The Best Way to Dub to English

[anathematized_1]

I've heard various types of dubs all the time and I wanted to know what some of you thought about what the best way to dub anime to English is.

In my opinion, most people today in English speaking countries who love anime generally understand much more about Asian/Japanese cultures than the average non-Asian does (such as White Day and Black Day as well as how to celebrate, proper addressing, some Asian slang like "ko-gal", etc).

As a result, I think when they do the dubs, the characters should keep their original names and should be addressed the way they would be in the original version (example, Koreoma, Koreoma-sama, Usagi-chan, Ami-san, etc). It is pretty important in showing their relationship, and there have been many times where how they were addressed actually played a huge part in the dialogue, like in Sailor Moon when Ami finally calls Usagi "Usagi-chan" instead of "Usagi-san" and Usagi pretty much freaks out that Ami now considers her a friend.

I think that certain words that have a different meaning in Japanese than English and don't translate well (such as slang) should remain Japanese in the English dub. They should also change only those words when in English, it has a different meaning. For example, if you had a word in Japanese that was a derogatory term that translated exactly to bitch, but there's another Japanese word that means the same thing, however the first word is like a really really really offensive term, or much more than the other, it should be translated as (censored, highlight to view) "cunt" instead, especially if they don't have a word for that word.

That way it keeps the same meaning down to the exact little detail, rather than just hitting the general meaning. I'd rather have that then something that matches up more to their mouth movements.

It's like that Rammstein song, "Du Hast" - it is Du hast because it is YOU (informal) hate, and shows a lack of respect to whoever "you" is, instead of "Sie Hast" being YOU (formal) hate, which would be showing respect to whoever "you" is. Obviously that totally changes the entire meaning (of just that phrase out of context).

[Bola]

I think the way it should be done varies from series to series. For some, if the Japanese spelling is essential for various things, mostly for the plot, so those words should be left completely alone. For others, I think something that fits along the lines works better. English speaking countries don't have the same kind of word play as the Japanese do, so whenever there's some joke that revolves around word play, it might be better to edit so that a similar joke is used instead.

[anathematized_1]

Yeah, I feel somewhat the same, it just depends on how unknown the particular wordplay is even among fans of anime who know a lot about Asian culture.

Then again, they could leave it alone and take that opportunity to add a subtitle to explain the joke or word, that's what they do with Nana, but Nana is already subbed so it's like, "fuck, pause." Because man, they talk fast as shit in that anime, I can barely keep up with the subs coming across the bottom, much less the explanations at the top. >_<