Sub or Dub

[Relena Peacecraft]

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.

[NorthernChaosGod]

Weeabos, all of you.

[Wolf Kanno]

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.

[NorthernChaosGod]

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

Spanish DBZ smurfing rules.

[VeloZer0]

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

Spanish DBZ smurfing rules.

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

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.

[Kossage]

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.

[DMKA]

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

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

[Ouch!]

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.

[Hot Shot]

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

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)

[Jessweeee♪]

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.

[Iceglow]

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 ever!

[escobert]

dub

[Momiji]

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

[I Don't Need A Name]

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]

[Peegee]

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