When watching Anime, do you prefer... Page 2

Started by True Justice October 14th, 2008 11:33 AM
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Male
Fuchsia City
Seen October 21st, 2015
Posted October 7th, 2015
562 posts
14.6 Years
i prefer subs just for the quality of the japanese voice acting over that of the english voice actors (when it comes to anime),

just like i'd rather watch a movie made in US in English and one made in México in Spanish...

the original versions are ALWAYS better, but since I can't completely understand Japanese yet, I guess fansubs will just have to do the trick

OverlordMia

I'm absolutely CRAZY about it!

California
Seen November 6th, 2008
Posted November 6th, 2008
39 posts
14.7 Years
I actually prefer subs over anything else. Above all, it just might be able to help me learn Japanese, which is something I really wanna do. Some of the dubs just sound horrible to me but I'll watch them if they're available, unless I completely refuse to watch it. (Curse you 4kids!!!)
Even Overlords need some fun


I support...


ソラ

May My Heart Be My Guiding Key

Age 32
He/Him
California
Seen April 7th, 2023
Posted March 18th, 2023
2,002 posts
15.2 Years
definatly subs, american voice acting tends to kill a series :(
So can Japan's Voices can ruin them. Look at DBZ in Japan, Goku Voice's really isnt that great didnt ruin the series just didnt do so well, on account its a girl doing the voice same for Gohan, its more better in America I say

But I say Both, I watch them both
Age 35
Belgium
Seen February 28th, 2009
Posted October 31st, 2008
61 posts
15.8 Years
Fansubs can be of bad quality and innacurate, but so can dubs. The thing is that they're supposed to be professionals, so it's less easy to forgive.
But what I really hate about some localizations, is that they think they own the story and can rewrite the script. I still haven't forgotten their butchering of most of my favourite characters in digimon, yu-gi-oh etc
That was what really turned me away from them.
I know they seem to make effort to stay close to the original, but that's too late now.
I try to avoid speedsubs and choose teams that do it seriously and try to give their subs the best quality possible. Otherwise I just watch raws, or just ignore the subtitles (not that hard to do with some practice).

Now about the voice acting, I'm not really familiar with the american one, though the few times I've tried watching it, I didn't really like it. It's maybe because of the accent, that's sometimes too strong (at least french voice actors try to speak as neutrally as possible), or, like the french ones, they often seem to lack motivation. I don't know, the anime is always much more lively in japanese, and I don't think it's only because of the language itself (because english does have a lot of intonation, more than french at least [I'm currently learning about the stress, and that's not easy >_<]).
I don't really like french dubbing, for two main reasons : one is cited above, they often sound bored (compared to the japanese at least), or overact and don't sound natural in their acting), and the second is that there are so few of them, you find them everywhere.
Now I love finding my favourite seiyuu in many anime, but the fact they don't appear in all of them make hearing them more enjoyable, more special.
Also, they seem to have a better voice range, and it's rare when two japanese character sound exactly alike. The same can't be said about other languages dubbing. That's probably because seiyuu are more popular in Japan, voice acting seems to be better viewed there than in our countries, and thus their training is probably more advanced.
There's also the fact that they are carefully chosen according to the personnality of the character. I've read somewhere that voice actors in the west are chosen according to the look of the characters, not their personnality. Add to that the lack of range and you get two characters who are complete opposites but sound almost the same. No thanks.
Then last, one of the thing I pay the most attention to when I watch an anime is the voices, because I'm that weird, and so I'm a hopeless seiyuu fangirl. Which is why I give myself headaches trying to decifer kanji when I play games, because I can't stand not playing with the japanese voices... >_<

So yeah, raw or sub.
Or better yet, on japanese TV, but I don't have that xD

digi-kun

Hourai NEET

Age 33
Male
Seen March 12th, 2018
Posted July 12th, 2016
4,638 posts
19.3 Years
hmmm...i generally watch raws due to speed and forgetfulness issues

subs...a lot of them are good, a general bunch of them are not too, and joke subs are hilarious. As far as subbers go though, there's usually at least one good subber on the ones i actually want to watch, so i don't really worry so much about that. most of the time i just forget to get the subs when they come out

dubs...well, i can say a lot of dubs aren't too good. all the kid-targeted dubs generally suck due to the difference of audience, and change of names, and actual editing of the shows besides the mouthing. And then there are the Shonen Jump Anime, where the guys try to copy as much as they can to to point where they go overboard and such (pronunciation of names, "believe it!", etc.). And the part where they HAVE to add Shonen Jump's to the title for whatever screwed up reason.
Other than those two categories, dubs aren't so bad voice acting-wise. they need more and better slice of life actors though. That'd be nice if bandai did that one "Who do you want to voice act _____" type thing more often...
Age 30
Female
New York City
Seen July 19th, 2011
Posted February 12th, 2011
4,039 posts
15.7 Years
I just want to make this clear. You can't learn Japanese by watching subs or raw. The most you"ll get of it is "Kawaii" and "Onii-chan". You can't learn to spell these things or anything.

On topic now, the Cowboy Bebop dub is better than the original, anyone else agree?

It seems not so far.
Age 32
Male
Seen May 16th, 2011
Posted October 28th, 2010
5,058 posts
18.4 Years
I just want to make this clear. You can't learn Japanese by watching subs or raw. The most you"ll get of it is "Kawaii" and "Onii-chan". You can't learn to spell these things or anything.

On topic now, the Cowboy Bebop dub is better than the original, anyone else agree?

It seems not so far.
I agree. In the original, Spike and Jet sound the same, and the voice doesn't really suit Spike anyway.

The dub's general script/dialogue is a lot better too, you can also hear more emotion in some of the characters voices.

Of course, the original is tops too.
Age 30
Female
New York City
Seen July 19th, 2011
Posted February 12th, 2011
4,039 posts
15.7 Years
I agree. In the original, Spike and Jet sound the same, and the voice doesn't really suit Spike anyway.

The dub's general script/dialogue is a lot better too, you can also hear more emotion in some of the characters voices.

Of course, the original is tops too.
Not top enough it appears. But at least it proves a point.

digi-kun

Hourai NEET

Age 33
Male
Seen March 12th, 2018
Posted July 12th, 2016
4,638 posts
19.3 Years
I just want to make this clear. You can't learn Japanese by watching subs or raw. The most you"ll get of it is "Kawaii" and "Onii-chan". You can't learn to spell these things or anything.
Not really...a nice chunk of my vocab is derived from watching raws/subs, though I was actually watching subs and raws with the partial goal of getting a bit of japanese out of it. Most people as far as i know are the types that just read the text rather than listening and trying to get things out of it. I guess the part where i started listening to other such things kinda helped a bit too...I dunno, what i tell people i did tends not to work for the people i know so i guess it could just be me or something.
Sentence structure i got mostly from classes, along with grammar, different forms of words, more vocab, writing system, etc.
Age 30
Female
New York City
Seen July 19th, 2011
Posted February 12th, 2011
4,039 posts
15.7 Years
Exactly digi-kun, you were already learning the language. Watching subs will not teach you the characters, just a few words that would make people look dumb if they don't actually speak.

But you do agree with me that you can't learn any language by watching the subtitles of a show?

digi-kun

Hourai NEET

Age 33
Male
Seen March 12th, 2018
Posted July 12th, 2016
4,638 posts
19.3 Years
Oh, by that i was implying that i started classes after starting watching anime and listening radio streams

As far as learning through subtitles go, it's not really that you can't, it's mostly that people don't. If you actually try to dig into the language, patterns, words, etc. Most people probably just end up getting into the story and forget about the vocab and stuff. Makes it a lot easier when you're watching alongside raws though
where I belong
Seen November 4th, 2015
Posted August 10th, 2012
3,472 posts
18.1 Years
Indeed, watching raw anime and then watching the sub does help one learn the language. Taking classes alongside that and memorizing some key expressions work wonders too.

And learning the characters [at least hiragana and katakana] is not hard at all- you can do it alone just by studying via the internet, so eh. I even learned some kanji thanks to anime, actually.

~ | there is no need to be upset.

Ayano Katagiri

♥ 陳意涵 - 痞子英雄

Age 31
Male
New Zealand
Seen July 8th, 2010
Posted June 16th, 2010
8,399 posts
16.9 Years
So are yous guys saying that by only watching subs you can learn Japanese? I don't think you are but is that it?
Personally, I think you can as long as you're making the effort to do so. I take Japanese at school and really pick up a lot of new vocab and phrases when watching subs. And I agree with digi-kun and rikanai. Watching raws alongside subs certainly does help someone learn bits of Japanese.

Of course, reading and writing is a completely different area.

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GunSaberSeraph

Durandal of the Devic Era

Male
Seen December 30th, 2016
Posted December 21st, 2016
1,484 posts
15.6 Years
Dubs, if possible, though I'll always go with subs if the series is further ahead in Japan.
You're just like me. i started watching Bleach subs when I found out that it would take the American version a year or so to get past the bounto filler and to the Arrancar Arc. I'm not a very patient person, so i decided to "cheat".
Age 30
Female
New York City
Seen July 19th, 2011
Posted February 12th, 2011
4,039 posts
15.7 Years
Personally, I think you can as long as you're making the effort to do so. I take Japanese at school and really pick up a lot of new vocab and phrases when watching subs. And I agree with digi-kun and rikanai. Watching raws alongside subs certainly does help someone learn bits of Japanese.

Of course, reading and writing is a completely different area.
Well, at least we're at a common ground now :classic:.
Age 35
Belgium
Seen February 28th, 2009
Posted October 31st, 2008
61 posts
15.8 Years
So are yous guys saying that by only watching subs you can learn Japanese? I don't think you are but is that it?
You can't learn a language by just watching a show, anime or not, sub or raw.
But it does help a lot if you're learning it at the same time (that's actually a really nice experience... I remember that when I learned a certain grammar point (it was the "-ta hou ga ii" structure), I kept hearing it afterwards. It's not that it didn't exist before, but that I never noticed it until then).
It also helps because it gives you an opportunity to hear the language, which is an important part of the learning process (not only with Japanese : you can do that with any language, just find some movies in their original versions)
It can also help with vocabulary, other than "kawaii" and "niisan", but for that you have to pay close attention and focus on learning new vocabulary, not really cool if you want to enjoy the show. Though the best way, for me, was to watch raw with an electronical dictionary : try to understand and quickly search new words when they're too important in the sentence that you can't skip them. This requires a certain level of understanding though. But you can be sure some of those words will be stuck in your head for a while, especially if they're repeated a lot (I learned all my police-related vocabulary by watching Detective Conan with this method), and thus will be easy to remember.

A good way to get better when you're already fluent enough is to do the subbing yourself :D
Age 32
Female
Finland
Seen July 29th, 2013
Posted February 10th, 2010
236 posts
14.8 Years
I just want to make this clear. You can't learn Japanese by watching subs or raw. The most you"ll get of it is "Kawaii" and "Onii-chan". You can't learn to spell these things or anything
I agree that you can't learn to fully understand or speak japanese by watching subs or raws, BUT I must say that it does help to give you the basis. I mean, I've watched subbed anime for years but never studied japanese language. If I tried to watch the raws, I still can't understand what they are saying. However, I've noticed that I actually recognise pretty many words from their speech that I didn't even knew I knew. I can also tell for example if the person is talking more polite than usual or has some kind of accent. This basis will propably be a big help if you, for example, travelled to Japan as an exchange student.

As an answer to the question, I watch subs and subs only. With raws I just miss too much dialogue that I could keep up with the story. Well, I've occasionally watched some dubs just for the laughts. (well, I'm not sure whether to laught or cry with One Piece's 4kids dub :P) I'm not saying dubs can't have high quality, but I'm just fine with the original japanese seiyuus. Besides, with dubs I would have to listen american's terrible pronunciation of japanese names. (I'm sorry, but... that's just the way it is ^^)