Subs or Dubs?

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Sub or Dub?

Sub
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46%
Dub
13
26%
Either
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28%
 
Total votes: 50

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Kilroywuzheere
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Subs or Dubs?

#1 Post by Kilroywuzheere »

I'm curious what everyone thinks about the good ol Subs versus Dubs argument with Anime.

Personally I prefer dubs so long as they aren't GAWD AWFUL! I'm talking either horrible acting or complete lack of it. Anime is an audio visual medium and subs reduce it to a almost solely visual medium, making you read that which you are supposed to listen to. I don't mind subs, they're an acceptable substitute, especially if the dub is just THAT awful, but I much prefer dubs.

I'm not trying to start a flame war, so please don't get offended if someone disagrees with your opinion.

As for legal issues around subs: You can watch them legally through the proper venues now. Such as Crunchy Roll, or even the sites of dubbing companies after they've licensed a series.
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Tuna
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Re: Subs or Dubs?

#2 Post by Tuna »

I'm not familiar with any legal issues involving subs...do you mean fansubs?
O.o

Personally, I prefer to watch the dubbed version the first time I watch an anime, especially if it's an action title. A lot of people say that you "get used to subs after a while", but I've been watching them since the early 90s, and they still distract me terribly....and watching any fast-paced shows like Lucky Star are a test of speed-reading subbed.

But after my initial viewing, once I have taken in all of the visuals and am familiar with the plot, I happily watch the subbed version from there on out - the Japanese voice actors really do a much better job, on the average.
:kathrin:
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Kilroywuzheere
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Re: Subs or Dubs?

#3 Post by Kilroywuzheere »

Tuna wrote:I'm not familiar with any legal issues involving subs...do you mean fansubs?
O.o
Yeah, I mean fansubs. However, for the most part, subs are viewed... in a less than legal manner. At least from what I know. I know that's how I first watched them, back when I was a teenager and didn't even realize that it was of questionable legality. And I just wanna make sure that people know we aren't discussing something illegal since a lot of places you finds subs are skirting the law.
Personally, I prefer to watch the dubbed version the first time I watch an anime, especially if it's an action title. A lot of people say that you "get used to subs after a while", but I've been watching them since the early 90s, and they still distract me terribly....and watching any fast-paced shows like Lucky Star are a test of speed-reading subbed.
This is another reason I much prefer dubs. I am not a speed reader, never have been, and some series are really bad about having constant action and talking, so if you aren't paying attention to both, it starts getting confusing and you have to start pausing. And pausing a show every time a character speaks really messes with the flow.
But after my initial viewing, once I have taken in all of the visuals and am familiar with the plot, I happily watch the subbed version from there on out - the Japanese voice actors really do a much better job, on the average.
:kathrin:
This is something that I believe is unfounded unless you at least partially understand Japanese, or are completely fluent. (No offense if you are fluent) Because to me, Japanese sounds like a bunch of gibberish, and you could switch it with Greek and I'd only barely notice. Since you can't understand it, you just learn to recognize which sounds belong to which characters, and its all a blur otherwise. For all I know, every line in the Japanese dub could be bumbled and handled poorly. Or it could be the most perfect thing on the planet. Like I said, I can't understand it, so I can't tell how well delivered the lines are.

Feel free to prove me wrong tho. :3
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Re: Subs or Dubs?

#4 Post by Locke357 »

When it comes to Anime, or any form of video of which is in a foreign language, I much prefer subs. Simply because I find the emotion and nuances of the original voice-acting remain intact, and you're watching it as it was meant to be watched. Also having the character's mouths not matching up with the dubbing REALLY irks me. Just my opinion, however.
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Re: Subs or Dubs?

#5 Post by Tuna »

Kilroywuzheere wrote:Yeah, I mean fansubs. However, for the most part, subs are viewed... in a less than legal manner. At least from what I know. I know that's how I first watched them, back when I was a teenager and didn't even realize that it was of questionable legality. And I just wanna make sure that people know we aren't discussing something illegal since a lot of places you finds subs are skirting the law.
Yeah...if you mean fansubs, you might want to specify that...'cause just saying "subs" makes most folks just think that you've turned on Subtitles on your DVD.
XD
Kilroywuzheere wrote:This is something that I believe is unfounded unless you at least partially understand Japanese, or are completely fluent. (No offense if you are fluent) Because to me, Japanese sounds like a bunch of gibberish, and you could switch it with Greek and I'd only barely notice. Since you can't understand it, you just learn to recognize which sounds belong to which characters, and its all a blur otherwise. For all I know, every line in the Japanese dub could be bumbled and handled poorly. Or it could be the most perfect thing on the planet. Like I said, I can't understand it, so I can't tell how well delivered the lines are.

Feel free to prove me wrong tho. :3
This is another point where you seem to be misunderstanding what people mean - I speak nooooo Japanese. When I say that I feel that the Japanese voice actors do a better job, I'm not talking about their diction or control of the language...actually, I don't think anyone means that...what I'm referring to is their emotiveness. They express far more feeling in their voices than most English voice actors, who usually seem like they're bored and just reading through the script as fast as they can.
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Re: Subs or Dubs?

#6 Post by Blazeofspikes »

You do not really need to understand Japanese to watch a sub. However for Raw anime videos straight from Japan you essentially need to be fluent in Japanese to understand what's going on otherwise you will be kinda like me who understands simple short sentences but when the conversation becomes longer then 2 words I would either have to guess what's going on or simply write down the pronunciation and look it up in the dictionary and try to translate to the best of my ability. (which takes literally for hours and heck every once in a while there would be a Japanese word that is not even in the dictionary)
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Re: Subs or Dubs?

#7 Post by AzeNaku »

I prefer Dubs as long as they're decently voice-acted. Everything sounds better in English to me. :karen:

I have to agree that for actiony series, subs get WAY too hard to read and pay attention to the action. Plus, with dubs I can multitask and still know what's going even if I momentarily look away from the screen. Also, subs can be hard to read when you stumble across the occasional low-quality video.

EDIT: I'm surprised there isn't a poll for this topic, like "Subs, Dubs, No preference".
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Re: Subs or Dubs?

#8 Post by rmb »

I prefer dubs because it's easier to keep on in the background, however, when I'm really watching I prefer subs because it's interesting to see what is actually being said rather than listening to the edits they made for American viewers.
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Re: Subs or Dubs?

#9 Post by Bane Dragon »

Subs are better. Always seem to have better voice actors, and subs actually have closer translations it seems than dubs, without having the characters sound like idiots (for the most part).
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Re: Subs or Dubs?

#10 Post by Kilroywuzheere »

rmb wrote:I prefer dubs because it's easier to keep on in the background, however, when I'm really watching I prefer subs because it's interesting to see what is actually being said rather than listening to the edits they made for American viewers.
This is a common misconception, for the most part, official subs and the dubs are for the most part the same, occasionally using a synonym to better fit the mouth flaps, which they try REALLY hard to do. Add in the fact that any edits they make are approved by the original creators, and what's really being said isn't really any different from the original language. Also: Translations are more of an art in rewriting something than carbon copy translating. If you translate everything literally, it comes out as VERY stilted English, so you can usually translate the same line into at least 3 different perfectly correct iterations, one of which will just sound like bad English, and one of which will sound like a perfectly natural English sentence, and the other which will not be as accurate, but sounds better.
Bane Dragon wrote:Subs are better. Always seem to have better voice actors, and subs actually have closer translations it seems than dubs, without having the characters sound like idiots (for the most part).
Dubs in America have come a long long long way. If you get a good company, like Funimation, they do a really good job, have really good voice actors (which don't sound like idiots tyvm), and very accurate translations. See: Full Metal Alchemist (original or Brotherhood, take your pick). The dub is epic. Also see: Baccano! The dub is actually better than the subs. (Accents that don't get conveyed in Japanese, and slang that doesn't translate right from English to Japanese and back again)

I will give you that some dubbing companies are awful for all the reasons you've stated, however they are usually small time and don't usually get their hands on the good stuff. See: Gurren Lagann. The dub, while not GAWD AWFUL, is far worse than the subs. A few characters are well handled, but you're better off watching the sub. Also see: Anything, I mean ANYTHING, by 4Kids.

I will give you an example from a series handled by two different companies, one of which was awful, and the other which was very good, even if one of the voice actors is from DBZ and all I can see when the character speaks is Trunks.

One Piece. The 4Kids dub is one of the worst things ever. 4Kids honestly just sucks in general. They edit out footage, use bad voice actors and try too hard to make things kid friendly. Later on, since everyone hated the dub, 4kids wasn't making enough money, so they sold it, and Funimation took over. The Funimation dub is far better, doesn't edit anything out of the anime, translates better, and has good voice actors, even if a few of them make me think of DBZ. They're going back and redubbing the stuff 4Kids did.

Now, I think that if you last watched a 4Kids dub, please please please watch a dub from a better company, as 4kids is everything wrong with dubbing. Bandai is almost as bad, but they typically don't alter much, they're just not trying very hard.
Tuna wrote: This is another point where you seem to be misunderstanding what people mean - I speak nooooo Japanese. When I say that I feel that the Japanese voice actors do a better job, I'm not talking about their diction or control of the language...actually, I don't think anyone means that...what I'm referring to is their emotiveness. They express far more feeling in their voices than most English voice actors, who usually seem like they're bored and just reading through the script as fast as they can.
x.x
This makes me think you haven't watched a GOOD dub lately. See a few things I already said above. Dubs are a lot better than you're giving them credit for. That and sometimes time the Japanese dub sounds almost like hammy overacting to me. This might just be a difference in preference tho, or just me tuning out the Japanese voices as noise.
Locke357 wrote:When it comes to Anime, or any form of video of which is in a foreign language, I much prefer subs. Simply because I find the emotion and nuances of the original voice-acting remain intact, and you're watching it as it was meant to be watched. Also having the character's mouths not matching up with the dubbing REALLY irks me. Just my opinion, however.
Good dubs don't have the lip movement problem, and just because that's the original language doesn't mean that's how its meant to be watched. Both Japanese and English dubs are bound by the directors and voice actors they have access to, and the language of their primary audience. Just because the creator okays it doesn't mean they like it. The only time when Japanese is how its meant to be is when the setting is modern, future, or past Japan. Let's look at the Code Geass dub. Britain took over Japan and think the native population is inferior, yet in the Japanese dub all the Britainians speak Japanese as their primary language. You can't tell me that people who view themselves as superior even bothered to learn and teach themselves the language of a lower societal caste, let alone speaking it primarily. In this manner I think the dub is closer to how it was meant to be, seeing as Britain's primary language is English, even if it isn't American English.
AzeNaku wrote:EDIT: I'm surprised there isn't a poll for this topic, like "Subs, Dubs, No preference".
*cough* I have no idea what you're talking about, there's clearly a poll up there... >w>;
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Re: Subs or Dubs?

#11 Post by Nuff »

I prefer to watch a series or movie in it's dubbed form if I can. I speak english, I don't speak japanese. It makes perfect sense to me. It's true there are some terrible dubs out there but I've avoided them on the most part and only really bought into anime I know has a decent dubbed version. I'm watching Black Lagoon atm and I have to say that, after a quick comparison, the english dub is better than the Japanese. Considering three of the main cast are american anyway it makes sense that It'd be in english anyway.

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Re: Subs or Dubs?

#12 Post by Tuna »

Nuff wrote:I prefer to watch a series or movie in it's dubbed form if I can. I speak english, I don't speak japanese. It makes perfect sense to me. It's true there are some terrible dubs out there but I've avoided them on the most part and only really bought into anime I know has a decent dubbed version. I'm watching Black Lagoon atm and I have to say that, after a quick comparison, the english dub is better than the Japanese. Considering three of the main cast are american anyway it makes sense that It'd be in english anyway.
Ah, yes, the Black Lagoon dub is excellent - right up there with Cowboy Bebop...
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Re: Subs or Dubs?

#13 Post by Arachnion As Captain Jack »

Generally I go for subs, as japanese is a pretty language to listen to. It'd probably be less pretty if I knew it, but still, it sounds nice.

HOWEVER, some dubs are really good-the trigun dub in particular was great.

I personally hold the belief that the american dub of Mobile Fighter G Gundam is better than the japanese version, because of how cheesy and awesome it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLaydxMh ... re=related
I mean, come on. HORSE MECHA. Why would you take that seriously!

Bits that are awesome in subs aren't always as good in the dubs, but dubs have their own good bits. NO ZAKU BOY, NO ZAKU.
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Re: Subs or Dubs?

#14 Post by kagome_angel »

I will watch either. Sometimes I prefer subs, and sometimes I prefer dubs. If the dubbing is well-done, then that is usually what I stick with. Death Note and Inuyasha have some of the best dub work that I have seen/heard lately.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with good ol' subs. :)
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Re: Subs or Dubs?

#15 Post by the red soldier »

Dubs for me as long as there not god awful. I did watch a few series in subs though sense the dub versions are no where to be found or aren't even done yet.
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