Anime: English Dub Vs Sub

[† LimitLess]

Romi Park, sorry but Vic is Ed not you XD

 

While normally the orginal language is better than english dubs(and I speak for all foreign media) Anime seem to have way better dubs.

And in those rare moments, some anime are actually better dubbed than subbed.

[Forge]

English dub for me. I'm an American, so I like to natively understand what's being said on screen rather than having it translated through text for me.

And for all people say about the Japanese dubs having more emotion... I don't feel it. Sure, I can tell when someone's angry or scared or excited or another simple emotion, but I simply can't tell if someone's being, say, sarcastic, or facetious, or nonchalant. I can usually detect that in the English dub.

Also I get the impression that the Japanese like to overact a bit, which is probably another cultural thing I don't get. Lisle Wilkerson (a voice actress who grew up in Japan and speaks the language fluently and knows the culture) said the seiyuus love their ham.

[Verismo]

I prefer Japanese Dub. I've only watched one English Dub anime and only because I couldn't find the Japanese vers. anywhere. . And it's true , Japanese Dub has more emotion.  Also , I tried watching English Dub anime but I couldn't. What I hated the most was that in a few of them characters that were 10 years old for example , sounded like they were 18. But in general I don't think English Dub is bad. I mean I watched cartoons and the voices were fine.

[DarkGanta]

Typically I like English dubs as I'm often too lazy to read subs and also because subs can distract from what is going on in the animation. However, some dubs are just atrocious and I'll watch it subbed. One that comes to mind is Love Hina, I liked the series really well after watching the sub from online. I bought the box set and couldn't get over the voice differences in the dub, plus the text translations online were written funnier than the dubbed lines. Also I'll watch subbed if dub isn't available.

[4iv]

My preference is dub but some dubbings are so horrible that I’ll watch sub instead. A good example will be Ghost Stories, it sounded more like someone was really bored or had no clue how to translate so he/she was just making stuff up based on the pictures instead of actually translating the plot. Now, I don’t even want to watch it in subs because the dubbing was that bad.

[DarkGanta]

Not sure which dub you watched, but according to the wiki page for that show, there are two English dubs. The first by ADV was rewritten as a "black comedy" for western audiences. Then in 2005, Animax released an English dub more directly translated. So if you saw the original dub, you could probably try the new dub and see if it's better instead of reading subs.

[Kid Ryan]

Not sure which dub you watched, but according to the wiki page for that show, there are two English dubs. The first by ADV was rewritten as a "black comedy" for western audiences. Then in 2005, Animax released an English dub more directly translated. So if you saw the original dub, you could probably try the new dub and see if it's better instead of reading subs.

 

While the Animax dub will be more faithful, the english voices and voice acting will be terrible.

 

Just look at their dubs of Shana, Hayate, and Cardcaptor Sakura as examples.

 

They're much better off watching the subs in this case.

[ezikialrage]

 

Not sure which dub you watched, but according to the wiki page for that show, there are two English dubs. The first by ADV was rewritten as a "black comedy" for western audiences. Then in 2005, Animax released an English dub more directly translated. So if you saw the original dub, you could probably try the new dub and see if it's better instead of reading subs.

 

While the Animax dub will be more faithful, the english voices and voice acting will be terrible.

 

Just look at their dubs of Shana, Hayate, and Cardcaptor Sakura as examples.

 

They're much better off watching the subs in this case.

 

 

I liked the dub of Hayate the Combat Butler. I thought Muriel Hofmann was a good choice for Hayate's voice. The voice she did seems to fit the kind of character Hayate is. Although  I did not care for the fact they changed some of the voice actors and name pronounciations in the 3rd and 4th season. I can understand wanting the names to be more accurately pronounced or the characters who were born in raised in that depicted city not sounding like they come another country. But after 78 episodes and only 24 episodes left to go it is a little too late to start worrying about that now.Its would like after several years of Cheers or some other tv popular tv show  if the they decided to keep the characters but replace most of the actors playing them. In daytime soap oprahs they sometimes change the actors portraying certian characters, but they do not do it all at once.

[4iv]

Not sure which dub you watched, but according to the wiki page for that show, there are two English dubs. The first by ADV was rewritten as a "black comedy" for western audiences. Then in 2005, Animax released an English dub more directly translated. So if you saw the original dub, you could probably try the new dub and see if it's better instead of reading subs.

 

It was ADV version and I would disagree with their sorry excuse that they changed it for the western audience, it was more like a cross between Family Guy and South Park type of humored which in my opinion sounded more like they made a joke of the whole thing. I never knew that Animax did their dub version of this one. There is just one big problem with Animax dubs, trying to find their version in good quality is a real challenge. I’ve been searching for Black Jack the TV series for quite some time with no luck.

[Leon Astreal]

In all honesty I agree with a few of you that some characters it depends on the voice. You can't do this for example, Natsu has a good voice in the FUNimation dub but Animax it's much more annoying. I prefer dub because it's usually good voicing and semi-good translation but, if the anime is good and I'm not waiting for the next season to be dubbed I will settle for sub.

[badman]

Just like in movies, if you like the (voice) actors, you will like that language version.

 

Jap versions

Tend to have a lot of badass old guy voices like Capt Yamamoto (Bleach), although they sometimes mess up with lines that are in english/engrish. Zankyo no Terror is a good example of having a lot of unwanted Engrish.

 

Eng versions

Often times honorifics (-kun, -chan) are lost in translation, as well as quirky language like "dattebayo" or whatever Kenshin does with his sentences.

 

 

ENGLISH DUB TIERS

 

Utter Shit

Bad acting or scripting, or both, causing it to be unwatchable. It's an abomination.

 

Utterly Funny Shit

Garzey's Wing, Big Green DBZ. Absolute nonsense but very enjoyable.

 

Faithful-as-all-hell to the Japanese, but still kind of meh

The production is very focused on getting pronunciation correct and translations faithful, but the acting / directing could've been better. Blue Exorcist and SAO come to mind, but i'm sure some will disagree.

 

Not faithful to the Japanese, but still awesome anyway

Depending on who you ask, Americanized dubs like Star Blazers & Robotech will be either in this category or "Utter Shit / Abomination"

Edited dubs like Zatch Bell, and Ocean DBZ will probably fall in here too, as well as Funimation's reversioned Shin Chan.

The Hentai "Sextra Credit" falls in to here as well, since the show is made into a comedy.

 

Mostly faithful with great acting

The dub studio plugged away and got some awesome performances, but certain things were noticeably different in their version.

Best example of this is Cowboy Bebop, which is a completely different experience in English, yet amazing nonetheless.

 

The unthinkable God-tier master dub

Everything is perfect, or even better than the original.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Badman

[King.Mufasa.III]

For me it is strictly Eng Dub only as I love anime art and reading subs mkaes you miss certain things.. It just does my head in...

 

My philosophy is based on percieving entertainment in a 100% fully undertandable, and more importantly 'natural' way.. If I wanted to read, I would go for manga and comics..

 

If I were versed in japanese language then I would probably go for it but to be honest being a native english speaker I can only enjoy english dub, I've tried many times to engage myself with Jap Dub with subs but everytime I just find myself getting really bothered by the whole thing..

 

Im not too lazy to read by all means, I love a lot of Foregin Movies etc but in general the subs are of really High Quality allowing you to feel a bit more of ease while reading them as they are placed well with clear vision of them whilst deciphering the images on screen.

 

I guess subs just make everything too rushed imo, making it feel like you gotta constantly be 'with it'..

 

Plus there are many English Dub Voice actors I have grown to absolutely love such as Micah Solosud, Johnny Yong Bosch, Todd Haberkorn, ‎Vic Mignogna, Newton Pittman, David Lodge and way more..

 

I guess you just build up an appeal for anime through what you enjoy and for me, alot of it is brought by these actors...

 

 

 

 

[ChoeyXD]

Subs is way better, but Im too lazy to read the subtitles and focus on the anime so I normally watch dub.

[aliqandil]

I always check first episode in both languages.

 

I usually end up watching the dubbed version with sub, just to be sure!

EX: I REALLY loved Steins;Gate's dub, but it was also a bit too modified, so I also enabled the sub!

Edited May 3, 2015 by aliqandil

[Afternoon Nap]

DUB TRUMPS 

[thesimpson36]

It usually depends on the anime for me. Im currently watching log horizon and I found the english dub to have a better `vibe` then the sub. Sometimes I have also found that the translation in the dub really suits the character and sometimes represents the character better then the sub. I found this especially true with Steins Gates main character (or villian ) Okarin to have a much more captivating persona then his japanese counter part. However, there have been some awful dubs for me attack on titan was no good for me nor was kill la kill. I guess it just depends on how much time and effort and resources were put into the dub. Although sometimes the japanese voice acting just fits the characters and atmosphere of the world so good that even a decent dub has no chance. I find most slice of life or comedies to have better subs then dubs. One last point, I have found that even with bad dubs if I have watched a significant amount of the series I just cant switch to the japanese dub, not sure why that is.

Edited May 5, 2015 by thesimpson36

[thesimpson36]

In this English Dub Vs Sub

 

Eng Dub has won. Check votes

 

I dont mean to point the finger at you specifically. Its just your comment was the first one I saw that was relevant. But I think there is a skew in this survey. Mainly because this website has a primary but not necessarily exclusive audience who are looking for anime with an english dub. And so maybe it doesnt capture the true aggregate nature of peoples preferences. Sorry but my statistics instincts kicked in and made me write this post  

[badman]

You should all watch this weeks preflight. The question of the week was best dubs.

http://www.adultswim.com/videos/streams/toonami-pre-flight

[videogamefan]

Personally I've had mixed feelings about the dub or sub debate. Most of the time it depends on which version I watch first. DBZ I'm so used to the dubbed voices that it's a bit jarring going to the Japanese version. Yugioh Arc-V I've watched every episode subbed and now seeing the Canadian dub seems a bit weird but overall not too bad (mostly the female characters have better VAs to fit their characters and I find that interesting). Then there's Fairy Tail. I originally watched the dub but since the new episodes wouldn't come out fast enough I decided to try out the sub and fell in love with it. 

 

So, yeah, it all depends for me.

[XRA9]

I'd like to say it depends, but looking back I realized I can't remember the last time I found a dub so terrible that I switched to Japanese. Most dubs are passable, I think, so yeah, mostly dubs for me.