dubbed or subbed

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Its all a judgment call. Azumanga Daioh is one of the few dubs I can listen to. So is Lucky*Star oddly enough. Not very many others. I always *try* the dub but its usually difficult to get past a couple of episodes without me muttering "no, no, no that isn't the character at all - what, are you reading lines you've never seen before while on the phone while running errands?"

I strongly agree with you on how the Japanese method of doing voice-acting is vastly superior to the North American method of doing voice-acting.

By having voice actors do their roles alongside other voice actors that share the scene with them, you get a chance for the actors to play off of one another, and the real emotion of a scene starts to seep through, as such.

By having each individual actor just record a bunch of lines on his or her own, you're naturally going to get a lot of cases of monotonous "mailing it in".


I also agree with you on how the "Osaka accent in the original Japanese means Southern accent in the English dub" voice acting rule really needs to end. More often than not, it doesn't work, imo.


If English dubbing industries were just able to clear up these two problems, it would really improve the quality of a lot of dubs, imo.

[RandySyler]

The kansai dialect (Osaka accent) seems more like a Jersey accent equivalent in America than a southern accent to me (having lived near Philly for a while, still got the Jersey dialect). However, my biggest problem with dubs is that I have always watched my favorite animes in Japanese, with subs. So I'm used to a characters voice Japanese, so when its dubbed, it seems like a totally different character.

[Hooves]

I agree strongly on how the character voice and the style of the character.. There are still the horrible memories of the Australian dubbing of Cardcaptor Sakura, where they change the names of some people, but the only problem was that the characters who were only suppose to sound like 8-9 year olds, sound like they are 18-20. But then again, that is a problem that cannot be solved so easily unless they find some really good child actors.

Ok I'm going to be completely biased on another dub, there was the case of Shakugan no Shana....... I was finding myself face-desking the whole time when the dubbed version of the characters were speaking... I literally thought they were on the phone while they were working on the dub.... The only voice actor I liked was Alastor, with the Naraku dubbed VA from Inuyasha. The plot went perfectly without much of a problem. There is also Yuji's dubbed VA that I admit was good as well..

There are many more dubs that sorta just kill the mood of the anime with some parts of the lip-syncing that goes out of track but that is another problem that is very difficulty to solve since they have to find the right words with the lip-syncing that the Japanese put. The characters in general getting messed up, and there is also the voice that people find themselves being tortured over.

I prefer subbed, but if the dubbed actually put more effort into things and thought about it more carefully, they would not have been hated so much as they are now.

[yezhanquan]

Well, just voted, as a "sub-snob". Now that I'm working and paying for games out of my own pocket, I chose games with JP audio and subs. Even for Valkyria Chronicles, where the subs are Woolseyism at best, I don't mind.

[Random32]

Both my English and Japanese skills are more reading/writing than listening/speaking so I will have some form of subtitles on regardless. I choose the audio track that does a better job of conveying emotions and things that you don't get from reading subtitles, most of the time, its the Japanese track.

[Liddo-kun]

Voted "There are a few good dubs out there, but I really prefer subs."
Started watching anime as dubs, but later on I liked watching subs better. Being a fan of several seiyuu and japanese singers (like Mayumi Gojo), I will never go back to watching dubs.

[Tsuyukusa]

I generally prefer dubs since they allow me to pay more attention to the animation and what's happening on screen. There are, of course, some unbearable dubs though.

[ShunketsuXZ]

Well, the whole thing about the Sub vs. Dub debate, is that I can almost always rely on a good-quality sub. Even though there are plenty of dubs I enjoy, I can't say the same thing about dubbing in general.

[wontaek]

Done right, dubs and subs may provide its own unique positive experience. For Example, anime Koi Kaze gave subtle different impression depending on whether I saw Korean sub, English sub, or English dub, as all 3 makers had its own overall view of the series.

[Jeffry2009]

I prefer watch anime with subs because sometimes i've watching a dub ones are quite awkward & laughable due to grammar.

[Berlin]

I do agree that there are some dubs that do justice to a series but in the end I am a sub snob because the original is always best and so what if some things are lost in translation because the more you become familiar with the Japanese language, culture, and history the better you become at understanding their words and sometimes you will find yourself using the subs to confirm what you personally translated. It's just more fun!

[Garigari-kun]

There are a few good dubs out there, but I really prefer subs.

[MikeyGrey]

prefer subs but there are some dubs that are definitely much better (cant stand kenshin's voice in sub). also it might just be me but i find that subs are generally lacking when characters need deep, forceful voice & combat yells tend to be a bit too "girly" (unless the character is female in which case it's fine).

[Crimrui]

Great dubs do exist but personally to me, it can sometimes change the character. The way he/she talks doesn't always reflect well when you hear them saying in original language. English voice acting also fails to deliver emotional impact in some cases when characters are feeling pain or when the situation is grave. So yeah I prefer the subs even though I hate when fansub group adds needless and excessive cursing when originally there isn't any, to make a character look badass or for whatever reason they are doing it.

[Lady Aranel]

I voted neutral, because I don't feel as though I have watched enough to make a proper decision yet. It really depends on the voices... some subs I find a bit overwhelming, especially with overly high crazy pitches, it makes it difficult to focus on what is actually happening. I have really enjoyed watching most subs that I've seen though, and find reading subtitles/watching quite easy.
But as some others have commented, dubs can strip away the emotion and have unnatural pause gaps from the translations.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Crimson Cloud

Great dubs do exist but personally to me, it can sometimes change the character. The way he/she talks doesn't always reflect well when you hear them saying in original language. English voice acting also fails to deliver emotional impact in some cases when characters are feeling pain or when the situation is grave. So yeah I prefer the subs even though I hate when fansub group adds needless and excessive cursing when originally there isn't any, to make a character look badass or for whatever reason they are doing it.

This is one reason why I'm fairly neutral on dubs vs. subs.

Some of the sub jobs (especially the more recent ones) I've seen have a lot of the added cursing that you're referring to (even in something like K-On!!, of all animes), as well as localization in humor. At which point, I start to wonder "Is the sub text significantly more faithful than the dub dialogue/narration?" The answer I now come to is "Probably...", but it used to be a definite "Yes".

I definitely do see the value in experiencing an artist's work in as original a format as possible, but given the liberties that some sub teams seem to be taken in translation, subs are starting to lose this major advantage over dubs for me.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

This is one reason why I'm fairly neutral on dubs vs. subs.

Some of the sub jobs (especially the more recent ones) I've seen have a lot of the added cursing that you're referring to (even in something like K-On!!, of all animes), as well as localization in humor. At which point, I start to wonder "Is the sub text significantly more faithful than the dub dialogue/narration?" The answer I now come to is "Probably...", but it used to be a definite "Yes".

I definitely do see the value in experiencing an artist's work in as original a format as possible, but given the liberties that some sub teams seem to be taken in translation, subs are starting to lose this major advantage over dubs for me.

There have been more than a few times I've pulled out Aegisub to tweak such nonsense if I couldn't find a better source. I sadly suspect some of it derives from their own normal coarse speech patterns or some odd attempt at being funny that should get old after you're 8 or 9 -- I've taken to calling such subs the "4kids-ized" or "Pokemon-ized" version.

[jcdietz03]

Japanese doesn't have a lot of swear words. When people ask you to teach them Japanese swear words, maybe you can honestly say it doesn't have any.

Chikushou = damn or dammit which is pretty tame
Yabai = crap, but really it means awful or terrible
Omae = "You" with a certain nuance
Temee = "You" with a certain nuance
Kisama = "You" with a certain nuance

They end up having a bunch of words for "you" that are used in the situation where you use a swear to address someone in English. e.g. Bastard, asshole, etc...

To be a good dub you need large hams; as many as possible. A recent(?) one I liked was Johnny Young Bosch as Lelouch. Many dubs are just not that good. The Code Geass dub is not one of them. The Bleach dub is another good one.

With young characters (middle school age), I think dubs are really bad because there's not many English VAs that can play these characters believably. They always end up sounding like adults in children's bodies! I notice this for the original US production "South Park" but there I think it is part of the joke. I think this is a problem with Japanese VAs too, but they hit closer to the mark.

I think it's better when subbers:
1) Do not use honorifics, since w/o honorifics is natural English
2) Take liberties with the subs. The most recent example I noticed is the CrunchyRoll subber, instead of just dropping Ika's ~degeso (means tentacle), they worked it into the lines, like "What the squid are you doing?" It's common in Japanese for talking animals (Ika is a "squid") to have a verbal tic to match their animal, but this is rare in English. The subber dealt with this in an interesting way, rather than dropping it (standard, but lazy) or tacking it on to lines (unnatural).

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Vexx

1) too small a pool of voice talent resulting in sometimes terrible casting

My daughter and I have been playing Bioware's Dragon Age which has spectacularly good voice acting. Why don't we hear more actors like these rather than the usual stables that Funi and others maintain in Texas and Hollywood?

(I know; money.)

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Some of the sub jobs (especially the more recent ones) I've seen have a lot of the added cursing that you're referring to (even in something like K-On!!, of all animes), as well as localization in humor.

My most recent experience with this has been the opposite. Tom and Jerry's translation of Oh! Edo Rocket for Shinsen had no cursing that I can remember, while the Funimation translation is full of swears.

[Random32]

Originally Posted by jcdietz03

I think it's better when subbers:
1) Do not use honorifics, since w/o honorifics is natural English
2) Take liberties with the subs. The most recent example I noticed is the CrunchyRoll subber, instead of just dropping Ika's ~degeso (means tentacle), they worked it into the lines, like "What the squid are you doing?" It's common in Japanese for talking animals (Ika is a "squid") to have a verbal tic to match their animal, but this is rare in English. The subber dealt with this in an interesting way, rather than dropping it (standard, but lazy) or tacking it on to lines (unnatural).

1. Honorifics are important sometimes. Either you make the sub convey what is lost by losing honorifics or you include the honorifics.
2. I like when good subbers take liberties with the sub. It conveys the required information, possibly better than just the most direct translation would, and feels more natural. That said, few subbers have the ability to take liberties and not ruin it in my opinion.