Ask Ben Diskin

[MarcFBR]

Ben has joined the site and has graciously offered to answer any questions people have for him. Seemed relevant to have it in the Announcements/News section for now (although I may move it to Xros Wars later on...)

For those that aren't aware Ben is playing Shoutmon and Cutemon in Digimon Fusion.

I'll let Ben take over handling of this thread unless actual moderation is needed.

 

[Benjamon]

BEWARE! I have the power to BAN anyone who displeases me for LYFE!!!!!1111 ....... I think they're buying it. CRAP! I didn't mean to type that! ... Or that. Or that. Or that. Or that............. or that.

 

[MarcFBR]

I'll go ahead and jump in first.

Most of us know you are a Digimon fan even prior to having been cast in Fusion, but your name came up years ago as an actor who was a fan of Digimon (I believe this was back around 2005 or so, before I ran WtW actually.)

When did you discover the show, and any specific reasons you remember connecting to it?

 

[Benjamon]

Well, I was around 17 or so when the show started airing and I didn't like it very much. I caught the first episode and thought, "GEEZ! There are 21 different names I'm expected to learn just in the first episode!" (Tai, Matt, Sora, Izzy, Mimi, Joe, T.K., Koromon, Tsunomon, Yokomon, Motimon, Tanemon, Bukamon, Tokomon, Agumon, Gabumon, Biyomon, Tentomon, Palmon, Gomamon, and Patamon. I can do it now! ) Then I watched it on and off and felt it was too repetitive (a problem I had with the Pokemon anime). The final nail in the coffin was the episode where T.K. and Patamon are bouncing around in Primary Village giggling annoyingly. I threw my hands in the air and vowed to never watch again.

It was months later that a friend of mine turned me onto the show. He was a couple of years older or so and I thought, "Why the heck does someone older than me like such a babyish show?" He told me it had gotten really good, so I gave it another shot. This was the Myotismon arc and I really liked it. I wound up catching up on the older episodes in reruns and I ended up enjoying them... Though I still think the early episodes were kind of weak.

 

[HMRC4EVR]

Since you're the 'Gogglehead' (to quote Rika from Tamers) for Fusion, which previous leader character do you feel Mikey might most closely relate to now, and who was your own favorite 'gogglehead' if you've had the chance to go back and watch 02, Tamers, etc..? And thanks for answering our questions!

 

[Benjamon]

I'm the Gogglehead's Digmon I'd think he'd relate to Tai the most since they're both athletic and Tai's the most competent leader of the prior Goggleheads. My favorite Gogglehead was probably Takato because he wasn't like Tai or Davis and the departure felt pretty welcome after 02.

 

[HMRC4EVR]

Ack...I knew that and in my rush didn't clairify my question properly. That's why you shouldn't web surf after a 12hour day! Sorry about that! But thanks for answering!

 

[Bartz]

Thank you for the opportunity to be able to ask you these questions.

I guess to move the conversation over to Fusion, what are you looking forward to the most when it comes to dubbing the season? Also, is there a particular arc or character that you enjoyed a lot in the Japanese version that you'd like to see the dub take on?

 

[Benjamon]

Thank you for the opportunity to be able to ask you these questions.

I guess to move the conversation over to Fusion, what are you looking forward to the most when it comes to dubbing the season? Also, is there a particular arc or character that you enjoyed a lot in the Japanese version that you'd like to see the dub take on?

Well, I'm looking forward a liiiiiiitle bit too much to getting to shout "I'm the future Digimon King" in episode 50ish. I'm probably looking forward the most to the Death Generals arc (though they likely won't be calling them "Death" anything due to censorship.) I'm mostly just curious as to what we're going to do with Mervamon. I mean.... sheesh. I'm all for sexy girls in anime but she's boarderline annoyingly in your face with all that.

 

[Hagaren Gao]

How neat, thanks for joining us here!

As far as censorship/dub rewrites, is there anything you prefer in the English version over the Japanese version? And maybe vice versa?

 

[EDRider]

Which of the Digimon season is your least favorite?

My friend wants to know why some of the names in Fusion were changed? Like Taiki to Mikey, also do you notice Mikey has a t on his shirt?

 

[MarcFBR]

My friend wants to know why some of the names in Fusion were changed? Like Taiki to Mikey, also do you notice Mikey has a t on his shirt?

I won't speak for Ben, but please keep in mind he's an actor on Digimon Fusion, not a writer or someone higher up the chain. In prior conversations with even the director of earlier seasons, Jeff Nimoy, on more than one occasion he made clear he had no specific idea why a name was changed, just that they were told to use a specific name, while other times he was free to choose names.

 

[Benjamon]

How neat, thanks for joining us here!

As far as censorship/dub rewrites, is there anything you prefer in the English version over the Japanese version? And maybe vice versa?

Well, I'm liking the characters a bit more in the English version. I feel like some of them were a little "flat" in the Japanese. Like, I prefer the English Ballistamon to his Japanese version. I'm also liking the way Mikey's being portrayed so far. I always felt that Taiki was too perfect/Gary Stewish so that's been toned down in our version.

I strongly prefer the music from the OJ, though. For a while I had "We Are Xros Heart" as my ringtone. The music in the English version is okay, but it's just a little too generic for my tastes. Certainly not BAD, just not as unique.

 

[Benjamon]

My friend wants to know why some of the names in Fusion were changed? Like Taiki to Mikey, also do you notice Mikey has a t on his shirt?

I won't speak for Ben, but please keep in mind he's an actor on Digimon Fusion, not a writer or someone higher up the chain. In prior conversations with even the director of earlier seasons, Jeff Nimoy, on more than one occasion he made clear he had no specific idea why a name was changed, just that they were told to use a specific name, while other times he was free to choose names.

Yeah, Marc's right on this one. (02 was my least favorite, btw ) Who knows why... Sometimes it's something to do with religion and we can't have "HolyAngemon" for instance. Other times it's just a note from on high. I have no idea who comes up with what or why.

 

[The Golux]

Ben, you should use this as your avatar.

http://wikimon.net/ShouCutemon

 

[Sabrblade]

Since Fusion is going to be airing on both Nick and Vortexx, when recording the English dub voice track for Fusion, was there just one voice track recorded for both the Nick and Vortexx episode airings, or two voice tracks with one for each network?

I ask since some shows, like Dragon Ball Z Kai, received multiple English dub audio tracks for each place that their episodes would air. For Dragon Ball Z Kai's case, FUNimation created three versions of the English dub. One for the DVDs that was completely uncensored and featured harsher dialogue, a second for the Nicktoons episode airing with some mild visual censorship and less-harsh dialogue, and a third one for the Vortexx airings with a LOT of visual censorship and really toned down dialogue.

Did Saban/Studiopolis do something similar for Fusion, or will there just be one version of the dub airing on both channels in the same format (i.e. - same exact dialogue) as each other?

 

[Benjamon]

Since Fusion is going to be airing on both Nick and Vortexx, when recording the English dub voice track for Fusion, was there just one voice track recorded for both the Nick and Vortexx episode airings, or two voice tracks with one for each network?

I ask since some shows, like Dragon Ball Z Kai, received multiple English dub audio tracks for each place that their episodes would air. For Dragon Ball Z Kai's case, FUNimation created three versions of the English dub. One for the DVDs that was completely uncensored and featured harsher dialogue, a second for the Nicktoons episode airing with some mild visual censorship and less-harsh dialogue, and a third one for the Vortexx airings with a LOT of visual censorship and really toned down dialogue.

Did Saban/Studiopolis do something similar for Fusion, or will there just be one version of the dub airing on both channels in the same format (i.e. - same exact dialogue) as each other?

Well, so far we've only done one version. I don't know if that will change in the future, but I kinda doubt it. It's probably going to be the same version on both. They MIGHT make a few extra censorship changes to the Vortexx version if they have to, but I don't know much about that side of the dubbing process.

 

[Sabrblade]

Well, so far we've only done one version. I don't know if that will change in the future, but I kinda doubt it. It's probably going to be the same version on both. They MIGHT make a few extra censorship changes to the Vortexx version if they have to, but I don't know much about that side of the dubbing process.

I actually hope there's no differences between the episodes that air on Nick and those that air on Vortexx since I'm one of those guys who would feel compelled to watch both versions just to catch and document all the changes between each (I actually did just that for all of the visual edits Vortexx made to Transformers: Prime back when it aired on Vortexx).

Watching just one version across both channels would make things much easier.

 

[MarcFBR]

I actually hope there's no differences between the episodes that air on Nick and those that air on Vortexx since I'm one of those guys who would feel compelled to watch both versions just to catch and document all the changes between each (I actually did just that for all of the visual edits Vortexx made to Transformers: Prime back when it aired on Vortexx).

Watching just one version across both channels would make things much easier.

Speaking as the guy who tends to be familiar with the fan and business sides...

it appears they dubbed/edited it based on CW specifications. I only imagine we will see more edits if 1- it's for time. 2- CW specifically sees something they really dislike.

 

[Vande]

Hi Ben, Thanks for coming WtW to answer our questions.

Outside the Digimon you provide the voices, what is your favourite Digimon from any season?

(ps. you came back into Digimon at one of the best arcs in 01, in my own view *as it's how I got my online name lol*)