You Elitist Bastards!

[Wolf Kanno]

I like a good healthy mix. It mostly depends on what language i see/hear the anime in first, though I tend to favour the japanese, just because they usually seem to 'get' the characters more. Saying that there are a few animes i have on dvd which I love the english dubs for - gungrave, ghost in the shell, elfen lied, and the ghibli films for example.

But it all comes down to personal taste. However i still get irritated by those who are so close-minded that they cant accept people enjoying a different version to them. When they just take it for granted that the japanese version would be better, it really burns my brain.

*just remembered a note on my life-to-do-list... must learn japanese.....*

Originals are always better, be they English, Japanese, German, French or whatsoever. And then, listening to different languages on a regular basis ensures that you don't forget them as quickly (~5 years) as you learned them (providing you know those languages).

On the behalf of anime in particular, I think the Japanese female actors just sound more appealing then the English ones. This is, of course, absolutely subjective and is my personal quirk. But then my girlfriend is Japanese, so I could understand why.

This just reminded me of this
So You Want To learn Japanese...

I know a Japanese teacher that hands this out to his class on the first day of class and though it's kinda' mean spirited, those of us who have actually tried to learn the language know that this is pretty accurate.

The Japanese voices usually just sound better, an fit the characters better. So I prefer Japanese with subtitles. An I hate it when they get celebritys to do the voices. Their not looking for people's voices that fit the character, they're just hoping the celebrity voices will attract a wider audience, which is pathetic.

Lord I completely agree:rolleyes2 Most real actors don't realize that VA is very different from normal acting. I was worried when Miyazaki got picked up by Disney but I'm actually quite impressed with how they handled the movies so far. Though I still feel Jean Reno should have done the english version of Porco Rosso as well.

Also, American voice actors in anime were (and to some degree still are) generally not as good as the Japanese voice actors. This isn't because Japan has better voice actors, but is instead because of the budget involved in bringing anime over. While it's more popular now, there aren't a whole lot of talented voices who work in the American anime industry right now, and it shows. Some anime do have good dubs, but it's often pretty hit-or-miss.

This is very true. In the last few years the quality of dubs have really gone up. Geneon and Funimation definetly have a good amount of talent and have grown immensly lately. Japan still has better talent but I think their english counterparts are starting to catch up.

For me its not that i dont like english-dubbed anime...i just prefer to hear the voices as they are intended! I guess im more used to hearing the jap voices anyway (though im not jap)! I prefer some english dubbing in some anime movies...any Hayao Miazaki (sp?) movie has got some pretty good voice acting lol! Psh i dont know its all a matter of preference to me...

But you gotta admit though lol have you seen the dubbing done on Naruto? that just sounds royally awkward lol!

I have issues with the english version of Naruto but I understand that it's due to me having watched the series up to the filler in japanese long before it was ever translated. So I'm predisposed to the original voices. I originally hated the english version but I still watch it. Though I'm a bit miffed about certain things being removed, this is due to the "morality police" in my country rather than the english being just bad. (remember they do have uncut videos of the series now in english As time passed, I watched the VA's begin to really get to know their characters and the quality is actually pretty good. I still have a few issues I find "troublesome" but overall, I'm beginning to like the english version.