Poll: The Ultimate Question: Sub or Dub?

[Candidus]

I know a lot of people use the excuse "I like to be able to watch the show, I can't read fast enough to see the subs and the action" but if my 12yo sister can manage to watch subs any adult should be able to. Not that I'm saying they have to, just that they're missing out on a better product in the end.

I've seen this argument pop up quite a bit. As someone who can not only watch an anime subbed while, reading all dialogue, watching all scenes, and be typing on a computer, I find it hard to understand. I'm sure some people have good reasons as to why though.

This tickles me. Can I just say what I also believe and what I think you're both secret-coding? "Man, ADULT men and women who can't take in a sentence with a glance and comfortably catch the animation as well are kind of pathetic."

Having said that, it's alarming how common such adults are. I have in mind two good friends of mine as I speak, who can't currently watch a series with me unless I give them the freedom to go back and catch the rest of any too-long dialogue...

"Seriously, aren't we both going on thirty? Did you leave school and never read anything ever again?" These are the questions I strive NOT to ask, for the sake of friendship.

OT: Always subs, in anime as it is in video-games. Anime circuit dubbers from the US are atrocious. Christina Vee and every single one of her peers, hideous. Yuri Lowenthal and all his peers (mainly imitators at that), appalling trash. There's literally no anime and videogame circuit VA from the US whose performances I can stand-- let alone praise.

 

[Nazulu]

I chose Sub, because that's what I usually choose. But really, it depends on the show/movie itself, because sometimes the dub is really well done, or the original voices are in some way annoying.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

Swedish person here, watching Japanese anime with English subtitles.
I can't stand dubs, with one exception. Hellsing and Ultimate Hellsing.
(the last one which I regret since it takes FOREVER to get done)

I like learning other languages and have no problem translating 3 languages at once.
Original is original. Dubs make me cringe, everytime.

In my country everything cartoon would be dubbed in Swedish, "because it's for children".
I don't even watch movies or shows in English with subs.

 

[Aerosteam]

Audio-wise, I don't care which. However, I prefer not to be looking at the bottom of the screen while something cool is happening to know what the character's are saying.

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

Subs. Unless we're talking about old movies I used to watch as a kid, like Ferris Bueller's Day Off or Goonies. In that case, I've seen these movies dubbed so many times, I don't really care.

 

[Vykrel]

im not a big anime guy, so i prefer dubs, only because the few anime that i watch have incredible dubs (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Trigun, Yu Yu Hakusho, etc.)

for live action stuff, though, i definitely prefer subs.

 

[trollnystan]

As a Swede, I prefer subtitles even for movies/series in a language I understand perfectly. I often enable English subtitles for English language series and films even though English is my mother tongue. That way I don't miss any lines that can sometimes be garbled. Dubs are OK for childrens' and family films, but if I can I will always watch those with subs too. Kind of annoying how Swedish cinemas seem to have made it harder to watch Disney/Ghibli/whatnot in their original language =/

 

[Auron225]

Subs - 99.99% of the time.

The only anime I watched dubbed and enjoyed was the first Fullmetal Alchemist. Otherwise, it's an abomination if it's not for comedy purposes.

 

[Colour Scientist]

Subtitles for live action foreign film and dubs for animated things, generally speaking.

 

[PunkRex]

I'll usually watch both to compare them.

If the dubs of high quality I'll put it on while doing other stuff so I don't have to read it otherwise I tend to stick to dubs as that way less gets lost in translation... granted many DVDs/BluRays just sub the dub which is just fucking infuriating. I CAN TELL THAT'S NOT WHAT THEY'RE SAYING ASSHOLES! Sometimes dubs come out better though, Panty and Stocking for example.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Sub always if it's available.

Even when I don't understand the language in question, I still feel that there's a respect owed to the material to experience it in it's native form. It just sounds and feels more authentic and, for lack of a better word, "right."

 

[Shadowstar38]

If it doesn't have an English dub, I just don't watch it. Having to read subtitles is too much of a pain in the ass for me.

I never understood the people that say the original Japanese is better acted or the superior version. If I can't understand the language, all the emotion and subtle inflections don't get picked up on. I might as well mute it all together.

 

[Smiley Face]

If a dub is done well, if it's engaging, well-written and well-performed, I'll watch that, if for no other reason than it allows me to look at the art instead of reading the subtitles, or giving me the ability to look away for a moment or two. I also do get more nuance out of a performance in a language I understand than one I can't.

That said, many dubs aren't up to snuff, and in those cases, subtitles are best. Moreover, with the occasionally over-the-top nature of anime, it's sometimes quite jarring to hear people shouting ridiculous battlecries, you hear it and automatically realize it sounds stupid, whereas with subs, you get the message and its emotion and intensity separately and combine them internally, providing a buffer for the more tonally dissonant dramatic elements.

Of course, I'm using this to refer to anime. For live-action foreign language films, I always do subtitles without exception, you're never going to get sound or a performance that matches up with a person doing their thing on camera.

 

[Smiley Face]

If it doesn't have an English dub, I just don't watch it. Having to read subtitles is too much of a pain in the ass for me.

I never understood the people that say the original Japanese is better acted or the superior version. If I can't understand the language, all the emotion and subtle inflections don't get picked up on. I might as well mute it all together.

Some of us can pick up on emotion and most of the inflections while watching something with subtitles, and reading them is so automatic we hardly notice it. Given that, very little is lost by watching something with subtitles, whereas the majority of dubs really just aren't good, the emotions and pacing are wrong to one degree or another. So yeah, now you know.

 

[Something Amyss]

Most of the time, I don't care.

Subs 90% of the time, and the main reason is because children tend to sound like girls rather than 20-year-olds in the original Japanese. Bleach is one of the prime examples. I happened to watch a subbed episode and came away enamored with how Toshiro sounded more like his age (or at least his appearance). I didn't watch much longer after that, but subs have been a major part of my viewing experience since then.

I've got so used to the English cast of Bleach it sounds weird to listen to it any other way. I'm not sure I've particularly felt that way about an anime otherwise.


Just sort of a random aside, I guess.

 

[Kotaro]

For me, it depends on how well-done the dub is.
"Fullmetal Alchemist," "Cowboy Bebop," and "Wolf's Rain," for example, all have stellar English dubs, and I will always watch them dubbed.
Sometimes you have a series where the Japanese and English dubs are equally good, like "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya," and in that case, I'll go with whichever I feel like watching at the time.
But then there are the anime where the English dub is inferior to the Japanese, like "Puella Magi Madoka Magica," or where the English dub censored or significantly changed things, like any of the "Yu-Gi-Oh!" anime. In that case, I will go with the Japanese dub every time.

 

[Doctor Teatime]

I always go for subs, even if the audio is already in English. Pretty much everything is subbed here in Sweden so I've just gotten used to it.

 

[Sordin]

Either. Dubs do better with comedic material and I've found there is an awful lot that can be lost in translation into subtitles that dubs help to recover. On the other hand subs show you how it was originally meant to be and can often deliver a more emotional experience. The fact that people get so bloody upset over people watching dubbed is something that never fails to irritate me so, that may make me a bit more biased towards dubs but I've watched a good deal of both so hey ho.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I hate reading subtitles because I find I miss most of the action when my gaze is glued to the bottom of the screen, and I find I have to pause it through almost ever speech because the damn subtitles go by so fast. Also most Japanese voices irritate me. If I didn't know better I'd swear they only had like 4 voice actors in all of Japan. Well 4 female ones anyway. So yeah, dubs for me.

 

[Spanglish Guy]

I've always preferred subs in anything I watch really, including anime which I have been watching for about a month or two.

This probably comes from my time spent in Spain, never lived there but I visit very regularly and of course everything is dubbed in Spanish. I can understand fine and all but I just dislike the seemingly small pool of voice actors they seem to choose from as well as not having many inspiring actors in the first place (this isn't as bad for anything animated but I still prefer watching things in the original voice).

Still, I can see the appeal of dubs, especially to those in non-English speaking countries as many forms of entertainment are in English, mainly games and films, and it would probably be a bit annoying to have to have subtitles on everything.