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Subs or Dubs?

Palamon

Silence is Purple
8,105
Posts
15
Years
Which do you prefer? The subbed Pokemon anime (original Japanese) or the dubbed anime? (In English and other languages.) Why do you prefer it?

I prefer dubs because I only follow the dub and am therefore too lazy to watch the original Japanese version of the Pokemon anime. Despite how edited the English dub is (for kid audiences or whatever), I only follow it because I have no reason to watch the Japanese--I'll be focusing on the subtitles more than the show, so, yeah, dub it is!

Discuss if you must.
 
2,910
Posts
13
Years
Subs, I watched a lot of dubbed and subbed episodes and I came to conclusion that Japanese version sounds a lot better to me, also it has better soundtrack.
 

Aquacorde

⟡ dig down, dig down ⟡
12,449
Posts
19
Years
Dub for everything before Best Wishes, sub for everything after. That's really only because that's how I started watching them. Originally I just saw Pokémon on TV so I got the 4Kids dub and then just stuck with it on rewatches cause I'm used to it. And when I eventually play catchup with BF & DP I'll watch the dub just cause I'll be too lazy to find subs.

But with Best Wishes, I started with subs and I'll stick with subs. I have seen the dub for most of it because that's what I watched on my catch-up watchthrough and occasionally I have to watch it to make a thread and have legit commentary. But I don't enjoy it as much. The dialogue is weird and the acting tends to be stilted and they've lost a LOT of Cilan's character in translation. Everything sounds more appealing in Japanese.

Actually, I guess... I started with Japanese raws and I'll stick with them? I hardly ever watch subs anymore because I watch the raw and have to wait over a month for subs so I just watch, get the gist of it, then watch tumblr for some summaries from people who understand more Japanese than I do. But yeah, no BW dub for me thanks.
 

zdude18

Lone Wolf
169
Posts
11
Years
im with the OP on this one. ive always watched the dub (except for the banned episodes i watched in japonese) and i see no reason to stop doing so. i dont mind the acting and the actors because ive gotten used to them (although i had a minor setback when they changed) and ive really always liked the way they go about doing it except for when they reset ash's skill for BW. that was the worst decision ever.
 

Guy

just a guy
7,128
Posts
15
Years
Dubbed, even if subs is the better choice and some of the English voices are grating and the translation tacky. This is like Sailor Moon to me, as a child I grew up watching the show in English, and it just stuck that way for me. I didn't know anything about subs back then or the original Japanese version. I just knew what I saw. So I kind of just stuck with following the dubbed version as they came, even now.

There was a short period during the Sinnoh Saga during the Grand Festival arc and Sinnoh League that I watched it in Japanese without subtitles, but I eventually stopped when Best Wishes premiered.

I don't think I'll ever really grow out of watching the dubbed version. I'd quicker stop the anime altogether before I choose to watch the show in subs entirely. That's just me though...
 
41,083
Posts
17
Years
Subbed. I prefer watching things in their original language but one of the biggest reasons I can't stick to the dub is because of Ash's new voice.. still haven't gotten used to it. :( Plus the original Japanese has the awesome openings and endings~
 

Zekrom1066

Master of Ideals
71
Posts
10
Years
I like Subs better, I feel that the Japanese version has better voice acting and emotions to the characters. Also because I can speak little Japanese and can write and memorize the full katakana and hiragana alphabet system, although I do not really understand a lot of Kanji.

I also enjoy the dubs, especially from the Kanto, Jotho, Sinnoh and Best Wishes series, even though they were not as good as the subs.

I absolutely dislike the dubbed Advanced series due to 4Kid's horrible voice acting, and also because the trainer's choice was a big epic fail. Arbok evolves into Seviper???
 
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37
Posts
11
Years
I like subbed everything for pokemon. It's sounds a lot more exotic compared to English. Plus, I have a translation for the indigo league typed how they pronounce the words, but it's typed in English!
 

Firox

eepz, come help pwease!
2,585
Posts
11
Years
Both for me.

Personally, I prefer the original Japanese with no subs at all. Only once do I want to see it subbed (just to understand some phrases I don't understand - I'm learning Japanese).

For me its great to also see the dub version in my native Spanish. I prefer the Spanish dub, all the jokes make sense, smaller 'childish' insults (such as "chimuelo" or "bobo") work great along with references to culture in Latin America. I always laugh a lot watching it in my own language. Too bad that Spanish dub is too far behind (they barely are on Rival Destinies, today the episode with Maractus will premier).

As for English, most jokes aren't really used, or as funny, a lot of the emotion is toned down. Even when the 4th wall is broken, its funnier in Spanish.

Preference:
1st - original Japanese, no subtitles or anything
2nd - Spanish, dubbed for Latin America [Iberian Spanish is a bit strange for me]
3rd - English
if I could find any, 4th - other languages
 
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139
Posts
11
Years
In the specific case of pokemon I prefer dub, because i like the voice that was choseen for the characters; mainly the jokes that makes the team rocket.

I see the anime in spanish of latin america, and some phrases from the team rocket sounds very funny in spanish, like "Ahi madre ahi", even i learnt their dialogue in the first chapters since "Prepararense para los problemas ...." and if if I had seen sub, i guess i don't learnt their phrases XD
 

tnfsf11

Guest
0
Posts
I'd say dubbed cuz I don't understand Japanese.
Also I watched the trailer for "Extreme Speed Genesect" in Japanese and I kinda laughed a lot at Ash shouting nearly all the time so I thought maybe I'll do the same during the real movie if I watched it in Japanese, that's why I must watch dub :)
 

bulbasir

Just call me Mr. Sir...
16
Posts
10
Years
  • Seen Jul 12, 2013
I prefer dubbed because I focus too much on the subtitles if I watch subbed. Also, I feel like the Japanese actors are shouting all the time, it kind of annoys me. I really like the english dub music as well, so win-win for me :)
 
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