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Anime: English Dub Vs Sub


Koby

Japanese or English Dubbing?  

931 members have voted

  1. 1. Japanese or English Dubbing?

    • Japanese Dubbing with/without Subtitles
      136
    • English Dubbing
      449
    • Doesn't Matter to Me
      65
    • Depends on the Anime
      249


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This is a grey area for me. It depends on the anime and the voice actors used. In fact, sometimes I'll like two characters from the same anime, but prefer the English voice of one and the Japanese voice of the other.

For example, I overall prefer the Japanese version of Rurouni Kenshin, especially for Kenshin and Kaoru. However when it comes to Saitou and Shishio, I prefer the English voice actors (Kirk Thornton and Steven Jay Blum respectively). I feel the English voice actors better captured the characters. I am not going to do into details, as this post would end up being like 50 pages long, but I feel that somehow those two characters are better portrayed by the English voice actors.

Other animes, I prefer the dub, plain and simple. Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood are three of such animes. I've watched parts of the Japanese version of Trigun and all of the English version of Trigun, and I feel that Johnny Yong Bosch is the better Vash. With Cowboy Bebop, I haven't even seen that anime in Japanese, but from what I have observed, most people prefer the dub. I have seen some of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood in Japanese, however I saw the original FMA dubbed and fell in love with certain voices (such as Roy Mustang and Maes Hughes), so I prefer the English dub. I find overall that Funimation tends to do fairly good dubs, so if I don't prefer the English dub, it is usually at least comparable to the Japanese version.

One series I can't decide between the dub and the Japanese is Hetalia. In Japanese, Italy's voice gives me a cutegasm. But in the English dub they do such good accents and France makes me die inside in a good way (and I am getting an M.A. in French, so I am super picky about the accent).

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This is a tough one to answer and I think it really does come down to the individual. I recently watched Angel Cop in english with the english subs on and the story did seem to differ in some parts. I think for a better representation of the story japanese is better.

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Perhaps most would say they are lazy and want to draw their full attention to the screen rather than focusing on the subs. Since I'm not a veteran in watching anime, I've discovered many dubs are very cheesy and dull. So even if I watch a Japanese audio version without understanding the language, I get a sense of communications through their linguistic connotations though their high -low pitch voices whereas many english dubbed voices are flat and mono tone.

Hope you get what I mean. Watching an original anime in its native audio is kind of irreplaceable.

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I prefer dub for one reason.. If I want to read it, I'll buy the manga.

Flat and monotone voice acting? What have you been watching? Fandubs? The english voice actors in everything I've watched, except in cases where the character is supposed to sound expressionless, have always been just as full of emotion as their japanese counterparts.

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I prefer dub for one reason.. If I want to read it, I'll buy the manga.

Flat and monotone voice acting? What have you been watching? Fandubs? The english voice actors in everything I've watched, except in cases where the character is supposed to sound expressionless, have always been just as full of emotion as their japanese counterparts.

I agree! I think dubs are awesome and think the voice actors generally do a great job.

I have been trying to learn Japanese for about 10 years now and I should watch subs as they are a good way to practice (I'm still not great at it, which you think I would be by now! Ha!) I do notice thought that with some subs they sometimes cut out a lot of what has been said (from the bits I can understand.) They also seem to miss some of the things that are implied through the language. I generally believe dubs do a better job of trying to translate the meaning and convey a 'truer' feel to an English speaking audience. At least that's what I have found in my experience.

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I Havn't chose one over the other, but if I was going off of preference and I had the choice between sub and dubbed I would go Dubbed and thats because as people have commented above, plenty of fansubbers leave out some parts of the conversation (or miss the whole idea in general), one good example I have of this is from a certain fansub of Omamori Himari (which my extremely vague grasp of Japanese language picked up on)

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against subs except what I said above, and thanks to the fact that I can read fairly fast, I get basically the same experience as when im watching dub,

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Well yeah pretty much like Mute Point said if you wanna read it why not buy the manga (or download it like I do). Plus I'm too lazy to read subs and watch the action at the same time, english dubs are much easier.

And also as said earlier even the official subs often leave out part of what is said because otherwise you don't have the time to read it all.

I agree though on the point that in japanese the voices are more expressive (noticed in Code geass for me) but still I prefer to watch dubbed 'cause what is the point of hearing expressive voices if you don't understand a word of what's being said.

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Both are good, but it depends on the series. What I find is that action series are normally better dubbed, but slice of life and other series that dont have a significant amount of action are normally better subbed. You shouldnt judge all dubs because you got a couple bad ones. I normally try dual audio then watch the first episode or two in both languages, this tells me which one is done better for the series and then I can just remove the second audio and maybe subtitle track afterwards

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I am up for dubbed. because then i can understand much faster i am still learning to speak japanese. So it's hard for me to keep track if they speak japanese and read english for what they are saying. sometimes i am to slow to read the last part of the subtitel and then i can't follow it anymore very good. Let's hope they will make more Dubbed versions

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... want to draw their full attention to the screen rather than focusing on the subs.

That's not my reason for preferring dubs. I can see everything in subs. You get so used to it you eventually forget that you are even reading.

Subs also make it easier to 'hear' that unimportant background chatter that's often funny and the subbers also translate text and give some to some things.

Subs also let you get to know the Jappy people and their culture better. They're cool :D

And that's the only arguments Id give in favor of subs.

Dubs are easier

Dubs allow multitasking (this is probly my main reason for preferring dubs)

Dubs never require you to press backskip hotkeys in VLC (or scroll back) or to pause when a long sentence appears, effectively increasing your anime/hour.

Watching a sub on a PS3 sucks.

And of course, if I wanted to read I'd read manga :P

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Most people here seem to be biased towards the dubbed. Now a days majority of anime isn't even dubbed due to the fact that most anime isn't even released out side of Japan any more. After a little while of watching the subbed stuff it becomes no big deal and the subs don't even take away from the action of what's on screen, but it does take some getting use to. Other wise as a fan you are limited to only about 10% of whats actually out there any more.

If I were you I would just stop worrying about and just be happy there is more than one way to enjoy anime. It's easier that way.

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I can watch anime either way, though I do prefer a good dub when given the option.

I think a big part of which one I prefer is the culture of the anime. For something like FMA or Baccano that takes place in a Western culture, it doesn't make sense to watch it in Japanese (though the quality of those particular dubs certainly makes the choice easier).

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i prefer subs, for many reasons, but one of the main ones is that it helps me practice my japanese and i can trick myself into believing it's almost like i'm studying, lololol. but i also like the original voices because those are the ones the creators intended, so i feel they are closer to what the character is supposed to sound like.

there are some dubs i don't mind, but some definitely do sound cheesy to me. usually the dubs that i like are anime that i watched when i was young and first got into anime, so all i knew was dubbed anime. if i'm going to rewatch cowboy bebop, dragon ball z, yu yu hakusho, etc. then i'm going to watch it dubbed.

there are some that i can watch dubbed or subbed, doesn't matter which. FLCL is one of those. Both are excellent. Then there are some that the dub is just sad. Like Prince of Tennis. The japanese voice acting is EXCELLENT and fits the characters soooooo well, but the dubbed is horrible and all the voices sound the same and don't fit the characters at all.

so yeah those are my thoughts.

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I like dubbed over subbed for two reasons. The first is that when watching a subbed anime l find that l spend more time reading the subs than watching the program. And second l like to draw when watching anime as it helps me to get into the mood so l can do my best work.

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