Thoughts on the dub?
Honestly? Better than I expected. I tried to temper my expectations—not because I hate dubs or have zero faith in them, but because I feel the voice acting in NatsuYuu is critical in making the emotional bits land. And it's not so much as replicating the voice actors as it is just doing a natural-sounding delivery.
I think overall, the dub did a good job at achieving that. There were several moments when it felt stiff or heavy handed, but the voice acting sounded natural when it needed to be, so I can appreciate that.
Christopher Wehkamp's Nyanko-sensei or Master Kitty Cat as the dub seems to be calling him was my favorite performance. I can tell Wehkamp had fun voicing him, and the role really showcases his range.
The weakest performance from the episode, I think, was by Jennifer AuBuchon as Touko. I feel bad saying that because I've been told she was very excited about the role! So I'm rooting for her to get better as time passes since it's not the sound of her voice that's not working for me.
Alexis Tipton did wonderfully as Reiko so I'm excited to hear more of her during future episodes.
As for Adam Gibbs as Natsume... I was honestly really worried about his performance! After the dub was announced I hunted down clips of his other roles to give me an idea of what he could sound like as my dearest boy, and the clips I heard sounded pretty stiff,,, His voice was a lot lower than I had expected for Natsume, but he had this like whisper-ish quality which I thought was reminiscent of how Natsume sounded in the Japanese. I suspect that's one reason why he might've gotten cast. At the time, I remember thinking, "oh god I hope the ADR director pulls through," but Gibbs' Natsume sounded natural for the most part, so I'd say she did! Thank you Jad Saxton.
And shoutout to Alexis Tipton, who did a wonderful job as Reiko. I'm looking forward to hearing more of her during future episodes.
