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Dub VS. Sub?


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Which do you prefer--Dubs or Subs?
Dubs
38%
 38%  [ 173 ]
Subs
61%
 61%  [ 277 ]
Total Votes : 450

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Darksorrow29



Joined: 05 Feb 2007
Posts: 412
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 10:07 am Reply with quote
Wow when did the dubs over take the subs? Haha. To some extent I'm not that surprised, but very interesting results.

I was checking out some dubs lately, one thing that gets me a little sometimes is the localization/dialogue change. Another is sometimes I feel the acting/emotion/etc is stronger in Japanese a lot of times. Sometimes the dub does an equal job though in certain roles. I am biased though, haha.
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nightjuan



Joined: 22 Jan 2008
Posts: 1473
PostPosted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 2:17 pm Reply with quote
Subs, if for no other reason than a bad translation job is usually infinitely easier to make up for than bad dubbing. I've actually enjoyed and appreciated a fair number of dubs over the years but they're rarely my first option as far as most anime -or foreign cinema for that matter- is concerned. I consider them a welcome extra. By default though, I generally try to watch my entertainment in subtitled form.
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EVA fiend



Joined: 19 Nov 2006
Posts: 314
Location: Somewhere in the UK.
PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 7:36 pm Reply with quote
I prefer subs over dubs, primarily because the p*ss poor dubs back in the early 90's really put me off. A sh*tty dub can ruin any anime; case in point, my hubby tried to watch the dub of Bubblegum Crisis (his favourite anime series) the other week, & after 2 episodes he switched over to subs in disgust.
That's not to say that I hate all dubs as some are excellent, e.g., Evangelion & Fullmetal Alchemist, & some dubs are better than the original Japanese IMO, e.g., Hellsing Ultimate & Black Lagoon. It's just that I prefer to watch anime in it's original language.
There is only one series that I will only watch subbed & that's the Mai-HiME franchise - Shizuru is a Kyoto native, she is NOT a southern belle.
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Vhaeraun



Joined: 05 Mar 2011
Posts: 65
PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 9:29 pm Reply with quote
EVA fiend wrote:
There is only one series that I will only watch subbed & that's the Mai-HiME franchise - Shizuru is a Kyoto native, she is NOT a southern belle.
This is what got me. The same thing happened in Love Hina's dub. It bothered me that a native of Japan had an accent from the southern USA - Kitsune if I recall.

I have yet to find a dub that surpasses the sub, though I haven't seen *every* anime - and there are some I'm currently avoiding due to their popularity - but meh. Since I"m currently trying to learn japanese, I figure it's more conducive to me to watch it in a language I can learn from (it makes me happy to be able to understand a whole sentence as I hear it and check it through subs)
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Sanosuke_Inara



Joined: 23 Nov 2009
Posts: 1662
PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 10:23 pm Reply with quote
Honestly, for me, the more proficient in the japanese language I become, the more I actually can understand whether or not a japanese vocal track is as good as some think. Like, before I knew any japanese, they were just saying cool-sounding words that I didn't know the meaning of. But now that I've become more familiar with some of the nuances in the language, I can spot what I see as flaws in japanese performances.

And since there's a good number of dubs out there better than the subs, when I do find them, they obviously impress me quite a bit since--as I'm obviously better with english than I am with japanese--it's even easier for me to spot flaws in them.
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Nagisa
Moderator


Joined: 19 Aug 2003
Posts: 6128
Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh
PostPosted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 4:09 am Reply with quote
In the far and vast majority of cases, I'm likely to watch something subtitled. Partially because it's simply become habit, and partially because something about most dubs just rubs me the wrong way. They might be "good" dubs, they might be passable and get the job done without making me want to irrigate my ear canals with a corkscrew, but the line delivery will still be noticeably flat and not quite properly emotive, and it'll just put me off. I'm not saying Japanese voice acting is inherently superior, but the language barrier makes it much less apparent.

Sometimes, though, when the stars align and a cast is just that damned good, I'll actually prefer a show dubbed. These are rare, though. Cowboy Bebop's probably the obvious choice, but also Big O (which incidentally has really annoying Japanese voice casting), Samurai Champloo, Wolf's Rain, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (which is doubly great because having to read all that technobabble is hell), Paranoia Agent, Disney-dubbed Ghibli films, and a sparse handful of others. I used to be a huge fan of the Fullmetal Alchemist dub, but trying to rewatch it recently was a bit more daunting than I'd planned, because most of the minor roles were rather poorly played, and Vic Mignogna's "you can tell I'm serious because I'm whispering in a raspy voice" shtick suddenly got really old really fast.
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Richard J.



Joined: 11 Aug 2006
Posts: 3367
Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis.
PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 11:35 am Reply with quote
v1cious wrote:
Isn't this kind of one-sided? There are some dubs that far surpass the Japanese version. You should east least have a "depends" option.
And back when this was posted, I think it was one-sided toward subs.

What happened here? Shocked

Actually, I think this result makes a surprising amount of sense if you think about it. ANN doesn't generally try to push one language choice over the other, so the most vocal (and elitist) fans tend to stay on other more partisan sites. Since most of those fans tend to prefer subs and the sites that tend to welcome them, at least in my limited experience, are fansub sites, ANN's somewhat anti-fansub stance also pushes such people to other sites.

As a result, English dub fans feel more welcome on ANN, so there are more of us here than on some other sites. We're also more likely to be defensive about our language preferences given the treatment we sometimes get from the jerkass elitist fans and thus we're more likely to jump on this kind of poll. Further English dubs are seen by some as almost symbolic of the official release and license side of the industry so again ANN will bring in English dub fans by virtue of being a more official site that actually recognizes that the industry exists and is worthy of support. (Unlike some fansub sites that still pretend nothing on their site is licensed, not even Naruto. Seriously, when a post made in 2009 talks about Naruto not being licensed in the US, you truly wonder how anyone can claim to get their info from fansub sites and actually be serious.)

Still, I didn't expect this poll to take this direction when I voted way back when. It's kinda nice to see. Anime catgrin
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Yoda117



Joined: 11 Sep 2005
Posts: 406
PostPosted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 5:01 pm Reply with quote
Darksorrow29 wrote:
Wow when did the dubs over take the subs? Haha. To some extent I'm not that surprised, but very interesting results.


As the genre (in the US) has matured, I'm not surprised to see more people leaning toward dubs.

As one professional VA once said - dubs don't suck... BAD DUBS SUCK!!!

I'm also in the category of "it depends". I'll listen to a good dub any day (and in some cases I prefer the English over the original Japanese, as of late I'm finding more and more titles where I'm preferring the English tracks - funny how a few years can really mark a change in the quality level of what's put out there), but if it's a bad dub (one person stated the dub for the "Bubblegum Crisis" series; I agree) and I'll only listen to it in Japanese with subtitles.
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chachaboru



Joined: 14 Jan 2011
Posts: 55
PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:45 pm Reply with quote
sub...
because i'm not comfortable on how the dub version sounds...
and i had always thought that hearing the real voices of the
anime characters are nice..
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abok85



Joined: 31 Mar 2011
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 1:11 am Reply with quote
Hiya I'm new here on the site and have been checking out different posts on here. After seeing/reading the posts on this thread I've finally decided to post something worth while lol.

Anyways when I was younger I would prefer dubs, because I couldn't stand reading subtitles. Now that I'm older though, I tend to prefer subs because they give me a certain emotional edge that dubs just don't give me sometimes. Only certain dubs such as the dub versions of Code Geass and Cowboy Bepop give me that emotional edge.
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arielifeoma



Joined: 05 Jan 2011
Posts: 12
PostPosted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 11:57 pm Reply with quote
As I'm a linguist by trade, it's no surprise that I consume a lot of foreign media (music, film, television, books, etc) in more than just Japanese. When I do so, I normally prefer to enjoy the production in it's original language. This can be frustrating when watching Taiwanese dramas that often use dubbing (into Mandarin for actors that speak in Cantonese on set), even though they can do a good job at that.

My hearing has always tested fine but, despite very poor eyesight that went uncorrected for years, I have always preferred closed captions when watching television or film no matter the language. If I do like the dub (very rare but it happens and only for anime, not music, film or tv, where the actual actors are not seen to my eye), I'm one of those people that DO listen to dubs and read subs.

I'm relatively new to anime, I belong to other forums as well and I love to chat it up but it might be too much to state that people with preferences like myself are elitist. Just thought I'd offer another perspective.
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SecretAgent94



Joined: 27 Nov 2010
Posts: 204
PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 5:04 pm Reply with quote
Wow.... I never thought I'd see the day!
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Hawkwing



Joined: 24 Apr 2011
Posts: 317
Location: Sweden
PostPosted: Sun Apr 24, 2011 12:00 pm Reply with quote
I can't stand dub, sub for the win!
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Starsplash Taiwan



Joined: 03 Feb 2011
Posts: 134
Location: Taipei Taiwan
PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2011 8:17 am Reply with quote
I will always sub than dub. I just perfer listening to the japanese language than the english. It just sounds better to me. Also, the english voice makes anime way to childish and embarressing for me to watch.

I enjoy the different ranges and the octaves that the Japanese VAs do that makes anime funner to watch compared to the minimun range of English VAs.
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Charred Knight



Joined: 29 Sep 2008
Posts: 3085
PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 2:17 am Reply with quote
The poll is pretty shocking considering that dubs is winning so far with a 100 votes.

Personally I prefer dubs just because I can tell the nuances in the voice more. With subtitles it's more of an emotional thing.
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