Poll: Dubbed or Subbed?

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ProfessorLayton

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Nov 6, 2008
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Voted dubbed, but I meant to put subbed. I seriously cannot watch a foreign film unless it has subtitles. Oldboy was on Netflix Instant, but it was dubbed so I have to get the DVD version so I can watch it subbed. Same with El Mariachi.
 

Kiju

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Apr 20, 2009
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It depends on the voice actors.

I heard Azumanga Daioh, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Shamploo, and several other animes Dubbed first, and couldn't stand the Japanese voices because they merely sounded better as English.

...then we get to something like Naruto, where the American voice actors are horrid, not to mention you have all of the swear words cut from it. Not a big deal, but it sort of takes away from the show itself.
 

Maxtro

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Feb 13, 2011
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Subbed by far.

Most Japanese VO is in the good to very good range, and more often then not really suits the characters.

English dubbing, mostly ranges in the crap to decent range. With way more crap then good stuff, believe it!

The only thing that comes to mind where I prefer the dub is Dragon Ball Z and Ranma 1/2
 

Hader

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Jul 7, 2010
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Think I prefer dubbed slightly, though I really don't have too much of a preference. Subtitles are fine.
 

Thundero13

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Mar 19, 2009
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Naheal said:
Thundero13 said:
Subbed usually, but DO NOT watch Haruhi Suzumiya subbed, it's terrib le compared to the dubbed version.
That's just because they got Crispin Freeman to play Kyon...
Never heard of him, I meant because in the subbed version it always seemed to overanalyse the humour out of everything, but I might be wrong I only watched a couple episodes subbed, and used it because it translated writing, I didn't watch the entire series both ways.
 

Rayne870

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Nov 28, 2010
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depends on the anime, the ones I watch are pretty mainstream so the dubbing is pretty decent.
 

Naheal

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Sep 6, 2009
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Thundero13 said:
Naheal said:
Thundero13 said:
Subbed usually, but DO NOT watch Haruhi Suzumiya subbed, it's terrib le compared to the dubbed version.
That's just because they got Crispin Freeman to play Kyon...
Never heard of him, I meant because in the subbed version it always seemed to overanalyse the humour out of everything, but I might be wrong I only watched a couple episodes subbed, and used it because it translated writing, I didn't watch the entire series both ways.
He's all over the place and has a fairly distinctive voice. You'd recognize him if you heard him. [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0293342/]
 

babinro

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Sep 24, 2010
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Dubbed...I hate watching the bottom 1/3 of a show. Also I hate pausing the show when characters speak quickly just so know what they are talking about.

I'll take terrible dubbing to subtitles any day.
 

Brainsaw

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May 8, 2008
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I must be strange because I go dubbed about 90% the last 10% is when I'm curious what it sounds like in the original language. The whole "Japanese language brings out more emotion" is utter BS. It depends on the actopr though I will take an Ok dub over the super sub any day of the week because I don't freaking understand Japanese.

If I'm watching something, I like to use my ears to listen to the audio to follow the story threads. That way, I can sit back and appreciate the visuals while knowing what's going on. With subs, your eyes are usually to the top or bottom of the screen and if you're among the lucky few that can watch both the show and the subs, then congratulations you weird human-chameleon hybrid. Unfortunately most of us can't do that so there's a bit of lag of watching the subs and the time the action is going on. Plus if I wanted to read with colored lights and shapes in the background with music playing, I'll get a book and read it next to a lava-lamp while listening to my iPod.

So dubs all the way for me. Some of those japanese VAs may be awesome actors but unfortunately I just don't know the bloody language so quite frankly I don't care about them. There's plenty of good english VAs as well and I can understand them so I'd go with them.
 

Pyroguekenesis

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Jan 20, 2010
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Oh, I dunno...
Persona 3 & 4 are kinda anime, and since there are anime adaptations to it...its hard.
Persona 3 and 4 voice actors are marvelous in both languages, and P4 anime will have the returning voice actors...and since I know how they sound like I like both.
 

Robert Ewing

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Mar 2, 2011
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I speak a little Japanese, so it's interesting watching subbed episodes to get to learn words that I didn't otherwise know. But I still prefer dubs. Sure there are some terrible dubs out there, but there are also terrible subs. One Anime I saw just completely changed what they where saying, it really annoyed me.
 

jpoon

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Mar 26, 2009
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Dubbed for the most part, I get tired of reading everything and not seeing all the action when it gets intense.
 

mireko

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Sep 23, 2010
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Subtitled. Not for special moral magical horse reasons, I'm just more used to it. I started off watching subbed anime, and kind of stuck with it. Watching dubbed just feels kind of weird now, especially since I'm studying Japanese and am finally beginning to understand some grammar.

Also, anime dubs today are usually decent. Compared to dubs from the 80's and 90's, they're fucking transcendent. If you started off watching older anime, you've already been trained to hate and fear them. Game dubs seem to be streets ahead of anime dubs half the time (at least when it comes to NIS and Atlus).
 

MikailCaboose

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Jun 16, 2009
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Both, and it depends. For some, you can tell the English dubbers simply didn't care. Some, however, like what I've seen with Hellsing, a bunch of Evangelion (although the TV series clearly showed who were minor characters) and Highschool of the Dead, I prefer the English dub. Some, though, I prefer the subbed version. Plus, teaching myself Japanese, the subbed versions help a little.
 

yanipheonu

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Jan 27, 2010
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Really depends for me.

Subs tend to be better, but soemtimes the English dub is better. I find more seriou shows like Ghost in the Shell work better in English for me. Plus sometimes the English dub is genuinly better. I found FLCL's JPN dub too subdued compared to the English, and...
Mari's English voice in Eva 2.22 is friggin perfect


But overall, the Japanese dub tends to be better, especailly if it's a wacky/funnyy show. Gags are that much more funny in a goofy Japanese voice. Plus often I find English female VAs you can tell they're just acting in a girly voice (like if a girl you know tries to sound girlier) whereas it's done a lot better in Japanese.

Plus there is the issue of translation. Gurren Lagann's translation is pretty bad at parts on the DVDs, and the voice acting was too perfect in Japanese for me to even consider English (and what's up with the "Seamon" crap? It's SHImon or SIGHmon, get it right). Though it did lead to one hilarious moment...

And while I love the FLCL english dub, it does lose something in English (though the dubbers were well aware and did their best to get around it)

I'd say subs then, but I still like some dubs.
 

DarthFennec

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May 27, 2010
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There are a lot of shitty dubs, but there are a lot of good ones too. I like to watch dubbed when it's a good dub, because I haven't completely mastered the art of paying attention to the subtitles, the cartoon, and the inflections in the audio as well as the music, all at the same time. I can kind of do it with SoLs like Lucky Star or whatever, because nothing much is happening visually so I can be sure nothing is really changing while I'm reading, but I still miss things and it gets tiring after a while because it's a very active experience (which I like, don't get me wrong) because the Lucky Star girls or whoever never ever stop talking. I can watch Bleach either way. Death Note has shitty dubs, and I can watch that subbed pretty easily. Miyazaki stuff I can't really focus on with subs, and all of them are brilliantly dubbed so I do that with those. I could go through every single anime like this, but basically what it comes down to is, it really depends on what kind of anime it is and how good the dubs are.

EDIT:
Also, sometimes it's not even about sub vs dub, it's about the fact that they changed the actual anime to make the english version. Take Cardcaptor Sakura for example. When they made the english version, they took out entire scenes, skipped entire episodes, reordered episodes, and rewrote entire dialogues. Cardcaptor Sakura is one of my favorite anime's ever, while Cardcaptors, the dubbed version, sucks balls. In that case, subs please. They did exactly the same thing with Naruto, which is a big reason why everyone thinks that show is shit.

EDIT 2:
I guess, now that I've thought about it, subbed. And then dubbed, if it works out like that. But I would never see an anime in english if I hadn't already seen it in japanese, or if I wasn't planning to. So yeah.
 

kortin

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Mar 18, 2011
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I hate subs. Reason is, I like to do stuff as I'm watching tv, be it draw or text my friends. So having it subbed means I can't do anything, otherwise I might miss parts and have to rewind so i can see what they said.

So DUBS ALL THE WAY
 

Pearwood

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Mar 24, 2010
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I like dubs for things that'd otherwise be full of Engrish like Hellsing (helped by the fact that the dubbing performance for that is great) but otherwise I like subs.