Anime: English Dub Vs Sub

[Pie Lord]

For me it tends to come down to what makes for the most sense. Take Baccano for instance. Most of the story is set in New York City or on a train in route to New York City and as such most of the characters are American. So hearing them speak in Japanese just feels really odd, thus I ended up watching it with the English dub. Then of course there is the inverse, where a series is set in Japan (Basilisk for example) and English just seems wrong. For series that don't take place in a real location I tend to go with whatever dub I think is better, though I tend to gravitate towards English since I can't really pick up on voice acting quality when I can't understand what people are saying.

[Koudelka]

Some dubbs are great but sometimes they just ruin it all by trying to be too clever - If anyone has been able to watch Tears to Tiara dubbed in English I salute you. I actually bought this when it was released in English because the cast was pretty good and familiar names from other shows I've seen/liked/own - but the accents they try I just found it comically painful - especially the voice Arthur I'm not quite sure what he was aiming for but he sounds like a cross between an angry pirate and a confused leprechaun.

[CelestiaL_BeinG]

I agree with all other opinions regarding which is which.

Personally, my decision lies on both sides depending on the anime'. In my case i would prefer the English dubbed version of my favorite anime', Gundam 00. It's because the storyline is based on global warfare which takes place in our world. (fictional in this anime's case) I find it more pleasing to the ear to hear Gundam Episodes dubbed in English...i mean we ARE talking about the world here and the English language is the universal language so it kind of makes sense. (at least in my opinion it does) Overall, the decision to dub each anime' series in either the Japanese language or the English language lies solely on the anime' plot jurisdiction. Ex: World [earth] plots w/c generally portrays different people from different races and ethnic proportions would go better with the English dubbed version, [like Gundam 00] since English is the universal language, and since it would be awkward to hear Russian, German, or even American anime characters speaking in Japanese. (no offense to our Japanese brothers and sisters though) Whereas anime' with local plots [like single areas or countries ex: Japan etc...]

would sound better (again depending on the story) in the Japanese version. Of course... i would like to commend the Japanese animators for being so creative and observant on what each person would like or prefer, (and to their staff of course that is comprised of different animators from different countries) by doing this we get to enjoy idle hours on the couch just watching our personal favorite anime' in the dubbed versions we'd like... It all depends on the anime'...

[bananapeel]

It depends really...I have generally found Japanese animes to have more 'feeling' in them. If the subtitles are of good quality then I prefer watching in Japanese. However sometimes get tired of constantly reading subtitles while the anime is on...the focus goes out of the beautiful scenario the anime offers, and I wish I was watching in english...but that's like after hours and hours of watching. Also if I start watching an anime in english, I prefer to keep watching it in english till the end and vice versa

[Child0fTheMind]

I perfer English audio, but that is simply because I do not find enjoyment having to read and watch at the same time, I always have the notion that I'm going to miss some detail put in the artwork.

However, I also don't understand those that say that Japanese audio has more emotion in it... Japanese don't use emotion quite the same as English speakers... Just because it sounds angry (or sad, or comical, etc.) doesn't mean it is... The "emotion" is put in the words, not in the sound (unlike english).

Now, this isn't saying that english dubs haven't messed up in the past, of course they have, but today's anime dub adaptions are quite accurate in their emotions and voices. Quite a few anime dub adaptions even have their voice actors chosen by the creator themselves.

[Y34HT045T]

It really depends on the anime. Recently, my brother has been watching Hamtaro, and I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, HATE Bijou's english voice. Then there are animes like Haruhi Suzumiya, (my all-time favorite) where the english dub is really good. If the subs are all I have, or if I get a headache from the dub's obnoxious voice acting, then I will watch the sub.

[† TheChaosLegion]

I'm all about watching in japanese. My superior reading skills and peripheral vision mixed with a basic understanding of the japanese language makes watching subs no problem at all and sometimes I even forget that i'm even reading the damn things.

Most dubs just sound so dry and empty to me.

[lordofelemental]

i chose choice number 3 "it doesn't matter to me"

i've been watching animes even if they are subbed. one of the reasons is that, the japanese seiyu's have much more emotion than the ones who dubbed it. there are most of the time that i feel kinda awkward if ever the voice of a certain english VA is quite childish.. it's quite irritating, but still, i will watch that show.

even before, i also watch animes without sub and in it's raw form.. that's because im quite motivated to watch it in japanese form, though, i only know little of them.

still if ever i will choose, i will go for this: Jap/Subbed > English > My Local Language > Jap/Raw

[thehamster]

IT really depends on the anime to me. I found Trigun has some pretty good dubs but Evangelion has the worst dubs ever. Also depends if im only watching the anime or multi tasking pretty hard to read subs while working on a server

[strelitzia]

Really depends on the quality of the dub... I remember they used to be absolutely atrocious, but lately there have been better voice actors/actress and overall quality. When they miss the mark though it's really really bad.

[sireragon15]

I vary depending on the anime. Usually, I go for the dub unless it is horrible or non existent. Most of the time it becomes whatever I started the series in. For instance I watch Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood in dubs only. Fairy Tail I just started but couldn't stand the dubs. If both are good, then I tend to favor dubs.

[Koby]

I vary depending on the anime. Usually, I go for the dub unless it is horrible or non existent. Most of the time it becomes whatever I started the series in. For instance I watch Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood in dubs only. Fairy Tail I just started but couldn't stand the dubs. If both are good, then I tend to favor dubs.

Fairy Tail has no official dub yet. All they have is shitty Animax dub which isn't considered official honestly. Of course anything by Animax is going to suck.

[renovalentine]

I prefer the dub of bleach i think the voices suit the characters quite well, i tried to watch it in Japanese but as soon as it comes to a fight scene it becomes quite difficult to follow what they are saying while trying to keep up with what is happening on screen.

[Dewdropmon]

There are characters I prefer in the dub, some in the sub and some I like in both.

Nel's child voice is way better subbed, I think. She doesn't even sound like a little kid in the dub (she sounds like and adult trying to sound like a little kid.) Ichigo Ilike in bothe versions, as well as Rukia. I prefer Renji's English voince over his Japanese one. I like Byakuya's Japanese voice more than his English one. All the rest are good in both versions.

[Mohji]

For the most part, I stick with dubs. This is because I often don't have time to just sit down and watch anime; I'm usually working, making food, doing homework, etc at the same time. So it's much more convenient for me to watch the dub because I still have an idea of what's going on without having to stare at the screen and read every single sentence.

[Shoryuken]

Usually subs will let you hear what emotion is supposed to be used in a scene, such as scenes where something seriously bad has happened and usually the Japanese audio sounds a lot truer to the scene and that the English dub sound way to contrived. Hopefully English dubs get better but what you'd want is probably a sub with Japanese audio. Good luck to all those english voice actors

[sarajit]

i prefer dubs over subs anyday, actually i'm used to the dubs, and i find it annoying having to read the subtitles.

having said that, i also think sometimes the female characters are too damn melo-dramatic like uttering the same name over and over again as if it'll make a difference.

an example i can think of right now is kagome keeping on shouthing inuyasha inuyasha inuyasha whenever something happens to him!

[Wolf0x]

It really depends I usually prefer to watch anime in my own language eg Dub although I have no problem watching sub but one thing I can't do is change from Dub to Sub half way through a series I get really put off my it. Also it depends on the series them selves some are better dubbed some are not

[malbizle]

The most part I prefer dubs. I don't mind subs though, sometime the dubs are awful. Sometime they fit better. I'll d.gray-man an example, if you watch both version then you had to have noticed in japanese allen sound like a girl. I think in this case, the english is an improvement. On another note, in on the dubs, kanda voice is mustang from fma's dub. He's supposed to be a kid right.

[dark32flame]

I prefer dubs over subs,

because I find that when you watch subs you end up reading the text as opposed to watching the anime, however for some shows the dubbing is so bad that I would rather watch subbed episodes.