Nah, not too lenghty at all!
I think the tranlations are getting "messed up" because they've evovled past simple literal tranlations. It's more like a form of poetry or so now. Rewriting the translations as an art. This is not bad, it just shows why they're changing so much. Of course, cultural references are hard to explain too.... but not changing them worked perfectly in the Excel Saga dub. I'm very very open-minded to different things, so watching anime subbed and seeing alot of cultural references was no problem for me.
I really don't get annoyed by the voices of the Japanese version, I just sometimes find the English voice to be better. Ok.. actually, that's kinda rare. This really didn't start happening till I heard Jessica Calvello's voice in Excel Saga. (Yes, I've mentioned her name like a million times, but that's cause I really really like her voice!) Also, you can tell that ADV and their voice actors actually watched the anime and found out which tones of voice to use in ALL the scenes. There was actually a major improvement in the Dub. There were alot of scenes in the Dub where a char might scream at a certain part and it would make sence, then we you watch it in Sub and they didn't scream, you wondered why.
Yeah, I get all my anime in DVD now... but even so, you still end up watching both versions and trying to figure out which one is better for whatever reason. But that's cool to watch both versions! It's definetly good to do that! But not always will one be better than the other, right? And that's when you know both versions are well done! Which is how all anime should be! It's nice to see that the songs are being dubbed too. The remake of the Perfect Blue song Ai No Tenshi, Angel of Love, was great! The remake of the opening of Magic Knight Rayearth was just as heart-warming as the original! Yeah, even the remake of the Sailor Moon opening was Ok.
Most of the animes that seem to get good dubs are the higher quality movies. But of course, good dubbing is spreading! And the breakthrough of permenant great anime dubbing will come from Excel Saga! All you domestic anime companies, take some notes! It's time to excel anime in America!
Quick question, cause I'm confused a bit. Is there actually a country named Japan? I though they called it Nippon. I've never heard a Sub say "Japan", but in Cardcaptor Sakura, Li does say "Nippon" when the translation mentions the word Japanese. But then in Excel Saga's sub, in the Sports episode, "Japan" is said in the sub. But I think that was suppose to be an American rooting for Japan or something. I don't know, do any of you?