Subbed vs Dubbed

[Psydye]

Overblown voices vs. focal distraction...decisions, decisions..

 

[Hazelnut]

Subbed. The one exception is Azumanga Daioh, which I prefer in English. Miss Yukari's voice is fantastic.

 

[Liseli]

Subbed. Dubbed feels a bit weird for me, for some odd reason. It just feels out of place after finishing the sub series for the anime, then switching to English. But some animes, however, sound better in dubbed. Just not all of them.

 

[Geoni]

Also you guys do realize that with animation, everything is dubbed, right? So subbed is actually dubbed and subbed. Most of the time the mouth animations can be polished over even though that can take a longer time for translation. And more often than not, translation doesn't edit the dialog to a point of it being detrimental, so I don't really care for that argument. Oddly enough, the most annoying one I've encountered is from Spirited Away, where disney edited out the part where after Yubaba freaks out over her baby she hints that even if Chihiro goes home safe, there's nothing keeping Yubaba from ripping Haku to shreds. And that made their departure feel more poignant.

But dang, there are an awful lot of elitists among people who (no matter what) prefer sub over dub that sort of drives home the point of the criticism that it's a very otaku preference. Because it really is.

 

[tamagotchi]

I enjoy some dubs compared to subs, but usually I watch subs more. Cowboy Bebop was an especially good dub.

 

[mdchan]

Depends on the anime. DBZ for example, when I watch that, it HAS to be Dubbed. I can't stand Goku's Japanese VA, the dude is in his late mid 20s-early 40s in Z and his voice should correspond with his age, not sound like a 10 year old. I don't care about the whole "Goku's innocence is why he sounds like that." To me it is a bit weird that a big muscular man sounds like a kid.

DBZ is one of the few anime which I actually like dubbed. It's fun to watch it subbed at times, but the English VAs did a really great job with that anime. And, I do agree with you about Goku's Japanese voice actor. That same person does the entire Son family (Goku, Gohan, and Goten), to boot.

But dang, there are an awful lot of elitists among people who (no matter what) prefer sub over dub that sort of drives home the point of the criticism that it's a very otaku preference. Because it really is.

I actually don't see much elitism in this thread. Now, if this subject was brought up in an anime convention, it'd typically turn into an all out WAR (yes, I've seen it happen...from a very safe distance, and I didn't stick around for more than even a minute when it started).

 

[Geoni]

Haibane Renmei and Texhnolyze also have phenomenal dubs but not many people know about those titles. But I live for Victoria Harwood as Doc. One of the most greatest voices I've ever heard.

 

[MBaku]

Overblown voices vs. focal distraction...decisions, decisions..

This. I prefer manga over anime because I can't stand how dramatic the voices get, or how exaggerated it is in general.

 

[Ken1997]

Dubbed.

 

[spCrossing]

Also you guys do realize that with animation, everything is dubbed, right? So subbed is actually dubbed and subbed. Most of the time the mouth animations can be polished over even though that can take a longer time for translation. And more often than not, translation doesn't edit the dialog to a point of it being detrimental, so I don't really care for that argument. Oddly enough, the most annoying one I've encountered is from Spirited Away, where disney edited out the part where after Yubaba freaks out over her baby she hints that even if Chihiro goes home safe, there's nothing keeping Yubaba from ripping Haku to shreds. And that made their departure feel more poignant.

But dang, there are an awful lot of elitists among people who (no matter what) prefer sub over dub that sort of drives home the point of the criticism that it's a very otaku preference. Because it really is.

Honestly, I think a lot people are really resistant with watching dubs is pretty much the stuff we grew up with.

We got some pretty crappy dubs back in the day, the only ones I can remember that were good are Cowboy Bebop, the Ghibli dubs, and some other anime dubs that I can't think of at the moment.
But other than that, we got over-the-top performances, very bad acting, and the writing being to the brim with corny jokes.

But nowadays, that's not an issue anymore, as people (like animation in-general) finally saw what anime is meant for and pretty much catered to older audiences who actually do give a crap about story and acting.

 

[MBaku]

I love bad dubs, personally.

This is less of an unintentionally bad dub, and more of an intentionally bad dub.

 

[Llust]

Anything in english dub just sounds really bad in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, some animes are actually really good when it comes to dubs (ex: death note, attack on titan) but a majority of them just have terrible voicing quality. Sub on the other hand, I'm not sure if it's just the fact that Japanese sounds unique and amazing to listen to but it works for any anime

 

[ElysiaCrossing]

Subbed. My parents are deaf and so I usually watch tv with the captions on, so I've learned to read subs and watch a show at the same time. :3

 

[Geoni]

Honestly, I think a lot people are really resistant with watching dubs is pretty much the stuff we grew up with.

We got some pretty crappy dubs back in the day, the only ones I can remember that were good are Cowboy Bebop, the Ghibli dubs, and some other anime dubs that I can't think of at the moment.
But other than that, we got over-the-top performances, very bad acting, and the writing being to the brim with corny jokes.

But nowadays, that's not an issue anymore, as people (like animation in-general) finally saw what anime is meant for and pretty much catered to older audiences who actually do give a crap about story and acting.

I don't know how old you are but I grew up during the era when dubbing was getting better (late 90s, early 2000s) and especially pre-90s, americans didn't take anime as seriously as they do now, so dubbing has this attitude that this is supposed to be cartoonish and funny and over the top, which is why we see a lot of awful dubs coming from the 80s (but I eat that **** up). Either way most of the people in this thread didn't grow up before the 90s when dubs were actually bad.

 

[Panazel Maria]

Mmph...I kinda wish this topic referred to some videogames too; after all, there are a lot of games that tend to get English dubbed (sometimes with the option to use Japanese dubs).

If you ask me...I've been trained to look at things subbed because of video games. Voiceless text is forever zel...although I do enjoy some English dubs in games. Tales of Vesperia and arguably Tales of Legendia had great voiceover casts, for example.
In an actual anime example, some characters sound WAY better in the English dub of Doraemon, especially Suneo/Sneech. I have >no< clue why, but oh well~
I still can't believe the guy who voiced the MC of Geass (?) voiced Nobita. Coming from someone who never watched Geass, or much anime for that matter, but still, absolutely bananas.

 

[emre3]

I prefer subs, although some dubs might be good, but I just like the Japanese voice acting

 

[MayorBambie]

subbed.
Although I did have the problem that, if I watch anime until 5am, when I wake up and i'm not concentrating on what people say, it gets turned into Japanese. I'm hearing japanese when these people can only speak english o.o My mind is messed up. I need to limit the amount of anime I watch...

 

[Tao]

Mmph...I kinda wish this topic referred to some videogames too; after all, there are a lot of games that tend to get English dubbed (sometimes with the option to use Japanese dubs).

I prefer games dubbed as well.

I like the way that Metal Gear has always handled language barriers. Characters will all be speaking English but things that they say imply that they're actually speaking in a different language during the conversation. "Your Russian is pretty good" for example, thrown into the conversation to imply they were speaking Russian.


Or just the ease of use. Assuming you're playing an actual game and not a glorified movie, you're probably going to be concentrated on the actual gameplay. When I was playing Hyrule Warriors where text is flying all over the friggin' screen every 2 seconds (which is close to subs I guess) I just couldn't read them plus continue playing the game properly.