Dubbed verse Subbed

[ablac]

Dubbed if I can and if its good. Dont know if its just me but subbed voice sounds alien to me. Admitedly i cant imagine some characters with an english voice because english would not sound good for their tone of voice. However many characters have voices which are too deep to convey emotion. You can notice this with animes which are partially dubbed such as one piece which has probably the first third dubbed with the rest being subbed. Maybe the voice actors were better in the dub but in english emotion was conveyed much better plus some humour simply doesnt translated when written.

 

[Richardplex]

To anyone who thinks dubbed it just terrible, FMA is the response. Combination of Ed's english voice actor being really good, and the japanese VA making my ears bleed. Otherwise, I prefer sub. As the OP said, Japanese VA generally has more effort put into it, and the voices fit the role better. It's also taught me to be able to watch what's happening and yet be able to read the subs, rather than tunnel visioning.

So yeah, I'm just as cool with dub as I am with sub. But 9 times out of 10, I find sub is the safer bet to choose.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

I prefer dub.

Shows like DBZ I watched as a kid and got used to the English voices. I tried watching in Jap and Goku's voice got on my tits.

 

[Owlslayer]

Mostly I watch stuff subbed. I wouldn`t find any decent (actually, none at all!) dubs if i searched. Tho English dubs are okay, once in a while.
But yeah, overall, I like subs more.

EDIT: oh, lol, i wrote dubs instead of subs.

 

[Just_A_Glitch]

You know, its odd. Whenever I'm watching a TV show or movie in English, I always have subtitles on. But when I'm watching something in a different language, I do get kind of peeved that I have to read... And I like to read. Not to the point that I don't watch it (hell, my favorite movie is Pan's Labyrinth, and I don't speak Spanish), and I guess when it comes to live-action, I'd take subs over dubs because I like the words to match up to the actors. But for anime, I guess I'm a dubs person (back when I liked anime).

Doesn't make much sense to me. I guess I just like to hear English.

 

[DionysusSnoopy]

Subs provided that they are done well i have come across some god awful subs because alot of just aired animes are subbed and translated (i don't particularly want to use the word amatuers, but i can't think of a better way to describe it) by amatuers plus some of the dubs i've heard the characters voices sound the wrong age in the sub they sound about right age a 16 year old in a sub has a voice that has broken while in the dub it can end up sounding like a 12 year old and i think this is because when dubbed they think to aim it at kids.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

Alright, I just really want to get this off my chest because this is really starting to annoy me. This may come off as a bit of a rant.

I've been an anime fan since I was five, and grew up watching my anime in English with no problems. I have only been on the internet for four years, and before that the thought of English dubs sucking never crossed my mind. And even after watching who knows how many shows in Japanese, I still prefer dubs. Once a show gets dubbed, I never go back to subs, and there's a reason: Dubs are not as terrible as you think they are.

There is no difference between dubbing in any language, and English dubbing, in my opinion, has only been getting better over the years. And I haven't been paying attention to whatever 4kids are doing recently so I'm not gonna bother. American voice actors, even those who weren't very good at first, are getting more experienced, some even more so than any recent Japanese VA that's being praised, I even say that a lot of recent dubbing are just as good, if not better, than the original. Sure, I heard some bad dubs hear and there, but nothing that makes me wanna tear my ears off. And even the bad ones I get used to after a few episodes, and I can point out maybe one or two good performances.

Also, I have heard quite a few dub performances that were great. There has never been one Japanese performance that made me go "Wow!" or anything of that sort, you know why? Because I don't speak Japanese and don't know the language very well. Not to sound bias, I'm sure the Japanese actors are doing great and I do know enough of the language to know that it's a lot different than English, which a lot of people who compare English to Japanese dubs seem to forget, but I never cared for any of the performances. Even a bad dub can get some sort of reaction from me because it's a language I understand. This is me showing my English speaking routes showing now, but all the Japanese voice actors just sound the same to me, and most of the time they're just background noises while I'me reading the subtitles. Unless the Japanese dub is noticeably amazing, noticeably terrible, or noticeably insane (Like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei), it just don't have any impact on me, and therefore I have no opinion on it. I can name more English VA I enjoy than any Japanese VA.

As for localization and translation problems, I have absolutely no problems with, as long as they don't go too far with it. I'm okay with them adding more American jokes or using accents (when called for) or not using any Japanese honorific (Which I usually hate when they do that, with a few exceptions), as long as it doesn't go into 4Kids territory, which honestly I don't see happening these days (but again, I don't pay attention to whatever 4Kids are doing anymore). Just as long as it gets the same meaning across and doesn't ruin or change the plot, then it's fine. Hell, some of the translation I find better than a lot of the fansubs I read.

That's basically my rant about why I love English dubs
The reason I bring this up is because of all the posts I've read here, and this is honestly one of the few topics that do get me riled up just because of how much dub hating there is, and how I rarely hear a solid good reason. But this is just my take on the subject. I know it's not something that would call for such a rant, as it's all opinion based. If you like subs better than dubs that's fine with me. There's a few animes that I do prefer in Japanese rather than English, but I'm just saying as a whole I prefer dubs. I'm not saying this out of sympathy for dubs, I'm saying it as someone who loves his own language and actually pays attention to voice acting and is aware as to how much work is really put into it.

But as for live-action, yeah, subs all the way.

 

[AceTrilby]

Usually subs, but I've been known to make exceptions in the case of really good dubs. I watched Darker Than Black and Sekirei dubbed - and in Sekirei's case I actually think the dub was better than the Japanese VA (sacrilege, I know).

My friend gave me an interesting opinion after I watched the (fairly poor) dubbed version of Ghost in the Shell - sometimes its better to watch a show with a dub to get the basic idea down in as uncomplicated a way as possible, then move on to the subbed version to get the 'pure' version.

 

[tipp6353]

I will go with a really well done dub because I don't want to reading a tv show, maybe its me being lazy but I don't want to read

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I use subs... Dubbing quite often doesn't portray the feelings of the characters properly... it is far better hearing the lines said the way the original actor played them, and then reading just to catch up on what it meant!

So yeah... I rarely rarely use dubbing in media!

 

[ZehMadScientist]

OP, to be fair, Higurashi and DNAngel weren't exactly the pinnacle of voice acting perfection (And Higurashi wasn't even that bad, was it?).

I watch subs, obviously. Because here in the Netherlands everything that comes on tv that isn't for children gets subbed. I grew up with subs, so I've never really understood the complaint of "Having to read". The only reason I can come up with why people wouldn't watch their shows subbed is watching the Tatami Galaxy. Subs and dialogue go at the speed of sound I tell ya.

But the main reason I watch subs is a simple one: A lot of the shows I watch never get dubbed at all. And even if they do, I watch them mostly when they air in Japan.

So... Go subs \(^_^)/

 

[Kennetic]

I prefer dubs most of the time because Japanese voice actors are often very high-pitched and I find it incredibly annoying. I will watch subs if I want to watch an episode that hasn't been dubbed yet, though. I will admit that Naruto's dubbed voice is annoying but the rest of the characters are good.

 

[-Samurai-]

It depends on the movie or show, for me. Sometimes I prefer one over the other for various reasons, but I always try to watch it in its native language first.

 

[Cerebral Force]

I mostly prefer subbed, but when the dubbing is done to the point that it's on par, then I prefer dubbed, if only for being able to watch it without having to read the subs or actually watch, e.g. when playing grinding in mmo's.

DBZ is probably one of the best cases for this, the subbed version sounds horrible and the voices really don't suit the characters. The dubbed voices are great, they suit the characters much better, and in some cases makes more sense than the subs, though I don't know if that's due to any incorrect translations or not.

 

[cathou]

i prefer dubbed. i'm not really a lot into anime, but since i'm not an English speaker, whenever i want to watch something from tv shows to movies, i must choose to be sub or dubbed, because let's face it, 75% of what we see come from the US.

i would say that most of the dubbed movie we get here are well dubbed, because they choose professional actors to do the voice, and that they keep the same voice for the same actor most of the time (so they keep the same voice from movies to movies). When i see people complaining about dubbed version in the US, i'm under the impression that the companies that are doing the dubbed versions use undertalented actors, and put very little effort in their work. i mean would you complain so much about dubbing if they cast the voice of the actor like they cast it for a pixar movie ?

there's also nothing wrong to localize the content. our version of the simpsons work only because of the good localization. people relate to it, because they do not have to lookup every reference that are not familiar with.

so, dubbed all the way for me

 

[Macgyvercas]

I prefer subbed personally. Don't really know why. Probably because the dubs I've seen (with the exception of FMA, Spice & Wolf, and a few others) generally suck.