuff.  This type of ridiculousness needed some bug-eyed Michael Shannon as Zodd energy. Especially with some of the turns near the end of the film, quite menace just doesn’t cut it. Jonathon Majors is sometimes operating at that level, but that type of crazed intensity never crystallizes in the dub.      

Hope Van Dyne 

English: Evangeline Lilly Japanese: Yuki Uchida

This is our neutral spot on the list. Played by Evangeline Lily and dubbed by Yuki Uchida, both these women have years of experience with the role at this point and they fit comfortably back in. It’s hard to get a real gauge of the performance as the character is barely utilized in the film. A real shame given the title suggests she is a co-lead. As such this will stand all neutral 0 on the ph scale of performances here.   

Hank Pym

English: Michael Douglas Japanese: Kimiyoshi Mitomo

Next we have Michael Douglas and Kimiyoshi Otomo as Hank Pym. This is another example of a veteran of the character, where Otomo has been dubbing Hank since the original. This is also an example of one of the major players in this franchise being sidelined for the third film. I do wonder how much of this was Michael Douglas not wanting to commit to a lengthy shoot, but it’s probably best not to speculate. Regardless, Michael Douglass has a dynamite screen presence even when I’m not hearing his voice and Otomo is allowed to loosen up with a much more chilled-out Hank Pym than in previous films. Overall I feel this is somewhat interchangeable with Hope, however, I’m going to give the nod to Otomo as I feel the more downplayed calmed performance works better with the shrunken role.

Scott Lang

English: Paul Rudd Japanese: Hidenobu Kiuchi

Scott himself was the voice I was most looking forward to hearing. Played by Paul Rudd in English; the Japanese voice is none other than the incredibly talented Hidenobu Kiuchi. Kiuchi is probably most famous for roles such as Kenzo Tenma in Monster, Ryohei Sasagawa in Hitman Reborn!, and most exciting to me was Hol Horse in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Both Hol Horse and to a lesser extent Ryohei are characters that show the exact type of high-energy absurdity that a film like Ant-Man needs. Kiuchi has been Paul Rudd’s Japanese voice for years now also dubbing for films like Ghostbusters: Afterlife. This should be a comedic slam dunk. That’s why I was so surprised to see that it was the dramatic moments that Kikuchi was hitting for me. Now, this is not a surprise in that I didn’t think Kikuchi could do drama. He has proven on many occasions that he absolutely can. It was just that there is a decent gulf in quality behind the dramatic reads and the jokes. Now a few of the jokes land, but for the most part they fall pretty flat. I was puzzled as to why this was until it finally clicked with me. The marvel style of quips just doesn’t really fit with more over-the-top anime voice stylings. Marvel jokes are meant to come quick and not hit very hard. They keep things light without being too absurdist. This more sarcastic mumblecore vibe of joke just doesn’t connect with a performance style that needs to be more over the top. I kept hoping for some big exaggerated reactions or just some more energy with the delivery. Sadly it never really materializes. On the other hand, Kikuchi is on the perfect wavelength for dramatic moments. I especially love the scenes where Scott needs to be a loving but stern father to Cassie. This type of family drama was what the original Ant-man movies did well and was for the most part missing in this one. That’s why it is a huge breath of fresh air when the film does go down that route.     

Janet Van Dyne

English: Michelle Pfeiffer Japanese: Gara Takashima

Last and the exact opposite of least will be Michelle Pfeiffer and Gara Takashima as Janet Van Dyne. Takashima is a veteran dubbing actress who has been the voice of Michelle Pfeiffer since 1983 with Scarface. She is also the main dubbing actress for celebrities such as Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Emma Thompson, and is even the Japanese voice of Princess Leia. As such this third-rate Ant-man movie is child’s play for her. On top of that Janet is the most prominent character in the film besides Scott. She has the clearest and most concise arc and the best overall scenes in the film. Particularly the ones where she has to act against the film’s villain Kang. However, she has great chemistry with all of her castmates, able to jump from stoic badass, to snarky quip machine, to loving mother, to mysterious secret haver all at the drop of a hat. Her presence is easily the highlight of the film.

And there you have it. Please let me know if this is the type of content you like seeing here and if you would be interested in any more. I have a review of the new Japanese film Blue Giant coming in a week or two. Until then, happy trails.