sub and dub discussion

[Animefreak17]

lately iv been watching anime reviews and there this guy saying that anime fans are ranting and moaning about dubs how how bad there are,

i have no problem with dubs im happy with dubs, it saves me from stopping the dvd and reading them or reading them while playing the dvd, if death note was in sub only i wouldn't of enjoyed it as much as i did, i wouldn't of Admired the anime and i wouldn't of understood what was going on half the time, i can understand sometimes what they mean, the actors not putting Enough effort in to it or they have the wrong voice actors playing the characters ect ect,

yes i understand what there coming from, cause if its a good anime and the voice acting is wrong or bad id understand * some say baccono was bad but i thought it was fantastic*

there are a few that i was a lil pissed off but not enough for me to start ranting and moaning * cause i was enjoying the story to notice anything*

in fact i cant tell the difference from good acting to bad acting/ bad choice for voice or good choice for voice for characters. * someone fill me in on this do i need help understanding whats good and bad choices for characters*

like i said i choose dubs over subs so i can watch the whole thing instead of the bottom part of the screen.

fans should stop complaining about how bad the dubbing is * for them * and enjoy the story and animation

 

[Mangaranga]

Whether you watch sub or dub is down to your personal preference. Some people only watch subs because that is the original language of the show.

Personally I don't really have a preference for either but if I'm watching a show as it airs or it's a BDrip, subs 99% of the time. The dub and higher quality is what I purchase the Blurays for, however if I watch a show I have not seen before and find the dub to be inadequate, (Is that the right word?) then I will watch subs.

For example, I don't like the new dub cast for Shana so I watched it subbed. I don't like the Panty and Stocking dub because it sounds unnatural and has excessive swearing. I don't like the Penguindrum dub because I don't like Kanba's voice, and to a lesser extent Himari's (That and they re-dubbed the noise the penguins made to make them more annoying). Not to say that I would never go back and watch these shows dubbed, but for the first ride through I'll take the more tolerable route.

You also have to factor in who has been cast for the role of a particular character. Sometimes characters in dubs sound too different than they were originally meant to sound/have been miscast (Clannad springs to mind), or have bad voice actors (Yes they do exist).

Ultimately the voice casting usually decides for me which language I watch a show in (Whether it be English or Japanese).

 

[ayase]

in fact i cant tell the difference from good acting to bad acting/ bad choice for voice or good choice for voice for characters. * someone fill me in on this do i need help understanding whats good and bad choices for characters*

Sometimes characters in dubs sound too different than they were originally meant to sound/have been miscast

That's what makes the decision for me (along obviously with terrible hammy acting). If a show has a dub I generally listen to the first episode subbed, then again with the dub. If I think the dub has done a good job of adapting the original Japanese and the acting is of a decent quality (and fits the characters) then I keep watching, if not I switch back to subs.

 

[bakum4tsu]

Sorry people but for me, anime its to be seen with jap audio and thats it. The audio could even be in portuguese (Im from portugal) that i wouldnt care at all. Anime without jap audio can never be the same or have the same impact in my opinion. For me, japanese its music to my ears and helps me learning new words/expressions, believe me.

Believe me or not, it might be stupidity too, I have never watched everything from Afro Samurai because of that. Nice animation but the audio totally kills me. I just cant stand it. First Squad is another recent anime that doesnt have jap audio, at least the european version, so I refure to watch it... at least for now.

For me, all releases can be sub only that i dont mind, more disc space to put some extras or whatever.

I know most of all releases sells better because of having dub and if they have to get that for the market to survive, so be it, but i cant live without it for sure.

 

[Rui]

I don't enjoy dubs at all. That's not to say that I find Japanese acting universally better; I don't watch US cartoons dubbed into Japanese either ;p

But I have never once in my life enjoyed watching a dub, and would rather go without than watch my anime that way. The original voice acting is no less than 50% of the entire anime experience, for me, no less (and I back this up by going to seiyuu events and buying hundreds of drama/radio CDs). For me, replacing the acting is on the same level as replacing the visuals ^^;

I would like to state that I have absolutely no problem with other people enjoying dubs. So long as they aren't trapping me in a room and making me watch them somehow, then we can coexist. Having said that as a small matter of principle I wish certain anime dub studios/directors would teach the actors how to pronounce character names; if not correctly, at least consistently within scenes. I don't think it's the individual actors' fault necessarily but it makes me twitch at times when various characters are conversing and each pronounces someone's name as though it's a completely different word, especially as my hearing isn't perfect to begin with.

R

 

[Mangaranga]

I'm also under the impression that voice acting as a whole is a massively bigger thing in Japan than it is here. Both Standards wise and the number of Voice Actors who lend their voices to anime, so you could say Japanese Voice Acting is usually done to a higher quality than English dub acting.
The same cast of English voice actors are usually reused for dubs too, hence why we usually hear the same people in everything (I'm looking at you, Brittney Karbowski). You can only hear a person's voice in shows so many times before you get a bit sick of it...

Equally though, some shows which have been well dubbed feel odd watching in japanese afterwards.
Black lagoon, Durarara and Baccano i'll use as examples.

Code Geass also does to some extent, I'm watching Kaze's BD now and it feels odd watching it without Johnny Yong Bosch and Yuri Lowenthal's voices.

There are also some shows which I feel just can't be dubbed like Bakemonogatari or Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.
This is what I find annoying about some dub only watchers, not only do they miss out on these great shows, but they also attack domestic sub only releases for not including a dub, acting like it's something which the companies just couldn't be bothered to do and that it's been put out that way as a cheap cash grab.
Unfortunately, unless a show is dubbed and sold cheaply it won't usually sell to a portion of the potential audience.

 

[Animefreak17]

but look at it this way we do have the choice of listening to it in english or japanese so i dont see the problem, if you only want the japanese dub then watch the japanese dub.

thing is if i was interested in watching the japanese dub then id watch it after watching the english dub,

sometimes subs can be screwed up as well

 

[Mangaranga]

sometimes subs can be screwed up as well

Only if your name's MangaUK/Kaze

but look at it this way we do have the choice of listening to it in english or japanese so i dont see the problem, if you only want the japanese dub then watch the japanese dub.

I was specifically talking about releases with no dub. Dubs aren't cheap to produce, and as a company it's not always cost effective to dub every license.
If the release is Dual Audio then yes there is no problem, but if a release has Japanese audio only then a reasonable size of your potential audience will just shaft the show aside for not having an English option. Not only do dub purists lose out on shows but, as is a case with the UK market, most of the time it's not viable to release shows sub only.

 

[Rosencrantz]

sometimes subs can be screwed up as well

Only if your name's MangaUK/Kaze

Sentai are guilty of messing up subs on occasion, I spotted at least 3 missing words in Qwasar of Stigmata and Ep6 of the World God only Knows signs track is off by about 2 subtitles.

Overall I'll watch the dub if there is one but I have no issues with buying a sub only release. Dubbing has greatly improved over the years but people are right in that the Japanses track will tend to be the better, afterall it's the original and they care so much more about getting it right.

 

[st_owly (witch)]

My main problem with dubs is that I really am not keen on American accents. I have listened to some dubs and enjoyed them (Original FMA, for example) but I find most of them to be incredibly irritating, especially for shows set in Japan.

 

[Ian Wolf]

I normally watch subs. There is one anime I would like to listen to dubbed however which is Dog Days. This is because the main character in it is half-Japanese and half-Cornish, and I really hope that the Americans would at least try to do a Cornish accent. If they did however I fear it might end up like Dick Van Dyke's cockney.

 

[PandoraHane]

I enjoy certain people in dubs but I find there is always someone I think was cast without thought. I usually watch sub and then have a sample of the dub to see what it's like. There are a few dubs I like but I am most definitely sub. There's talent within each section without a doubt and I'd never criticise someone for enjoying dubs. Basically, to each their own. If you enjoy the show that way then that's the way you should watch it

I love the whole drama CD, character songs side of sub too. I just have more favourite seiyuu than I can name (Junko Minagawa). The people cast in sub just tend to be closer to how I imagine the voices of characters.

 

[Rui]

I spotted at least 3 missing words in Qwasar of Stigmata

I'm impressed you were able to pay that much attention to the subs at all during that particular show :lol:

In all seriousness I notice a fair few errors in US subtitles too, though the plague of missing/faulty subtitles in the defective disc thread goes a step beyond that.

My main problem with dubs is that I really am not keen on American accents. I have listened to some dubs and enjoyed them (Original FMA, for example) but I find most of them to be incredibly irritating, especially for shows set in Japan.

Yes, this bothers me too. I think if a person watches a lot of US television it probably sounds much more natural, but I don't - so to hear US cultural references and pronunciation slung into a foreign production makes it even more grating than a dub should ordinarily sound, and attempts at subtle references with regional American accents make no sense to me without having learned much about the country. Some voice actors in the States can speak very clear American English without making it sound as though the entire series has been transplanted to the heart of Texas, but a lot either can't or don't seem to try. Though this might be the fault of the directors rather than individual performers.

Of course, for people who watch a lot of American cultural imports already the Americanisation is probably not an issue

I really hope that the Americans would at least try to do a Cornish accent.

Good luck with that; given the accents in Hetalia I'd fear for them trying to do a specific one even if they noticed it wasn't just the generic 'British' accent everyone seems to associate with this place. He might end up with an Australian drawl.

R

 

[st_owly (witch)]

One series I do wish would get a dub, but it would have to be a very well done one, preferably with British actors, and the dub script written by someone who understands the society of that period, is Victorian Romance Emma. It's weird hearing people in Victorian England speaking Japanese.

 

[ayase]

My main problem with dubs is that I really am not keen on American accents. I have listened to some dubs and enjoyed them (Original FMA, for example) but I find most of them to be incredibly irritating, especially for shows set in Japan.

Yes, this bothers me too. I think if a person watches a lot of US television it probably sounds much more natural, but I don't - so to hear US cultural references and pronunciation slung into a foreign production makes it even more grating than a dub should ordinarily sound, and attempts at subtle references with regional American accents make no sense to me without having learned much about the country. Some voice actors in the States can speak very clear American English without making it sound as though the entire series has been transplanted to the heart of Texas, but a lot either can't or don't seem to try. Though this might be the fault of the directors rather than individual performers.

Of course, for people who watch a lot of American cultural imports already the Americanisation is probably not an issue

I don't watch a lot of American TV (I don't watch a lot of TV full stop) but accents don't bother me. There are enough diverse accents in the UK alone that as far as I'm concerned, the various accents of our former colonies are little different in their deviation from RP than those of London, Liverpool, Leeds or Glasgow. It is nice to see British characters get suitable accents (or at least amusing attempts at them) rather than simply having an undisguised American voice, but then I suppose I could use the same logic to say that English language VAs should put on Japanese accents... and that wouldn't end well.

 

[Rosencrantz]

I spotted at least 3 missing words in Qwasar of Stigmata

I'm impressed you were able to pay that much attention to the subs at all during that particular show :lol:

That's probably at least in part of the reason I only spotted 3

The other aspect is that the errors themseleves tended to be missing 2-3 letter words, which in general I found my brain was automatically filling in and then flagging up that something was wonky.