My Anime peeps - Wait for English dubs or watch subs?

[VG Docs]

I've been obsessed with Fairy Tail lately, and I'm caught up on 131 episodes (All that Funimation hosts on their site, dubbed anyway). I'm used to watching anime movies that don't get an American release or an English dub, so I can deal with Japanese subtitles, but is it more worth it to wait for English dubs for the overall experience? I don't speak any Japanese at all, but I have no trouble following subtitles.

 

Also, recommending another anime, similar to Fairy Tail is welcomed too. I have watched DB and DBZ though.  :lol:

[T.Vengeance]

Always subbed. Always.

[Vitalius]

Always subbed. Always.

^

Almost always imo. There are very few English dubs that are better than Japanese dubs imo, but they exist. 

Most of the time, I prefer Japanese Dubs with English Subs, except for those rare exceptions.

[Pumba217]

Besides Dragon Ball Z, always watch anime in sub. Just 10x better to be honest. Oh an Gurren Lagaan that was good in dub as well.

[Mooshi]

Good English dubs seem few and far between. Often times they are just horrible, especially when it's on 4kids level.

[DIV1D3]

Always subbed. Always.

Was going to post the exact same comment lol.

Except Poke'mon (imo), I'm just so used to the English dub from my childhood. 

[VG Docs]

Always subbed. Always.

^

Almost always imo. There are very few English dubs that are better than Japanese dubs imo, but they exist. 

Most of the time, I prefer Japanese Dubs with English Subs, except for those rare exceptions.

Besides Dragon Ball Z, always watch anime in sub. Just 10x better to be honest. Oh an Gurren Lagaan that was good in dub as well.

Good English dubs seem few and far between. Often times they are just horrible, especially when it's on 4kids level.

 

Well, I didn't expect that response (I am new to the anime community though).

I guess that settles it, I'll be watching another 66+ episodes with subs and I won't have to deal with strange translations. 

Thanks all.

[Mooshi]

Well, I didn't expect that response (I am new to anime though).

I guess that settles it, I'll be watching another 66+ episodes with subs and I won't have to deal with strange translations. 

Thanks all.

 

On top of that, you won't deal with any weird changes that happens with dubs.

[TacticlTwinkie]

I very much prefer subbed animes. Dubbing kind of ruins it for me. Not that the voice acting or script is bad. Actually some are quite good. But dubs in general feel too much like a changed product. It's not the original creation, it's an adapted and slightly changed, sometimes censored or edited, version. I like anime as raw as i can. If I understood Japanese I would just watch it un-subbed.

[Jerakl]

I watch some anime subbed, some dubbed. It really just depends what I start watching it in. I recommend Sword Art Online, Log Horizon, Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, Trigun and mayber Fate (slash) zero ( my keyboard isnt working properly atm ).

[FranBunnyFFXII]

Always subbed. Always.

 

No.

 

There are numerous examples of English dubs being better than their original Japanese audio dub.

Stop being biased and "pure" and leaving your head up your ass about this.

 

There's some good English dubs out there, and remember YOU DON'T FUCKING SPEAK JAPANESE SO YOU DON'T ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT THE CHARACTERS ARE SAYING.

You're stuck to understand the translation skills of a subber, and guess what? They aren't any better than a dub sometimes, and can even be worse.

 

The context of Japanese does not convert into English very well, and sometimes you lose a lot of particular attutide understanding if you watch a sub, when there's a dub that might, just might, have a great set of voice actors to preserve that context.

 

Some of the best examples of English Dubbing that I know of

Girls Bravo!

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzamiya(seriously the English dub captured such a good flavor, better than the Japanese actors)

DearS

Cowboy Bebop

Ruroni Kenshin

[T.Vengeance]

No.

 

There are numerous examples of English dubs being better than their original Japanese audio dub.

Stop being biased and "pure" and leaving your head up your ass about this.

 

There's some good English dubs out there, and remember YOU DON'T FUCKING SPEAK JAPANESE SO YOU DON'T ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT THE CHARACTERS ARE SAYING.

You're stuck to understand the translation skills of a subber, and guess what? They aren't any better than a dub sometimes, and can even be worse.

 

The context of Japanese does not convert into English very well, and sometimes you lose a lot of particular attutide understanding if you watch a sub, when there's a dub that might, just might, have a great set of voice actors to preserve that context.

 

Some of the best examples of English Dubbing that I know of

Girls Bravo!

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzamiya(seriously the English dub captured such a good flavor, better than the Japanese actors)

DearS

Cowboy Bebop

Ruroni Kenshin

Whoa. Calm down.

 

Sidenote, if there is an english dub, why wouldn't the subs just use the script that's in the dub? I think you missed a major point. 

[VG Docs]

There are numerous examples of English dubs being better than their original Japanese audio dub.

Stop being biased and "pure" and leaving your head up your ass about this.

Oh, snap!

[Mooshi]

Honestly, I only really watch dubs if they are either really good or if I'm feeling too lazy to read subtitles and kinda wanna chill. Some cases like DBZ, the voice acting is p. good. In other anime...I used to think One Piece was shit tier until I've seen the original. The re-dubbing of it not raped by 4kids is also good.

[Vitalius]

-snip-

See, and I can understand that, but personally, it is physically painful for me to notice a VA altering how they say a line so it matches the mouth movements. It happens all the time in Dubbed anime and there's little you can do about it since, as you said, Japanese doesn't translate well into English on most levels.

Some really good English VAs can make it hard to notice, sure, but they are rare. Then you have to deal with the other potential issues that come along with translation and such. 

That's just me. That's why I prefer Japanese dubs. Plus, I'd say the ratio of Bad:Good English subs for volunteer translators is probably less than 1 (i.e. there are more good than bad). Obviously you have to consider how popular the anime is, because that will decide the demand for good subs for it, so the good subbers will pick it up. Whereas, the more obscure anime are more likely to be iffy in translation.

I don't know. There's a lot to it. I'd probably listen to more anime in English if I wasn't so bothered by the mouths not matching the words, or by rushed lines absolutely destroying the emotion/mood meant to be conveyed by it. 

[tobben]

i always prefer subbed, sometimes i watch raw then subbed afterwards, i just don't like how the majority of english/american subbers do things, besides i think Japanese is awesome, i don't see how dubbed would be considered a superior experience because you wont need subtitles.

 

Mushi-shi is a cool anime btw, if you haven't watched much anime besides fairly tail/dbz, mushishi might give you abit of a different take on anime, it's very different from the previously mentioned, it has abit more substance.

[Raid]

Subtitles. As someone who isn't a native english speaker, I often require subtitles even when watching something dubbed in english because sometimes I have trouble understanding what the actors are saying due to weird accents. It's also easier to Google a word I don't recognize when I know how it's written. So, not much point in watching an english dubbed version.

This also applies outside of anime.

>Butbut why not watch muh chinese cartoons dubbed in your native language

Typically either not available or absolute crap.

[Charger]

I would say about 95% sub is better but there a few anime with good English dubs just hard to find, mainly older or higher budget anime

 

edit also the rarest of them all is something like Ghost Stories dubbed by ADV where they just completely re wrote the script and made it funny

 

[Mooshi]

I would say about 95% sub is better but there a few anime with good English dubs just hard to find, mainly older or higher budget anime

 

edit also the rarest of them all is something like Ghost Stories dubbed by ADV where they just completely re wrote the script and made it funny

 

 

That anime was so horrible, a badly written English comedic dub was the only way to save it.

[FranBunnyFFXII]

See, and I can understand that, but personally, it is physically painful for me to notice a VA altering how they say a line so it matches the mouth movements. It happens all the time in Dubbed anime and there's little you can do about it since, as you said, Japanese doesn't translate well into English on most levels.

Some really good English VAs can make it hard to notice, sure, but they are rare. Then you have to deal with the other potential issues that come along with translation and such. 

That's just me. That's why I prefer Japanese dubs. Plus, I'd say the ratio of Bad:Good English subs for volunteer translators is probably less than 1 (i.e. there are more good than bad). Obviously you have to consider how popular the anime is, because that will decide the demand for good subs for it, so the good subbers will pick it up. Whereas, the more obscure anime are more likely to be iffy in translation.

I don't know. There's a lot to it. I'd probably listen to more anime in English if I wasn't so bothered by the mouths not matching the words, or by rushed lines absolutely destroying the emotion/mood meant to be conveyed by it. 

 

You act as if subbers are any better, and a lot of the times, they really aren't.

 

Being someone who actually spoke Japanese as a younger teenager, I actually recognize a fair bit of what's being said and sometimes subs are way the fuck off of whats being said as well.

Japanese doesn't translate well into English because of the interest of context, and the encouragement to not use pronouns, and particles.

 

Example that always gets on my nerves with subs, is that in Japanese it's actually rude to refer to someone by pronouns, you always mention their name, and subbers never reflect this behavior.

I have never once seen a subber properly reflect a direct translation, and they do, a lot of the times, translate and then reword to make narrative fluidity to the sub track, which ruins context, understanding of cultural behaviors, and franky ruins a lot of scenes that would otherwise have their meanings properly conveyed.

 

Subbing in reality is no better, and unless you speak Japanese fluently, you're not going to find the experience to be that much more valued unless the actual voice actor selection and company are godawful at it.

Studio Ghibli for example, is absolutely fantastic. 4Kids...is obviously really bad.

[DigitalHermit]

-rage-

 

Easy there buddy...

 

Personally, I prefer subs over dubs because more of the atmosphere and emotion of the original is present... I can understand some Japanese but not at a natural level...

I only need the subs to guide me through more difficult dialogues and I am aware that the subs are not completely accurate...

 

If you wish to label me, then you're free to do so...

Just keep in mind that I have watched anime in English and Filipino dubs and I have encountered good dubs in both languages... There are more bad dubs than good, from what I've seen and the main problem that I had with them is that the atmosphere of the series is sometimes lost in translation... Not to mention some elements of comedy that cannot be carried over...

[vipirius]

-snip-

Some of the best examples of English Dubbing that I know of

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzamiya(seriously the English dub captured such a good flavor, better than the Japanese actors)

-snip-

I'm gonna have to strongly disagree on that one, the Japanese VA was worlds better than the dub IMO, especially Kyon. The dub for his internal monologues didn't capture his character IMO.

Also, the quality of Japanese dubs is generally much better simply because anime is such a huge industry there. The VA's focus their careers on anime voice acting, whereas for most dubbers in the US, anime is just a part of their job alongside other games movies or cartoons etc.

And my Japanese is nowhere near native speaker level but I can at least understand when the subs differ greatly from the original and frankly, have rarely encountered such a thing.

Not to mention fansubs are usually way better in terms of typesetting for stuff like signs, cell phones, papers, sound effects etc.

That being said, there are animes where the dub is better. Baccano and Black Lagoon come to mind, simply because the characters in those anime aren't Japanese so having the voice actors be the same nationality as the characters adds to the immersion. But 99% of the time I would prefer subbed, especially if one of my favorite voice actors has a role.

[TheProfosist]

My suggestion don't watch fairy tale. And if your looking for something similar Rave Master is just about as similar as you'll get. But really if you must there one piece, bleach, naruto, and many other shonen jump anime with 80 billion episodes and tons of filler available for you to watch.

[TheProfosist]

Oh as for sub vs dub it depends of the dub is good and if the dub it available yet when I choose to watch it.

[VG Docs]

My suggestion don't watch fairy tale.

That's the worst suggestion ever!