Dubbed.
I don't watch much anime. It's like the whole pancakes vs waffles debate. There are certain things pancake people like that they just won't find in waffles, and visa versa. There are tropes and certain things in anime that turn me off. I... eh... don't like Japanese VA's. The Seiyu come from the Kabuki tradition of acting, which is just too OTT for me. I like consistency in tone, and well, to have a tone
at all. Characters act and emote in such drastic ways that just throw a scene completely out of wack. It's having to do with extremes. They're either too serious, too happy, too sad, too angry, etc etc. Also, the Japanese language does not translate well to English. English is a language with a lot of fluff, it's difficult to learn. Japanese just doesn't have some of the conventions that English does. It's more to the point. That, combined with the repetitive nature of a lot of anime is like nails on a chalkboard for me. When something happens, a character explains what happens, then that same character (or another) repeated it for confirmation...ergh...
In One Piece my friend showed me a scene where a villain was talking about his powers.
"I finally ate the
dark dark fruit, granting me the power of
darkness. In other words, I've become a
darkness man."
/facepalm
English voice acting is much more natural. It came from radio, which is much closer to the natural speaking voice that characters would be doing. Basically, it's a cultural thing. The more you westernize an anime, the better chance I'll have of enjoying it.
Johnny Novgorod said:
A lot of people seem to think Cowboy Bebop has a good dub. Why? Spike sounds like Solid Snake (i.e. not cool at all, and what's Spike without his cool?).
The Bebop dub is the anime that launched the genre's popularity in the West. At least that's what I hear all the time. It's consistently one of, if not THE example of good dubbing. I don't know what else to say on the matter. I've only watched one episode, didn't really care for it. So I can't speak with any authority. But I have seen art of Spike nearly everywhere, and the I think Steve Blum - and pretty much anyone else- would see a "too cool for school" type character. So he gave him a too cool for school voice. I think it fits well enough, and apparently I'm not the only one. /shrug