Poll: Dubbed or Subbed?

[NerfedFalcon]

If they do the dub well (and if it's uncut), I prefer not having to stare at the bottom two inches of the screen all the time. Not that I watch that much anime, and the only dubs I've actually watched were the Sonic the Hedgehog OVA (which was good) and Excel Saga (which was fine, except the voice actor for Excel herself... Why did they give Excel an American accent?!)

 

[Yopaz]

I love subs when I know the language, but if I don't know it, then I might like it better dubbed to English or Norwegian. You lose a lot of the context in subtitles, only 2/3 of a sentence is actually there in the subtitles most of the time. This is for animated though, and the dub has to be pretty good. In all live action I want subs and nothing else.

 

[Titan Buttons]

I almost always go Subbed as the voice acting for all the shows I've watched just isn't as good. But anime such as, fullmetal alchemist but that was actually written for the english language so that's probobly why it works so well, just as fullmetal alchemist Brotherhood was written for Asian lauguages and doesn't even come in english audio

 

[Flare Phoenix]

Subbed:- for all the people dissing it because you have to read the subtitles, I used to feel the same way, but over time it becomes easier to focus on both the words and the picture at the same time. But still, to each their own.

That being said, I do prefer Gundam dubbed over subbed, so it varies between anime to anime.

 

[The Harkinator]

Dubbed is better when it's done well, a good dubbed movie is so much better than a subbed movie. A badly dubbed movie is worse than a subbed movie however.

 

[tthor]

I use to be purely subbed, and hated dubs with a passion for the normal crappy voice acting, but recently i've found myself starting to open up to dubbed shows

 

[Coraxian]

Subtitles for me. And I'm personally not talking about anime.

It's how I learnt English in the first place.

 

[AyreonMaiden]

It's not about 'subbed vs dubbed'. It's about watching the film or anime in as close a state as it was conceived by its creators. Regardless of the perceived 'quality' of any voice track, the only factor to take into account is that simple factor. And the idea that the dubs remove 'annoying voices', is like saying that dubs can remove annoying languages, culture or creative strokes. Go for it, if that's how you feel, but in the end, the original voices is how the film or show was conceived by its creators, and they are cultural reflections. That's how it should be watched. I'm just waiting for customised versions of the Mona Lisa.

Show me someone who denies that Fullmetal Alchemist, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo or Baccano! were at least 50% inspired by Western sensibilities and I'll show you a big fat fuckin' weeb. I also wanna know how many Japanese characters and locales are in Black Lagoon compared to other nationalities.

But anyway, the point is that I really don't think anyone can speak for the author's intent and I think fans take too seriously the "cultural reflection" crap. I say watch what you enjoy because I'm sure anime studios appreciate ALL their fans, no matter what language they experience their work in. Not everyone wants to create "cultural statements" or "cultural reflections" about their homelands. Sometimes all they want is to tell a story about boys, girls, good and evil, or maybe about nothing at all.

I mean, ask the greatest Hispanic novelist, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, how he felt about the English version of his Nobel-prize winning magnum opus "Cien años de soledad": http://www.amazon.com/dp/0811216659, under "Product Description."

I somehow get the feeling that most of the really awesome artists don't really give a shit at all about translations so long as the original intent isn't butchered outright.

 

[Byere]

For me it's a case of relativity. If done very well, English dubbing can be brilliant. A prime example, as already stated, is Gantz. IMO, Deathnote is much better in the English dub too.
Then again, if the voice acting is terrible, I'd rather have subs with the Japanese track (simply because I don't know how to speak Japanese). Case in point, Chobits. The English voices were so terrible! The Japanese voices were better, so I preferred it subbed.
Oh, another point on that is that sometimes some of the jokes go over my head since I'm not from the Asian parts of the world. Subbing will often have explanations on certain words which help out.

 

[Grimlock Fett]

Subbed! Dubbed has never failed to disappoint me[edit. Since I began watching subbed with the original Jap voices]! The quality of the Japanese voice actors is just so much better! The dub always just seems cheesy and lacks the same emotion!

That said the 1st anime I watched was DBZ and I prefer Gokus dubbed voice in that! Why was he so squeaky in the sub?

 

[SonofaJohannes]

Most dubbed animes just don't feel right, and the 4kids version of One Piece is hilariously bad. There are good dubs out there (Like Cromartie) but for most of the time I prefer subbed.

 

[Nyan Cat]

Subbed. Most dubs I have watched were horrible.

 

[my-brainisfullof-lag]

I like dubbed but then if it hasn't been released yet i'll watch subbed. Although some of the lines in english just sound so horribly cheesy...yugh!

 

[PleaseDele]

Im used to subtitles cause I live in Holland and we subtitle every english show we can get our hands on. Guess that made me practice reading and watching. I also saw somebody sayign about the emotions in the voices of japanese voice actors. This does give me enough context to know whats going on with some budgy subtitels.

 

[Nihilism_Is_Bliss]

Quite honestly I don't understand any appeal to watching dubs.

-Not how it was made/meant to be
-Dubs sound, 99% of the time, (DBZ and Advent Children proved me wrong) absolute shite in comparison to the original.
-Dubs will, by their nature, change the tone/meaning etc. of material through more translation constraints than sub, and through cultural differences.
-American voices for characters of different countries makes no sense and sounds strange. Especially for us non-Americans. And this is accentuated even MORE by watching Japanese school girls squee in American. Just. Sounds. Awful.
-Dubbing companies realise that anyone able to bear dubs in the first place doesn't care if they sounds awful, so dubs have way lower budgets on voice acting.
-Dubbing companies try to appeal their shows to their country's audience more by adding extra regionalised flavour, shitting on those that actually understood the original references and jokes they decided to cut out.
-Dubs sound like turd.

Honestly I could just keep going and going, but I won't.
Only reason I can understand for watching dubs over subs is if you are a painfully slow reader and can't keep up with subtitles.
There are very few watchable dubs that I have ever seen, and only 1-2 that are arguably better than the sub.

I always prefer to consume my media as close to the source material as I can get, so subs.
It's the same reason I try to read books in their original language.

That, and the Japanese voice actors are just better for the most part.
Urghghghablabaleh

OH GOD! WHY SHOW ME THAT!?
K-on is bad enough in Japanese!


Also, does anybody know why they made Iggy gay in the Ergo Proxy dub?
He's a robot! And he's not gay in Japanese!!! <Prime example of dubs screwing with us for no reason.

 

[Dwarfman]

There are far too many animes out their that just don't translate well enough to be dubbed - ei Naruto. Subbed all the way!

I've noticed some posts here, with people complaining that they want to watch the show not read it, but I don't have that problem. Possibly because I've been watching shows on SBS since the station first aired on Australian TV. In any event I'm just used to watching and reading the dialogue at the same time.

 

[Talydia]

In general, subbed, not to say there aren't some really good dubs out there too. Part of it, personally at least, is I think its harder to pick up on bad voice acting when its in a foreign language.

 

[Human_Sacrifice]

Hmmm.. it's gotta depend on the anime. For a cute slice-of-life style, or for Haruhi, it's subbed. Otherwise, and if it's good, I'm fine with dubs for things like Naruto, Death Note, and Pokemon.

 

[DementedSheep]

If the voice acting is decent dubbed. I miss stuff if I?m constantly having to look at the bottom of the screen to understand what they are saying. Unfortunately most of the time the English dub is really badly done and I can?t stand to listen to it so more often than not I watch the subbed version. Also things seem to get translated wrong more often in dubs for some reason.

 

[Glaive_21842]

I really depends on the anime, but like 9 times out of 10, subs are better.