Sub or Dub

When watching anime (or anything with a language you don't understand), do you prefer having subtitles or dubbed voices?

I ask this because I just started watching a couple episodes of Bleach again (thank you Shattered Dreamer, leader of mortals) and to my surprise I now have the dubbed version.

I can't figure out which one I hate more -- the annoying English voices and occasionally bull:bou::bou::bou::bou: dialogue (I'm looking at you Orihime), or the crazy nihongo I can't understand but the stupid subtitles (everything is overstated in the subtitles. There's too many "in any case", "finally" etc etc).

But yeah discuss why I am a weeaboo traitor for not watching the Japanese version.

Before I was [somewhat] proficient at Japanese, I always preferred the dubbing.

Now that I know quite a bit, I only use subtitles as a reinforcement to the Japanese part itself. "What did that person just say?" Well there is a sort-of translation at the bottom of the screen if you need help.

The reason why there are too many "in any case" "finally" in subbing is because of Japanese's silly over used words like yappari and their intriguing extended predicates. The subbers are going for a more "accurate" translation. But to be fair, that isn't always the best way to translate. imo

ALSO this is my little opinion but if you don't like dubbing because they often come off as too cliché then why the hell are you watching anime in the first place anime is already full of clichés.


So ya, if it's German or Japanese, I'll go for sub over dub, but that's because I actually use the audio speech. Any other language, it's a toss-up because I really don't watch anything that isn't English, German or Japanese. :p

I prefer the English voices. There's usually a lot going on in anime and I don't want to miss the action.

I prefer hearing things in the language it was made.

Subs are for elitist pricks.

Localizations are superior in that they actually allow conversations to make sense, rather than literal translations in which all inflection, context, humor, wordplay, and flow are lost. Why is being closer to the original preferable? Literal translations are an approximation of meaning, subtitles can rarely express puns or culture specific terms or verbal gestures that have no equivalent meaning, the more literally accurate you attempt to be in a translation the less likely you are to convey the intended meaning.

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Originally Posted by NorthernChaosGod

Subs are for elitist pricks.

Localizations are superior in that they actually allow conversations to make sense, rather than literal translations in which all inflection, context, humor, wordplay, and flow are lost. Why is being closer to the original preferable? Literal translations are an approximation of meaning, subtitles can rarely express puns or culture specific terms or verbal gestures that have no equivalent meaning, the more literally accurate you attempt to be in a translation the less likely you are to convey the intended meaning.

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Thank you Julian for typing this, because I was too lazy to do it myself.

After having translated tons of stuff from Japanese into English, and vice versa, I can tell you that if you were to try to keep dialogue as close to the original as possible, the dialogue would feel a lot more clunkier and just overall, awkward.

I hate reading tv. It distracts me form what's going on like Shiny said. Most animes have too much going on and if i'm reading the words I'm not paying attention to it. So Dubs over Subs for me.

There's no all-encompassing answer to which is better, because localizations are not always superior and neither are the originals. It depends! Ichigo Mashimaro is an example of an anime with an English dub that makes no sense at times, ruins the humor, and is just plain unlistenable, so Japanese voices/English subtitles are preferred. Pokemon is an example of an anime with an English dub that is awesome and more fun than the original!

Some other examples: Spirited Away has a great English dub, but Howl's Moving Castle has a very unfitting one (Billy Crystal as Calcifer is the worst part), which I can't stand to listen to.

I'm pretty wary of dubs in general, though.

Choosing just one is so limiting. I go both ways.

Subs over dubs though I will occasionally indulge into dubs. Example: Sailor Moon, horrible dubbing but so nostalgic. Though if it is live action, most definitely subs otherwise it is just weird. Anyone ever watched a French dubbed episodes of Friends? It's weird.

I am so used to subs that it doesn't really prevent me from missing anything on screen. Moreover, my biggest pet peeve when watching anything is when the audio and the lips aren't in sync. Even when it is English (it happens sometimes), it irritates me to no ends.

As for anime subbing, I sorta half listen, half read it anyways. Also, I prefer minimal localization because I get most of the general cultural references, or if I don't there's usually TL's anyways. Plus, it is a cultural product, why shouldn't it reflect the cultural milieu it is from? I think it is part in parcel with consuming media from other cultures.

Meh, I'll do either. Sometimes I just pop in an anime while I do something else, and I obviously am not going to read it so it'll be the dub.

If the dub and the subs hypothetically were equally well/badly executed, I would go with the subs over the dub. But like Marshall Banana says, it varies. Sometimes the dub is better done, sometimes the subs are.

That's for animated series/movies, though - dubs in live action are almost always completely awkward and I'd go with subs over dub any day for that.

I watched the start of the movie High Fidelity and it was for some reason dubbed in like, German or something. It was a language I was completely unfamiliar with in any case. I didn't like it, it was weird. Live action requires subs.

I go both ways too (:jokey:) but it usually depends what version I see first. For instance, I watched the subbed version of Bleach first so now all their voices are keyed in as Japanese. When some random american starts trying to be Ichigo it's like "uh no you sound off".

However I first watched Death Note on Aus Tv so it was dubbed and I probably wouldn't be able to deal with subbed Death Note. It just feels wrong.

But either way to begin with :jess:

I prefer to watch things in their original language, be that english, japanese, french, or whatever else.

Only show I watched with subtitles was Gurren Lagann. If you've seen both the reason should be obvious. Same thing with Cowboy Bebop, only with dubs instead. Those are about the only two anime I really watched though.

For the most part, I can't stand the voice acting on American dubs. It's not exclusive to dubs, either: American animation in general seems to have these awful voices that drive me crazy, especially as they seem to rely more on "character" voices rather than more natural-sounding voices.

However, there are a few dubs of Japanese shows that are decent. The one for the original Gundam was reasonable and Karekano's wasn't terrible, either. But for the most part, I like listening to other languages, so I stick to subs unless they're difficult to find.

Weeabos, all of you.

I do both, as MB pointed out, there are just some shows where I feel the dub is better. Tenchi Muyo and YuYu Hakusho come to mind as I feel the Japanese VA's for Ryoko and Yusuke are both very unfitting for the type of characters they are. Course Japanese makes listening to some characters much more bearable and since I get enough of the cultural in-jokes and don't particulary like "puns", subs are not so bad.

If you ever get a chance though, the Spanish version of DBZ is still my favorite version of the series. :D

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

If you ever get a chance though, the Spanish version of DBZ is still my favorite version of the series. :D

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Spanish DBZ smurfing rules.

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Originally Posted by NorthernChaosGod

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

If you ever get a chance though, the Spanish version of DBZ is still my favorite version of the series. :D

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Spanish DBZ smurfing rules.

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O'rly? I'll have to check that out :D

As many have said, there are pluses and minuses to each. I personally consider the typical horrible dub equivalent to the shoddy literal sub translation. In the end I do end up leaning towards dubs in the end, as I can watch them while on the computer.

My #1 preference is actually a dub with the subtitles still on. That way I am getting the dub translation and the more literal japanese dialog. It's really funny in some scenes when they have a completely different meaning.

It really depends on the quality of the dub. For example, the Finnish dubs of most films from Disney's and Dreamworks's Animated Canon are superior to the originals (e.g. Aladdin and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas). In anime it's a different matter. I've liked the few English anime dubs I've heard (Fullmetal Alchemist, Bleach etc.) but the Japanese originals are very good too albeit with a different focus. It's interesting to compare the two. Sometimes the American dubs overdo it but nowadays they seem to hit the nail on the head more often than not, which is nice. :)

Anime? Dub (because the acting/dialog is crap regardless of language).

Live-action? Subtitled because dubbed live-action stuff looks absurd.

Depends on the show in question. Sometimes the English voice acting is better than the Japanese; an example I think most people would be familiar with is the voice acting for Goku. He's obnoxious as hell in the original Japanese and less so in English. As a general rule of thumb, though, I find the newer the anime is, the less difference there is in quality voice acting.

These days most of what I watch is subbed only because there aren't dubs out yet.

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Originally Posted by Mirage

I prefer to watch things in their original language, be that english, japanese, french, or whatever else.

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Me too. Sometimes when they dub something in another language, the voices just sound wrong or it doesn't have the same feel to it. I can't quite explain it, but I sort of prefer subs. But sometimes, dubs are just as good, if not better (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Full Metal Alchemist, FF VII:AC). But I hate when somebody says an anime is better in Japanese just because it's Japanese (as opposed to the quality of the VA, which is the most important thing)

It mostly depends on the voice acting and dialogue. Some things said in anime, even shows I love to death, sound extremely retarded. SWORD OF JUSTICE I COMMAND THEEEE sounds a bit less absurd when you're reading it at the bottom of the screen rather than hearing it in a language you've known all your life. Death Note's Potato Chip incident is a good example of this. When I watched it subbed with gibberish audio, I was like "oh that's clever of him" but upon hearing "I'll take a potato chip...AND EAT IT" with a dramatic Latin choir in the background I died laughing. This is why I enjoy foreign music so much; bad lyrics can ruin a perfectly wonderful sounding song, but if you never understand them then you'll just go on in blissful ignorance. Censorship related atrocities such as the Sailor Moon dub will also make me prefer the sub, but this isn't as much as a problem these days. The same can be said for voice acting; dubbing is definitely taken more seriously now.

When non of the above are an issue, I prefer the dub. It's easier to pick up on subtleties in someone's voice when they're speaking a language you understand. And if you're watching something totally whacko like FLCL then you might actually have to pause in order to read what's being said.

I guess it depends on the thing I'm watching if I'm honest.

I like watching dubbed anime at times mostly because I'm not interested in watching a japanese anime purely to have to read the text on the screen. I wanna just watch a damn anime. However sometimes I can't always get the dub so I'll be forced in to subs which is fine. I'm good either way but frankly the dubs get more of a thumbs up from me.

With movies it can really go either way, the Japanese version of The Ring was scary not because the film was actually scary but because the person watching it is busy reading the subtitles and then suddenly something will happen and it can make you jump that way that's what it was for me so yeah the American version didn't suck entirely it was just like watching the Japanese version without reading the subs neither one was particulary scary if you didn't read the subtitles. I remember watching the Swedish version of Stieg Larsson's "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" and it was dubbed however and I was like "OMFG this is some of the worst dubbing ever!" and couldn't physically bring myself to sit through it though I popped it on again in the Swedish with the subtitles and suddenly this entirely made sense. I guess it helps with any dubbing if the actors doing the dubbing actually capture the emotion/inflection of the vocals rather than just read the lines of the page. Good dubbing can be awesome, bad dubbing terrible.

That said, in Poland it is highly unpopular to subtitle any film, in fact all western films/TV are dubbed in to Polish. Often you can hear the original English audio track behind the dubbing which meant for me, even I could enjoy sitting down to watch a film with my ex-girlfriend's family. However I will say Polish dubbing is actually quite funny in that often an entire film is dubbed by 1 person. All lines, all parts will be read by the same person regardless of the gender of the role. This makes for funny conversations especially in Romantic comedies. Also Polish dubbing is completely and utterly devoid of emotion. There is absoloutely no change in tone or pitch for emotional scenes, try watching a sex scene with a deep guy's voice in a monotone pitch speaking the lines....funniest :bou::bou::bou::bou: ever!

dub

I've always had a preference for subs, but I don't entirely mind dubs if they're done well.

Apart from Death Note, I have trouble being able to stand the the dubbed voice actors. Most are emotionless or cringeworthy. Also, annoying dubbing such as 'Man! That was a tasty hamburger' after the character has clearly just eated a riceball drives me up the wall.

Also, in the context of cultural jokes, I would rather read (if given) the explaination of the joke and attempt to understand it than listen to some poor joke trying to be made to fill the space.

Which brings me onto the point of the changes. I enjoyed Death Note because it was true to the original. Unlike 'Cardcaptors' which not only changed 3/4 of the dialogue, but rearranged the episodes and order of things.

So yeah, I watch sub. [/RANT]

I don't have a problem with watching dubs but I prefer subtitled with japanese audio.

Subs are usually better because that way you can't hear how smurfing horrible the dialogue is in anime shows (that's why it's for kids only lol). Also it sounds smurfing retarded when they dub the show and then keep the original Japanese names.

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Originally Posted by I Don't Need A Name

Which brings me onto the point of the changes. I enjoyed Death Note because it was true to the original. Unlike 'Cardcaptors' which not only changed 3/4 of the dialogue, but rearranged the episodes and order of things.

So yeah, I watch sub. [/RANT]

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You know I've always heard this about Cardcaptors. I've seen a few episodes of it and a few episodes of the original Cardcaptor Sakura, and I never really noticed any big differences other than Madison (whatever the chick with the camcorder was called in the Japanese version) no longer having a lesbocrush on Sakura. I guess I just didn't watch enough of it.

I did watch all of dubbed Sailor Moon and all of the uncut original though, and they did the same basic thing you're talking about. They even changed the genders of some of the characters, some for no apparent reason.

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Originally Posted by kotora

Subs are usually better because that way you can't hear how smurfing horrible the dialogue is in anime shows (that's why it's for kids only lol). Also it sounds smurfing retarded when they dub the show and then keep the original Japanese names.

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Good trolling.

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Originally Posted by charliepanayi

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Originally Posted by kotora

Subs are usually better because that way you can't hear how smurfing horrible the dialogue is in anime shows (that's why it's for kids only lol). Also it sounds smurfing retarded when they dub the show and then keep the original Japanese names.

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Good trolling.

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Internet Parable 36:

Just because someone has an opinion that you don't agree with and states said opinion on a message board, much less before you yourself have posted, does not make them a troll.

There are people who think anime in all but a handful of cases is badly written, badly drawn and terribly voiced. As someone who used to be a self-proclaimed anime fan/otaku and who still on extremely rare occasions subjects themselves to said tripe, I can vouch for this being a legit view to hold.

It's an opinion. Deal with it.

I'll have to admit I did put in that for kids line just to get on the anime fanboys' nerves. Just couldn't resist.

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Originally Posted by kotora

I'll have to admit I did put in that for kids line just to get on the anime fanboys' nerves. Just couldn't resist.

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I figured (the "lol" gave it away) but I can't disagree with the rest of it.

But a lot of anime that you have these twenty year old dudes sitting around watching and going on about (Naruto and DBZ for example) really are for kids, but you have American weeaboos insisting they aren't.

Not that I care. I love to sit and watch the old 90s Disney films on occasion. I'm not about to try to sit and make up some reasoning of why they are SOOOO DEEEEEEEEEP and totally not aimed at small children though.

Whoa whoa whoa whoa don't diss my disney. Pocahontas is totally deep yo. :colbert:

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Originally Posted by DMKA

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Originally Posted by charliepanayi

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Originally Posted by kotora

Subs are usually better because that way you can't hear how smurfing horrible the dialogue is in anime shows (that's why it's for kids only lol). Also it sounds smurfing retarded when they dub the show and then keep the original Japanese names.

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Good trolling.

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Internet Parable 36:

Just because someone has an opinion that you don't agree with and states said opinion on a message board, much less before you yourself have posted, does not make them a troll.

There are people who think anime in all but a handful of cases is badly written, badly drawn and terribly voiced. As someone who used to be a self-proclaimed anime fan/otaku and who still on extremely rare occasions subjects themselves to said tripe, I can vouch for this being a legit view to hold.

It's an opinion. Deal with it.

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They're pretty much admitted they were trolling. And it is an opinion, a very ignorant one, on a par with some idiot who says that all Disney animation/Western comics is lowbrow rubbish. So yeah, I'll call it trolling thanks. However I eagerly look forward to the day I too leave my interest in anime/manga behind me and start regarding it as tripe!

Anyway, sub or dub? Depends on the anime and how good the dub is. If it's live-action, always sub. This whole 'I don't like to read subtitles' thing makes little sense to me.

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Originally Posted by DMKA

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Originally Posted by kotora

I'll have to admit I did put in that for kids line just to get on the anime fanboys' nerves. Just couldn't resist.

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I figured (the "lol" gave it away) but I can't disagree with the rest of it.

But a lot of anime that you have these twenty year old dudes sitting around watching and going on about (Naruto and DBZ for example) really are for kids, but you have American weeaboos insisting they aren't.

Not that I care. I love to sit and watch the old 90s Disney films on occasion. I'm not about to try to sit and make up some reasoning of why they are SOOOO DEEEEEEEEEP and totally not aimed at small children though.

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Well at least Disney knows how to animate their stuff beautifully and the writing actually makes sense in most of the movies. Can't say that about most mainstream anime despite weaboos saying otherwise.The only anime I still bother to check out these days are the feature films, because they're pretty much the only ones to bother with doing things somewhat right.

For me it really depends on a multitude of factors and I don't really hold one above the other. It depends on what I'm watching (something with tons of action is usually going to be dub, and if it's mostly talk-based then subs), it also hangs on how much attention I put into it and also the quality of the translation or voice actors. :monster:

I've found dubs usually give me a better visceral feel of the action, while subs generally give more of the original context. I usually try out both, and afterwards whichever I like better I use from then on out.

Some of anime I like best subbed include the Oh My Goddess and Vampire Princess Miyu OVAs.

The Fruits Basket dub is spectacular. Although it has two sub tracks, one literal and one of the dub track.

Bottom line, include both options.

I guess I'm a little late to this discussion, but when I have the choice, I like to have the choice. The majority of my anime intake is things that have not had the opportunity to be dubbed though, so I generally just go for subtitles by default.

I'll admit though, if I have seen something in Japanese and do not have the option to watch it again in Japanese on an official release (such as on the awesome streaming services of Hulu), I do get mildly disappointed.

With the little amount of anime I watch I don't really care, I usually prefer subs because the dubs are so annoying, but If it's a comedy anime then the original language is usually annoying as well. I can tell you that I prefer elfin lied in it's original language, and that's probably my favourite anime.

However with foreign films (which I watch a lot more often than anime) I always make sure it's subbed. The subs aren't done by fans which means they make more sense to read, and the original language has better inflection and is usually a lot more pretty. Especially on French films.

I watched this one french film on schoolies and my god it was the most beautiful film. But english would have ruined it, I'm sure.

I don't really mind either way apart from Kare Kano later on you couldn't watch it dubbed and the subs were terrible so i had to read the books instead.

Some dubs are excellent.

Axis Powers Hetalia is superior in English, as they accents, language quirks, and jokes are more accurate and culturally relevant.

If the dub is high quality, hell yeah. (Which is a growing factor, dubbing is becoming increasingly better.)

I'd prefer to watch poorly-dubbed anime in subs, though.