Anime/Manga Do you prefer dubbed or subbed anime?

Do you prefer dubbed or subbed anime?

Personally I prefer dubbed because I feel I can relate more to the characters and its much easier for me understand and follow the story.

Oh my here we go again.

Depends on the anime, but generally subbed.

KorpiklaaniVodka said:

Oh my here we go again.

Depends on the anime, but generally subbed.

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Was this question asked before or...?

It returns.

I'm in the minority here in that I will usually watch a show dubbed if I get the opportunity to and Yuri Lowenthal isn't in it in a prominent role. I simply prefer watching things in my native language in most cases. I've long since gotten used to subtitles, but I just don't find it as immersive as I do a good dub. Simple as that, really.

TheRealOCD said:

Was this question asked before or...?

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I hear this all the time

KorpiklaaniVodka said:

I hear this all the time

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Sorry about that. I don't come to this section often.

TheRealOCD said:

Sorry about that. I don't come to this section often.

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I wouldn't worry about it too much. The expectation for anime forums is that a new dub-vs-sub thread will appear a little while after everyone's done with the last one. It's all part of the circle of life.

The answer for me is that it absolutely depends on the show/movie. I gravitate toward dubs because I prefer a translation that's closer to natural, spoken English and because it bugs me when subtitles obscure facial expressions (happens at least once in any episode of anything, I swear). On the other hand, there are some bad dubs out there and I'm better at distinguishing bad acting from good acting in English than Japanese, so in those cases I'll just watch the sub.

Also, there are some shows that are basically impossible to dub. One that comes to mind is Bakemonogatari and its sequels/prequels. The whole show is so steeped in Japanese wordplay that trying to dub it would be folly; even in a decent sub there's a lot that must be lost in translation.

The opposite end of the spectrum would be something like Cowboy Bebop, which feels like it was meant to be in English to begin with. Jet's dub VA really brings the soul that's so key to the character.

tl;dr: I'll watch the dub if it's good, but I have no problem with subs

Well, I watch Jackie Chan movies in Chinese, so I watch my Taiwanese cartoons in Japanese. The same way I watch a German movie in German, English movie in English, French movie in French etc.

Satoshi Ookami said:

So... in other words, you can relate more to obviously Japanese characters... if they are speaking incorrect language... yup, that's definitely new view =D

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I'm going to pounce on this, because otherwise we're just going to have people stating their preference and leaving it at that...and we're known for it by now, so nobody is going to be surprised. xD

Anyways, not every character in an anime is Japanese, and if we're talking about watching characters speak the "correct" language, then by that logic there is no other way to watch shows like Hellsing Ultimate - where the vast majority of the cast are English - in English dubbed.

Isn't your argument there based upon the origin of the show, rather than the content? I didn't even mention the number of shows set in fictional lands that bear no resemblance to this planet either but do have clear cultural motifs from other countries - what could be called the "correct" language for those sorts of shows? =P

I generally prefer subbed anime to dubbed. Mostly because I tend to feel that the quality of Japanese voice acting is superior to Western VA's. Sometimes there's exceptions but yeah, as a general rule this works for me.

Satoshi Ookami said:

Yep, I knew you were going to use that. :P
Hellsing is an exception, you explicitly know that it's an English cast, in what most people would see as a general view of anime, the characters are Japanese ;)

So, unless OP is only limiting this question to anime where you have non-Japanese characters, the majority in this case works for my argument :P

I do agree, that Hellsing is one of examples where English could be considered correct language but as I said, that's just exception confirming the rule xD
(And there is a reason to not watch it in English, not wanting your ears to bleed :P )


As for the fictional worlds, that's where we should take the origin, hence, having Japanese as a default.
Not to mention, some even have original languages, wouldn't you say that's the best outcome? =D

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I think the "general view" of anime is based solely on the fact that anime is Japanese animation; it's got nothing to do with the setting or the themes. I don't keep up with shows religiously, but I see just as many with culture-blended fictional worlds these days as I do ones obviously set in Japan.

Well, I'm asking about anime with non-Japanese characters and non-Japanese settings, so =P

Hush, we're not talking about personal preference. We all know what your personal preference is =P
...also, Crispin Freeman. Your argument regarding bad quality is invalid if he's involved in it. xD

Hmmm...no, I think it'd depend on the cultural influences most present in said fictional world as to which language seems most suitable. Where the cultural influences on the world are clearly Japanese (like if it's set in a fictional school with Japanese elements, or if the dress style or names are clearly Japanese as they are in shows like Kabaneri) then yes, viewing it in Japanese would make the most sense.

But for a show with more Western qualities, a dub would fit it more. I mean, Attack on Titan would actually probably be best viewed in German, because the names of the characters - as well as the fact that it is specifically stated that Mikasa is the only living Asian - mean that having all of them speak in Japanese makes little sense in the context of the show. If the Asian clan has been wiped out, why the hell are they all speaking Japanese?! xD

In an ideal world, the language would correspond with the area of the world the show is set in or draws its inspiration from, but such is life...I suppose that kind of collaboration in voice talent would cost a fortune and be impractical regardless. I mean, Code Geass would have been even more of a clusterfuck than it was already; it would have been swapping between English, Japanese, and Chinese at least with alarming regularity, especially in R2.


I have to admit that, whilst I will watch shows dubbed where I can, shows I've seen in both formats I don't always favour the dub for even if I see it first. It might have something to do with the immersion in the story, because sometimes Japanese voices DO make more sense in context. But sometimes they don't...and sometimes it doesn't matter at all. Quality of voice acting and ability to understand without subtitles aside, this could be a factor in what influences my choices sometimes.

...also, I want to bring up Blind Idiot Translation here as a case against subs:


That said, subtitles can be a laugh sometimes. I remember in OreTwi recently a character got punched so hard that her subtitles flew off the screen with her. I love it when they do stuff like that. xD

subbed

Depends which one I start off with. For example I watch Pokemon in dub because I when I first watched Pokemon I watched the dub version. But for One Piece I watch it in sub because when I first started to watch One Piece I started to watch it in sub. However the first time I saw One Piece I saw it in dub but that was a long time ago and I only watched a little bit of it, so I don't remember that much. When I got back into One Piece, I decided to watch it in sub instead of dub. Overall I'm fine with either just depends which one I start off with first.

As much as I love ludicrous subtitle screenshots, the kind of nonsense in the above pictures is about 100% confined to fansubs. You're basically never going to see stuff like that in professional work, so it's more an argument against fansubs than subs-as-opposed-to-dubs (though it is a really, really good argument against fansubs).

Eh, whatever, here's my favorite fansub screenshot:



Does anyone recognize this show? Is that what the guy's actually saying?

It depends, but generally I prefer subs.

It depends on the amount of female characters with that obnoxious high pitched, helium induced "cutesy" voice. If there's a lot of those, I prefer dubbed, if less, then I prefer subbed.

Karous said:

It depends on the amount of female characters with that obnoxious high pitched, helium induced "cutesy" voice. If there's a lot of those, I prefer dubbed, if less, then I prefer subbed.

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Aren't dubs just as bad at high pitched voices, except it sounds even more cringy when American VAs imitate squeaky Japanese voices. That's usually the biggest turn off for me with dubs, when I hear high pitched girls trying to be like Rie Kugimiya. Just don't, voice act as if it was a western animated series.