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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"I'll chisel your gravestone. Sleep well!"''
|''Wolfgang Krauser'', '''[[Fatal Fury]] 2''', proving that even [[SNK]] can get it right when it comes to proper English}}
The trope of terrible [[Gratuitous English|Engrish]] in foreign works is often so expected that fans are caught off guard when characters speaking English actually do it well. Especially surprising when done by a minor character or as an aside.
This phenomenon may sound a bit cynical or xenophobic, but in fact there are good reasons that this can be so shocking. The brain begins to lose its plasticity at the age of 12 or 13, so good luck to anybody learning a language after
The result of all this is that when you hear enough "English" spoken with foreign accents, your ear becomes trained to it, and it sounds natural. Then, when those same voices speak English with English sounds, it's like ice water down the back of the neck.
Contrast with [[Gratuitous English]]. Subtrope of [[Surprisingly Good Foreign Language]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* The ''[[
* ''[[Angel Beats
** To be fair, all (or most) of TK's English lines come from [[Waxing Lyrical|songs]]
* ''[[
* Momoko on ''[[
** In ''Dokkan'', Onpu starts learning English and Momoko is glad to return the favor from the last season by helping her. Two of Onpu's [[Image Song|image songs]] have a bit of English in them, in fact ("We can do anything if we can do it together~"). Momoko's have a ton, of course.
** Not to mention that the English in "Arigatou" is really a translation of the first verse!
* The first ''[[
* Similarly, ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (
** As is often the case in the voice recording business, although the hired voice actors are perfectly fluent in their respective languages, they have virtually no authority in changing the script, even if to improve it. Their clunky
* In ''[[C the Money And Soul of Possibility]]'', ATMs and Negotiations use English. [[Ms. Fanservice|Jennifer]]'s boss at the International Monetary Fund is also voiced by a native English speaker, though [[Gratuitous English|Jennifer is not]] (since that character is not a bit part, most of her lines are in Japanese).
* In the ''[[
** With the exception of Ratchet, who's pronunciation (with the exception of "please") and inflection are actually pretty decent, as seen [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yq3Js_FlYw here.]
* Though not voiced by one of the characters, the opening theme to ''[[
* The soundtrack to ''[[.hack
* Ozaru and Kozaru in ''[[Jubei
* The baseball episode of ''[[
** This troper noticed the Dutch in another VOC related episode. Chances are it was a Japanese person. "Opperhoofd" does mean chief, usually used for Indians, but also historically, [[wikipedia:Opperhoofd|a title]] for chief executive officers of the Dutch East India Company's trading posts, such as the outpost on Dejima.
*** The English language dub features surprisingly good Dutch in that episode.
* Honey in ''[[
** Words cannot express how creepy and startling Honey's line is when you first hear it, what with the differences in voice and this trope.
* ''[[
* ''[[Beck (
** Quite a few characters in ''BECK'' are voiced by Americans - Leon Sykes, his henchman Goldie, Dying Breed, and the director of their documentary. Two songs from the soundtrack, "My World Down" and "I Call You Love", are by British singers Gary Stringer and Mark Gardener, with lyrics by Tim Jensen, best known for his work with [[Yoko Kanno]] (''[[
* ''[[Blood: The
** Yeah, or maybe it just highlights that Japanese ADR directors don't know how to direct American actors. Mamoru Oshii himself helped direct the dub for the original Ghost in the Shell, and it's not like that helped it.
* Maybe not quite so perfect as the previous one, but the ''Tonight, Tonight, Tonight'' song that is also from ''[[
** Listen to the ''[[
** Many of the opening and ending songs combine Surprisingly Good English and/or [[Gratuitous English]] with the Japanese in varying amounts.
** The first ending song, Rie Fu's "Life is Like a Boat". It helps that she speaks fluent English from living in Maryland for three years and going to school in London.
** Ichigo's theme song, "Number One", is sung in absolutely perfect English. It's a woman's choir. In a rock song. It's really weird, but catchy.
** A recurring song, "Nothing Can Be Explained", is in English and performed by a British singer - the guy who wrote the lyrics for [[Neon Genesis Evangelion
* ''[[Ghost in
** The opening shot of [[Ghost in
* "Blue", the ending theme for the last episode of ''[[
* ''[[
** The opening theme is actually a song written by a now-defunct British band, Boa, which features two of Paul Rodgers' children. Hardly surprising the English was so good, really.
* The opening scene of ''[[
** Also, ''Project A-Ko'' is reckoned to be the first anime ever to have had the soundtrack songs in the original Japanese version recorded entirely in English. This editor thought he'd bought the dub by mistake.
*** Not sure if any of the songs fit this trope though, I forget the rest{{verify}} but ''Project A-Ko 3'' featured a song with the lyrics "Get ready, Get chance ready" amidst a barrage of incoherent gibberish.
**** The songs in the first movie had perfect English. Although, that's probably because they were composed by a couple of Americans.
** ''[[
* There isn't much English in ''[[
** ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion
** In the series itself, the American pilots carrying Unit 03 to Japan at the beginning of episode 18 speak in perfect English, going so far as to have Japanese subtitles. It also deserves credit for its references to numerous English/American authors and artists of various kinds, including a correct quote from Robert Browning's "Pippa Passes" (the now-iconic "God's in His Heaven, All's Right With the World"), the infamous excerpt from Handel's "Messiah", the reference to Bach's "Air on the G String", etc. Worth mentioning too is the fact that every single one of the series' English episode titles
** On the downside, however, Asuka's German in the Japanese version was horrible.
*** But Asuka's German in the English dub is reputedly excellent, since her [[Tiffany Grant|voice actress]] actually spoke the language and was given leave to improvise German dialogue as necessary.
** ''Rebuild 2.0
*** When Unit-02 is sealed away and then released by Mari, American voices can be heard in the background.
** It should be duly noted that ''Evangelion'' is a ''storm'' of [[Gratuitous English]]. While English-speaking fans understand that the booklet Shinji is handed reads "Nerv" and says "For your eyes only" underneath, for someone Japanese, they can probably at first only grasp that "Nerv" is supposed to represent "nerufu", the Japanese equivalent. English letters are exotic in Japan, in a similar way to how Japanese kanji are exotic to English-speakers.
* In the third episode of ''[[
* Makoto Shinkai's movies ''[[Voices of a Distant Star]]'' (''Hoshi no koe'') and ''[[The Place Promised
** Oddly, though the accent is (naturally) perfect, the actual words are All-your-base-are-belong-to-us weird ("Their block exists in orbit").
* The voice actor [[Ryo Horikawa]] for Heiji Hattori in the ''[[
** Also the anchorwoman from the
* The opening animation for ''[[Jyu
* ''[[
* Also, ''Bleach's'' [[Theme Music Power-Up]] song,
* The closing theme to ''[[
* Thankfully, the English parts of ''[[
** There's also Viral's theme music, "Nikopol", which is not only perfect English but also has lyrics that sum up Viral's philosophy very well.
** The [[Eyecatch]] sting, however -- "''RAW! RAW!'' FIGHT DA POWER!"
*** And if a Japanese man singing a rap song about white power isn't [[Mind Screw]], I don't know what is.
*** And the full version of the song is actually in quite good English (and has a ridiculously long name<ref>
** There's also "Gattai nante Kusokurae!!", the background music played in a lot of fights at the beginning of the series (you'll probably remember it by the line "Into the eye of the storm"). This song (and "Nikopol") is arranged by Taku Iwasaki and performed by qadtbep. It's sorta-kinda Kamina's theme.
*** "Gattai nante Kusokurae" is the track known in English as "To Hell With Gattai (aka "Combine")", as the name would imply it tends to play when Kamina
**** Ironically, its most notable usage is probably when Lagann takes on Lazengann solo and wins.
*** The English actually spoken in the series is another matter. Some of it is pretty good, such as "Infhinity Bigu Bangu Sthorm" (letters added cuz of accent). On the other hand Gimmy and Darry horribly butcher any English they're given.
* "Mr. Raindrop", the second ending theme to ''[[
* Does it count that [[Death Note
* Kate in ''[[
* ''[[Kashimashi
** While it doesn't sound like anything an English speaker would say, the words themselves are a practically perfect literal translation of the Japanese subtitles displayed, which themselves represent appropriate dialogue for those characters. This all goes to show you that there's more to translation than [[Translation Style Choices|literally interpreting what was said.]]
* ''[[
* The ending theme of ''[[
* Angela Burton from ''[[
** And this, when Ohno's supposed to have lived in America for ten years!
*** Ohno is suppose to sound like Angela (i.e. slightly stilted but otherwise good English), and Angela is suppose to sound like a real native English speaker.
Line 94 ⟶ 95:
*** Kasukabe's voice actress also speaks in a very good neutral English accent, probably the best international English of all the cast members.
*** Angela's voice actress was really good, her biggest problem is only due to the accent common when trying to change from one language to another. Wasn't surprising that she likes to speak English in real life from time to time. In all, though poorly pronounced, all the other character's English were easily intelligible (unless you just refuse to listen).
* "For the love of life", the first ending to ''[[Monster (
* An episode of ''[[
* Although only one word, hearing
* "All kids hold an egg in their soul, the egg of our hearts, our would-be selves, yet unseen..." the quote that plays right before the opening of every episode of ''[[
** The sentence itself doesn't make sense, but it doesn't sound like a Japanese accent.
*** [[It Makes Sense in Context]]. Shugo Charas are fairies/creatures/mini floating people who are born from eggs that come from the hearts of children and represent their desired personality, and are [[Invisible to Normals]].
* The soundtrack to ''[[
* The episode title cards in ''[[
** "Last Exile" itself though, is not pronounced even remotely right most of the time. This troper remember Alex's seiyu: "Rasuto Egisaiaru".
* ''[[
* ''[[Ef:
** Same deal with ''ef: A Tale of Melodies''. Except all the text in the background is in German.
* You've heard the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhZY6L4sWvo original opening theme] for ''[[
* Karen in ''[[
** She goes one better and later speaks Surprisingly Good Cantonese as well. The actress portraying her speaks all three languages fluently.
* ''[[
** Not only is the English pronounced well, but the rapper sings in Japanese with a American accent, too.
* In ''[[
* Most of the shipwide announcements on the [[Super Dimension Fortress Macross
** There was also a bit in the series theme that was rather decent English.
*** "Will you love me tomorrow?"
* The first trailer for ''[[
* All the English spoken by the native English speakers in the first episode of '[[
** In addition, all portrayals of [[Washington DC|DC]] are entirely accurate, down to the interior of Dulles International Airport.
** That doesn't stop a little bit of hilarious [[Gratuitous English]] from being snuck in there. Cab Ass'n, anyone?
*** [[Aluminum Christmas Trees|Er... that one's real]]. It's an abbreviation for Association, and is in fact written on cabs in the DC area.
** This isn't really surprising given that all the native-speakers were, in fact, voiced by Americans. (And yeah, one should suppose [[Captain Obvious|Oasis can sing in perfect English]]).
* ''Lots and lots'' in ''[[
** And also plenty of subversions: '''''[[Norio Wakamoto|OLL HEIL BULITANIA!]]''''' (Just check the [[Narm]] page for ''[[Code Geass]]'').
* ''[[
* The opening and ending to ''[[Wolf's
** And Steve Conte has collaborated with Yoko Kanno in other times, too. He sang various songs from the next anime series. ''[[Brain Powerd]]'' (with the song ''True Love''), ''[[
** ''Second Gig'' has
* ''Sword of the Stranger''{{'}}s English dub has a lot of surprisingly good ''Chinese'' speakers. Only one character spoke hard-to-understand, heavily accented Chinese...the transplanted European.
* The [https://web.archive.org/web/20090505220205/http://www.onepiece-movie.com/ teaser trailer] for the tenth ''[[One Piece]]'' movie is, for no apparently reason, narrated in surprisingly good English (except possibly because [[Translation Convention|the characters are supposed to be speaking English]]), even though it's for the Japanese release and so is the rest of the text.
* [[Lucky Star
* A rather hilarious example in ''[[
* The ending theme of ''[[
* The opening theme to the 80s [[Real Robot]] title ''[[Round Vernian Vifam]]'' is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwszwb3aIPg written and performed] in almost flawless English.
* The beginning of the newest{{when}} ''[[
** Also, the fourth ''Naruto Shippuden'' opening, "Closer" by Joe Inoue, features some pretty precise English ("And the closer you get to something, the tougher it is to see it, and I'll never take it for granted, let's go!"). This isn't surprising however, since Joe Inoue was born and grew up in Los Angeles.
** The ending "Wind" from the original series is also sung surprisingly well.
* In an episode of ''[[Daphne in
** Also Rena also speaks English and if her VA speaks English she did a damn good job IMO.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* The OST to ''Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas'' has flawless grammar and perfect
* ''TOKYO TRIBE 2'' has a minor character in episode 6 who speaks English... to a Japanese guy. Later on, we have Surprisingly Good Mandarin with Sunmi and Jadakings. The latter's Mandarin is so good, it actually confuses Kai as to what he's saying ({{spoiler|"Where is the princess?"}})
* The Japanese ending for the ''[[Pokémon]]'' movie ''The Rise of Darkrai'' (known in Japan as
** Only one of the singers is from Norway. The female one is Sarah Brightman, a British singer.
*** The other singer is fellow Englishman Chris Thompson. The song itself is an English rendition of a Norwegian song, Where the Lost Ones Go. Still nice to hear, though.
** Also, a number of ''Pokémon
* Chiyo-chichi in ''[[
** In an earlier episode, Yukari gives a speech in perfect English, though slightly accented. She was giving a speech about how Japanese English students are embarrassed about their poor English and would rather speak Japanese than bad English.
* It's amazing how ''[[
** And speaking of Magnolia, the end credits sequence had actual English spoken in the talk balloons.
* Eyecatches in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist:
** It's made even more obvious because of the... Difficult nature of the two main characters' names to Japanese speakers. Remember the issues they have with definitive L and R sounds, then look at
** A note left by Dr Marcoh in the original series is written in fragmented but accurate English. Given that Marcoh is trying to reveal as little information as possible for fear of it being leaked, this actually makes sense.
* "[[Barefoot Gen
* The eponymous ''[[
* ''[[Anime/Rainbow|Rainbow]]'' pulls the English off ''very'' brilliantly. Not only do all the American soldiers speak ''real'' English (it's highly likely that their VA's are actually American since they have the accent to boot.), the ''Japanese'' talking English have the regular 'Engrish' you have in other anime. This makes the situations where a Japanese (with their natural accent) talks with an American (who talks real English) completely realistic. ''Respect'' for pulling that off.
** On top of this, the opening song, "We're not alone" by Japanese band Coldrain, is written and sung in excellent English that also fits the plot really well. It helps that the lead singer, Masato, is American.
* Most of the songs from the ''[[Panty
* Invoked in the cold opening of the first episode of ''[[Giant Killing (TV series)|Giant Killing]]'', with the random Englishman's properly... English (as in British!) sounding voice, and with the Japanese observers' properly but not unintelligibly accented English. Sadly, the trope is subverted not more than a few seconds later in the opening theme.
* ''[[Ghost in
* The English spoken by the British soldiers in the [[Imperial Japan]] era ''Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors'' sounds pretty authentic. Now, considering that Japan was a fascist nation at the time which didn't like foreigners very much, [[Fridge Horror|who voiced the British soldiers?]]
* A fun example from the ''[[Sukeban Deka]]'' OVA. One of the Mizuki sisters makes a drug deal with an American dealer. The supposed American speaks terrible engrish, but the girl's english is flawless.
* This troper was completely caught off guard when he watched the first OVA episode of ''[[Saint Seiya:
* In a rather hilarious example from ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'', the character who is
** Hidekaz Himaruya's English is very good. Justified, since he spent about six years in New York.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9fhQVMzlC0 The debut trailer] for ''[[
* ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]'' is set in a futuristic, [[No Communities Were Harmed]] version of New York, and so the English text seen is clear and accurate, everything from ticker tape news on
** The show's (second) closing credits include whole screens of English-language translations of the featured characters' lines from previous episodes.
** The voice for the [[Shonen Upgrade|Good Luck Mode]] also has pretty clear English. And sounds remarkably like [[Kamen Rider Decade|the Decadriver...]]
* In the Great Saiyaman arc of ''[[Dragonball Z]]'', Son Gohan has an English teacher who, despite having a slight accent, speaks very good English. Of course, [[Fridge Logic]] sets in when you note that everyone on Earth ([[Aliens Speaking English|And even aliens in most cases]]) in Dragon Ball appear to speak the same language...
* There's an infamous Engrish scene in ''[[Itazura
* The opening song to ''[[Deadman Wonderland]]'' is performed entirely in English by fade, a Japanese band that has four members raised in America. Three of the members are Japanese-Americans, and lead singer Jonathan Underwood was born and raised in Seattle.
* Heiji from ''[[Detective Conan]]'' is revealed to be a fluent speaker. Especially when compared to Conan's, which sound like the regular [[Gratuitous English]].
* An episode of ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Rental Magica]]''{{'}}s alternate opening theme, "faith", is completely in English. If you aren't listening for odd turns of phrase, you wouldn't know that the singer is Japanese.
* ''[[Rail Wars!]]'' has a brief exchange between a foreign railway passenger and the Japanese-born security specialist Koumi. Koumi's voice actor's English is better than that of the voice actor who played the foreigner.
* ''Mobile Suit [[Gundam]]: Iron-Blooded Orphans'' features a note in perfect English. While nobody actually reads it in English, previous Gundam works have notes with notoriously bad English ([[Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam|he is a CHAR]], [[Mobile Fighter G Gundam|P.S. If you will, you can see us.]]) so this was a welcome change.
** The next main series, ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury]]'' continues this with every episode having paragraphs of background text on computer screens in correct and appropriate English (some of it even foreshadowing). The title of the seventh episode, ''Shall We Gundam'' unfortunately averts this ("Let's" or "Shall We" paired with non-verbs being a classic of everyday [[Gratuitous English]] in Japanese market branding since as an invitation it comes off as polite to Japanese sensibilities).
* Koro-sensei, the [[Villain Protagonist]] of ''[[Assassination Classroom]]'' is a weird-looking octopus-like alien, with a head the shape of a perfect sphere and a large, comical smile; he never moves his mouth when he talks, but his voice seems completely human.
▲== Fan Fiction ==
* Stories that claim "Sorry, English is my second language", generally fall into one of two categories: [[Fauxreigner|lazy writers]] looking for excuses, and actual foreigners with highly proper English.
== Film ==
* The Japanese film ''[[Ichi
* The first Japanese ''[[
* The female lead in ''[[Densha Otoko]]'' speaks a bit of English to an ambassador near the end of the film. In a damn ''British accent''.
* The
* After becoming used to at least a few mistakes in the subtitles of Chinese films, this troper and his friends were impressed by the Chinese release of ''[[Red Cliff]]'' having completely perfect subtitles.
* A French character (Shoshana), who never spoke any English at any other point in ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'', makes a speech to a large audience of Germans, ''in perfect English''. Because her family was slaughtered in part due to their inability to understand English, it makes sense that she would have made an effort to correct that lack.
* [[Jackie Chan]]'s ''Around The World In 80 Days'' features several fellow
* And the [[David Niven]] film ''[[Around
* The [[Deliberately Monochrome]] film ''[[wikipedia:The Juniper Tree
== Literature ==
* A classic example occurs in John Steinbeck's ''[[East of Eden]]''. Adam Trask's cook Lee speaks perfect [[Engrish]] when he's first hired, but that soon is revealed to be a ruse; Lee speaks perfectly good English, but he found it ran so counter to people's preconceptions that the only way he could be accepted in American society was to conform to the stereotype.
* Considering Dracula is depicted as an uncouth, filthy warlord in ''[[Anno Dracula]]'', many characters are surprised by his excellent, accentless command of English.
== Live-Action TV ==
* Duke Watari from ''[[Cutey Honey the Live]]'' often switches between Japanese and English, even in the middle of conversations. He also swears in English when angered. This is due to actor [[Mark Musashi]], while born in Japan, is half-American and grew up in Maine before returning to Japan to act.
* On ''[[Deadwood]]'', Mr. Lee, the new Chinese arrival from San Francisco and rival to Wu, speaks perfect English. Al Swearengen is visibly shocked when Lee reveals this.
* The opening narration of ''[[Garo]]'' is spoken entirely in grammatically correct English. ''Garo'' also features [[Mark Musashi]] as the mute Kodama until an appearance in the the [[Mind Screw]] DVD-only episode ''Garo Gaiden: Smile'', where he literally appears out of nowhere and verbally assaults the female lead with a whole string of
{{quote|
** This is followed immediately by the female lead complaining that she could not understand a word of what was just said due to his thick [[Kansai Regional Accent]].
* ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' has more than one example:
Line 213 ⟶ 216:
*** In the Non-Canon Movie, The computer on the ZECT Space Station speaks in Perfect English, however Kagami (who gave the orders to the the computer) speaks in Heavily accented Gratuitous English.
*** It should be noted that the Zecters were voiced not by a Japanese actor, but by an ''Indian'' actor, Surage Gajria.
** ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'' doesn't seem to know what to do with this trope sometimes. The voice for the [[Transformation Trinket|tools for both Decade and Diend]] calls out various rider names and attacks in seemingly random accents. For riders with English words for names, they're called out in clear
** There is a Blink And You'll Miss It moment in ''[[Kamen Rider Double]]: A to Z - The Gaia Memories of Fate''. In the opening the helicopter pilot has 2 lines, both in perfect English (the actor being a Westerner): "What the..." and "Kamen Rider".
*** Earlier example: Aya Kujo in "The T That Came Back" pronounced English fairly well, [[Justified]] by the fact that she had spent several months in [[Los Angeles]].
** ''[[Kamen Rider OOO]]'' has its own brief moment in an early episode when Chiyoko, thinking Ankh's rather coarse Japanese is because he was raised overseas, determines to correct it and starts the lesson with a perfect
* In ''[[Tomica Hero Rescue Force]]'', the Supreme Commander, Natsuno "Nancy" Nanbu/Rescue Universe, unconsciously speaks coherent English while in the heat of battle. Her underlings (most of which can't understand English) ask her to speak Japanese in very broken Gratuitous English.
{{quote|
* Several times in ''[[Super Sentai]]'':
** ''[[Mirai Sentai Timeranger]]'', Time Fire's [[Transformation Trinket]], the V-Commander, spoke several complete sentences of
** In ''[[Ninja Sentai Kakuranger]]'', we have the English-speaking NinjaBlack played by Kane Kosugi. Apart from being raised in America, he's better known for being the son of Sho Kosugi.
** In ''[[Mahou Sentai Magiranger]]'', an episode features Makito responding to an American tourist in perfect English after a particularly [[Gratuitous English|bad response]] from his brother Tsubasa.
{{quote|
'''Tsubasa:''' Ai. Kanto. Supiiku. Ingurisshu.
'''Tourist:''' Oh...
'''Makito:''' Yeah sure. Where would you like to go?
'''Tsubasa:''' ''Nani?!'' ("What the?!") }}
*** Oh, just [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKv8Q_gmUfQ watch it.]
** "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TgjGUUhRoE Crime no Theme]", the [[Villain Song]] from ''[[JAKQ Dengekitai]]'' is strewn with lines such as "Go and kill 'em!" and "Go to hell!" in perfect English, which is pretty unnerving if you're not expecting it. It should be noted that the voice in the song says "JAKQ" as "Jacker", adding to the effect.
** Masato Shimon's rendition of ''[[Seijuu Sentai Gingaman]]'''s opening theme in English is very well pronounced due to his fluency in English, however the translation is not that good, which is naturally not his fault.
** In ''[[Juken Sentai Gekiranger]]'' each of the core 5 have a
{{quote|
Honest Heart-o (This is the only one with a accent)
Fantastic Technique
Iron Will
Amazing Ability }}
** ''[[Tensou Sentai Goseiger]]'''s Leon Cellular is a rather jarring example, speaking perfect, unaccented English in a season otherwise full of poorly pronounced [[Gratuitous English]].
** ''[[
* ''[[Persons Unknown]]'' has an interesting meta version of this trope. When the captives first meet Tom, the owner of the Chinese restaurant, he can only speak in very bad [[Engrish]]. In later episodes, however, he speaks English perfectly due to {{spoiler|his true identity being revealed as a member of the organization behind the kidnappings who was putting on the accent just for show.}}
* Invoked in the original Japanese dub of ''[[Sesame Street]]''. The dub's intent was to teach proper
* When lost in Japan on an episode of ''[[Top Gear]]'', Jeremy Clarkson is quite impressed by the English directions of a local police officer, yet mystified that the officer repeatedly used "signals" to refer to traffic lights despite this. しんごう, the Japanese word for traffic light, is also a general word for "signal" (and sounds vaguely like it).
== Music ==
* Israeli singers [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_zFJEG7lGU Geva Alon] and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naHbB15Eav8 Ehud Banai] both have songs written completely in perfect English, even though Geva's song is just a remake of an old song.
* Both [[X Japan]] vocalist [[Toshimitsu Deyama|Toshi]] and bandleader/drummer [[Yoshiki Hayashi|Yoshiki]] have
** [[Hideto Matsumoto|hide]] also demonstrated the ability to sing in English with his band Zilch and as seen on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7-rEtdRG54 What's Up Mr Jones] only had a slight accent; otherwise, the pronounciation is near-perfect.
* Likewise,
* Ex-[[Galneryus]] vocalist Yama-B not only sings in perfect (albeit heavily accented) English, but posts in it on his site BBS.
* Several songs by Itou Kanako are sung in Japanese mixed with some English, but she always sings it accentlessly. In an OST for a [[BL Game]] Lamento-BEYOND THE VOID by [[Nitroplus CHIRAL|Nitro+ CHIRAL]], she sang a song with Watanabe Kazuhiro, both voices singing entirely accentless English. Even Watanabe's voice sounded like someone singing a song out of Lion King (in the sense that his accents are so English-like, rather than Japanese-like). They also each sing one completely-English song well in the Original Image Soundtrack of ''[[
* The song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVetY60i0Xc "Candy Pop" by the Heartsdales], made famous outside of Japan through the [[Suzumiya Haruhi|Haruhi]] [[Fan Vid]] [http://youtube.com/watch?v=TIjsPFYdkZY "Skittles"]. Much like the above, this is quite understandable, as the group consists of two sisters who were born in Japan but raised in the US.
* In the Complete Symphonic recording of ''[[Les Misérables (
* Listen to "Space Sonic" by Ellegarden. Sounds like a typical rock band from USA? How if I say that the band is entirely Japanese? {{spoiler|Having a vocalist that worked for nearly a decade in California sure helps.}}
** A good half of their songs are in English, actually. There's a few slips of the tongue or strange use of emphasis here and there which betray the origin, but it's still quite well-done.
* Japanese rock band L'arc en Ciel (yes, the name is French for "rainbow") sings in both Japanese and English. Their opening track for ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' (as well as the ending song for the movie, ''Conquerors of Shamballa'') switches between the two, but the ending song they did for ''[[Final Fantasy:
** Their lead singer, Hyde, actually pays an American woman to proof-read his lyrics, and provide him with a pronunciation guide.
* Rie Fu. It helps that she spent three years in Maryland, and went to school in the UK. She basically has an American accent with her English, which is also grammatically correct.
* Singers [[Utada Hikaru]] and Crystal Kay threw many people for a loop upon exhibiting flawless English. Utada was raised in America, but the fact that Crystal Kay sounds like an American R&B singer despite being born and raised in Japan is still considered astounding (her father is African-American, however, so it is justified in a way).
** Crystal was actually a military brat and went to international schools, so perfect English is to be expected. It also helps that Japanese was neither of her parents' first language (her mother is Korean).
* Maaya Sakamoto has some songs with nice English. ''[[
* [[
** She recently had an American debut album and her English sounded pretty good. There were even some songs where it was hard to tell that she had an accent.
* Yuna Ito has flawless English. This isn't surprising considering she was born and raised in the United States. Her English songs are
* Jyongri has perfect English. She's of Korean descent, but was born and raised in Japan, and speaks both Japanese and English
* The Korean band Clazziquai has vocalists who can sing and rap in solid English, resulting in a good number of English-language songs.
* Japanese band Godiego (pronounced Go-dye-go) has songs that are partially in English or entirely in English, not surprising as two of the five members are American (although the main vocalist and lyricist are not). Their songs include [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw-NqopctV8 "The Galaxy Express 999" and "Monkey Magic"], the theme songs for ''[[Galaxy Express 999]]'' and ''[[Journey to
* [[Loudness]], being a band that takes heavy inspiration from American hair metal and The New Wave of British Heavy Metal, more or less required this. They also took this trope to its logical conclusion when they had a need to replace their vocalist by hiring an American instead of another Japanese singer.
* Italian comedian Adriano Celentano released a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAnYBCImAa4 particularly catchy single called "Prisencolinensinainciusol"], sung in "surprisingly good English-sounding gibberish" which supposedly sounds very authentic to people who don't actually speak English. In fact, it's pure gibberish in any language.
* Hyadain's take on "Terra's Theme" from ''[[Final Fantasy VI
* [http://www.inouejoe.com Joe Inoue] is either an example of Surprisingly Good ''Japanese'' or just being straight up bilingual, considering he was born in, raised in, and still lives (off and on) in L.A.. Whatever the case, the guy does [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hM239kxr8Y&feature=related whole portions] of his [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL2SLoZvSEw&feature=related songs], and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szH_UmWs5Rk whole *songs*], in perfect
* Miyavi of the [[Visual Kei]] band Dué le Quartz spent six months studying English in California. Consequently, he speaks pretty good, coherent English and blogs in both Japanese and English; granted, the latter is mainly textspeak, but this just seems to be his idiolect, since he renders "with" as "wiz".
** It's Miyavi-ish, more or less. His Japanese is the same way, when he's not making a particular effort to be more formal. The English in his song lyrics is pretty coherent, insofar as any of his lyrics are coherent in any language, and in one song he even managed to not mangle some Spanish. He's also no longer with Dué le
** Being married to a Hawaiian probably doesn't hurt either.
* Lotus Juice may be part of the Pantheon of
* There's a group of German musicians who call themselves Fiddler's Green. They perform Irish folk, both old and new standards and their own work, in English that makes you go "What's wrong with his accent?" instead of "Dear Gods that's a German trying to sound Irish." It's not surprisingly good, it's surprisingly amazing. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sm2NdkXx5k&feature=related
* Bonnie Pink is also quite good, if [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCsNVud0tUM "Ring a Bell"] is anything to go by.
* Both Koshi Inaba and Tak Matsumoto AKA B'z is fluent in english. Considering how they have worked and played with many western artist such as Slash, Billy Sheehan, Pat Torpey, Eric Martin, Larry Carlton, Aerosmith, etc, this is easily understandable. In their latest live in USA and their special live together with [[Linkin Park]], Inaba easily change between
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YwwYB9Qlbk This English version] of ''Denji Sentai Megaranger''{{'}}s (the Japanese source for the U.S.'s ''Power Rangers in Space'') full opening theme is in surprisingly good English, barring the (very) few odd grammar intonations and native accent:
* Tokyo Incidents can pull this off, as proven by [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL43IDTkp3Y "Noudouteki Sanpunkan"]. The first time you hear it, you may be shocked by the sudden transition to Japanese.
* While [[Miliyah Kato]] usually only sprinkles English phrases here and there throughout her songs, she's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miw4-CJPoGU rather] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnvOq3cQsV8&feature=related good] [http://www.123video.nl/playvideos.asp?MovieID=15026 at] [https://web.archive.org/web/20100211073533/http://www.123video.nl/playvideos.asp?MovieID=10157
* Original Pilipino Songs (OPM)'s. Especially the ones sung by [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhUuCAhtmr0 Jose Mari Chan] plus the old 70's songs don't sound local at all. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU1WaZq57gc Some examples to go by,] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb_W-rbME34 mostly love songs though.] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcBLnAWXj7I And oh some] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TkXSsdXaec&feature=related rock, too].
* BENI - aka Beni Arashiro, is half-Japanese, half-American, therefore, she is fluent in both English
* MiChi - Japanese-British & speaks English fluently with a British accent. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdSR52EZdg4 Wanna see?]
* Japanese-American Anna Tsuchiya - Although her English is not perfect (she was bilingual at a young age but her parents divorced
* OLIVIA - aka Olivia Lufkin - is Okinawan-American. She speaks both English
* Japanese singer and actress Ayaka Komatsu released an English-language single with excellent pronunciation (you can hear it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0qaK-P1-88 here]). In a strange case of [[Ink Suit Actor]], she was in ''[[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon]]'' playing the role of Minako Aino, who in the anime version was another example of this trope.
* RM from [[BTS (band)|BTS]] is very fluent in English (a fact he atrributes to have watched ''[[Friends]]'' undubbed during his childhood), and he often serves as translator for the rest of the band when in their international tours.
== Video Games ==
* In the [[Nintendo Hard]] arcade game ''[[Strider]]''
* The ''[[Fighters History|Fighter's History]]'' series also had characters
* The character Eriko from the Japanese version of the ''[[Persona]]'' series spent some time studying abroad in America. As such, she periodically slips into English that, although technically gratuitous, is generally well-formed and sensical. This is likely due to Atlus' willingness to do the research, and was entirely dropped, rather than shifted to another language, for her American counterpart, Ellen.
* The ending songs for the ''[[
** Ditto for the original ''[[
* Considering that most American characters in the ''[[Fatal Fury]]'' games speak [[Gratuitous English]] (Mr. Bogard being the worst of the bunch), it's a bit of a shock to fight Wolfgang Krauser, who has an actual English voice actor, B. J. Love (who also doubles as ''Fatal Fury 3''{{'}}s announcer).
** The great irony of this all being that Krauser is quite explicitly German. So...we have [[Eagle Land|All-American-ish Terry Bogard]] speaking with such [[Gratuitous English|blatantly
* ''[[Street Fighter]] III: 3rd Strike'' also does this with Alex, Gill, Urien, Hugo, Dudley, and Q, all of which have not only English VAs, but ones who do their characters various regional accents fairly well (especially Dudley).
** For its time. ''[[Street Fighter (
* [[Don Pachi]]. While spoken by a Japanese actor, the accent is minimal and the grammar is correct. Granted, the acting isn't always perfect and some of the lines are downright corny, but it remains believable and sets the mood well enough.
* One song in ''[[Katamari Damacy]]'', "Que Sera Sera", is fully-sung in
** "Lup up" and "Word you up" (meant to be "lump up" and "wad you up", respectively) is somewhat of a giveaway, too.
*** There are other clues throughout the whole song that it's not a native speaker. Every word just doesn't feel exactly right, but you'd notice that only if you're looking.
** The singer
* The entire intro to the original ''[[Star Ocean 1
* Before it was released internationally, ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic Battle]]'' had the default Japanese script and an English script that could be turned on in the options. The latter is entirely grammatically correct and understandable by a native speaker - so much, in fact, that the ''only'' change made during localization was the removal of a mild swear word from Rouge's dialogue in her respective chapter.
* The Japanese video game ''[[Metal Wolf Chaos]]'' is voiced entirely in perfect
* ''[[Fire Emblem]]: [[Fire Emblem Jugdral|Thracia 776]]'', one of the games in the series [[No Export for You|which never left Japan]], has its [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSEWnJk2OHA entire opening] in excellent, grammatical English, only really fudging up insofar as an occasional lack of commas in the appropriate places. Of course, it also has Japanese subtitles. [[Dummied Out]] data for the later ''[[Fire Emblem Elibe|Blazing Sword]]'' shows that at one point they intended to do the same for it, except it... [
** The
* The ending theme of ''[[
* The song "Eyes on Me", from ''[[
* The intro of the first ''[[Mega Man X]]'' includes a warning from Dr. Light not to disturb the capsule X is kept in until his 30-year diagnostics are complete, with an explanation of what X is, and why the diagnostics are being performed. In the original ''Rockman X'', this is written entirely in fully understandable and 100% mistake-free English, with Japanese subtitles running along the bottom. Consequently, when it was released in North America and in PAL territories, literally ''nothing'' was changed about it apart from removing the subtitles and [[Spell My Name
* One of ''[[Gradius]] Gaiden''{{'}}s attract demos, a [[Star Wars]]-[[Shout-Out|like]] narrative, is narrated by an announcer speaking perfect English, though he puts unusually high emphasis on the "di" in "Gradius".
* A large number of Konami's original songs in ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]'', ''[[Beatmania]]'', and other Bemani games have perfect
** And for yet another "on the other hand" case... there's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bybkLlNbaaw "Gold Rush"].
** ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]''{{'}}s and ''Dance ManiaX''{{'}}s announcers speak in perfect English. Those of other Bemani games, not so much, with a few exceptions (''Pop'n Music 16''{{'}}s and ''[[Beatmania IIDX]] 16''{{'}}s announcers are two such exceptions).
* Raiden and Eagle's lines in ''[[
* Billy Kane in the ''[[Fatal Fury]]'' and ''[[King of Fighters]]'' series, sometimes. While he gets the occasional line like "I wish I could tear him apart!", most of his intros feature him saying generic things like "HEY HEY HEY!"
* ''[[Tekken]]'' makes almost everyone (except those two from Brazil) speak their countries most widely spoken language, often times having two characters speak to each other in different languages at the same time. So it was surprising to hear Jin speak English in Tekken 4.
** As of ''Tag Tournament 2'', Christie and Eddy speak their appropriate Portuguese, Miguel his Spanish, Leo her German, and Lili [[Not Even Bothering
* All spoken dialogue in the game ''[[Sin and Punishment]]'' is in Surprisingly Good English, only marred by the somewhat muddy audio quality caused by the game originally being cartridge-based.
** Justified by the little fact that the game was always developed with an American release in mind, a release that was only canceled due to the Nintendo 64's pre-death decline stateside (the [[Virtual Console]] release proves that people would have bought it if it was released before).
** Of course, none of this changes the fact that the dialogue still makes
* ''[[Persona 4]]'s'' lyrics are in English and barring a few lines (The "My Life" in "I reach out to the truth of my life" for instance) is fine (if a little hard to make out due to speed). The the lyrics covering things like the sterilization of eyes (but it would be less than honest to say western songs don't get confusing). {{spoiler|They get much clearer eventually actually...}}
** ''[[Persona 3]]'' on the other hand is so-so, while not
* The soundtrack for ''[[Space Invaders]] Extreme'' features English narration telling the story of the invasion between each group of songs. It doesn't explain much, but it's voiced perfectly.
** Both SIE announcers too, especially the one for ''Space Invaders Extreme 2''.
* In ''Punch-Out'' for the Wii, every character speaks their native tongue (except for the voiceless ones, like King Hippo) and are incredibly spot-on. Next Level [[Shown Their Work|gets bonus points for giving Great Tiger fluent Hindi]]. Not only is there Surprisingly Good Hindi, but also Turkish, Russian, Spanish, French, Japanese, and German.
* In the ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH9TCEY8o-4 EXIT games]'' (PSP, DS, Xbox 360), just about everything was in
* Capcom's ''X-Men Vs Street Fighter'' has
* ''[[No More Heroes]]'' is a great example of this, as almost all the
** In Thunder Ryu's case, it's actually quite likely deliberate - to this troper, Thunder Ryu always sounded like the ''American idea'' of what Engrish sounds like, rather than actual Engrish.
* Capcom has a tendency to do this with their games when voice acting is involved. ''[[Viewtiful Joe]]'' and ''[[Resident Evil]]'' both have English voice acting, even in Japan. ''Viewtiful Joe''{{'}}s is excellent. Resident Evil's is... [[Narm|not so much]]. [[It Gets Better]] by the [[Resident Evil 4|fourth game]] though.
** Don't forget the ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' series! When this troper first played it, he thought it was a dub. Granted, the voice acting is very cheesy, especially in Dante's case, but anyone who plays it soon realizes that's practically the entire point of the series.
* Nearly half the dialogue in ''[[Siren (
* Even though it was a Japan-only title at the time, the entire game ''Pulseman'' is spoken in good English (even by characters who are meant to be Japanese). While the English is correct, it doesn't technically match what it should be ("Water will destroy Pulse Man" doesn't mean [[Super Drowning Skills]].)
* In ''[[DJMAX]] Portable Clazziquai Edition'', a Korea-region game, there is a bonus behind-the-scenes video about the video for the song "Dark Envy". The protagonist's actor answers the interview questions in fluent English with, oddly enough, no subtitles in Korean.
* ''[[Guilty Gear]]'' is a mixed bag, for the characters that actually [[Calling Your Attacks|have moves with English names]]. Somewhat ironically, Chipp has fairly good English pronunciation... and instead yells gratuitous ''[[Gratuitous Japanese|Japanese]]'' because he's a [[McNinja|wannabe ninja]]. Also, the announcers from XX onward speak perfect English, justified tha tthey are Americans (Gregory Payne in XX to Slash and Neil Moody in Accent Core).
* [[Freeware Game]] ''[[Genetos]]''. All of the English was translated by (a) Japanese speaker(s), and with the exception of a few odd word choices, could be understood by a kid who doesn't know what Japanese ''is''. The English help HTML file even has a slightly heartwarming message from the author asking if "his friends overseas" would send him an email to correct any mistakes in the manual and the game. Of course, make sure you see the little prompt in the game's menu screens that says ''L SHIFT = English''.
* In ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Melee'', all characters (except Jigglypuff) retain the same voice actors between the Japanese and English versions. This results in some characters speaking in [[Gratuitous English]] due to their Japanese voice actors, but Peach is voiced by an American actress and speaks in perfect English. The same applies to Mario and Luigi, although they have heavy ''Italian'' accents and only speak in very short stock phrases.
** In ''Brawl'', while there are a lot more characters with different voice actors depending on version than in ''Melee'', [[F
* In the ''[[Parappa the Rapper]]'' video game series (i.e., ''PaRappa the Rapper'', ''Um Jammer Lammy'', and ''PaRappa the Rapper 2''), [[wikipedia:PaRappa the Rapper|all characters speak, rap, and sing in surprisingly good English]], even though the video game series itself was made in Japan. (By the way, isn't it odd that ''[[
* The PC Engine CD/Turbografx-16 CD version of the Japan-only soccer game ''Super Formation Soccer '95 della Serie A'', [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIOwAjH9Qws&feature=related the opening narration] is narrated ''in surprising good'' (but corny, since the narrator [[Large Ham|overblows how popular is the Serie A league in Italy]]) ''Italian''.
** The funniest thing is that the narrator, [http://www.rfi.fr/actubr/articles/103/article_12721.asp Edison Mineki], is a ''Brazil-born Japanese-Italian''
* Also, the Japanese game ''[[Tengai Makyo]] Kabuki'', when Kabuki travels to London to try to rescue Okinu there, the British people he finds when he lands on England on the London's customs speaks in ''perfect English'' until Zeami (his partner) uses a [[Translator Microbes|translating spell]] on him, so he can be able to speak English without problems, but the text and dialogues are still in Japanese [[Translation Convention|for the players' benefit.]]
* ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]'' has its theme "Ring a Bell/Kane wo Narashite" sung in
* ''[[
* The [[X-Men (
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'':
** Steve, the [[Monster of the Week]] from the episode "Super Zeroes". He's a giant, slimy, blob with strong-looking arms, beady red eyes, and a vertical mouth full of sharp teeth, but when he talks, he sounds like a normal guy.
** Also true with other giant monsters, such as Fred, a dragon-like monster from the episode "Major Competition", who seems to be a friend of the Girls.
== Real Life ==
* Actor James Hong was born and raised in Minnesota and speaks impeccable English (as would be expected from a Minnesota native). For most of his film roles (especially roles in which his ethnicity matters), he's actually had to fake a Chinese accent.
** And unfortunately, it shows. This troper's mother, born and raised in Beijing, cringed at Hong's [[Misplaced Accent]] whenever his character (''a top Chinese government official'', no less!) spoke Mandarin in the ''[[
* Inverted in the case of Jake Adelstein. Being the first American journalist to work as a Japanese-language reporter for a major Japanese newspaper, Surprisingly Good Japanese was a requirement; he even scored better in proficiency tests than native speakers. The flipside: because he spent so much time speaking it in an all-Japanese environment, when a case required him to interact with English speakers, he found himself stuttering over his words and even veering towards Engrish at times. He recovered pretty quickly.
* [[Yukio Mishima]] spoke [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPAZQ6mhRcU&feature=related really eloquent and excellent English]. Even more impressive as he taught himself the language - as a student in post-[[
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