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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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kandysweet



Joined: 12 Oct 2011
Posts: 19
PostPosted: Sun Nov 11, 2012 2:43 am Reply with quote
I like watching with the original voice actors and I can never, for the life of me, watch dubs. I find subs much better.
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar


Joined: 14 Aug 2006
Posts: 16935
PostPosted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 1:14 pm Reply with quote
I PREFER dubs but also watch subs without any reservations. I prefer dubs because I like to be able to engross myself as much as possible in a show to give it a fair rating. I find it easier to notice more of the subtle nuances of a show when I can just hear the lines without reading text as well. Then I can put more attention into noticing smaller things like backgrounds, the sound and music and affect it has on the show at any given moment, landscapes, character facials expressions, etc. If I have to listen AND read text it's taking away some of that attention and I can miss things. Often times with subs I watch a second time to watch for those little things I normally might not miss with a dub. However, I certainly don't mind subs in the slightest and often when I re-watch a show with a dub I re-watch it with the subs on instead the second time around. I have always been at a loss for words with the pure hate and rage this topic gets often. As if simply being happy to have anime to watch period isn't enough for many. One day there might not be and then the sub vs dub argument won't matter will it?
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iamalive





PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 4:45 pm Reply with quote
I chose dubs, and my reason is simple: I can actually look at the whole screen. I tried watching subbed, but I could only look at the bottom of the screen, reading the subtitles.
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CrowLia



Joined: 24 Feb 2012
Posts: 5500
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Sat Dec 08, 2012 4:09 am Reply with quote
Subs, undisputably. Only God knows how much Japanese I've learned through watching subbed Anime. Besides dub completely breaks the "anime mood" for me.

I've watched a decent variety of dub. Spanish dub, latino dub, and a couple of American dub. Gungrave I watched it in Spanish dub and if it weren't such an amazing show I wouldn't for the life of me have been able to take it seriously. That godawful accent whenever they said "Brandon Heat" (10 times per episode) killed my ears. The Latino dubs are usually low budget, I remember Saint Seiya changed the VA's for the main characters every episode or so during the 12 houses arc. On the other hand, the Rurouni Kenshin dub had less than 5 different VAs doing all the characters, in particular, 2 girls, one for Kaoru, and another one for the rest of the females :/. As for the American dub, I can't say I've watched much of that, but I've heard bits of Bleach American dub and I just can't. The pronunciation is so wrong it should be illegal. Why is it so hard to say Ichigo-h instead of Ichigooow?

That being said, I find it psychologically impossible to watch Card Captor Sakura in subs. It's my one and only exception, I really love the Latino dub for that one.
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504NOSON2
Subscriber



Joined: 28 Jul 2008
Posts: 647
Location: Body:Santa Barbara, CA ~ Heart:New Orleans, LA
PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 12:16 am Reply with quote
Subs. Definitelty, subs. The cultural experience doesn't feel complete with an English audio track. On top of that, I've been formally learning Japanese for some years, now. So, it helps to continue building up listening skills. I can honestly say that, in my opinion, dubs suck, massively. Playing the Anime Quote Guessing Game, I've heard clips from a number of modern dubs, thanks to the YouTube links to dubbed scenes provided by Raftina; they all sound terrible. The voices generally sound cheesy, but they usually have nothing on the acting. Ugh. Also, I almost forgot about the translations being more accurate in subs, as opposed to dubs, which 9.5 times out of 10 provide dialog from a re-written script, with more changes than the King James Translation.

They just aren't for me.
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Kamaduck



Joined: 26 Dec 2012
Posts: 11
PostPosted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 12:22 am Reply with quote
I voted dub, but it really depends on the dub voice acting. If both versions have good voice acting, I'll watch the dub, since I want to be able to appreciate that. If both versions are poor, I'll watch the sub, since bad voice acting bothers me less if I can't understand it. If both are OK, I usually pick the dub. Unless, you know, only one option is available or I have to watch it without sound. Given a choice, I like dubs. Some are unwatchable, but a good dub enhances the experience.
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TitanXL



Joined: 08 Jun 2010
Posts: 4036
PostPosted: Sun Dec 30, 2012 7:19 pm Reply with quote
One thing I find interesting about this topic is it's one that only exist in the anime fandom. In all the film classes I've taken and all the film blogs I read, not a single person showed interest in watching a dubbed version of a foreign film. Ladri di Biciclette, Rashomon, La Jetée, Lola Rennt, whatever it was they never brough it up. If you brought up wanting to watch one dubbed with English actors I imagine you'd get laughed out of the room and your film critic badge taken away. I wonder why some anime fans feel it's acceptable to dub a foreign work. Maybe it's a Grandfather Clause thing because they saw dubbed anime as a kid, so they let it slide later in life and think it's perfectly valid presentation of a foreign work.

Anyway, subbed for me, I find the only true way to judge something is how it's originally presented with the original actors, directors, writers, script, and mood. Especially since it seems like far too many dubs take too many liberties these days. The people attached end up becoming more like writers rather than translators.
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Mr. Oshawott



Joined: 12 Mar 2012
Posts: 6773
PostPosted: Sun Dec 30, 2012 8:06 pm Reply with quote
TitanXL wrote:
If you brought up wanting to watch one dubbed with English actors I imagine you'd get laughed out of the room and your film critic badge taken away. I wonder why some anime fans feel it's acceptable to dub a foreign work. Maybe it's a Grandfather Clause thing because they saw dubbed anime as a kid, so they let it slide later in life and think it's perfectly valid presentation of a foreign work.


Well, even the best foreign shows become boring to some people if they're watching it only in a language they don't understand...
Hence, the reason dubs are made so that people will be more interested in enjoying shows from other countries.
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SereneChaos



Joined: 14 Oct 2011
Posts: 384
Location: Middle of Nowhere, USA
PostPosted: Sun Dec 30, 2012 9:59 pm Reply with quote
TitanXL wrote:
One thing I find interesting about this topic is it's one that only exist in the anime fandom. In all the film classes I've taken and all the film blogs I read, not a single person showed interest in watching a dubbed version of a foreign film. Ladri di Biciclette, Rashomon, La Jetée, Lola Rennt, whatever it was they never brough it up. If you brought up wanting to watch one dubbed with English actors I imagine you'd get laughed out of the room and your film critic badge taken away. I wonder why some anime fans feel it's acceptable to dub a foreign work. Maybe it's a Grandfather Clause thing because they saw dubbed anime as a kid, so they let it slide later in life and think it's perfectly valid presentation of a foreign work.

For starters, I don't think most anime fans care much about their critics badge. We're mainly watching for entertainment, not to dissect it and write a 10 page thesis on it. People are going to watch whatever way gives them the most entertainment, whether that way is the original and "truer" way or not.

Then there's the fact that the vast majority of the population absolutely refuses to watch anything with subtitles. It would be way harder (and often impossible) to get someone to watch anime with subtitles if they're not use to them. Without dubs, anime would become even more niche because it would be so much harder to introduce it to others.

Finally, I think the largest reason is the simplicity of the mouths in anime. Characters' mouths are either open or closed, they don't bother animating anything more specific than that. Matching mouth flaps is relatively easy in anime dubbing, and it usually looks pretty natural. Making it look anywhere close to natural in live action is almost impossible because the mouth movements are more detailed.
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CrowLia



Joined: 24 Feb 2012
Posts: 5500
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 1:33 am Reply with quote
TitanXL wrote:
One thing I find interesting about this topic is it's one that only exist in the anime fandom. In all the film classes I've taken and all the film blogs I read, not a single person showed interest in watching a dubbed version of a foreign film. Ladri di Biciclette, Rashomon, La Jetée, Lola Rennt, whatever it was they never brough it up. If you brought up wanting to watch one dubbed with English actors I imagine you'd get laughed out of the room and your film critic badge taken away. I wonder why some anime fans feel it's acceptable to dub a foreign work. Maybe it's a Grandfather Clause thing because they saw dubbed anime as a kid, so they let it slide later in life and think it's perfectly valid presentation of a foreign work.

Anyway, subbed for me, I find the only true way to judge something is how it's originally presented with the original actors, directors, writers, script, and mood. Especially since it seems like far too many dubs take too many liberties these days. The people attached end up becoming more like writers rather than translators.


While I mostly agree witht this -I prefer subbed media over dubbed because I feel I can enjoy it better- I do have to say that I've always preferred watching American animated movies in the Latino dubbed version (particularly Pixar/Dreamworks). I also have been refraining myself from watching Legend of Korra, because I'm waiting for the Latino dub to come out-I loved the original Avatar Latino dub, it was perfect. While anime Latino dub tends to be low budget and overall crappy -save few exceptions like Card Captor Sakura-, the dub for movies is usually fantastic, especially for movies aimed at kids. Also, I just can't get myself used to watching any cartoon speaking in English. It's simply beyond my power
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Touma



Joined: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 2651
Location: Colorado, USA
PostPosted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 12:03 pm Reply with quote
TitanXL wrote:
One thing I find interesting about this topic is it's one that only exist in the anime fandom. In all the film classes I've taken and all the film blogs I read, not a single person showed interest in watching a dubbed version of a foreign film.

I think that is because those people are taking film classes and writing film blogs. They are not ordinary folk, like myself, who just want to watch a movie as a pleasant way to spend some time and do not have any interest at all in the history or artistic merit of the work.
I have very little interest in any foreign work other than anime, but if I am interested enough to watch something I would prefer that it be dubbed.

Quote:
... and your film critic badge taken away.

I neither have nor want a film critics badge.

Quote:
I wonder why some anime fans feel it's acceptable to dub a foreign work.

I do not feel that it is acceptable. I feel that it is desirable, sometimes necessary. The reason is simply that the show is, usually, more enjoyable and entertaining for me with a dub.

Quote:
... I find the only true way to judge something is ...

And I am not interested in judging anime.
It seems like we not only have different tastes but also entirely different reasons for watching anime.
I wonder is the reason why the sub v dub argument sometimes gets out of hand is because people have different reasons for watching.
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Polycell



Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 4623
PostPosted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 12:36 pm Reply with quote
A lot of countries get their foreign movies subbed into the local language - the exceptions being the markets too poor or small to make it profitable. I'm sure you'll find plenty of Germans arguing that Hollywood movies should only be watched in the original English with subtitles as a necessary evil at best, but that doesn't change the fact that the majority watch it overdubbed. On the other hand, things like K-dramas are only ever available subbed because no matter how wealthy the country they'll never have the market size needed to sustain a dub.

Anime is weird because it teeters right on that precipice of being mainstream enough to warrant a dub for shows but being niche enough that the original-only crowd can be heard loud and clear.
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Maidenoftheredhand



Joined: 21 Jun 2007
Posts: 2632
PostPosted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 1:10 pm Reply with quote
TitanXL wrote:
One thing I find interesting about this topic is it's one that only exist in the anime fandom. In all the film classes I've taken and all the film blogs I read, not a single person showed interest in watching a dubbed version of a foreign film. Ladri di Biciclette, Rashomon, La Jetée, Lola Rennt, whatever it was they never brough it up. If you brought up wanting to watch one dubbed with English actors I imagine you'd get laughed out of the room and your film critic badge taken away. I wonder why some anime fans feel it's acceptable to dub a foreign work. Maybe it's a Grandfather Clause thing because they saw dubbed anime as a kid, so they let it slide later in life and think it's perfectly valid presentation of a foreign work.


Luckily I don't think dubbed versions of those exist.

Well La Jetee could work dubbed since it's basically narration but the rest...shudders.
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Divineking



Joined: 03 Jul 2010
Posts: 1293
PostPosted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 8:14 pm Reply with quote
TitanXL wrote:
One thing I find interesting about this topic is it's one that only exist in the anime fandom. In all the film classes I've taken and all the film blogs I read, not a single person showed interest in watching a dubbed version of a foreign film. Ladri di Biciclette, Rashomon, La Jetée, Lola Rennt, whatever it was they never brough it up. If you brought up wanting to watch one dubbed with English actors I imagine you'd get laughed out of the room and your film critic badge taken away. I wonder why some anime fans feel it's acceptable to dub a foreign work. Maybe it's a Grandfather Clause thing because they saw dubbed anime as a kid, so they let it slide later in life and think it's perfectly valid presentation of a foreign work.


Honestly I'm surprised this isn't obvious to you. Of course no one would want to see a foreign film dubbed, their live action and therefore it's obviously going to be extremely distracting to hear a voice that obviously isn't the same as the person you seeing on screen and that can take away from the experience. With animation that's obviously not an issue and therefore so long as the english VA's can act and tbe scripting is fine your generally not losing out one way or the other and it basically comes down to preference
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GoldenMeanFallacy



Joined: 31 Dec 2012
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 9:51 pm Reply with quote
Heavily depends on the dub. If it's of decent-to-high quality, I'll watch the dub, since I like to not be dependent on looking at subtitles at the bottom of the screen in order to understand what the characters are saying, and thereby be able to put all my focus on the visual content of the show. I do put on the DVD's subtitles on, though, so that if a line feels off or poorly translated, I can look at the subtitles and note the difference.

If the dubbing is poor, I'll just switch to the sub and just put up with having to focus on the subtitles.
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