Oh no please don't watch that in English!

[Ovoon]

Ok so, to me, subs are always vastly superior. However, there have been a few shows where the dub was so amazing that it couldn't be watched without the dub.

Those shows are:
Cowboy Bebop
Eden of The East
Baccano!
Trigun (the dub here is just preferred, it's not amazing or anything)
Black Lagoon
Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro
Samurai Champloo
Steamboy

That being said, those are only about 15% of the shows I've seen, so I still VASTLY prefer subs, but when a dub is good... it's amazing. Especially for eden of the east, the dub added 20 levels of depth to the characters that the sub couldn't do. Highly recommended.

 

[Shakomaru]

There is only one thing I know of that is absolutely HORRIBLE in English... Caramelldansen.

 

[Irridium]

What I'll do is watch the first episode in English, then Japanese, and go with whatever I like better. I suggest others to do the same. Makes finding good dubs quite the treat.

I will say this though, don't watch Haibene Renmei in English. Just don't. The character's voices are bland, boring... they just suck so hard.

And if anyone cares, right now I'm watching Soul Eater in English. I find it quite enjoyable. So I guess chalk Soul Eater up there with "decent dubs".

 

[zHellas]

Black Lagoon. I knew Revy liked to swear, but in the english version she does it all the time. It's not as annoying in the japanese, but I don't think any anime should be watched in english.

Well in Black Lagoon everyone is supposed to be speaking English (which is why Rock had to translate for Balalaika when they went to Japan), and hearing him having to translate Japanese to Japanese is a bit redundant.

 

[Officer Crayon]

for the most part, i prefer dubs to subs. if im watching something with a different art form, i want to see it, not read what is happening and getting glimpses of the art.
baccano! was exceptional in english.
there is one anime that i just cant do in english. FMA. i really like the voice of the fuhrur in english, but al doesnt just sound young, he sounds like a full blown woman. has anyone else noticed this in the english version of fma?

 

[TheDarkestDerp]

Most anime is pretty goddawful to me in English dubbed. Evangelion was a great example. Urusei Yatsura was so bad they stopped producing the English version after the first few episodes, thank the maker...

 

[Weaver]

Anything funimation or 4kids shit out isn't worth the time of day.

 

[-Dragmire-]

It's most of them but for me some that were good in English regardless were Death Note, and Claymore.

I agree with that so there's no need to list the bad ones.

On the other hand, Princess Mononoke was done very well.

Seems easier to list the few good ones than the majority of crap dubs.

 

[Fbuh]

Well, nothing, NOTHING, could possibly ever be worse in English than NEon Genesis Evangelion. Now, this is one of my favorite shows, in Japanese. The English voice acting makes my ears bleed.

 

[SonofaJohannes]

I'd say nearly everything sounds better in it's own language. Japanese voice acting just feels more natural. But I did enjoy Cromartie High School's english dub. One of those rare examples where the dub was done right. One Piece was done wrong. Very wrong.

 

[DigitalAtlas]

I love when people get upset that someone watches a show in a language they understand. It's almost like they don't feel like staring at the bottom two-inches of the screen the entire time and would rather watch the show itself.

 

[Viivrabe]

What I'll do is watch the first episode in English, then Japanese, and go with whatever I like better. I suggest others to do the same. Makes finding good dubs quite the treat.

o good, from the way everyone was posting i thought i was the only one who did that. it works very well as you don't loose any thing in the attempt and can find some good bubs sometimes

 

[Craorach]

My wife and I watched some Anime for the first time a few months ago. We found the dubbed version much worse than the subtitled version.

However, for that reason.. we won't watch any more unless we find some good dubbed. I for one cannot stand the idea that the producers of this stuff are so intensely lazy and insulting to their English speaking customers that they cannot be bothered to hire decent voice talent.

 

[AbsoluteVirtue18]

I try to stay out of this discussion, seeing as a lot of people I know who ***** about dubs use it as a reason to pirate anime.

However, I will say the original Japanese version of Dragonball Z was horrible, and I think the Funimation dub was a thousand times better. Especially the music.

 

[daltonlaffs]

I think the biggest problem with dubbing of anime is in the companies that do it.

It's always a fucking cash grab.

When you think about it, the dubbers don't actually have much work to do -- the show has already been drawn, animated, written, and probably even aired in Japan in its entirety to some success. What does that leave the dubbers with?

They just have to fix lip syncing and pick good voice actors. Regardless of what 4kids would have you believe, the stupid "localization" is unnecessary and rather bigoted, so ALL they have to do is get the voices done right. Why do they fail so hard at that, then?

Because quite frankly, they see the anime as a chance to make more money. There are a few competing studios for English dubbing -- 4kids, Funimation, etc. They fight to get the rights to that anime before the others do if they see it's already been successful in Japan, but do they really care about adapting the masterpiece like it deserves to be adapted? No, they just ravel in their victory and hire shit voice actors because people are still going to watch it -- it's not like they can turn to one of their competitors, after all!

I'm really hoping some company will come out of the woodwork that takes up only the most deserving anime and really, REALLY tries to do their best at a dub. Until then, I'll stick to subtitles, because I'd rather have to watch the lower part of the screen (if my limited Japanese knowledge isn't enough) than have my ears raped by the sound of corporate greed.

 

[shintakie10]

Ah yes, the subbing-dubbing debate.

Personally, I take it on a case by case basis. Sometimes the sub is better, sometimes the dub is better. I'll admit that the dub rarely is, though...just because information gets lost in translation, and the original version has people specifically chosen to fill those voice acting roles. For the dubbed versions, they have to go with 'Eh, he's close enough.'

...So yeah.

IMPORTANT EDIT: I'm reminded of Disgaea 3. Japanese Mr. Champloo is epic...but English Mr. Champloo is mind-blowingly beyond Kamina epic. His speech pattern and even his laugh are completely different between versions.

I also like the English Prinnies more than the Japanese Prinnies in all the games. They also have completely different speech patterns.

Ah Disgaea. The first one had some of the most amusin and great voice actin ever. Laharl's VA was so frickin amusin that I couldn't stop laughin at some of his lines. Heck...the entire puberty arc? Hilarious. Oh and the Prinnes! There's just somethin about the way they go Doooood! that I fall over laughin. Hearin them other ways sounded...wrong.

Then Disgaea 2 came out and the voice actin work took a nose dive. Ugh.

Anyways...subbed vs dubbed is always a case by case basis. DBZ and FMA I felt were superior subbed than dubbed...especially DBZ and mostly Goku/Piccolo. However its rare I'll find a dubbed anime (on tv...very important part there) that is superior to the subbed version. Sometimes I can't even bother to give the VA people credit because their voices are just so...ugh.

 

[ZehMadScientist]

This again? Sigh...

I prefer subs over dubs. But there are exceptions:

Ok so, to me, subs are always vastly superior. However, there have been a few shows where the dub was so amazing that it couldn't be watched without the dub.

Those shows are:
Cowboy Bebop
Eden of The East
Baccano!
Trigun (the dub here is just preferred, it's not amazing or anything)
Black Lagoon
Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro
Samurai Champloo
Steamboy

That being said, those are only about 15% of the shows I've seen, so I still VASTLY prefer subs, but when a dub is good... it's amazing. Especially for eden of the east, the dub added 20 levels of depth to the characters that the sub couldn't do. Highly recommended.

^ This pretty much sums it up. Also, Desert punk was better dubbed too. Also, egoraptor has made a series called "Girl-chan in Paradise", which makes fun of voice dubbing and common cliche's.

 

[Akytalusia]

i'm really tired of all these people saying subs>dubs. why the hell wouldn't i want to understand what i'm watching. -.- if i constantly have to read what they're saying, then i can't actually watch the show. that's stupid.