(This is being cross-posted on various boards.)



I recently purchased Neon Genesis Evangelion and I noticed that the subtitles were difficult to read when viewing Japanese w/English subtitles. I also have Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie, Escaflowne: The Movie, Yu Yu Hakusho: The Movie - Poltergeist Report, Mobile Suit Gundam F91: The Motion Picture, Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, and Getter Robo Armageddon. I’ve never had issues with any of the above animes in regards to being able to read the subtitles. I know each company uses their own staff, but does it make sense to have subtitles that the viewer has trouble seeing? In all honesty, I may end up re-watching it in English, but I’m always gonna be partial to the English with subs. The only thing I can think of to make it easier to read the subs is to sit closer to the TV, but my eyes are already bad enough (wear glasses). In this case, I’d swear dub would be better than sub. What do you think?

if the subtitles are done right which for the most part they usually are, i stick with the subs. Most of the time the original lang. voice actors do a much better job than the english, so i try to watch it in the original intended language. But there have been those dvd's that I have watched dub'd and liked better. Inuyasha was one where I think the english voice acting is A LOT better than the original lang.

There are some anime where I have trouble keeping up with the subs. Evangelion was one of those animes, with all the technical stuff they talk about. Usually I watch the anime on the pc so I use winamp to skip back and forth with the arrows if I don't finish the text in time. But these days I burn some anime and watch it on my DVD player instead, but most of the time the subs arent a problem. I prefer watching anime in it's original language because the voce actors often do a much better job than the dubs.

Depends for me. I watch most of my anime through subs which I'm fine with, sometimes I do find that I have to pause just to make sure I read everything especially in those technical animes.

Otherwise, if the dubs sound fine to me then I go with dubs, I do purchase some anime on DVD and I don't like reading on my TV screen very much especially when I just want to watch something at night. I know some voices can be annoying though, but it does't happen all that much at least not the animes I buy.

I have found that some Japanese voicing can be annoying so I stick with dubs when that happens.

Not once have I ever heard a really good dub. I've heard a few that are decent enough to make the anime watchable, but usually they're just not able to capture everything that watching the original language version captures.

Same goes for foreign films, I can't watch dubs because usually you may miss out on some important pieces of dialogue because they have to make the words match lip movement. Some things end up being mistranslated or don't come out right when dubbed.

Ditto. I don't have any problem with dubs, but I have seen a few where the actor isn't bad, but they don't capture the same charm the character has in the original japanese. Like I've seen loud and boisterous characters simply lose that bit of their personality and mellow out, big time.

I guess the only time I have a problem with dubs is when the character sounds like a guy they randomly picked up in a store who was just there to buy a quart of milk. XD You know, dead and emotionless.

but I admit, though I prefer watching subs if I can help it, it sucks when I'm watching a subbed anime and am not able to keep up with the pace that a character is speaking. You know, when you're forced to rewind or pause just to finish reading, haha. It makes me feel pretty lame.

With Sailor Moon the Dub is horrible (voice wise), but it's what I grew up on so I watch it dubbed now. But the subs would be better. I may just finish up in English and then watch it in Japanese with Subs.

I hate dubs, it happens with most animations here in Holland, cause they want to make it viewable for the little ones, so they have dutchs dubs, wich sounds absolutely horrible.
In every animations you get the same voice overs, as in Matt from Digimon had the same voice over as Ash from Pokemon (as an example) and the voices were indentical, not even changed voices or acted a bit, nope exactly the same.

The same I have with most dubs is that it sounds unreal to me, if I see a Japanese character with an American voice, it just doesn't fit in my opinion, so when I watch Japanese stuff, I want to hear Japanese voices, often they have much better voices anyway.

On the other hand, when I am watching an American cartoon, I do not want to hear Japanese voices either, cause that sounds unreal too, so I prefer to watch anime/animations with subs and the original language spoken.

I can watch Studio Ghibli films in dubs (well at least the two I've seen, spirited away and Howl's moving castle) but unless I'm really tired I never watch with dubs on any other film. Normally it just doesn't sound right... Often it sounds too 'Whacky' in an american accent...

I'm the same with anything like that though... Not just anime... any foreign films are usually better in subs (except French films...)

I like both. When I watch DVDs with my friends, then I like watching the subtitles, movies should really be watched how they're supposed too. Unless it's horrible, like Yu-gi-oh (I hate that show).

Dubs could be really god, some shows (I haven't seen the Japanese version for alot of them) I think have good voices. Of course, other shows go and get all retarded on you. Like Ash from pokemon. The American voice SUCKED. Others, like Inuyasha, have good dubs.

If the adapters here in America would stop focusing on money like the souless zombies that they are, then maybe we could get some good dubs so I don't end up reading the episode.

Even though there's the occasional voice that doesn't go with the character at all, I prefer dubs to subs. But I do like both. Not to make it sound like I can't multitask, but when I'm trying to watch something, I'd rather watch the animation than the words at the bottom of the screen. Then again when I'm watching foreign films I like subtitles more than dubs. So I don't know what I like. Haha.

Typically I prefer the original japanese vc. However, I do like CB and Trigun in dubs. CB because I like Ed's english voice actor better than the Japanese one. And Trigun because Wolfwood's kansai ben in the Japanese cast somehow seems strange. Only thing that bothers me is that sometimes even decent fansub groups will leave out entire sentences or distort/change the meaning of stuff. I usually don't watch my offical dvds with subs on, so I don't know how good the offical subs are.

I agree with the majority of you: I'm a sub girl. I just think most things are best in their original form. Like this for example: I cannot imagine watching Avatar in Japanese, it's already excellent in english. And japanese shows/movies are the same, I like to see it the way the creators intended it to be seen. And I just don't like some dubs anyway. Have any of you heard Weiss Kreuz in english?!?! It's AWFUL, awful stuff. Like Alazuli said, they sound like they are dead and emotionless, no knack for the characters at ALL.

I buy all my anime from the store, some are hong kong translated, though I recently learned these may (or may not) be bootleg stuffs. But I've been a loyal shopper at her store for five years now, and I trust her. So whatever.

Plus, is it just me, or do they seem to get more into it in the japanese versions? Is it because they are in a studio together, so they can all work of one another? I think that's why american shows sound natural; they were all there together recording. But when they are stuck one at a time, trying to match mouthflaps, of course it'll take the fun and inspiration out of it. It gets too technical. But that's just a theory of mine. It's not that all dubs, or american VA's are bad... I like a lot of american VA's...

Like in both Peacemaker Kurogane and Naruto (my favs right now), the japanese versions touched me. When it was a sad moment, the actors' voices really got to me and pulled me into the moment, making me sad and feel for the characters. And likewise, I laughed at the funny way they say things (which in most cases just would not be the same in english, I'm sure you all know what I mean...)

And some things are translated weirdly, like Chichiri's "no da" in Fushigi Yugi. Ya know? That sounds soooo weird coming out of his mouth. Haha.

Anyway, shutting up and going now...

You know, I'm not a hardcore fan of anime enough to EVER purchase them. Any anime I have outside of my computer is given to me as a gift, because I'm not spending any good money for something I could probably find online.

If anything, I guess I should say I prefer subs. 8) Although I don't watch much anime anymore due to lack of interest, whenever I do it's always usually in subs.

Inu-Yasha doesn't have good anything.



I know what you mean... I haven't received any as gifts, but I can't be arsed to spend money on anime anymore. Huge Electronics stores like Best Buy carry just about every anime available in america which makes me really bitter because when I was into anime when I was like 14 the only anime I could get was like ADV releases for 25 bucks or more a tape. Collecting series' cost me a shitload of money and I'm bitter about that so I figure if I'm going to watch any anime from now on, I'm DLing it.

Unless of course I can find a really good series on DVD, like Sorcerer Hunters. Got the whole series for like $40 bucks... You can't beat that.

So I think we're all agreed that dubs are no good. I'm not surprised in the least.

Uhh no I disagree. I personally found the local dubbing here in my country to be quite good.

Another thing is that I'm not really fond of listening to a show where I dont understand a thing about the language. But hey thats just me.

When I watch an anime, I watch the subbed version whenever I can. I only watch dubs, if I can't find the torrent which contains a subbed anime.
I have seen some episodes from Star Ocean EX in dubbed version. And for my surprise it didn't sound bad at all, though I still prefer the original voices.

As of movies and other stuff, I can't stand dubbs. I always have to have a subtitle. Even if the movie is in English. I need the subtitles, because in movies often happens that I can't always hear what are people saying, sometimes because thes talk fast, or quietly.

The Serbian and Hungarian dubbs are a disaster. Like to Pes, it also happens here that in different animes and cartoons you can hear the voice of the same actors. And above all, in English cartoons, you can even hear the English voices because the dub is awful
Luckily the Serbs don't dub the movies in the cinemas or on TV. Though, the Hungarians do that. When you switch on a Hungarian channel, and you see a movie, it's always dubbed, and with awful voices.
I don't like dubbs because it ruins the whole atmosphere. I mean, come on, replace Schwarzenegger's voice with some crappy voice actor. Really, it's just not the same.

Whoops, too much rambling

Overall, I hate dubbs in movies and series, but in animes I can tolerate it, but only if it's really necessary.

I usually watch fansubs so when I watch Anime with English voices it just seems weird because Anime is rooted so much in the Japanese Culture it just seems weird to watch it with English voiceovers. The voiceover process for in Japan and the U.S. is different because when the Japanese do their voice overs all the actors get together into the recording studio to do their parts instead of each person doing to them alone by themselves like what most American studios do. Basically what I am trying to say is the american voice over process kind of hinders the quality because there is no interaction between the actors when their characters are interacting with each other on screen, which means no chemistry. If you watch the behind scenes videos for the American voice cast in Cowboy Bebop it is one person in the studio doing the voice overs instead of the whole cast compared to the Japanese cast in a Anime like Fruit Basket where the actors are in one room doing the voice overs.

You could tell which voices don't sound well and which do in a dub, since likely in a language you understand, but how exactly do you go about deciding how good a voice would be if it's in japanese, even though you don't understand it. Just because it sounds right? Though, you have no clue what they're saying.

I'm prefer japanese oppose to english myself, but I don't find dub bad. It's just not my preference. On the other side, if a company destroy a script, then there's a problem. Like what happen with Cardcaptor Sakura script. That's bad, dubbing just a preference. It's not "bad" as people like to make it out to be.

I disagree Steve... I think dubbing is as bad as most people make it out to be. Not only are there some cases where a lot of words are changed up to fit the movement of the characters mouth, a lot of times dialogues and plot points are changed as well to fit the dub. Characters names can be changed as well, which is something I don't like.

Same thing happens in foreign films... I hate dubs. They're evil. Sure, occasionally there's a decent enough dub that will work, but it's never something to make you say " Wow, this dub is sure way better than subtitles ".

If it does, learn to read. Subs aren't hard to keep up with. I'm not directing this statement at you Steva, just to make that clear.

Script changing would be bad. A script being change slightly for the dub actor and actress to find a certain character is unavoidable. Not to fair to say that's terrible. In case with series editted for TV, yeah, their script are changed majorly. If you watch most animes from companies like Media Blaster and ADV, you would see they do their best to stay with the original script. Of course, you can't do that if the dialogue that's translated longer in english.

In foreign films, it's just plan bad. Half of the time, the new dialogue doesn't even follow the character on screen speaking. In foreign films case, subtitles would be better. In anime case, anime companies do try to make the dub actor or actress fit the anime character and also they dub voice follow the character on screen speaking.

I'm a fan of subtitles myself and I have no problem reading it. It's just people prefer japanese at times, because it sounds better. They don't understand japanese and you rarely see people say "That japanese seiyuu bad.", because they can distinguish the different between good and bad japanese voice acting. While it's easy to distinguish good and bad english voice acting if you understand it.

Of course there's bad dubs out there, but there's good english dubs out there.

Fixed.



Yeah, I know dude... But words still change and dialogue/plot points can be lost. Remember I USED to watch tons of anime back in the day, and all of it was dubbed because I could never find any subtittled tapes. The quality of voice actors has increased a LITTLE bit in some animes I've watched ( I've been watching dubbed Chrno Crusade on Showtime ) but not enough to make them anything more than just watchable.

Dubbings aren't all that bad, and I understand what Eva's trying to say about not knowing the language. I watched DBZ dubbed in Chinese when was little which was actually great but when I came around to watching it dubbed in English it was terrible.

If you don't understand the language very well, it's hard to say Japanese voicing is better because you wouldn't really know what they're saying to begin with, you're just looking at the subs.

I prefer subs for most animes since I do know that they translate it pretty well compared to subbed movies. Subbed movies I find ridiculous half of the time, I don't know about any other subbed movies but the Chinese ones are usually waaay off. =/

Yeah, but I'm not going to know they're terrible voice actors ( which I doubt is ever the case ) and the language and emotions in the voices actually seem to fit the anime better anyway. That's the ORIGINAL language for the show, so naturally it's going to fit the feel and mood of the show much better than dubbing it into any other language.

That's just how I feel about it.

Hmm, I don't really agree with that. I've found for some series that the english voices have suited the character's body type, age or personality better than the Japanese ones. And some anime are based in Euro type areas with words based of a latin based language, which are much better pronounced by english voice actors than Japanese ones. Of course there is some phrases in Japanese that don't really have an easy interpretation into English. So I think it really depends on the series and who the voice actors are.

I prefer subbing over dubbing because I like to hear the original Japanese voicing and a lot of my experience with dubbing aren't good. English or chinese. But I know that there are some fairly good ones and I have watched some myself, and I have no qualms with those.

At the same time, I have experienced lousy subbing that made me cringed. One of which happened to be a script for the English dubbing. >.> So I'm not so sure which I dislike more, bad dubbing or bad subbing.

Besides, I'm in love with some of those Japanese seiyuu's voices. :3

I've heard some REALLY REALLY bad dubbing. Dubbing is usually more extremely bad, but if you get an extremely bad sub, it's worse.

Then I can't understand what the hell they're saying and I can't read it either!