Dubbed verse Subbed

[Suncatcher]

My biggest problem with subs is that the f*ing subtitles always go by to damn fast so I always end up missing half the dialogue anyway. Either that or I miss most of the action because my eyes are glued to the bottom of the screen while I try to read the subtitles.

I had that problem when I first got into anime, and that was why I tried for dubs at first (before discovering the problems with that). But with practice you'll read faster and be able to watch multiple things simultaneously. It takes a while, and actual effort on your part to learn at first, but you can diminish or remove all the problems with the subs. The problems with dubs are never going away, no matter how hard you try.

Basically dubs have the fewest problems for a newbie, but they can never be fixed. The raw anime is impossible for a newbie, and takes a huge amount of effort (learning japanese), but then it's perfect. Subs are somewhere in the middle if you're new, and they'll never be perfect, but it doesn't take much effort to fix almost all the problems, so it's the best effort:reward ratio for most of us.

 

[Smiley Face]

I personally favour subbed, because I can follow them just fine, because I usually find that the Japanese voices are expressive enough for me to glean what I need to know outside the subtitles, and that quality manages to exceed what I would get out of an English dub. Also, it's nice to listen to different languages, I hear enough variations on English as it is.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

My rule is this: I sample both, and I watch whichever one I enjoyed more. Easy. I watch equal amount dubs and subs, some dubs make me want to rip my eardrums out of my very skull through my eye sockets, others add more flavour to a show than even the Japanese voices (Trigun, Cowboy Bebop come to mind). As for what other people watch - whatever the fuck you want. If you prefer dubs then so be it. If you prefer subs, so be it. It's not a competition. Whatever the hell you enjoy more. Some people don't watch anime at all. I'm not gonna start a "anime vs non-anime" thread though...

It really annoys me when people try to not only dub, but also localize shows.

How would you like a jelly donut? OH NO! OUR SANDWICH IS ROLL DOWN HILL! D:

 

[Canadamus Prime]

My biggest problem with subs is that the f*ing subtitles always go by to damn fast so I always end up missing half the dialogue anyway. Either that or I miss most of the action because my eyes are glued to the bottom of the screen while I try to read the subtitles.

I had that problem when I first got into anime, and that was why I tried for dubs at first (before discovering the problems with that). But with practice you'll read faster and be able to watch multiple things simultaneously. It takes a while, and actual effort on your part to learn at first, but you can diminish or remove all the problems with the subs. The problems with dubs are never going away, no matter how hard you try.

Basically dubs have the fewest problems for a newbie, but they can never be fixed. The raw anime is impossible for a newbie, and takes a huge amount of effort (learning japanese), but then it's perfect. Subs are somewhere in the middle if you're new, and they'll never be perfect, but it doesn't take much effort to fix almost all the problems, so it's the best effort:reward ratio for most of us.

The thing is, a lot of the "problems" with dubs are purely academic, stick-up-the-ass 'problems.' After all I'm sure they have just as many miscast or just plain out bad voice actors in Japan as they do here. I also fail to see how reading the dialogue as opposed to hearing is going to fix any of the cross culture issues. The Japanese jokes aren't going to make any more sense to a westerner whether he has to hear them or read them. So if these issues haven't already turned a person of the medium in the first place, then the subbed vs dubbed thing is pretty much a non-issue if those are the only "problems" you can come up with.

 

[Jonluw]

It really annoys me when people try to not only dub, but also localize shows.

How would you like a jelly donut?

Say what?

 

[RyoScar]

I normally prefer subbed, but some dubs I prefer, mainly Death Note, Berserk, FMA.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

It really annoys me when people try to not only dub, but also localize shows.

How would you like a jelly donut?

Say what?

 

[zehydra]

I have never ever heard a good (enough) Japanese English voice acting job.

I think the only exception to this is some of Miyazaki's movies (Totoro), which still doesn't have the best english voice acting in the world.

 

[Pirakahunter788]

It's all about what suits the animation best. If the original actors do a great job of delivering dialogue, sub it. Not point in trying to fix what isn't broken.

If the original actors do suck however, or the animation/film would do better with localized voice actors, then dub it.

Personally, I prefer subs.

 

[Jonluw]

It really annoys me when people try to not only dub, but also localize shows.

How would you like a jelly donut?

Say what?

Ah, yeah that.
And this shit. Although it isn't localization.

I would find the scene from Azumanga daioh where otou-san flies in the window and scares Osaka, but it's tiresome.

 

[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!