To those who prefer Japanese voices...

Kekkonen1

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Nov 8, 2010
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I don?t specifically want Japanese voices, I want the original voices. I must say however that it doesn?t matter where the game was released first, what matters is where the game was made (and sometimes, as in the case of Metal Gear Solid, if the creator explicitly states that he considers the English voices to be the "real" ones (although I like both English and Japanese voices in MGS)). In the same way I would never play a game like Mass Effect or Killzone in Japanese, it would just feel wrong.

Playing Catherine in English is for me akin to watching dubbed anime or movies, something I simply will not do. Thus I played the Japanese version of Catherine. Thankfully I am good enough at Japanese to be able to understand 90% of the dialog in the game, but I would still have preferred it with Japanese voices and English subs for convenience.

But let?s face it, even if a dub might be somewhat well done, it almost always changes something about how a character feels or makes the characters come off in a way that the original creator had not intended. And more often than not, dubs are NOT well done (FFX, FFXIII, Catherine, Suikoden etc etc...). That is why I will always prefer the original voices with English subtitles, regardless of which language the original adheres to (incidentally I played Metro 2033 with Russian voices).
 

G-Force

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[link]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaZdFQcKvjk[/link]

It's dubs like Baccano that show why its ok to let Americans voice in anime. This rule goes double when the series in question has a very Western vibe (Ghost in a Shell, Bebop, Trigun, Champloo)
 

Orange12345

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Aug 11, 2011
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It mainly comes down to a few basic points

1. English voice overs of Japanese products are 85% of the time terrible. Sometimes worse then terrible, case and point that scene from ff10 where Tidus and Yuna "laugh". Now as stated already in this topic not many of us can really tell the difference between good Japanese voice acting and bad, but the bad is not very noticeable because it's in a different language

2. Japanese sentence structure is fundamentally different from English. Example "CATS: ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US" (from zero wing, just look it up on youtube). This causes some things to not translate well and when voice acted can sound very awkward, however if there are subtitles they will sometimes also add a little note to explain what the character is trying to say without breaking flow.

3. Some people are just Japanophiles and are obsessed with things from Japan and thus want the actual voice acting

Now in my defense for #3 I have tried to watch some anime in English dubs and found it unbearable, as for games the only one that I have that has had the option was Disgaea 2, and I did end up playing a bit in the Japanese voices but it didn't really do anything for me.

bottom line, it's just a preference
 

Swifty714

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Jun 1, 2011
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The only game I wish had subtitles instead of a dub was Calling

No serouisly, that game's voice acting was just terrible in english.

Besides that, in movies and T.V. I don't want to read the dang thing, I want to watch and listen.
 

Balvale

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Oct 17, 2008
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Here's the simple formula for an acceptable English dub: Atlus game + Troy Baker = Job well done.

Atlus in particular does a pretty good job with voice casting. I find that a lot of people tend to like Japanese voiceovers because they have an incomprehensible foreign mystique. That and they've got a bigger talent pool in Japan, which helps.
 

Marcus Kehoe

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I can go from English to Japanese, but Japanese to english is always impossible for me. Once I hear the Japanese voices and how much better they are in showing the persons attitude I'm stuck with it.
 

CaseClosed343

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Dec 2, 2011
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I like the English voices better. This is probably because the only real Japanese game or show that I have watched is Dragonball Z. It just sounds better to me for Goku to sound like the english version, most of the voices in Japanese sound like kids or girls to me.
 

Doneeee

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Dec 27, 2011
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I prefer Japanese audio and subtitles because, well the English dubs are usually pretty bad or not as good as the original.
 

Something Amyss

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Dec 3, 2008
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Tanis said:
I think it has more to do with English DUB being SO-SO-SO bad sometimes that folks would rather PRETEND the Japanese DUB is better.

And I say PRETEND because I've had Asian friends/girlfriends that LAUGH at how bad the Japanese DUB sounds to them.
I don't speak Japanese, but I can follow French pretty well, and I've seen more than a few french flicks where the English version was better.

Sometimes, the english versions are so awful that the foreign track almost HAS to be better.
 

AndyRock

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Dec 22, 2009
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I just prefer english dub over subs... I just prefer to not hear what is basically gibberish to me.
 

The Becker

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Strain42 said:
I always prefer the native language when it comes to live action movies because dubs for those are voice actors trying to capture something that an actor has already put themselves into. Putting dubs over those almost seems insulting to the original actor (and lets face it...lip sync issues lol)

For games and anime though I prefer English. It's not even that I think the Japanese acting is bad.
I'm like you in that way, except if the english voice acting awful (like Naruto). Otherwise i would prefer the english version.
 

Mariakko

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Nov 21, 2011
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I prefer subtitles in my anime/ foreign movies. I've never noticed it in games though.
 

Dreiko_v1legacy

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Strain42 said:
This is a legitimate question. I'm not trying to mock anyone's opinion. I'm looking for a serious answer.

I play a lot of Atlus games, and one of the things I hear most often is something along the lines of "I wish Atlus would include a dual audio option. I want the original Japanese voices."

Now let me ask something. What exactly does that mean? Does it just mean the first voices recorded? To explain further, let me use two Atlus games as an example. Devil Survivor: Overclocked and Catherine.

Devil Survivor: Overclocked is a very rare case (the first for Atlus, I believe) of a game that came out in the states first. Granted, only by a couple days, but the game was released in English first. Do you prefer the English voices because they would be the original voices, or would you still prefer Japanese voices because these are all Japanese characters and it would be more realistic?

On the exact opposite side of the coin, we have Catherine. Catherine was released in Japan first and so the Japanese recordings were first and would be considered the original. But these are all American characters who realistically would be speaking English.

Or do neither of those points really matter at all and some people just automatically want Japanese voices because they think they sound better (I've noticed even acting considered pretty bad in a foreign language is still often praised by English audiences)

Thoughts? (from anyone, not just people who prefer Japanese acting)


Where it came out first doesn't matter, what matters is what is the original. So, if Devil May Cry 3 was in Japanese that would be wrong since it's originally in English while if Persona is in English that's also wrong cause it's originally in Japanese.




As for atlus games, I just import them since they're so culturally Japanese that to play them in English doesn't make any sense.
 

rekabdarb

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Jun 25, 2008
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I'm gonna bring up Gurren Lagann.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WVfs1FAs10&feature=sh_e_se&list=SL

Watch that episode and right around [censored] dies listen to the emotion of the voice actor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSQww1GOSy8

Then watch this (ignore the spanish subs) and just listen to it. The voice actor has soooo much more emotion.

looking at daystar here
Daystar Clarion said:
But if the English dub is bad, i.e., Love Hina, Full Metal Panic, I'll watch it in Japanese.
I'd agree. I haven't watched Love Hina, but i read it and i imagine the english voice actors would be just awkward/resistant to voice half that stuff.

And Full Metal Panic? Fumaffu. That would be TERRIBLE if they didn't go into it with the same emotionless that sagara had. And i watched both english [for about 2 minutes] and then switched to japanese. Because his emotionlessness was amazing.
 

DSK-

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May 13, 2010
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I prefer Japanese dub mostly because the voice acting will be of a good, if not high standard. I can't tell you the amount of times I've squirmed and felt uncomfortable when an English speaking voice actor delivers clunky dialogue.

Also, for some games/anime, there are often references taken from Japanese culture which can't necessarily be translated or be relatable in English. One example that comes to mind is the best anime I have ever seen, Gintama, which makes many references to Japanese culture, video games, other anime and much more. I can only imagine the shitfest of shittiness that would ensue if it was ever translated into English.

And finally, despite various games and anime sharing many popular voice actors, they aren't tied to one single character or 'voice' they do in every work they have been a part of. For example, if you hear a character who has done the voice of Character A and you think "Oh it's Character A from Anime A/Game A". Then, as you progress through the anime/game you won't typecast the voice actor but rather recognise the character they portray. Sorry if this is hard to understand, by the way.

I mean, imagine how amazing Eastenders would become if it had Japanese voice acting?! :D
 

Gatx

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Jul 7, 2011
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A Japanese game, doesn't matter where it's released first, typically is developed in Japan, by a Japanese studio, with Japanese voice actors. Only the last bit is really relevant, but that basically means all the lip synching and what not was done with Japanese dialogue in mind.

On the other hand you get the rare, and possibly only case of Kingdom Hearts, where it's a Japanese game, but based on Western IPs, so the English voice actors are preferred by everyone.
 

Dreiko_v1legacy

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Aug 28, 2008
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Oh and another thing that people often forget.


NOT EVERYONE IS A NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER!!1111!! (repeat this 10 times before reading below)



For most of the world dubs are in just another foreign language, English, so if you're choosing between two foreign languages (English and Japanese) then you would OBVIOUSLY go for the one that is the original. Subtitles are a given and they do not detract at all from the experience if your reading skills aren't that of a little child.
 

Something Amyss

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Dec 3, 2008
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rekabdarb said:
I'm gonna bring up Gurren Lagann.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WVfs1FAs10&feature=sh_e_se&list=SL

Watch that episode and right around [censored] dies listen to the emotion of the voice actor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSQww1GOSy8

Then watch this (ignore the spanish subs) and just listen to it. The voice actor has soooo much more emotion.
It'd probably help if you added a time to jump to for people who don't want to watch the whole episode.
 

NiPah

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Crono1973 said:
I don't understand it! Unless you speak Japanese how would you know if the Japanese audio track is superior and how could it be if you can't understand it, may as well turn it off completely. So why don't people ask for a option to turn the voice acting off completely instead of a "foreign language I don't understand" option? I guess it's cool at the moment, fads often don't make sense though.
I hear this point being passed around a lot, it's almost laughable at how incorrect it is. Most of the information carried over in speech is not just the content, but the vast number of settle nuances that relay anger, sarcasm, joy, fear, or any number of the inner turmoil or elation thats going inside the speaker's mind. You can hear it in any language, an angry German or a happy Russian will carry over their emotion even without a translation, just because you can't understand the words you can damn well understand what Hitler is saying in those speeches. Try to portray emotions through text and you've most likely found all the evidence of this you'll need for this as well, you get all the words and none of the emotions.

This is where we come to the American voice actor, it can be said you get what you pay for and in this case the American voice actors can either be good (with higher profile releases that get money behind them) or dry as a board horrid that get posted up on youtube as "worst dubs ever video 22". Not everyone wants to be humored by Resident Evil quality voice acting, and given the long history of crap its no wonder many fans have swore off English dubs entirely.

So yes, people prefer the original Japanese voices because they are categorically better in terms of relaying the original director's actual meaning and emotion, and most of the time just sound better.