Recently I've listened to some dubs. I watched a handful of different series, some I've seen before and some I haven't, and I got to say, it was torture. I'm not against dubs on principal, I'm sure they can be done well, but anime dubs are awful, and here's why:

Number one is translation. My issue isn't really about the accuracy, but general laziness. Japanese is an expressive language with many ways to show character and color. The same goes for all widely used languages, I'm sure. Unfortunately, not all inflections in Japanese are expressed the same way as English. So what do the dub translators do? Take it all out and give you a dry bones translation. Now, I'm not saying they should use honorifics. Honorifics are only a very small part of the expressive vocabulary in Japanese. You'd have to start adding a lot more Japanese to be able to replicate it. Obviously a bad move. What the dub translators should do, however, is make the dialogue more colorful in English. Make it sound, I don't know, like natural English. Give it some oomph, and make it convey more than just the literal meaning (maybe even the original connotations, but in English?). Nothing is worse than seeing a VA actually work up some emotion and get into the character, only to deliver an awful line that deadpans or doesn't fit the situation at all.

I'm willing to be a bit more lax on the VA's. But it's bad. I'm not qualified to get into the details of voice acting. But it's bad. The first thing to note is that Japanese people don't talk like anime characters. At least, most Japanese people don't talk like most anime characters. So I think the argument that VA's should sound less cartoonish is a poor one. For some dubs, it's probably the opposite, they should sound more cartoonish. In regards to resembling a character, it's really bad when a VA tries to mimic the seiyu, but misses it completely. They probably shouldn't even try, since some of the speaking styles are unique to Japanese/anime. On the other hand, it's also a complete failure if the voice doesn't match the character-type, which happens regularly. My biggest complaint on voice acting, though, is that the speech often sounds stilted and has no flow.

All in all, I think dubs should try to sound more like My Little Pony. My Little Pony sounds nice. Anime dubs don't. That's all.

PS
This is only based on the anime I've seen dubbed, which is very far from comprehensive. That said, I don't plan to listen to any more.

PPS
I could probably have broken that up better, but there's your wall of text, deal with it.

I totally agree with you. I've watched an anime that was subbed and then when it was dubbed and it was awful. It seems like there is so much more inflection and emotion in the Japanese voice actors while the English voice actors sound flat and cheesy at the same time. I get chills at some of the Japanese voice acting sometimes, that's how much emotion they put in their voices. I was not a huge fan at all of the English dub for Death Note and Nodame Cantabile. In fact I hated the Nodame Cantabile voice acting because there is so much uniqueness to each of the characters' voice in Japanese and the Eng dub did not do it justice. The Eng dub for Death Note was also really hard to listen to. I mean the seiyu for Light is the same one for Tamaki from Ouran High School Host Club, I mean that dude is talented as hell.

Many friends of mine don't like anime and I think one of the reasons is because they watch the Eng dub, it feels totally different than the original with subtitles. I avoid Eng dub when I can. The only ones that I kind of liked were Code Geass, Fullmetal Alchemist and Inuyasha because the character and emotion were present in most of the characters' voices.

Because I prefer watching something in the original language.

Spanish movie? Subs, please.
Japanese show? Subs, please.
English movie? Subs, please.

Err, yeah... sometimes there are things characters say that I can't make out. Sometimes I would rather have subs with just because I like reading.

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If it is in eng dub. yeah I'll probably watch it..I don't really care either way, its less reading on my part. Unless the voice is totally unreasonable and high as hell I would go over to the subbed and if I caught up to the dubbed I would change over to the subbed lol. But, if it were a drama or a movie eng subs would be perfect.

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Hear hear. And more often than not the overall quality is brought down, language is more subtle than simply conveying words (especially puns, nuances and politeness are hard to translate).
I might not understand all of it, but often enough to understand you'd miss out if dubbed.

P.S.:
The only good 'dubbed' movie is Kung Pow... though the dub is intentional ^.^.

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Okay, I really prefer subs because the first time I've watch dubs, it was plain horrible.

I honestly do you think that they have already improved recently (especially in my country... when my god, they just don't sound right and to be honest just dubbing it for the just of dubbing, at least now, you could hear some distinction, feelings and emotions since competition's on the rise)

Another thing is I prefer a not-Americanized context. Everything on tv is already Americanize from news to every channel... not Anime too... I want to watch something that has light American context. (Even if some Anime has heavy Westernization, but hey, it's from Japan)

Likewise, essence will be a missed factor. As we all know, there are some words and phrases which doesn't have a direct English translation. I also love those honorifics.

Aside from that, I still think that the original language still brings the most essence, though sometimes with exception.

With subs, I can also pick up the language, so it's two birds with one stone. Pleasure and Learning.

I also prefer shows with subs even in English, just so if I wasn't able to follow it. I will not watch dubs unless it's the last resort.

People are quick to lash out at dubs because if it ain't authentic 100% Japanese to the core it's impure or something. I agree that in many instances dubs are rushed and very unprofessional, but it's not the case for everything. Some shows or films work just as well or even better dubbed, like Cowboy Bebop and Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

If it's the case that the dubs are tolerable I'll definitely side with them cos it means more time for me to appreciate the animation, hahah!

Since I'm not american, I have no desire to watch the english dubs, and we danes only dub childrens anime and Miyazaki movies... But even tho our miyazaki dubs aren't half bad I still prefer to watch them subbed.

I think the japanese actors are better, dubs, especially american dubs tend to suffer from poor acting, and wierd choice of actors that often does not fit the characters at all. Worst case senario, wrong casting will result in changing the characters personalities, and that's just sad.

Also remember that when rocording the voices in japan, all the actors are present in the same room and acting together, thus creating more fluent and convincing sounding dialouge. While in most western recording studios, all voices are recorded individiually, and that sometimes shows with some dialouges sounding stiff and dull.

I almost always prefer watching stuff in their original form/language, there are of course a few exceptions, but when it comes to anime it's usually subs or noting. Dubs just hurt my ears.



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Dub normally comes in the form of some blasphemous garbage regurgitated from the ripe rump of the devil himself, involving sub-par music and sound effects that fails in comparison to the original, as well as horrendous voice actors with shrieking harpy-like voices that claw at your ear drums until you begin to bleed from your eyes and ears, but that's not the case with all dubs.

Like anything in this world, the effort one puts into a series is seen. Since voice acting and sound is a much bigger deal in Japan than it is in the west, and since anime is such a huge industry there, there is a push for the best of quality sound. They handpick their voice actors from an enormous pool, and they make sure it matches perfectly. In the west however (and by west i mean canada and america mainly), the animes are imported over but the quality work isn't carried through. The opening and endings (if there is an english version) is normally worse with less instruments and sounds, or even normal sound effects throughout the show sound duller and shoddier. Worst yet, the voices almost never match the character.

The laziness of the companies that buy the license is partly to blame, but the fact that anime isn't that big of an industry here is also to blame. Our selection in voice actors is smaller, our desire to cut corners and lessen costs by using cheap sound effects degrade the animation, and ultimately the time needed to put in the effort just isn't granted.

Now is all dub series bad? No. While a large majority of them are quite bad, we need to remember that the dub series of an anime is often a rushed piece comparable to "speedsubs", and like speedsubs the quality is going to diminish. Will they ever release high quality dubs with perfect voice matching and incredible authentic sound effects? Probably not, but that's simply because the market isn't big enough, and the fan base isn't vocal enough.

Ultimately, the best comparison of sound quality i've found to compare original japanese and dubbed english soundtrack is Tenchi Muyo GXP. While they spent effort into translating some matching lyrics to the tune, even the sheer quality of the song and the instruments used is far inferior, and if you switch audiotracks back and forth during battle scenes, you can really see the difference in sound effects used. Ultimately, dubs will typically fail in the sound department, whereas subs will preserve the native sound, and because of that subs will win, 99% of the time.

definitely subs

i prefer subs. I also enjoy dubs but the thing is if i listen to a dub and it sounds high pitched i hate it and ill go to subs version but if its something of my fave show ill watch in dub. I love Sasuke's voice in english and in Japanese. Now i watch most shows such as the newest shows in sub simply because they havent been dubbed. So therefore in essence of this ive been more exposed to subs id say and have taken a more favorable liking to them. I will say the only dub thats ever put me off is Case closed. The char names is what got me.

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Chidori

It always amazes me that so many of the people who whine about Dubs are the ones who have only seen the lowest quality works imaginable. If all you have to evaluate them on is Pokemon, or 4-Kids styled work that deliberately changes the content to cater to children, you might as well say that Subs are all garbage because you've only watched troll-subbers.

Vudoodude is a perfect example of this, since his judgment seems entirely based on daytime kiddy dubs. The majority of his complaints, especially the changing of sound effects and music, are applicable to only the very worst quality dubs, which there are only a small handful of.

The vast majority of dubbed anime is never shown on television, or at best is on late-night TV, and almost everything done post-2005 (maybe even sooner) is done with good standards of quality, using professional voice studios (albeit, which there only a handful of), and make absolutely no changes to the actual soundtracks or ambient effects.

Hell, there are several series which I can't even stand to watch in native Japanese, because the language itself takes away from the atmosphere (Black Lagoon is a great example of this).


I will say, however, that most high-school based Dubs will be worse-off, because of the limited voice pool that does not lend itself well to younger sounding voices.

I like both but i see more anime in sub but their are some anime that sound good in dub like hellsing ova alucards voice sounds bad ass.

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I can''t stand dubs, for the most part. Where I''m from, almost any movie or show is aired in the original language with subtitles, so maybe I''m just more accustomed to it.
The few times i have seen a dubbed movie or tv-show, I just couldn''t watch it.
In dubs I almost always feel that the voices don''t sound right, or the lips move wrong to the audio track. It may be small things, but it just annoys and distracts from the whole experience.
Now, there have been a few (about 3) anime for which I actually liked the dub, in one case even more than the original. Live action however, I can''t watch it dubbed without feeling the urge to pull out my hair and stab my ears with a sharp object.

I would just like to add, people who say they don''t like subtitles because they don''t want to "read a movie" need to get punched in the face. This excuse is only valid if you are under 9 years old or an analfabetic.

Last edited by The Guy at 12:45 pm, Jul 18 2011

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i prefer subs over dubs most of the time but there are a few exceptions

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