Which is a strike against dubbing, rather than for it. Because the languages do not tranlsate well, trying to convey the same meaning in the same amount of time is often very difficult. This, actually, leads to the biggest problem with dubs. That the script will frequently stumble over redundant words which had to be added to match the length of the original line, despite the fact that they produce completely unnatural dialogue. A naturalistic tone (which I dispute is always better, or indeed present in English language voice acting, radio drama descended from stage drama which also relies to a degree on overacting to reach the seats at the back, this is why movie actors aren't always good voice actors) is worth nothing if the words are unnatural.Ishal said:Also, the Japanese language does not translate well to English.
Even the best dubs fall into that, intense scenes like Spike's confrontation with Vicious in Cowboy Bebop or Balalaika confronting Gretel in Black Lagoon can be robbed of their original impact by an overwrought and unnatural script.
Japanese doesn't translate well to English so why listen in English?.
(Irony: Your user avatar is a prime offender, Ace Combat Zero has some of the least natural English dialogue ever, and is a prime example of terrible translation, because having not even heard the Japanese I know what some of the lines would be because the Japanese idioms were left intact, and it's not like my Japanese is particularly advanced)