Poll: Japanese w/ Subs vs. Dub: Which is better for an anime? [W/ Digimon clips!]

[Aurora Firestorm]

Oh man have you opened a can of worms. I am going to be a gigantic heretic and put out the point of view that nobody likes:

I do not like subs. I like dubs. End of story.

And before anyone decides to shank me over it, I'll try for some reasoning. (No really, I am THE only person I know who does not like subs. I don't even know.)

1. I don't actually mind bad voice acting OR the acting really isn't as bad as people think, to me.

Now, that's not to say I *like* bad voice acting, but it's not the end of the world. It takes an extraordinary amount of suck for me to actually listen to subs over dubs -- looking at you, Kirby anime -- but really, I think many people are being nitpicky when they complain about VA quality. I'm just not picky.

Also, lots of voice acting people say sucks, I don't actually think is bad at all. I have no idea where lots of these complaints are coming from. Maybe I just have no standards. *shrug*

2. I'm a very sensory thinker, and I get really confused when people's voices don't sound "right," where "right" is "matching their character appearance and tropes."

I know everyone hated Fuuka and Teddie from Persona because their voices are like a cheese grater, but they were a cheese grater that was grating cheese. It was doing what it was supposed to do. Fuuka was supposed to sound like a weak, hoarse individual because she was. Teddie was supposed to sound like a circus clown because really, have you ever looked at him? These made sense. Also, every time a stereotypical trite villain doesn't have the voice I expect from a villain, my brain starts melting down. Extend this for every trope ever, and watching sub anime is so confusing to me. Even if people object to what the voices turn into, at least they match.

Unfortunately, the Japanese accents I tend to hear in anime I watch, ends up with things like high-pitched villains, overly squeaky girls, a strange rate of speaking that makes no sense to me, etc. (No, this isn't a racism thing; this is a "I'm not familiar with Japanese native speaking" thing. As a result, it sounds very odd when it shows up in my media.) Japanese just sounds different, fundamentally, than English, and I will honestly say that due to familiarity, characters synch up better for me when they're speaking in the way I grew up with.

So yeah, unfortunately, unless the character is obviously Japanese or has a reason to speak it (and not as many in anime are as you'd think), then the Japanese voice just doesn't sound "right" for the character to me.

3. I can't look away while watching.

Easy: sometimes I want to do something else while listening to anime. If I can't understand the words, then I have to actively watch exactly what's going on. Sometimes I want to hear reruns while working, for example, but I don't have the memory to track what's going on while they're rambling in Japanese.

4. I don't like text slapped over my movie/show.

Yeah, I know some people need captions, and I have nothing against them, but if I don't have to watch words on the screen, I won't. This means I have to spend less time paying attention to the actual show and more time watching what little letters are showing up on the screen. It's a distraction.

5. I feel like lots of "pro-sub" stuff is really just being elitist about art.

Yeah, okay, I went there, but if you think that the only anime experience is the Authentic Real Japanese Word experience, then learn Japanese to watch your show. I personally want to hear things in a language I understand, and I don't think that denigrates the whole experience.

6. I don't care that much about keeping to the script.

I know a lot of puns/wordplay/expressions/etc. are lost in translation, but I don't mind all that much. I care about the overarching gist of what the characters are saying, not nearly as much the nuances. I can deal with this.


So you may like subs, but In My House We Watch Dubs, Dammit.

 

[Micalas]

This has to be analyzed on a series by series basis. Anyone who says one over the other, no exceptions is just being a pillock.

I've been watching a lot of subs lately, not because I'm some elitist, but because I've been watching them on Hulu and Crunchyroll and they don't have dubs. Most of the crap Im watching shows up on my preferred service a week after it airs in Japan.

 

[AceTrilby]

It all depends on the anime. I usually prefer dubs, but then I've been spoiled by really good ones, like Fullmetal Alchemist and Black Lagoon.

The overall quality of dubs does seem to be getting better all the time, though.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

I'll watch any movie in it's native language with subtitles over and english dub for the simple reason that you usually get a closer adaptation of the original dialogue.

Dubs have to contend with creating dialogue that matches the lip movements and timing as much as possible. There's also the insidious practice of adapting a dub for it's native audience by replacing names, cultural references and jokes with those that more closely fit in with the native speaker and it's usually godawful.


To be fair I haven't watched a lot of television anime in a long time. Last thing I watched was One Piece back when Funimation was fan code for terrible dubbing (As in "Yeah the voice acting was bad...Funimation bad.") so things could have improved. I wouldn't know because on the rare occasion I do still pick up an anime series to watch I still opt for the subtitles.

 

[Stainlesssteele4]

I feel like the stigma against dubs comes from the low quality of past or existing dubs.
If I had to choose between something subtitled, versus something in my native language, I'd take the native language.

 

[Headsprouter]

I prefer dubs, while I can see why some would prefer subs. At least for me, subs can distract from the scenarios, especially with action scenes. Sometimes, as I'm fighting to keep up with an explanation, I'll miss something and have to go back, which breaks the flow. I find reading subtitles less relaxing, in that sense.

I've tried both, subs first (probably the best one to start with) and when I went dub I found it a thoroughly better experience. Usually the story doesn't get affected much, anyway, and it varies between different anime.

Sometimes a dub won't work with a comedy, either, sometimes when you tweak something just slightly to make it more western, it really helps the levels of confusion. If the joke needs explaining and research, it won't be funny, so best to get it on the first try. It happens especially with a culture as alien as Japanese.

Even so, I've probably watched a lot less anime than most people here, so my level of hardcore-ness might be affected by that.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I prefer dubs. My issue with subs generally comes down to how it is far easier to miss something if things are going very fast or if multiple dialogues are occurring at the same time. Not to mention, I absolutely hate reading subtitles when I'm trying to watch TV/movies, regardless of what it is. I really haven't run into any issues in which the dubs felt like the voice acting was of a vastly lower quality than the subs, but, then again, I haven't been watching anime for a comparably long time.

 

[Brian Tams]

A lot of the bitching surrounding English Dubs is completely non-sensical. Most of the time I see complaints like "They don't sound like the Japanese VAs", or "They don't say the same thing word for word."

These complaints tell me that the people complaining have already watched the episodes subbed, so why the fuck are you trying to watch the dub?

Let me take Funimation, for example. A very good dubbing company that has had some missteps along the way (if you dub as many anime as they have, you're going to have some swings and misses.) For some reason, Sub watchers hate Funimation (which is odd because they also provide subs free of charge on their website) with a passion. Mostly because "They don't hire voice actors that sound specifically like the Japanese VAs", which I already talked about. A lot of times, this complaint stems from a stubbornness to get used to a new voice. I usually issue these people a challenge; go find an anime that is said to have been dubbed very well, watch the dub first, then tell me if you can stand the sub? Most of the times, no, they cannot stand the sub. After someone told me "Its just not the same when its dubbed", I went and watched an anime dubbed first, then tried to watch the sub. I made it three episodes before giving up (and I watch a lot of subbed anime). So, sometimes people are mistaking bad voice acting with an inability to adapt to a new voice.

So, anyways, moving past my little rant...

I try to watch the subbed versions when I can for two simple reasons.

1.) If the anime is still in progress, the subbed episodes are further along and I hate waiting.
2.) Because there is usually something lost in translation between the sub and dub (its natural, you're always going to lose something.

However, whatever version I watch is set in stone (which is why I'm getting really ticked now that there are rumblings about Soul Eater making a return, because as we established I hate waiting.)

But I'm not going to sit here and ***** about VAs not sounding like the subs. Dub VAs first job is to emote; second is to lip sync. Really, I've seen some dubbed anime where sounding like the Jap VAs is the first thing on the to do list, but they have about as much emotion as a rock.

Also, if you want some bad examples of dubbed anime, I suggest you take a look at Yu-Gi-Oh! done by 4Kids. Or really anything done by 4Kids. In fact, scratch Yu-Gi-Oh!; you want to compare 4Kids One Piece to actual One Piece. Now there is a bad dub.

 

[Little Woodsman]

And ponder this...in the dub version, there was something cut/changed in Kiki's Delivery Service. Kiki's *feakin'* Delivery Service!

Are you talking about that one bit at the very end that pretty much makes Kiki's coming of age (the entire point of the movie) totally nonexistent?

Spoiler

Where Jiji starts talking again.

Not that I saw the movie dubbed, but I saw a clip in a review.

Hmm, there's that change too, but I was actually referring to the part where Kiki visits her artist friend & poses for her. When they are conversing as they are going to bed, they talk about talents in ways that reflect on the spiritual, at one point her friend even saying that talents "must be given by God or someone." The Dub is heavily edited/changed, because, you know, {rolling eyes} American audiences couldn't handle two young women talking about such things.

 

[kortin]

There isn't a RIGHT way or overarching version of anime to watch. Some anime are miles better subbed (see: Detective Conan), some are miles better dubbed (see: Baccano!). It just depends on the anime.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Are you talking about that one bit at the very end that pretty much makes Kiki's coming of age (the entire point of the movie) totally nonexistent?

Spoiler

Where Jiji starts talking again.

Not that I saw the movie dubbed, but I saw a clip in a review.

Hmm, there's that change too, but I was actually referring to the part where Kiki visits her artist friend & poses for her. When they are conversing as they are going to bed, they talk about talents in ways that reflect on the spiritual, at one point her friend even saying that talents "must be given by God or someone." The Dub is heavily edited/changed, because, you know, {rolling eyes} American audiences couldn't handle two young women talking about such things.

Makes you wonder why if they have such a stick up their ass about that, that they would even publish a movie with a witch for a main character.

 

[RJ 17]

For me it depends on the anime, really. That and the voice actors themselves. For instance, Rurouni Kenshin is one of my favorite anime series of all time, but I can't stand the English voice actors. I find the Japanese ones do a much better job with inflection and emotion than their English counterparts, so I'm perfectly fine with reading the subs while listening to the voices carry the "meaning" behind the words, if that makes any sense.

Conversely, I absolutely love the English voice actors for DBZ, I think the voices match the characters perfectly and after having watched a couple episode in Japanese I can easily say that I prefer the English version better. For that matter, DBZ is one of the rare cases where the background music actually improved the tone of the story in the English versions. Seriously, the music in the Japanese version is just...well..."off" is probably the best way I could put it. Bowboy Bebop is another example where I much prefer the English version over the Japanese version, while Hellsing Ultimate stands as another example of preferring the Japanese over the English.

So yeah, it's a mixed bag with me. Shoulda made that one of the poll options so I could vote.

 

[Weaver]

Subs 100% for me.
Japanese tends to be "backwards" compared to English, and it ends up with a lot of animation oddities. It looks like characters are emphasizing random words and stuff. Also, English voice actors are pretty bad at being cute. So when a moe character is trying to do a "jiiiiiiii~~" in English and the voice actress says "Staaaaaaaaare" it's just fucking weird.

 

[DkLnBr]

There are pros and cons for both. But what i've found (I can guarantee they're are exceptions to both examples) is that in original Japanese you're listening to professional voice actors, while all the dubs i've found sound like horrible amateur fan voice-overs.

 

[Rylingo]

You lose something in not hearing the characters vocalised in your own language. On the other hand there are some terrible dubs out there.

If there's a dub and it's acceptable I'll go for that. If not, I'm happy enough to watch a sub.

 

[Kittyhawk]

A counter question might be why must we choose? Both offer something cool to enjoy anime. I watch both. Subs for stuff not available in english online, then later on I'd buy the dvd/BR for dubs. What great is that most sets come with both sub and dub included, so anyone can just go with what they love most.

The best bit about subs is that there's much anime out there, that will never see official western release but are still awesome and worth seeing via other means. Legend of the Galactic Heroes is one such anime series, that blew my mind at what anime could be if its creators really try. When something is good and fun, you easily forget about any negatives. And the more you watch subbed works, it becomes gradually easier to read and watch.

A good dub is great for anime released in the 80's and 90's. The kind of stuff that you can just kick back and watch, out of the corner of your eye.