Subtitled VS. The English dubbed debate
 

What do you think is better Dubbed or Japanese version or the English version to an anime? (opinion's are what This thread is all about, Don't think your right even though you think you are)

I personally watch both respectfully and enjoy both usually, If it does suck i will point that out! :eyebrow:

This forum tends towards sub more than dub in my experience.

Personally, I will pretty much only watch with Japanese audio.
-I always watch everything with subtitles. Turning speech into meaning is hard for me, reading is a lot easier regardless of language. I don't have to focus on understanding what they are saying, I can just focus on the story/emotions/moe/etc.
-Since all my meaning comes from subtitles, I like Japanese audio tracks because:
--Japanese VA is more varied. The American industry is small, and thus the same VA's come up a lot.
--Japanese VA's tend to do a better job conveying emotion in their voice.
--Japanese girls sound cuter than American ones.
--Japanese is the original audio track.

Wait... isn't this thread... the same as everyone out there...

Anyway... I do watch subs most of the time. Dubs if I want to hear them.

The dubbed as we know it can portray sometime's a good voice over that portray's the characters and the story very well. The only one i really saw as fluent was cowbebop in the 90's and the in the 2005-2006 Ghost in the Shells tv series or known as Ghost in the shell Stand alone complex based off it's movie, Same name! A lot of the time, Like school life, romance are good in Japanese in my opinion. Mecha is usually portrayed good in Japanese, Gundam Has the border between both english and Japanese. The sterotypical Ecchi school life, romance, hand it over to the Japanese. The slice of life genre The Japanese usually are intentionally good with it "Nijichou."

All animation is dubbed, by the way. I imagine that most animators would prefer that viewers focus on the art rather than read distracting subtitles.

As always, it's a case of how much you're prepared to lose in translation. Poor translation is an issue, regardless whether it occurs in the voiced script or the subtitles. The challenge of a dub is that it requires voice acting talent, and the quality of acting will vary from place to place, and title to title. Certain amine, like the aforementioned Cowboy Bepop, as well as, say, Black Lagoon, do particularly well in English because the subject matter is more familiar to Western pop culture, and are hence easier for English-speaking actors to perform realistically.

Personally, I've observed the quirk that Cantonese-dubbed anime is often as good as the original Japanese, while Mandarin-dubbed anime is often horrible. The difference in approach is noticeable: The Hong Kong-based actors tend not to treat the show as kids' entertainment, that is, they adopt more naturalistic, and hence more realistic, tones.

The Mandarin dubs tend to be Taiwan-based, and frequently use exaggerated "squeaky" voices that grate on the ears. I suspect much the same problem exists with English voice casts. When treated with respect, English dubs can shine, too, such as the British dub of Arrietty, for example.

I choose subbed, Japanese VA have better portrait character through voice....

Please no, not another round of this senseless debate. People can and should watch what they want. What more is there to say really?

Hahaha... this is the second time I encountered a similar thread like this... and answered them the same answer, lols:heh:

anime (set in Japan): thus Japanese dub

Hollywood movies (set in US): thus American dub

Star Trek (dubbed in French) = does not compute

Senseless debate for the sake of senseless debate. There is nothing more to say, except we say it anyways. We are humans, we like to argue that we are right and everyone else is wrong. This thread is entertaining that desire.

So, this argument hasn't been brought up before in any thread I have participated in, so it sounds like a good way to start.
Anime is often pretty low quality animation from a technical point of view. Fewer cells, less movement, more stills and pans, unsynced voice/mouths, etc.

I don't think reading subtitles significantly lowers the enjoyment value extracted from the visuals for most anime.

I am now considering giving up on the fact, I should of just started a discussion rather then a debate sorry about that. I was merely bored, I though i would stir some thing's up but now it look's like it wasn't the right thing to do for my first making of a thread.

It's ok... People do commit mistakes... It's better that you correct it next time!
;)

It is 2012... and people still start this thread? :uhoh::rolleyes:

1. For starters... in these days... no one should give a crap about this topic anymore. It's been ongoing for maybe 2 decades. If you wish to engage in this discussion, you're likely 10-15 years too late.

2. Technology had LONG evolved so that you have an easy choice between the two. To think, DVD was invented well over 10 years ago.

3. Fansub is FREE. If you pay to access fansubbing, you're an idiot. :heh:

4. Not all series in Japanese is better than the re-voicing in English. I'd choose the likes of Cowboy Bebop, Baccano, and Goldenboy in English. Hell, I never watched any of these three in Japanese, nor am I going to bother. If you say the Japanese voice is better, you can suck my balls. :heh::D

5. Most importantly. Everyone has his/her own personal set of preferences. If your taste doesn't agree with another person's taste, quit being a loser and deal with it. :cool:

Sorry that I have to be hostile, but this had been a long long and sh*tty discussion.

6. And someday, I hope that some anime gets made in America. That'll really make many anime fans upset. I know. :D:D:eyespin: Avatar was close but not quite.

Have a nice day. :D

I can't comment on too many dubbed shows, since I have never been able to watch through more than one or two episodes dubbed. The quality of the acting seemed clearly worse to me, in the cases I have watched, and the tone aimed at much younger -- more childish -- than in the corresponding Japanese.

For me it's not even a matter of "which VAs acted better" or preferring fansub translations over localizations. I think a dub of anything to other language is worse by definition. There's just 'something' that is lost when you change the original to something else in such a fashion. It was done to fit with its original voice acting, and said voice acting was made by people in contact with the original creators. It adds a certain nuance to it that just taking the finished product and switching the audio track can't reproduce, imo.

I think this is true for anime, for Hollywood films dubbed into my language, and for anything else that has voice-acting.

You should browse the forums more... there are already thousands of posts on this subject. That said.... more of the forum prefers subbed over dubbed. I prefer subbed over dubbed simply because the english acting pool is small and not exactly "A" grade material. Also, english dubbing is done in isolation (the actors don't work with each other) whereas the original voice work is often done in the same room at the same time so they can respond to the emotions of the moment (key to good acting). The dialog writing can also make a huge difference. The actor could be wonderful but they're hamstrung with terrible lines to read.

The content of the show sometimes makes a difference (as others noted, Cowboy Bebop plays well in English), also more recently the dubbing (and the dialog written for english dubs) has improved. I can actually watch a few of the more recent series (e.g. K-On! or Ore Imouto) without cringing too often.

I speak a fair amount of Japanese but even if I didn't the emotional content of the original voicing comes through. Far too often the english dub comes off as someone just calling their lines in.

Oh, and by the way, the entire forum is largely about opinions so the vaguely insulting remark about opinions got you off on the wrong foot. Read the forum rules and welcome to the forums :)

Dont care any more as long as I can watch the thing

For me it's english subbed versions of the anime.
I prefer hearing the original japanese voices more than any other.

That is my opinion too. :)

Ah, I forgot to mention that. I also prefer watching any foreign film in the original language. Das Boot simply must be heard in German, for example. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Lion. There's some european films like Amelie (French), various Danish, Swedish films, etc.

The way I always approach this is that I think of the different audio tracks as different interpretations or adaptations of the work, and I try to judge them on their own merits.

The original audio track is the way the original director envisioned the work, so it has value. But the director never intended for the audience to have their eyes focused on the lower third of the screen the whole time -- until your listening comprehension (and subtitle glancing) skills improve sufficiently, you risk missing a lot of what's going on in the show visually and audibly as your brain focuses on reading. (I often notice that a lot of people on this forum end up missing subtle visual cues, and I wonder if this is because they're not paying enough attention to the full picture of what's going on due to reading the subs.)

Other audio tracks are adaptations of the source, with varying degrees of fidelity. The way it's adapted represents a series of decisions from multiple people involved, and these decisions may not always jive perfectly with the preferences of the more dedicated fans. But, when listening to a dub track in your native tongue, losing that language barrier can help you see and understand the show in different ways. Your eyes are able to absorb the full picture, and your brain registers the dialogue instinctively without a processing-delay. In another way of looking at it, that sort of immersive experience is what the original director intended for the audience in their own language. By the same token, there can be a bit of a culture shock when things that are deeply Japanese are acted out by actors who are clearly not Japanese, and that doesn't typically translate well. Not to mention the dubs have to deal with lip flaps, which makes it that much more complicated to sound natural and smooth. Usually the decisions made by the dub writers in those cases are critical, even if they're not always easy. Sometimes I find it interesting just to listen and see how they handled some of the tricky messes they were handed.

So anyway... I don't think it's necessarily a "vs." issue. People have preferences one way or another. I think there can be an advantage to some viewers to seek out the audio in their native language if it exists, perhaps even the acting leaves a bit to be desired. But I think there's value too in experiencing the show in its original "voice", even if that means a bit of reading to bridge the language gap.



(And yes, I know this topic has been done a million times. This thread will be merged and likely locked soon, but so long as things remain civil, might as well let people get it out of their systems from time-to-time.)