Sub vs Dub

C

Chunk

Completely Average High School Student
So, I couldn't find any threads that cover this. I'm new to the world of Anime but I know a couple of people who have been into it for a while now.

One of them swears blind that the only way to watch Anime is in sub titled form. He argues that dubs take away too much of the original story and don't compare to a sub titled version.

Personally, I don't mind either. I can watch something with sub titles and it doesn't bother me. However, I sometimes like to watch things whilst relaxing and I just find it far easier to do this with a dubbed version. Sub titles just require that bit more concentration.

So basically ... discuss. Does it make any difference? Is one much better than the other? Etc.
 
Watching subtitles is sometimes the most frustrating and annoying thing, EVER. Especially when the subbers place some Japanese word in the sentence instead of english and you're all "Wait, what?" Then you have the sub elitists all "Zomg, da dub suxs lulz." or "The Japanese voice cast are perfect" or even "Anime should be watched in it's original language." That's just straight up crap. Even if I find some of the Japanese voices of a character superior to the english I won't disregard an entire dub cast because of it. ;/

I for one like both, though slightly prefer dubs, as they're easier to sit and watch and I don't have to read constantly, plus I can sit back and relax as it's my OWN language that's being spoken when I watch.

So yeah, I prefer dubs, they don't destroy any series, at all, maybe even make it better.
 
Lupus Inu said:
when the subbers place some Japanese word in the sentence instead of english and you're all "Wait, what?"
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I agree with that. They stick in a Japanese word and a explanation of the word pops up on the screen but it comes and goes so fast that you have to track back and find out it says something stupid like 'bento is japanese for lunchbox'. Why not just say lunchbox??

I do however prefer watching things in the original language though I will try out dubs. If the dub is high quality (like Cowboy Bebop) then i'll just watch it through with that. However if it's dubbed by ADV (which I think are one of the worst dub teams) then I'll give the dub a miss. The ADV dub for Excel Saga nearly made me write off the show it was that bad. Thank got I caught an episode of it fansubbed. The dub for Eva was so over the top at time's it just came over as a comedy.
 
Lupus Inu said:
Watching subtitles is sometimes the most frustrating and annoying thing, EVER. Especially when the subbers place some Japanese word in the sentence instead of english and you're all "Wait, what?" Then you have the sub elitists all "Zomg, da dub suxs lulz." or "The Japanese voice cast are perfect" or even "Anime should be watched in it's original language." That's just straight up crap. Even if I find some of the Japanese voices of a character superior to the english I won't disregard an entire dub cast because of it. ;/

I for one like both, though slightly prefer dubs, as they're easier to sit and watch and I don't have to read constantly, plus I can sit back and relax as it's my OWN language that's being spoken when I watch.

So yeah, I prefer dubs, they don't destroy any series, at all, maybe even make it better.
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all depends on the quality of the dub, most animes i'm happy to watch the dubs in, but then u get a few with terrible dubs (Mai-hime/otome for example) which i wouldn't touch with a bargepole
 
I'm a sub man myself, but i certainly wont bite people's heads off for their choices, its your choice and so long as you enjoy the show who cares?

Its fun to gradually pick up bits and pieces of vocabulary during a sub, a real feel good feeling when you pick out one word out of 50 and say i know what that means! "Lunchbox!" Woo!

Education aside.... :p I do watch dubs from time to time simply because in action anime especially you cant appreciate whats going on when your eyes are glued to the bottom 1/10 of the screen. Oh and if the sub team was particularly mean in their timing/translation (I'm looking at you GITS 1st Gig) so they give you half a second to read two lines of dialogue....or nothing at all! Grrr.

The only thing that gets me with bad dubs (aside from the terrible voice acting) is the way they'll sometimes remove elements or even entire plot points because they are not thought to be "suitable" for a western audience. The first dub of Cardcaptor Sakura (which i caught a few eps of years ago) cut out anything to do "improper relationships", now that im watching the subbed version the thought of cutting out something that significant is....well wrong.
 
Subtitles are fine so long as you can read quickly enough not to miss out on taking in the artwork, etc. You'll also hear it in the original language.

Dubs are fine, in the majority of cases you won't lose anything of significance in the translation. Also, you can have one on whilst doing something else and not miss out.

Dubtitles are not fine. Die in a fire.

Lupus Inu said:
Especially when the subbers place some Japanese word in the sentence instead of english and you're all "Wait, what?"
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fansubberz2.jpg
 
That Death Note pic was a good example. I remember I had to keep pausing it just to see what the japanese word for the bullet train ment or somthing like that as well as other words. Despite this, I still prefer the sub myself. I Usually lean towards the japanese voices as the japanese women have a talent for being able to put on decent though not deep male voices(Naruto, Kenshin) IMP.
 
Personally, I only watch subs of something if the dub has not been started yet i.e Naruto and Bleach. I started watching them before the dubs were started, consequently I have continued watching subs of them. As long as I know something has been dubbed I prefer to watch it in dub. But, sometimes this is impossible, for example rave master has a dub, but it is impossible to find anywhere, whereas it is possible to find the sub....I am still deciding whether I am to give up on finding the dub or not. Everything that I can find in dub from the point at which I want to watch the anime, I watch in dub :D

As for people that go on about how story is missing and stuff, I am yet to see evidence of this. Or, if this does happen, it is so insifnificant, that it really doesn't matter.... I really hate people that go on like that :/
 
megagold5 said:
As for people that go on about how story is missing and stuff, I am yet to see evidence of this. Or, if this does happen, it is so insifnificant, that it really doesn't matter.... I really hate people that go on like that :/
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See -
Liquid Skin said:
The first dub of Cardcaptor Sakura (which i caught a few eps of years ago) cut out anything to do "improper relationships", now that im watching the subbed version the thought of cutting out something that significant is....well wrong.
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It does happen occasionally - or at least it did. I can't think of any recent examples, however.
 
Ramadahl said:
It does happen occasionally - or at least it did. I can't think of any recent examples, however.
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Well the Love Hina dub removed pretty much all the sex jokes. Which given that the show is something like 80% sex jokes it's not that good a choice. An example I can remember...

He accidentally trips and see's up a girls skirt then she punches him in the face sending him flying into a door and says...

Japanese: "P... Pink"

English: "So that's what it's like to hold a girls hand..."
 
Yeh, but if you just watch the dub, as long as it still makes perfect sence and there really seems that nothing is missing, I don't count it as significant enough to matter. Not that I won't probably contradict myself with this statement at some point :p

I thought as the love hina thing as a more subtle way of pretty much the same thing, I think that made it slightly funnier... I'm so twisted....
 
megagold5 said:
Yeh, but if you just watch the dub, as long as it still makes perfect sence and there really seems that nothing is missing, I don't count it as significant enough to matter.
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Sometimes you just get a different interpretation of the characters in the dub, it may make sense within the dubbed version but it might not be for the better.

Also saying 'Pink' after seeing up a girls skirt is hilarious. That's the only line out of the series I really remember. XD
 
It really, really depends on both casts and who i think does the series more justice. For example;

Love Hina - When i first started watching anime i was dub only, and i stuck with it through all the specials and Love Hina again. But if i was going to watch it again i would have to go with the original sub.

Cowboy Bebop - Again i could only listen to the dub on this one, the sub is decent and i think the dub cast is just brillaint.

Tenchi Muyo! / Macross Plus - I could only watch these in dub, again i thought they were brilliant.

Kanon 2006 - This one is sub only, there is no way any other cast could top the performance in this.

The biggest pain in the sub/dub dilemma is the Ghibli movies, the dubs and subs are just simply fantastic
 
I'm a sucker for subs. I'm a fast reader I guess, and I prefer hearing the original language, (probably for a lot of the elitist reasons given above) :oops:

I'm not a snob, I'm just drawn that way.

But the exception for me is Steamboy. An anime set in Victorian England with a dub cast including Patrick Stewart and Al Molina just outweighs the Japanese cast. And that's even with me preferring Ann Suzuki to Anna Paquin.
 
I usually try to watch both so i can make an informed decision. Most of the time i prefer the sub's but there are exceptions like cowboy bebop or hellsing.
 
If the dub's any good, I'll watch it dubbed. If it's not I'll watch it subbed. I prefer watching stuff dubbed partly because I'm lazy and partly because it's easier to catch the subtitlties in the voice acting. The problem is that a significant minority of dubs aren't that good, particuarly older dubs. I always try the dub first though, and only switch to sub if I can't stand it.
 
if i'm watching it i'll have both on as you can get more insight into the story (the only one i can think of at the moment is that episode of gitssac 2nd gig where paz is framed i think the 2 texts complemented each other there).

Also as i watch most things in the background at the moment its dubs all the way (better than dronedronedrone sound effect *look up, missed it* drone).
 
WTFDaveMustaine said:
megagold5 said:
Yeh, but if you just watch the dub, as long as it still makes perfect sence and there really seems that nothing is missing, I don't count it as significant enough to matter.
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Sometimes you just get a different interpretation of the characters in the dub, it may make sense within the dubbed version but it might not be for the better.

Also saying 'Pink' after seeing up a girls skirt is hilarious. That's the only line out of the series I really remember. XD
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Though mentioning that, in the Negima dub, when Negi sees Asuna's panties he says "bear" to indicate that he saw the design rather than saying something else.
 
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