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Anime/Manga Do you prefer dubbed or subbed anime?

Altairis

take me ☆ take you
5,188
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11
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  • I don't care as long as I stick through it the whole series. It just seems weird for characters' voices to change halfway through. Generally whatever link I click on first is what I watch.
     

    Keiran

    [b]Rock Solid[/b]
    2,455
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  • I dont really have a preference. Sometimes the dub is ok. Sometimes it's not. I don't mind subs because they only take a split second to read and they really don't distract me from the rest of the show. I try to watch things in their original language, though, because sometimes they make cultural references that are butchered in dubs (e.g, jelly donuts). Also, a lot of subs will have footnotes explaining what words on the screen say, like a sign on a building for example. Sometimes they explain things like Japanese idioms that would be completely lost in a dub.
     
    17
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    7
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    • Seen Dec 10, 2019
    It depends. I have my love fore certain dubs of anime like Ouran High School Host Club, Hakuouki, and many more. But there are times I prefer Subbed over Dubbed for example I disliked the dubbing for Mai Hime for me some of the voices didn't fit well and some of the pronunciations were horrible .
     

    icomeanon6

    It's "I Come Anon"
    1,184
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  • I feel a big contradiction in these statements.
    Hate to get pedantic (no I don't, lol), but there's less contradiction than you'd think. Almost all anime are animated in full before they record the original voices (Akira was a major exception). Technically most anime in Japanese are in fact dubbed in Japanese over silent animation. Contrast this with standard practice in western animation, where voices are typically recorded with animatics for reference and the actual animation is done around the voices.

    This has been your daily dose of anime-related pedantry! :D
     
    355
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    7
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    • Seen Feb 6, 2020
    It really depends on the anime, tbh.

    Shows that I watched dubbed for the first time (usually on television) and then later finished online, I'd continue to watch dubbed just because that's what I was familiar with. Those shows includes the likes of Pokemon, Naruto (Shippuden I watched subbed since I never saw that dubbed originally), Death Note, TTGL, Yu-Gi-Oh, and pretty much any older series you can remember watching as a little kid.

    Now, whenever I decide to pick up a new series, I will definitely watch it subbed. I may end up watching one episode dubbed just because I'm interested to see what it sounds like. It just seems now that I can't take the English VAs seriously - I don't really know how to explain it. The only series that I didn't mind dubbed (granted, it was a rewatch), was Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Still, I liked the subbed version a whole lot better.
     

    Satoshi Ookami

    Memento Mori
    14,254
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  • Hate to get pedantic (no I don't, lol), but there's less contradiction than you'd think. Almost all anime are animated in full before they record the original voices (Akira was a major exception). Technically most anime in Japanese are in fact dubbed in Japanese over silent animation. Contrast this with standard practice in western animation, where voices are typically recorded with animatics for reference and the actual animation is done around the voices.

    This has been your daily dose of anime-related pedantry! :D
    And... how does it relate to anything?
    More like... who doesn't know this?

    Contrast this with standard practice in western animation, where voices are typically recorded with animatics for reference and the actual animation is done around the voices.
    Well, of course, seiyuus are superior.

    The quoted part was 'dubbed' 'Japanese voices are the best', we all know that dub/dubbed is used to describe English voices.
    He said that he prefers dubs. And in the same sentence he said that 'Japanese voices are the best'.
    Unless he prefers dubs BUT knows that Japanese voices are the best, there is a contradiction in his statement.
     

    icomeanon6

    It's "I Come Anon"
    1,184
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  • And... how does it relate to anything?
    More like... who doesn't know this?

    Well, of course, seiyuus are superior.

    The quoted part was 'dubbed' 'Japanese voices are the best', we all know that dub/dubbed is used to describe English voices.
    He said that he prefers dubs. And in the same sentence he said that 'Japanese voices are the best'.
    Unless he prefers dubs BUT knows that Japanese voices are the best, there is a contradiction in his statement.
    (sigh) The dude made a typo, and I was having fun pointing out that subs are technically also dubs 99% of the time, so in a roundabout way his statement wasn't a contradiction even though he mistyped it and didn't say what he meant. I was making a joke because obviously he meant to write "subbed" but he hit an adjacent key. Or maybe he meant to write "English" instead of "Japanese" and got the words transposed in his head, in either case it's just an easy and uninteresting mistake.

    Moreover, the fact that they animate first and record second in Japan has nothing to do with the quality of their voice actors. They do it in that order because it saves a lot of time and money.
     

    JOBO

    o/_\O
    633
    Posts
    9
    Years
  • I prefer watching dubbed when I'm tired and when I'm playing a game at the same time. I don't always have the energy to read the subs and missing a little bit can sometimes mean going back and rewatching a scene for clarification. I'll also watch a dub if I've heard that it's well done or if I notice one of my preferred voice actors is in it. There are some anime that I can only watch dubbed due to growing up on the dubbed version (Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh, Certain Ghibli movies, etc).

    For the most part I watch subbed. I really like the way the Japanese language shows emotion. There are some anime that have a lot of emotion/struggle driving the story and sometimes I feel like the english language doesn't do the visuals justice. Let's be honest, those cute school girl characters sound a lot cuter in Japanese as well. :P
     
    Last edited:
    611
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    12
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    • Age 26
    • Seen Jun 26, 2023
    Subbed. For everything. I don't understand people who can change it up depending on the show cause anytime I listen to English Dubbed anything, my ears bleed and it's a huge mess. No but really, can't stand dubbed. Nothing is more obnoxious imo than English speakers trying to imitate the 'kawaii'-ness of the Japanese speakers and using all those high pitched, nasally, whiny voices. STOPPPPPP. It's cute when they do it, but the imitation is just painful
     

    Keromatsu

    Froakie is Awesome!
    422
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    11
    Years
    • Seen Jan 28, 2021
    I usually prefer sub over dub. But the Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and the Fairy Tail dub omg, they are amazing.

    My sister watches One Piece in dub (I used to watch sub then I just moved to the manga) and I laughed so much when I found out Foxy had a french accent.
     

    zakisrage

    In the trunk on Highway 10
    500
    Posts
    10
    Years
  • Depends. Some anime dubs are good, but others want to make my ears bleed. I'd say I watch subs slightly more often.

    I feel like a lot of the more annoying voices that many female characters have in dubs is because they're trying to use voices that sound like the high-pitched Japanese ones. There's certain voice actresses (like Stephanie Sheh) who can pull it off, but unfortunately a lot of them can't, since on average, American women tend to have deeper voices than Japanese women. Sometimes the dub's voice being markedly different from the original's can be a good thing too.

    Then again, I guess one could say the same for Japanese dubs of western animation. There's some really goofy ones (such as the Japanese dub of SpongeBob where Plankton has an extremely high-pitched female voice).
     

    Mystelex

    Guest
    0
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    Sub>Dub
    Just kidding, I can't stand those annoying high-pitched voices! Dub, hell yeah!
     
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