Poll: Anime - Dub or sub?

[verdant monkai]

I'm divided. People say that the original Japvoice acting is so much better than the sub. But the thing is if you can't understand the dialogue how can you the fuck can you know if its better or not?

To me they both have advantages and disadvantages.

Sub actors are hit and miss. The guys with deep voices sound amazing I love those really deep Japanese voices, but the slightly higher scratchier male voices really grate on me. Its the normal to slightly deeper girl voices are fine, but then the high voices make me want to claw my ears out. I will say this much though the children they have actually sound like children.

Dub actors are often not oscar level, I think they are given some unfair press but you can tell they won't be winning an award for their performance. I am very rarely annoyed by the sound of english voice actors unless its a woman trying to do a really high pitched girly voice. I do like it in anime when I recognise the voice actors by their voice. Like when any of the Persona team turn up, or Steve Blum or Sean Schemmel, I love that. I find it impossible to recognise Japanese voice actors.

SO I'd say I lean slightly more on the side of Dub voice acting. BUT if an anime is set in Shogunate Japan or in a rare case for me a Japanese highschool I have to watch it in Japanese. I do like to have anime set in Britain an America in English though, it makes sense to me that way.

 

[laggyteabag]

Dubbed, but that is because I like to just browse the internet and listen to it whenever I get to a boring part. I am not opposed to subbed, and I have watched many anime shows in subbed because the dub is often appalling, but I just prefer to watch in in dubbed given the choice.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Exclusively subbed..I cringe everytime I hear a dub sample in anime.

 

[mitchell271]

Sub generally, but dubbed if it's well done. FMA and Cowboy Bebop come to mind.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Subs 100% of the time. I want to stick as close to the original thing as possible.

I always felt that was the problem with subs. You get literal translations, which end up being grammatically wrong and often incomplete gibberish. And I hate watching anime in Engrish. At least when it comes to dubs, you know someone proof read the script before hitting enter.

I don't know what anime you watched subbed, but I never encountered that problem. Whereas if you speak any other language other than Japanese on an anime, it sounds fake no matter what you're saying.

 

[Arina Love]

Subbed. After 10+ years of watching anime i don't even need them that much, only for complicated words. Glad i didn't choose dubs, i absorbed spoken Japanese from anime and VNs quite nicely.

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

Both are good, but both have their limitations. Dubbing requires the voice actor to try and match the translation to the timed actions of the character on screen. Sir Patrick Stewart remarked that he enjoyed his voice-acting experience for Nausicaa because that character he was voicing had a huge, bushy beard and he didn't have to match his words to the characters lips, only to the movement of the beard.

Dubbing, on the other hand removes that cadence and time limitation to a degree. Words at the bottom of the screen don't have to match the lip movements of the characters above them. But, with your eyes drawn to the bottom of the screen, you are distracted from the art on the rest of the screen.

In the end, for me it depends on which one is done better for that particular anime. But, both ultimately depend on the quality of the translation, of course.

 

[Pickles]

There are a few shows I've watched dubbed, but it has to be pretty well done for me to prefer it over a subbed anime.
The two dubs I really liked off the top of my head would be stein;s gate and psycho pass.

 

[Dalrien]

The characters speaking a language I can actually understand through hearing Is nice.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

I prefer dubs, mainly because A)I don't have to keep watching the screen, and B)I recognize most of the voices. Not that I won't watch subs, though if there's no dub available.

 

[Bat Vader]

I'm going to have to go with a fourth option and say that I like both the same. I don't really have a preference between the two. I can watch an anime either dubbed or subbed.

 

[EHKOS]

The only dubs I've run into that I didn't like was the G Gundam dub, but that might have just been the plot/script. The other one was the very first dub of One Piece on Toonami. I really liked that one, and right around (I could be remembering the spot totally wrong) the Barati/Sanji/Don Krieg thing it changed suddenly and as a kid who had no idea what had happened I was very confused and upset. Otherwise, I love dubbed for the reason that I can look away for a second and still have an idea of what's going on. Not to mention I get to admire the art and animation, actually watch the action, things like that. Although I've run into a Tokyo Ghoul sub that's really strange, simply because I can barely keep up. I read at a very high level, English was my best subject by far, and I read a lot of books. But the subtitles in that show seem to be a little too fast.

tl;dr Dubs so I can pay attention to either the screen, or whatever I'm doing in reality.

 

[babinro]

Dub without question for the first time every time.

I want to be able to appreciate this visual medium by watching the video...not reading while catching bits and pieces peripherally. I'm also a VERY slow reader which means in many shows I'll have to pause or rewind if I'm to understand everything. Add to that the fact that I'm a visual learner. I process things better when listening and watching it rather than reading it.

Only after I've experience and understood something in Dub would I ever consider the sub for purist sake. For me...I've always preferred my experience with dubs even when the dub actors are awful. It's just a more relaxed natural experience.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Subs. Being Dutch, I'm used to basically everything foreign being subbed since childhood, so I have no problems with it. (unlike kids growing up here now and getting everything badly dubbed).

There are exceptions, but generally I enjoy the original voices more.

 

[FPLOON]

<link=http://vocaroo.com/i/s07u22nehVXH>OT: Shit, I don't give a fuck how I watch it as long as I get to fucking watch it, glob dammit! If both please me like a well-trained hooker, then expect me to buy that shit on Blu-Ray, beech!

*ahem*

I mean, I can go either or, basically... I love me some options... (even if one may end up subjectively better than the other by default...)

Thanks, past me... Although, you forgot to mention that you would only watch hentai subbed unless you're watching the dub with friends... so you guys can laugh at how the hentai dub is worse than what most people would think as "bad anime dubs"...

Now, if I had to choose just one... Then, you are 2cruel4highschool and I will take my open-ended response somewhere else, thank you very much... Besides, for me, it's always a case-by-case basis and only the ones where I like both the sub and dub on a equal-like basis end up in my anime DVD/Blu-Ray collection...

 

[Kaimax]

Subs...Heck, I'm at the point that most of the time I can watch it raw without any subs. Obvious exception for the heavy anime with many techno-magi babble talk, where subs is a must.

My main gripe for dubs is FUCKIN' ACCENTS, I can't stand them.
I love Yuri Lowenthal and the usual casts of dubbers, but it gets boring hearing them constantly in different anime/Jp games, it gets worse when they have multiple roles in one title.

And I simply love the Japanese actors more than the English ones.

 

[Callate]

I don't feel it's an either/or- and I'm less than fond of the people who are absolutely, fanatically certain that the original actors speaking a language they don't understand are always unquestionably superior.

Is even a mediocre translation in subtitles with the original voice cast better than a dub done by the import company's mail room clerk and web site maintenance person? Sure, absolutely.

Is it better than a script adapted by Neil Gaiman of Sandman fame, voiced by a cast of high-caliber Hollywood actors? No, I'm not going to knee-jerk a "yes" to that one.

Some Japanese anime voice casts are incredibly talented; others use stilted, stereotypical voices and go through the motions. It is, in fact, possible for a non-Japanese dub to be better. It varies.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

For the most part, I hate Japanese voice acting. So I generally prefer dubbed, however, I do watch subbed things every now and then. I don't watch all that much anime anymore though, so I rarely watch subs, in fact Dragonball Z abridged is the only anime type thing I've watched in a few months.

Well, except Girls und Panzer, but I blame The Mighty Jingles for that.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

SNIP.

I don't know what anime you watched subbed, but I never encountered that problem. Whereas if you speak any other language other than Japanese on an anime, it sounds fake no matter what you're saying.

Actually I find that most subs are terrible, with the possible exception of buying an anime box set. But yeah, any anime that airs or can be streamed that has subs has a better than likely chance of being Engrish.
I remember all the Tenchi ones were terrible, early Pokemon wasn't great, and Gundam Wing got a little iffy at times.
Just Google it dude/gal. There are entire websites dedicated to cataloging terrible subs. With just as many as dubs I'm sure, but I've always found bad voice acting to be funny whereas bad subs just throw me out the story.