Poll: Sub or Dub?

[HusaneFatal]

I generally watch subs however if dubs are available I usually give them a try but usually I find the people they get for most animes are generally god awful at their job. As the first person had said Yu Yu Hakusho is one of those where the dub is quite good.

I hate the dub of Naruto they take a character that is already mildly annoying but not so bad that I dislike him and then go and overuse the hell out of BELIEVE IT to the point that I want to hit him in the face with a Shuriken Rasengan. Just saying he didn't say it nearly as often in the sub.

 

[Tomster595]

I like subbed. The voice actors just usually tend to do a better job and I come out of it learning a few Japanese phrases.

 

[thylasos]

As a linguist, with a small amount of Japanese, as well as hating the whiny American voices they invariable choose for the dub, I much prefer subtitles, on any foreign-language media, not just anime, in order to pick up additional vocabulary and non-standard grammatical forms.

 

[KiraTaureLor]

This question has been lingering in my head ever since i watched the english Dub for Yu Yu Hakusho. In that show is some of the best dubbing i have ever seen.

Frankly, I would prefer a show dubbed any day simply because i like to here english words rather than Japanese gibberish. How 'bout you?

I watch it subbed then, dubbed, then research its background, writers, etc.

 

[Polite Sage]

Incoming flame war.

But honestly though, I prefer subbed over dubs for anything actually, be it anime/games/other movies/TV shows. The reason? Almost 100% of the time dubs suck. Really hard.

There is no anime that ever had good dubbing, but there's one expection (that I know of) in games; Metal Gear series which had VERY GOOD English voice actors (for the most part).

Then again, I have traumatic experiences from my childhood http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex4KMgrt9wY

 

[Timbydude]

I prefer a decent dub to a subtitled version, and sometimes, English dubs can be absolutely fantastic. Death Note had a flawless dub, for example; if it weren't clearly Japanese in origin, I could have been fooled into thinking that it was made in America due to the quality of the voice acting.

But sometimes dubs are just unbearably bad (see: Code Geass). In those cases, I have no choice but to watch the subtitled version.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I prefer sub but if I bought the anime on dvd then I watch it in dub (I alread heard it as sub or the dub voices are new to me).

 

[Marik Bentusi]

Since I can read well with subs without missing out on the action, I almost always prefer it:

• > being closer to the original is a good thing in 99% of the case
  > the mother of all misunderstandings is the human language
  > some things can't be translated well or are translated differently depending on the translator[footnote]Famous example 1: Naruto's dattebayo got incredibly annoying in the English dub's "Believe it!" while fansubbers often skipped the world entirely; example 2: writing a name with Japanese honorifics (blah-san) or English ones (Mr. Blah), which can get difficult once Japanese ones without exact English equivalent pop up[/footnote]
  > arguably, the translation quality is overall better. I know there are hilarious QUALITY translations out there, but my subs almost never counted to them. Since fans do it out of passion or for the positive fame, they have to put real effort into it, while most professionals just seem to fulfill their duty, which can lead to decreased quality - and on the market they often have exclusive rights and not as much healthy competition as fansubbing groups on the net that race for speed AND quality.
  > Either I'm too used to it or Japanese voiceactors have a better idea of their role. Maybe because anime is a bigger factor in Japan than anywhere else, so naturally more money and effort are invested, I dunno. You can like or dislike the actual voice on a different level (lots of males are quite high-pitched, but sorta I got used to it), but what they make of it or what level of emotion they put into it is on a different plane.
  > I think I can understand English quite well, but my mother tongue is German, so I naturally prefer dubs in German. That means the material usually first goes from Japanese to English, including edits to scenes, and then gets ported from English to German and some more scenes are edited. That can lead to some huge mistakes and due to German's laws a lot gets cut. Imagine Naruto without violence. Now you're thinking of what the German producers had in mind. I really don't know what target group they had in mind, but this port of a huge franchise turned out to be a widely-known failure of horrible quality.

In any case, original Japanese material will save you from cut scenes or "Americanization" like turning rice balls into hamburgers. And Europe gets their material from the USA!
There are, of course, exceptions for this. I'm quite proud of the German team that picked up the NGE Rebuild series; pretty decent voice actors and accurate translations. Just how damn good of a job did they? They put some real effort into recreating the foreign R/L sound we don't have. You can debate about whether this effort payed off, but that they looked into that detail is worth its own medal in this landscape of horrible dubs.

There's good arguments for both sides, and it's all up to opinion; this is simply mine.

 

[Naklsonofnakkl]

To be honest, I hate when anime's are dubbed, but mostly because of anime that was brought over to America being done horribly. I also hate that a lot of Japanese culture is removed from 'script' because people wouldn't understand them, which takes away from the show when looking at it from a plot standpoint. I mean, there are some anime like Nichijou, which if it were dubbed would be terrible just because a lot of the jokes are play on words which only make sense in Japanese and can't be explain using English. Things like that are what makes a lot of anime better subbed.

You might not realize it, but go back and look at shows you like, you'll notice that a lot of shows have instances where they make reference to a Japanese historical event, or a ceremony or play-on-words. These are what make the show funny or understandable. Sure if you don't understand what they are talking about it might get confusing, but it just takes a simple 'wikipedia' search to realize it and either understand or get a good laugh. Most good subs will include a quick reference at the top of the screen to tell you what they are talking about.

Obviously this isn't the only reason to not dub and anime, there are things like a lack of seriousness in America (you'll notice that voice actors don't do a good job of having a distinct voice for every character they do which in turns leads to hearing the same voice actors in different anime's and being able to point them out almost immediately). Now in this case there are some instances where an anime will get some pretty decent voice actors, but again, this depends on how serious they take the show they are dubbing and how much of a budget they have to spend. [Honestly, this is a very minor annoyance which can be overlooked]

My biggest problem out of everything is the censoring. In Japan, children can hear curse words and live their lives perfectly fine (by children I mean 15+). In America, most anime I've watched that are dubbed like to exclude the obvious words we cannot air on TV. 'Shit' 'Fuck' even sometimes 'Bastard' will be censored. I also don't like how they will cut out 'overtly perverted' scenes just because you can see their butt or the top of their chest (the best example of this is One Piece which was HEAVILY edited when brought over to the states, so much that any sign of cleavage was removed, and even entire plots were shortened and/or skipped because there was a major plot point that included overtly sexual themes they couldn't get around).

I come to tolerate that not every anime brought over will be kept exactly as it was written in Japan, but honestly, the voice actors sound far more 'passionate' with their lines in Japanese, I can read above a 3rd grade level so reading subs and watching at the same time are as natural as breathing (which also helps out a lot when watching other foreign movies/shows) and above all, it just feels natural.

Honestly it doesn't matter to me, I will always watch anime subbed, but I just feel like hearing the excuse (not saying this to anyone directly) "I would give it a chance, but I don't like reading subtitles." It just sounds rather ignorant to assume that since it isn't in English it isn't worth spending a few extra seconds to read something so you can understand what is going on even though it might be an amazing show you never thought you would've enjoyed.

 

[maninahat]

IF it is an anime comedy, then I'll usually go for the dub. I hate it when a Japanese pun is delivered in subs and then there is about a paragraph of notes flashing up for a fraction of a second at the top of the screen to explain the joke. Just have the joke localised into an English equivalent, thank you.

Otherwise, subs all the way. Doubly so if there are child characters in the story. Nothing I can't stand more than the voices of American children.

 

[Yuriatayde]

I am quite adamant about preferring dubs, because there is no good reason (save for being a complete japanophile) to watch subbed. None at all, unless the dubs are bad, and when I'm pointed to "bad" dubs, my reaction is almost always: "Wow, you're too picky, that's nothing."

Subtitles, unless you're VERY used to them, make it difficult to both watch and listen, and has on many occasions forced me to rewind to re-watch a single line many times. You can't do anything other then give it your FULL attention. It's sit down, shut up, close all programs, and read, and I find that to be incredibly restricting on how and when I'm allowed to enjoy the show.

I also have a bit of a gripe in that I cannot find dubs for things anywhere. I am forced to watch subbed, presumably because of the pole results; I'm in the minority. People will host subs much much more commonly then dubs, simply because there are so many people who will violently oppose dubs to unreasonable levels. You will lose your audience for talking to them in english, and I, as a casual anime enjoyer, simply have to deal with it.

I can't help but wonder if the pole results are scewed simply because casuals like me don't tend to love anime enough to jump at every pole that's put up. You can always attract people with extreme opinions, but only sometimes attract everybody else. Case and point: I'm actually a little passionate over the topic, or I probably wouldn't have cared enough to even sign in.

 

[meece]

If it's a better dub than the original jap...and those are few and far between. I think the only one I truly thought was better was The Slayers I think it was called. Also some animated cartoons like yugioh I think I liked the dubs more.

 

[Marik2]

I will watch the version I think was done better depending on what I am watching.

Restricting yourself to one or the other causes you to miss out.

Yup pretty much my response here.

Which is why the op needs to add a "depends" option.

 

[Xpwn3ntial]

Watch and scream. Many people's argument for subs.

I actually *gasp* watched the DVD and that trailer is not indicative of the quality of the language track at all. Is it better than the original? No. Is it good? Yes. Especially Stephanie Sheh's job of Yui.
I do however, hate that they wooleyised Moe Moe Kyun!

If you want to make a case for subs you use this.


That is the opening theme to the worst of them all, Speed Racer. Use that. Hell, the entire series is on Youtube.

OT: To be honest, whichever I got to first. I can never watch Speed Racer subtitled, but I know the English track is terrible.

 

[Xpwn3ntial]

Post eaten.

 

[Ranorak]

I can't stand the Japanese voices in Dragonball Z, but I LOVE the japanese voices in Full Metal Alchemist.

So I guess it's just a matter of quality and what I heard first.

 

[Alexias_Sandar]

Generally, I prefer subbed. Often a lot of context is lost in a dub. Also, many dubs have worse voice acting, though that's not universal. Many dubs also...ah, dumb down a series, and lose much of the emotional tone or personal connections between characters. There are of course some very fine dubs out there...but...they aren't the norm, more exceptions.

 

[samaugsch]

Shin-chan is probably the only anime that I've seen that I thought had decent voice acting when dubbed. Then again, I never saw the subbed version.

 

[XandNobody]

In general it tends to be whatever I saw it in first.

However, there are exceptions, like Azumanga Daioh, and what they did to Osaka in the English version. I understand why there was southern accent, that doesn't bother me when done well, but could they at the very least have toned Osaka down to anything less than southern bell? Anything less than that, really.