Why is it always subs over dubs?

[TemplarofSteel]

A lot of it depends on the anime itself. In some cases it doesn't matter one way or the other. In some cases it can, usually if a character seems to have too high or low a voice. The other reason the subtitles can be helpful is that I can watch the movie muted and not disturb anyone.

One of the other reasons might just be this, there are a lot of fan-sub things out there that aren't available for retail sale in the US so, fan-dubbing isn't as common or likely isn't as good so I just figured that was a big part of it too. So if people see new stuff that isn't done at professional quality they see that the subs tend to be at the very least less screwed up than the dubs, so they figure the subs are better by default.

Though I'll make my own comment that in watching a DvD recently the subtitles and the dub didn't always agree on what was being said so I'll say that maybe people find one more accurate than another.

 

[A Pious Cultist]

Black Lagoon forever since for the most part they don't seem to be hell bent on badly imitating the japanese cast to please the sad lifeless nerds fanbase.

Seriously, the less you go on about how great and awesome and fine the cast that you can't even understand (so you wouldnt even be able to tell bad or overdramatic acting or wierd intonation) is the less the American cast will have to copy them and the better the voice acting will be.

 

[Treblaine]

if it's a good dub: go for the dub, if not then go for the subs.

it's a visual medium, you HAVE to appreciate that while your are reading the text you are going to be missing out on some things that happen on screen.

You also have to realise is sometimes the dubs can be far better than the original audio, Kaneda is far less whiny in the English dub of Akira and let's not forget David Hayter's legendary performance in Metal Gear Solid, even though not an anime. In fact the English voice cast for MGS1 sounds a hell of a lot cooler than the original Japanese dub.

See I am REALLY pissed at these people who are obsessed with the "purity", they are fucking idolaters, they treat the directors like gods and act as if their work is beyond improvement.

Well Bull-fucking-shit, George Lucas is living breathing proof that even great minds can go INCREDIBLY astray. Artist worship is precisely how Kojima and Lucas are able to make trash sequels, they think they can do no wrong.

Films, anime, video games are COLLABORATIVE works, and yes they CAN be improved on with edits and if they can they should. The idea that everyone should always kowtow to the "great and all knowing auteur" is bullshit in my opinion. I hate "auteur theory" it fundamentally undermines the way humans are actually creative and constructive and especially undermines video games which are highly collaborative works.
Yes, within a single project there should be someone with overall control, but they cannot be a dictator about it, they cannot be beyond criticism or be impossible to tell them they are wrong or could do it better. Imagine if Red Letter Media had been Lucas' producter as he made the Star Wars prequels?

Games can and should be modded, books should be translated, motion pictures should be redubbed. The original works should not be destroyed, an they don't have to be in this infinitely copyable digital age.

That doesn't mean EVERY change is good. Like colourising black-and-white films is pointless as they were shot, framed and balanced based on everything being in greyscale. And then there is the censorship angle, self censorship like Spielberg digitally removing guns from the federal agents' hands in ET. Oh and not to mention the shameful tampering with Star Wars: A New Hope

That just shows how the "pure vision of the Director" is far from infallible.

They say for an artist to make a great work of art you must first let him make it then bash him over the head and tie him up to prevent him adding more and destroying it with a thousand little "improvements".

People need to be open to how other people can add more to a work and at the same time the original crew can undermine their own work by obsession and second guessing their own decisions.

I mean trying to fix it so that Han shot 2nd... it turned out worse than if that is how the scene had originally been shot.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I'll take a low quality dub over a sub anyday.

But...I prefer my anime...abridged!

 

[Zeriah]

Actually Dubs still have a long way to go to get up to the quality of the Japanese Voice Acting.

Dubs have improved though, generally at least the main characters of the show have quality voice acting or they are at least tolerable (which is a helluva lot more than could be said before), the problem are the bit parts. You know a show might have 50 characters, 15-20 of them might have decent voice actors, but the other 30-35 will still usually be very far beneath the Japanese voice acing (which is probably more because of funding than anything else).

 

[TheGreenManalishi]

Sometimes the subs are very difficult to follow, and when all you want is to enjoy the animation and follow the story, dubbed is more than sufficient.
It's a shame when you get movies or series where the subs are hard to read and the central character's English dub is a joke.

 

[Simriel]

Full Metal Alchemist is only good in dubs.

Wrong. The dub for FMA is great, I really love it especially Hughes, however the dubbed version ruined the single best moment of character insight for Mustang through a choice of different wording. The original wording was a deep moment of introspection for the character. The dub ruins it completely.

 

[MadeinHell]

In my case I prefer subtitles on every form of video entertainment. Anime, regular movies and games.
Mainly because (usually) the original voices even if you can't understand them sound much better than the voice actors from your region. Both because they usually sound more "real" and emotional, and because they are nicely attached to the rest of sound effects in the movie/game.
Usually when I hear dubbing it is only slapped onto the rest of audiotrack while original voice is cut or muted, this creates some bad effects in which a character whispering can be heard from a mile away.
Stuff like that.

 

[Viciousmf]

Anime has always been more about the animation so i always watch dubs when i can so i can pay more attention to the movements, not to say that subs are bad I watched Soul Eater and Fist of the North Star with subs, and a couple others.

 

[Newtilator]

No One Piece fan will forgive 4kids for what they did. We even remain wary of the great funimation dubbers, who won't release in england.... But yeah.
Almost every show Dubbed i have seen has more annoying, childish voices, and skewers some of the jokes. The original writers put effort in to make phrases sound cool. English translations are less catchy. Also often censored.

 

[Vaccine]

Voices rarely match character in Dubs.
I find a lot of American voice actors lack a serious tone of power in their voice, instead they come out as whiny teens who haven't hit puberty yet.

But I'll admit there are some good dubs, thought rare.

 

[seanmcdow]

In all films I prefer the original form regardless of what language it is in.

I am fine with reading subtitles, barely notice them after so long doing it.

this

 

[Bellvedere]

Either way it's translated. I've seen some pretty nonsensical subs in my time. Dubs however suffer from that they try and get the voices to line up with the speaking of the characters (to some extent) and Japanese sentences can be either longer or shorter than the English equivalent so some sentences have to be either drawn out or shortened. It also can result in the VO actors talking really fast to keep up. Subs you don't have that problem.

That being said I do prefer dubs and it is because I don't want to read the subs. This is because I can't just sit and watch a movie/tv show I have to be doing something else at the same time otherwise I lose interest, I'm pretty much incapable of watching an entire show without doing several things at once.

If I'm watching subs I generally forget I can't understand the language that they're speaking an miss half the show whilst I'm looking away from the screen so I'm constantly rewinding to watch the part that I missed. I also can't watch anything at all if I don't already know the ending and all the major plot points. This is also to assist my lack of attention at what's going on.

I have watched with subs before, generally if I'm with other people. It doesn't bother me a whole lot, I won't not watch a show if I don't have a dubbed version. Also in Japanese shows they tend to have a girl that has to talk in the most irritatingly high pitched voice...

 

[Lawnmooer]

I like both, I prefer dubs unless they are terrible and/or cut out parts that are difficult to translate (I've seen a few that have done this) I usually end up watching both to see if things are different/portrayed better.

 

[Treblaine]

Sometimes the subs are very difficult to follow, and when all you want is to enjoy the animation and follow the story, dubbed is more than sufficient.
It's a shame when you get movies or series where the subs are hard to read and the central character's English dub is a joke.

judging by your GitS avatar pic, I am in the same boat as you, most of the Anime I have watched have been high quality dubs with really talented voice actors. I mean it has reached the point where I can't bear the Japanese dub with subs of GitS.

I think the key is to avoid the "kids anime" type show, GitS has always been a "mature" anime and release in English speaking countries as DVD boxsets. OVAs also get better treatment as there is less distribution worries, no TV networks with codes and standards.

The main place I see dubbing abuse are series that the managers of Western Kid's TV channels think they can sell to 1-12 year olds and of course keep the hysterical parents happy. But shows that may on the surface may appear suitable for all ages really are not, or at he very least there is a clash between American and Japanese expectations (like in terms of blood, sexual innuendo and so on)

The ultra violent (hellsing), sexual (Hentai) and militaristic don't seem to get "nabbed" by western studios who seem to think "Duuurrr, it's a cartoon, that means it's for dah little kiddies... oh no, turns out there's a load of adult content, well lets just edit that shit out"

(Am I correct in that Production I.G. the company that originally oversaw the Japanese production of GitS (and S.A.C) also oversaw the English dubbing and western localisation?)

 

[-Moonlight-]

Haters gonna hate. I don't have any particular bias towards subs or dubs. I just watch whatever I feel is the better voicework (with a few exceptions like Lucky Star, which is very Japanese and always feels wrong to watch it in English.). There's just a few anime I absolutely cannot watch in Japanese, such as Black Lagoon, Baccano, FLCL, Desert Punk or Cowboy Bebop. Likewise, there's a lot of anime that I will only watch in Japanese purely because I feel the acting is far stronger, such as anything made by Key and quite a few others I can't be assed to remember right now, and then there's the group which I don't really care for who voices either which way and will just watch what's most convenient for me at the time, like the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Ghost in the Shell or TTGL.

So, dubs contain badly written dialogue performed by bottom of the barrel "actors", why would you voluntarily listen to them?

Generalizations for the win. The best possible response I can give you is Steven Blum, who's an incredibly profilic VA most notable for his dub roles including Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell. He also voices Grunt in Mass Effect 2 , and last time I checked, BioWare wasn't exactly scraping the bottom of the barrel for voice actors when it comes to the ME games.

 

[Salviar]

Have to say I'm a sub person. Maybe it's because I've had some experience with bad dubs? I'm not sure, actually, I just prefer subs to dubs.
Oh! With the lip syncing, I think that what put me off dubs was the fact that, instead of sticking to the original script, they tended to look for words that matched what the mouths of the characters were doing. That really annoyed me! Especially when what they were saying was just ridiculous when translated directly into english.
Check out "Bobobo-bobo-bobo" dubbed if you don't believe me. XD

 

[DSK-]

Depends on the dubs. In my experience, a lot of the dubs are cringe worthy. I remember a few months back seeing this guy in uni watching Bleach. I asked if I could listen to the dubs and it was so painful to listen to.

I think the Japanese dubs give off more feeling and emotion when compared to the translations. This is why I'm happy with the subs.

 

[Echo136]

The majority of dubs out there are terribad. I just stick to the subs most of the time, unless the voice acting really did a good and faithful job.

 

[awmperry]

I avoid anime in general.

"Ordinary" films and series and things, though, I find subtitles much better (indeed, I like having subtitles even on anglophone programmes - because many English speakers have very unclear accents).

As Exhibit B, I call every film ever dubbed into Russian, ever.

(For those who are wondering, the Russians have a habit of just lowering the volume of the original, then having a single bored man reading the dialogue for everyone.)