Anime where it sounds better Translated

Saint of M

Elite Member
Legacy
Jul 27, 2010
813
34
33
Country
United States
Yes, herrasy, I know. The worst thing to happen to anime since MD Geist.

But if say maybe 10% of anime sounds better dubed, what is it?

Say what language you get you anime dubbed into and why you think it sounds better.


For Me: American English

Gundam Wing: This is more for nastalgia, and I think the sub is good, but I grew up on the dub so the dub sticks. This is the most subjective.


Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings: I felt the attitude and atmosphere sounded better. I was getting board with the sub.

Vampire Wars:Only because its crap but its slightly less crappy then the sub which is unbarable. You are going to feel cheated if you got this out of the bargain bin, but the dub is more ok...ish

Sekirai: Again its a crappy scrit but the English is better, but that's like saying a dog biting you in the butt is better then a rabbid dog biting you in the butt. One tends to be more life threatening but both are rather uncomfortable.
 

hazabaza1

Want Skyrim. Want. Do want.
Nov 26, 2008
9,612
0
0
From what I've seen of Baccano I'd say English sounds better for it. It just fits the whole 1930 (was it 30?) America feel when the characters have American accents with fitting (if stereotypical) accents for that time.

There's another one too but I can't remember it, I'll post if it comes to me.
 

Scarim Coral

Jumped the ship
Legacy
Oct 29, 2010
18,157
2
3
Country
UK
UK English

These dubs come to my mine-
Cowboy Bebop
Burn Up Excel (It doesn't helped the fact that in the sub one of the girls sound abit too squeaky.)
Samurai Champloo
Eureka Seven
Martian Successor Nadesico (Yurika sound more like an airhead which she sometime acted like in the fub then she did in the sub)
Ghost in the Shell: SAC and 2nd GiG

I could be bias since I had listen to the dub first but I did rewatched under with sub but I just think they did a good job picking the voice actors and actress for the dub version.
 

Elfgore

Your friendly local nihilist
Legacy
Dec 6, 2010
5,655
24
13
English.

Baka and Test: Great dub in general. The smart, airhead, pretty girl sounds like one. The delinquent sounds like one. The pervert sounds like a pervert. The script may be translated slightly so the west could better understands the jokes, but none of the humor is lost.

Code Geass: Besides Lelough's sister, the cast is amazing. Once again everyone's voice fits.

Fairy Tail: Once again nailed all the characters personalities with voices. Erza has a masculine voice, Lucy a cute one, Grey a uncaring one, etc.

And as a completely random side note: The Sekirai anime is god awful. Manga completely destroys it. If you haven't read it yet, I suggest doing so.
 

Foolery

No.
Jun 5, 2013
1,714
0
0
I can't force myself to watch subbed anime. I've held off on watching Attack on Titan until the english release is out. Even a bad dub is better than subbed for me. I don't get how the idea that translations will automatically suck has gone on this long.
 

bartholen_v1legacy

A dyslexic man walks into a bra.
Jan 24, 2009
3,056
0
0
I don't know if watching Ghost Stories (Gakkô no Kaidan) dubbed makes it better per se, but it certainly makes it more entertaining.
 

[Kira Must Die]

Incubator
Sep 30, 2009
2,537
0
0
I like watching most of my anime English dubbed, really.

To me It's a better experience. I know a lot of people say that you can't get the true experience unless you watch it subbed, to me it's the opposite. I'm not a fan of watching subs. Not that I have trouble reading them, because I don't, and I watch a lot of subbed anime due to availability, but because subtitles sorta add an extra wall between me and what is happening onscreen. It's one thing to hear the dialogue, it's another to read it. I always find it better when you hear what is being said rather than read what is being said while a language you barely understand is in the background. Even if I still enjoy an anime, I don't usually get the full context of a scene until I watch it dubbed. I like hearing the lines be delivered, and it helps that I find most English dub voice work to be JUST FINE (I can't empathise this enough. A lot of you have no idea what real bad voice work sound like.) It also allows me to pay more attention to the animation and music. I mean, Japan don't need to constantly watch subtitles when they watch anime. It just seem like such a hinderance. Hell, watching some anime raw with no subtitles I think is a better experience than subs.

To answer your question, though, I find most comedy anime to be better dubbed than subbed.
 

Theminimanx

Positively Insane
Mar 14, 2011
276
0
0
Black lagoon.

I have no idea what type of English they're speaking, but my god do I love the voicework in that.
 

Casual Shinji

Should've gone before we left.
Legacy
Jul 18, 2009
19,572
4,374
118
Well, there's Street Fighter 2 the animated movie, but that has more to do with the soundtrack than the actual voices. The soundtrack just kicks fucking ass.

Samurai Pizza Cats became what it is today due to the dub.

And maybe Ninja Scroll, but that's just for that one moment where Jubei yells "GEMMA, BURN IN YOUR GOLDEN HELL!!!"

And Dragon Half was a lot more fun dubbed as well.
 

dyre

New member
Mar 30, 2011
2,178
0
0
I used to only watch subs after a run-in with the horrendous dubs of Grave of the Fireflies that ruined the movie for me, but I've since realized that well-made dubs are a lot more enjoyable. I feel that back in the early 2000s when I first started watching anime, there were a lot of extremely shitty dubs, but nowadays, it's gotten a lot better.

Japanese with English subs are all well and good, but good English dubs allow more subtle expression (to an English speaker, obviously). Also, you know how it's weird whenever you hear Germans and Brits and Russians speaking English in American accents? It's pretty damn weird hearing them all speak the same Japanese too! Dubs allow a wide variety of accents, which works very well in anime with an international cast of characters. Oh, and when Japanese voice actors who are supposed to be acting European characters randomly say certain words in terribly Japanese-accented English, it makes me cringe.

Some good dubs off the top of my head:
Cowboy Bebop
Samurai Champloo
Black Lagoon
Helsing OVA

These all had good subs too, but the dubs were even better.

Theminimanx said:
Black lagoon.

I have no idea what type of English they're speaking, but my god do I love the voicework in that.
It's American English, with accents where appropriate. Gotta love Chinglish :D
 

Saint of M

Elite Member
Legacy
Jul 27, 2010
813
34
33
Country
United States
Dead Century said:
I can't force myself to watch subbed anime. I've held off on watching Attack on Titan until the english release is out. Even a bad dub is better than subbed for me. I don't get how the idea that translations will automatically suck has gone on this long.
Its the classic conflict in most imported film/TV fandomes, be it Anime, French film nor, or Hong Kong kung fu classics.

The two sides tend to not getalong in the same manner as Jack Thompson and Gamers; PETA and people who eat meat; Raiders adn 49's; France and England; Yanks VS Confederates; Coke and Pepsi; Halo and Kill Zone; ok you get the idea.

Does it make any sense? No, not really, but these are geeks and we all know how we act.

On the Sub side: Dubbers tend to at best loose the original feelings, meanings, or message and at worse be absalute crap.

Dubbers don't want to read a whole bunch of text when they want to focus as much on the Visuals, that if it wasn't for dubs these otherwise niche markets would not have exploded as they have, and most importantly: Sturgons law: 90% of everything is crap, so the original so bound to have some clunkers.

Or in more detail, and to quote anime reviewer Jesu Otaku (note this is a ruff guess going from her persona experience):

About Sixty Percent of Anime sounds much better in Japanese. Rouphly Thirty Five Percent of anime sounds good in either languange, and there is a rare five percent of anime that sounds better in English.
That and you don't have to deal with engrish as much
 

Godlikebuthumble

New member
Sep 10, 2008
47
0
0
Most dubs suffer from the same problem: Japanese tends do get across lots of info in a short time (more compact terminology, and being a pretty *motor-mouthed* language). This leads to two issues: Trying to fit a more "unwieldy" English (or German, or whatever) phrase into the same timeslot (leading to either awkward phrasing or simple omission of things), and issues with lip-sync.
These tend to be less of an issue with more action-oriented anime since dialogue is not exactly the main selling point, so the dubbers have a bit more leeway. As long as the hero sounds badass and gets the gist of the original across, all is fine.
I liked two ways of handling this very much:
- The English dub of "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust". This was actually produced with an English dub in mind, giving the VAs enough time to present their lines with enough gravity.
- The German dub of "Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs", where much of the dialogue was slightly altered. The main plot content was there, but the wording differed considerably. Kind of like what happened to the Roger Moore/Tony Curtis series "The Persuaders"

Otherwise, I really liked the dubs for "Ninja Scroll" and "Ghost in the Shell".
 

Ikasury

New member
May 15, 2013
297
0
0
for me its more a matter of what i hear/get attached to first...

GITS stuff, Cowboy Bebop and other stuff i started with on Adult Swim i saw first in english, then i expanded my horizons and started watching stuff in its native language and much prefer most things in Japanese just cause the VAs seem better at inflection for what they're doing... and lipsync...

then there's the series' where they're good either way because they managed to get good dub-VAs with voice tone/inflections similar to the original japanese and/or are just GOOD at their goddamn jobs: Black Lagoon, Berserk, original GITS movies, The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, etc.

then there's the 'OH DEAR GOD WHY DID THEY DUB IT' series', Naruto and Bleach in particular (seriously, WTF were you english dub people thinking with some of these -.-)

but as for the 'English over original dub'? Dragonball... all its affiliates, hands down, and only the original series, fuck Kai... the day Frieza sounds like a man and not Genkai (Yu Yu Hakushou) is the day i burn that thing to the ground with a special beam canon... but that's the english VAs, for some reason i just can't wrap my head around the Jap-VAs for DB/Z... mostly because of Goku's voice, i get its a cultural 'thing' for the hero to have a higher pitched voice noting they're 'good' but dear lord he sounds like a 3yr old on crack in japanese when he should be 30-something ._. yea... i think i'll just stick with the dub for that thank you very much...

due to my more recent stigma to recent dubs i've avoided them mostly for newer series, and i generally just leave my old 90s anime in dub cause i'm lazy *shrugs*

though i suppose i will add i'd rather have the old dub voices for EVA in the Rebuild series... i prefer watching all the mindfuckery without having to read subtitles... the voices are good either way, but that probably just falls back to point 1 in that i saw it in english first...
 

Ikasury

New member
May 15, 2013
297
0
0
Theminimanx said:
Black lagoon.

I have no idea what type of English they're speaking, but my god do I love the voicework in that.
you should hear the one part at the end in the Japanese cut where they're speaking 'english'... unfortunately for me and my brother while we were watching the subtitles went off because they're speaking 'english'... only it sounded like a whole other bloody language... apparently, that's what they'd been 'technically' speaking the whole time, south china seas variation of 'engrish'...

will say that is probably the only part about the english dub i didn't like, the fact they removed that in the end arc where they're all speaking actually different languages, like Balalaika speaking russian, Revy and Rock speaking what apparently passes for 'english' for asians, and the traditional japanese... *shrugs*

did love the dub though, they definitely got the personalities right voice-wise, one of the better one though i guess its just 'American English' (i find it funny we have to differentiate that XD)
 

Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
Legacy
Feb 9, 2012
18,467
3,006
118
I hate dubs. No, it's not a weaboo thing. My first language isn't English or Japanese, and not a lot of anime gets translated to Spanish. Thus most of the dubs I come across are in English, which beats the purpose of a translation. Yes, I understand spoken English whereas I don't get Japanese, but the idea of exchanging one foreign language with another is just silly to me.

Having said that, the DBZ Spanish dub was pretty good though that may owe to the fact I grew up listening to it.
 

balladbird

Master of Lancer
Legacy
Jan 25, 2012
972
2
13
Country
United States
Gender
male
another in the "I generally always prefer dubbed anime" category here.

Native language is american english.

Were I to specify series that make more sense to be in english to me, though. the list would be a bit shorter.

Hellsing, Chrno Crusade, and Baccano, by way of taking place in english speaking countries, and Space Dandy, as it was a series made with an american audience foremost in mind, and true to this, performed way better here than it did in its native japan. (not to mention in the case of Space Dandy, the english dub is technically the original track, airing on toonami 6 hours before being broadcast in japan)
 

AnthrSolidSnake

New member
Jun 2, 2011
824
0
0
I can't speak Japanese, so I don't know exactly whether or not an anime sounds better in Japanese or not. To me it's just foreign language. I don't pick up on voice inflection like I do with my own language.

I don't really have a preference. I'm a pretty fast reader, since I've written my whole life, so I tend to be able to read the subtitles and look up at the action on screen pretty fast without missing anything.

On lazy days I suppose I'd prefer an english dub. Otherwise I don't care unless it's obvious to me the english dub is REALLY bad.
 

Enizer

New member
Mar 20, 2009
75
0
0
I usually strongly prefer the original, but there are exceptions, the main one I have run into personally
Appleseed
Just, the english version has so much more feeling, and.. life, in general in the characters.
The original japanese just felt.. dull and bland to me
When I heard the japaneze version, I didn't see the character come to life,
It felt so obviously staged, that I could just feel the bored actors standing with a microphone and a stack of paper
the english version makes me forget that it's a movie and *live* the story, like good voice work should

Usually I find the english dub more similar to the english version of "love hina"
The accents were so rediculusly over the top they made Brian Blessed seem like he understates his lines in comparison.
The english version of that is practically torture, I couldnt even watch an entire episode in english before I felt like I had to run and hide from it like a monster.


and a side note on love hina, I saw a fansub version from way before it was released outside japan, and then I bought the DVD's, and the fansub of love hina was so MUCH MUCH better.
the fansub explained a lot of in-jokes, that just fly past the viewer in the official version,
then when I watched the DVD's with my friends, they kept going "WTF was that about? and I had to stop and explain it, from information from the fansub that I remembered clearly.

some english releases of anime are just, really badly done, and rushed
 

Daniel Janhagen

New member
Mar 28, 2011
147
0
0
I almost always prefer subbed, but there is one instance I can think of where I preferred the dub, even though I know it's horribly translated and misses the point of a lot of things.

I'm talking about the swedish dub of SF Saiyuki Starzinger. The Kugo character's voice in the original is just so, so annoying. I get that he's the stand-in for the monkey king and those are generally chittering and annoying, but I don't know how I'm supposed to take it for 70+ episodes! (Unfortunately, if I want to see it all, I have to, because they only dubbed about a third of it.)