Depends on the quality of the English dub. For example I prefer English Dragonball,Z,GT because Goku doesn't sound like a little kid throughout the entire series and the voice quality is pretty good for everyone, but I prefer the japanese subs for Naruto.
Poll: Anime: Original Japanese or English Dub?
- Thread starter Rorschach II
- Start date
Japanese with Subs.
Mainly because the tonal system of Japanese and English is different. Never deal with absolutes and all, but I've not heard many female voice actors that can put the same type of worry or panic that the original voice actors put in.
Also, a lot of the time the 'framing' is off. Why is that deep or adult of a voice coming from someone who looks like she's 13?
And as a previous poster pointed out, a lot can be lost with a different Voice. Goku, the character that brought many a male to Anime, wasn't supposed to sound like a dude. He had a high pitched voice. this was purposely done to give people an idea of how urgent the situation is to make him get all forceful.
Or Sousuke from Full Metal Panic. Japanese version sounds like the dude just stepped off of the bus from Military Life. English Version? He puts on a typical "I'm a teenager trying to sound tough" feel.
Mainly because the tonal system of Japanese and English is different. Never deal with absolutes and all, but I've not heard many female voice actors that can put the same type of worry or panic that the original voice actors put in.
Also, a lot of the time the 'framing' is off. Why is that deep or adult of a voice coming from someone who looks like she's 13?
And as a previous poster pointed out, a lot can be lost with a different Voice. Goku, the character that brought many a male to Anime, wasn't supposed to sound like a dude. He had a high pitched voice. this was purposely done to give people an idea of how urgent the situation is to make him get all forceful.
Or Sousuke from Full Metal Panic. Japanese version sounds like the dude just stepped off of the bus from Military Life. English Version? He puts on a typical "I'm a teenager trying to sound tough" feel.
The original is generally better. And for me is more fun and enjoyable to watch in Japanese with Eng subs.Bloodstain said:
Honestly it really depends on the show, the quality, and what kind of mood I'm in at the time.
Like if I'm watching Bleach sometimes I like the dub and sometimes I prefer the original Japanese. In contrast with a show like Naruto, if I can actually stand to watch it at all it absolutely must be the original Japanese voices.
Like if I'm watching Bleach sometimes I like the dub and sometimes I prefer the original Japanese. In contrast with a show like Naruto, if I can actually stand to watch it at all it absolutely must be the original Japanese voices.
"Only a sith has fun/gets to use their powers for whatever they want instead of being cock-blocked by tiny green men."the outsider said:
Depends on the show/movie really. Theirs a number of older anime I cant stand in their original dubs since the english is so much better, dbz being a good example but the last year or so I really cant think of an anime that had a good english dub. One Piece and Bleach I got way in to just this year and the english dubs are awful for those.
Ghost in the Shell is also another set of movies and series that are just vastly superior in english. Batou has been played by the same guy in english since the original movie and I just can't imagine the franchise without him. Desert Punk; also another anime where the english is amazing, one of the best english dubs of any series ever to the point the japanese actually sounds completely out of place, especially since the lead vo nails his character to utter perfection.
Ghost in the Shell is also another set of movies and series that are just vastly superior in english. Batou has been played by the same guy in english since the original movie and I just can't imagine the franchise without him. Desert Punk; also another anime where the english is amazing, one of the best english dubs of any series ever to the point the japanese actually sounds completely out of place, especially since the lead vo nails his character to utter perfection.
I thought Ed's original voice sounded very childish, very high pitched. never watched pokemon but I do agree they toned things down in the americanized version. 'Course I mainly read manga and don't bother with the anime versions, so what do I know? hahaha. It is touch and go on a per character basis.Mike Laserbeam said:
I can dig both, but I generally prefer Japanese with subtitles. Mainly because I feel some of the drama is lost in translation, that sometimes the English words can't project the same feeling and intensity as the Japanese. This is even more true if an anime is dubbed from English to Swedish. I'm telling you, it is nightmare stuff!
Bad voice acting can murder things like Claymore, Elfen Lied and other more adult animes. (I'm not saying those one shave bad voice acting, just an example of the genres I mean.)
In fact, any genuinely emotional/badass anime can be spoilt by bad voice acting - even comedy can be killed.
Because I can't understand much Japanese, and hence can't judge their voice acting at all, I prefer to watch it with subtitles and let the voices in my head do the main work, while picking up the general vibe from the Japanese voice actors.
But that's just me, and this is the most flamed about topic in anime, so I'd advise people to not get too closed minded about this - the conditional tense is certainly called for.
In fact, any genuinely emotional/badass anime can be spoilt by bad voice acting - even comedy can be killed.
Because I can't understand much Japanese, and hence can't judge their voice acting at all, I prefer to watch it with subtitles and let the voices in my head do the main work, while picking up the general vibe from the Japanese voice actors.
But that's just me, and this is the most flamed about topic in anime, so I'd advise people to not get too closed minded about this - the conditional tense is certainly called for.
Subbed as a general rule unless I've heard that the English dub is really good, in which case I'll give the dub a chance and if I like it, I'll watch the whole series in English. Most of the time the English dub is pretty bad compared to the original Japanese though, so I don't tend to watch many dubs.
The issue is that they're always different from the original content. The original content, if it's any good, was "crafted" a certain way for a reason. The voice actors were given specific instructions on how to perform certain lines. Lines written in their language. With their cultural "backgrounds". They are interpreted and performed in a certain way for a reason. This isn't exclusive to anime mind you, almost everything is better on it's original voicing for this very reason. There are people hired to work with the creators and the voice actors (or sometimes the creators themselves) to make sure the voice actors perform exactly as they should.Ghengis John said:
Dubbing is putting something over that for the sake of simplification. Even if we ignore how the crushing majority of dubs are in between "totally phoned in as a favour" and "I only did this because I needed ANY job" in terms of quality, even the ones with the most dedicated teams and voice actors are no longer doing the original interpretation. At best they're doing an interpretation of the interpretation.
You may argue that that interpretation is better or worse, like you can argue that certain mods are better or worse than the original game that they spawn from. At the end of the day, it's not what you paid for. Something IS lost. Content IS changed. And that's ok if you don't really care, or if there wasn't a lot of decent content to begin with, but if you're appreciating something, and that something is good, then the difference is quite noticeable.
A couple quick and very iconic examples off the top of my head:
The Major from Hellsing. In the original voice he always comes across as a sort of complete psycho lunatic. Someone who you'd put way past crazy, because he's so calm and at peace with his outer insanity. His general calmness and peacefulness is a dire and very characterizing contrast with the general violence and complete insanity of the things he says. He talks about murdering children and raping women over and over again with the delight and ease of someone who's talking about a particularly good icecream on a very warm day.
On the other hand, the dub counterpart sounds like someone trying to do his best impression of Hitler/generic nazi german. Best I can tell, he doesn't even talk with a fucking accent on the original!
Another good one is Lelouch Lamperouge from Code Geass. The original character has an incredibly iconic voice. His voice has pitches, fluctuations, it shows feeling and emotion. When he gives his "obey me world" speech, it's spine tingling. His voice alone projects intensity and determination. His voice changes from when he's calmly talking to his friends, to when he's giving an incredibly important speech to his troops. When he changes his "mask" (not the one he carries), his voice changes too. There are different feelings. Different emotions.
The dub version of Lelouch might as well be reading from a fucking grocery list.
To say nothing of the more critical examples like Neon Genesis Evangelion and FLCL Furi Kuri that completely change the interpretation of entire plot points and sometimes character characterization.
I'll also say that every dub I've ever had the displeasure of hearing was vastly inferior to the original. Now, I can't say I've heard every dub ever made, so it is possible that some are quite good, but I will say if they exist, I've never seen them or even heard of them.
But even if you come up with some legendary dub that has an incredibly well done interpretation that somehow manages to hold on to all the text virtually unaltered despite translation, and yatta, yatta, yatta.... it's still just that... An interpretation of an interpretation. It's not the original you went to see.
[quote="Ghengis John" post="18.251776.9346575"Should I even be trying to reason with you? You sound pretty hostile.[/quote]
And you sound just like a cupcake don't worry.
I much prefer the original Japanese with subs. What seems to bother some people that prefer the English dub, is the fact that they can't read and watch all the action. I, however, am able to read fast enough to know what's going on both in action and dialog.
Whichever I watch first, to be honest. For example, when I was a kid I watched Cardcaptors/Cardcaptor Sakura in English, so even though I like the original Japanese version, I just find the English dub to be better. And a few years ago I watched Azumanga Daioh in Japanese so even though I think the English dub is good, I can't prefer it over the original.