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This Week in Anime - A Tale As Old As Time: Subs or Dubs?

My biggest problem with dubs these days is that the same actors appear in too many things. A more diverse talent pool, recorded in more locations, would be appreciated.

But that wouldn't stop me from listening to dubs, and I prefer them in most cases, unless they're bad enough to detract from the experience. Even a 'just OK' simuldub is usually good enough.

It would be nice if more things had an option between subbed and dubbed, but we're generally in a pretty good spot these days.

Dragon Ball Z, Yu Yu Hakusho, Fullmetal Alchemist, Code Geass are perfect examples of being better than their sub vers.

Dubs are great when you don't have a bitch in your ear complaining about how bad they are. The sad truth is that a lot of the bellyaching from them these days come from people who likely haven't watched a dub since the old 4Kids Pokémon. This is also why they'll likely consider Ghost Stories to be the "only" good dub.

Of course there are, that's just silly to argue otherwise, and it has nothing to do with the sub vs dub discussion, so I don't know why you are bringing it. Urara Takano is both the original voice for Luffy and the original JP voice for Luffy.

There are a lot of legitimate complaints about the way dubs of that era treated the material they were bringing over, and even kids introduced to Pokémon or Digimon through the dub often grew up, wanted a more authentic experience, and got resentful of being denied that by the powers that be.

The fact and the reality is, DUB IS SHIT, plain and simple, there's only 10 anime who's dub is either better than their sub predecessors or in my opinion not to sound dramatic but just to get my point across, GOD. Dragon Ball Z, Yu Yu Hakusho, Fullmetal Alchemist, Code Geass are perfect examples of being better than their sub vers., at the day it's all up to you what like or dislike it doesn't matter if you like it that's fine and if not theirs NOTHING WRONG with that, but the reality is, it doesn't matter how much you guy's argue or discuss about the fact, DUB is shit.

yeehaw wrote:

Where I'm from dubs are for small children who can't read

My youngest child came to us to suggest we let her watch more anime so she could get more practice reading via the subtitles. It worked. She also learned Japanese along the way.

L'Imperatore wrote:
yeehaw wrote:
....and also the sound of americans trying to pronounce japanese names and words is like knives in my ears...

To be fair, it goes both ways. Once tried listening to how my name is pronounced in Japanese. I chuckled a bit. Sure, different tongue, different language. Still.
And let's not get me started with those fantastical isekai names.

Completely agreed here. (And for the record, my name would also probably be very difficult to pronounce correctly for most Japanese speakers, since it uses a sound not present in Japanese.) There are plenty of cases of Japanese VAs struggling with Western names and loan words; doesn't seem like anyone in Japan can pronounce "energy" right, for instance.

The only chance it had to prove popular and maybe get a dub was when Hugtto Precure was airing, a critically acclaimed anime by anime legend Junichi Sato. But Toei took too long and starting with the sorta okay Healing Good Precure. The biggest hit is Hugtto is the top precure series on My Anime List and even voted as anime of the year once.

FinalVentCard wrote:

Dubs are great when you don't have a bitch in your ear complaining about how bad they are. The sad truth is that a lot of the bellyaching from them these days come from people who likely haven't watched a dub since the old 4Kids Pokémon. This is also why they'll likely consider Ghost Stories to be the "only" good dub.

Yeah, I feel most people who get up in arms are people who still nurse a grudge over jelly donuts. Like sure, you get a rough one here and there (and straight up bad acting happens on both sides of the ocean), but the 90s/early 2000s are long behind us.

MarshalBanana wrote:

Of course there are, that's just silly to argue otherwise, and it has nothing to do with the sub vs dub discussion, so I don't know why you are bringing it. Urara Takano is both the original voice for Luffy and the original JP voice for Luffy.

I believe what they're referring to is that since characters like Luffy/Frieren/[insert your favorite character here] are almost always manga characters, they have no "true voice". The voices used in anime are generally chosen by casting directors, not the writers themselves. Like, if you're reading a story that does not yet have an anime/cartoon/live-action version out, you probably have a voice in your head, and when an adaptation comes out, does the official voice supplant your own? I mean probably, but does that make it any more "right"? Oda had a hand in picking the cast of the live-action One Piece. Does that make Mayumi Tanaka not the voice of Luffy anymore? That's all your choice. It's in the eye of the beholder. Death of the author and all that jazz.

Dr. Wily wrote:

FinalVentCard wrote: Dubs are great when you don't have a bitch in your ear complaining about how bad they are. The sad truth is that a lot of the bellyaching from them these days come from people who likely haven't watched a dub since the old 4Kids Pokémon. This is also why they'll likely consider Ghost Stories to be the "only" good dub. Yeah, I feel most people who get up in arms are people who still nurse a grudge over jelly donuts. Like sure, you get a rough one here and there (and straight up bad acting happens on both sides of the ocean), but the 90s/early 2000s are long behind us. MarshalBanana wrote: Of course there are, that's just silly to argue otherwise, and it has nothing to do with the sub vs dub discussion, so I don't know why you are bringing it. Urara Takano is both the original voice for Luffy and the original JP voice for Luffy. I believe what they're referring to is that since characters like Luffy/Frieren/[insert your favorite character here] are almost always manga characters, they have no "true voice". The voices used in anime are generally chosen by casting directors, not the writers themselves. Like, if you're reading a story that does not yet have an anime/cartoon/live-action version out, you probably have a voice in your head, and when an adaptation comes out, does the official voice supplant your own? I mean probably, but does that make it any more "right"? Oda had a hand in picking the cast of the live-action One Piece. Does that make Mayumi Tanaka not the voice of Luffy anymore? That's all your choice. It's in the eye of the beholder. Death of the author and all that jazz.

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu... mangaka are OFTEN given casting power veto and choice. Akira Toriyama FAMOUSLY picked Masako Nozawa himself. He even listened to a tape without her name in it to not be biased by star power of a name.

Eichiiro Oda even had already picked Mayumi Tanaka as Luffy, I think he didn't go as far as Toriyama so she still had to audition, but she later told Oda most mangaka do get final say in Voices and could have had anyone he wanted, no need for any auditions.

And there are some dubs that ALSO have the creator decide. Pretty Cure was one of these by sheer virtue of not being adapted by a Mangaka or Book Author, and being a creation of Toei Animation under a pseudonym.

Also I dont even care what the sub side has to say. I enjoy dubs unironically and without any guilty or even care. I STILL watch most stuff subbed though. I WANT more dubs, shows like Pretty Cure REALLY could use them.

How could Hugtto be dubbed when it features appearances from other Cures? Yes a subbed release would also have the cameos, but I'd argue a dubbed release would be less feasible (especially since it'd be right after the GF dubs, and imagine the confusion seeing the Smile/Doki Doki teams referred to as "Pretty Cures".

Dubs are great when you don't have a bitch in your ear complaining about how bad they are. The sad truth is that a lot of the bellyaching from them these days come from people who likely haven't watched a dub since the old 4Kids Pokémon. This is also why they'll likely consider Ghost Stories to be the "only" good dub.
[...]
Dubs have come a long way since the Digimon days, and while they definitely had genuine issues back in the day there's no denying that a lot of the complaints about them were gatekeeping, plain and simple. A lot of people during the bubble years hated that people they didn't approve of were getting into anime so they started insisting that dubs were an inherently "inferior" way of appreciating anime, and that "real fans" would exclusively seek out fansubs. Once anime got as big as it did, this shifted to "buying the licensed releases doesn't really help, real fans support the series by importing merch from Japan".

But even as a dub fan, I do get annoyed at the double standards I see form other dub watchers. like watching subs-only makes you a "sub elitist", but watching only dubs doesn't make you a "dub elitist? And people get defensive about dub VAs being hounded as bad actors (which I understand) but then they harp on the Japanese VAs for...the same thing? Or defending even poorly-acted dubs just because they're dubs?

Yeah, I feel most people who get up in arms are people who still nurse a grudge over jelly donuts. Like sure, you get a rough one here and there...

...
I've also seen some argue that the "best" way to watch animation is in the language of the place in which the show is set, so anything that takes place in Japan should be watched in Japanese and anime that takes place in, say, England should be watched in English. Not sure how I feel about that argument or how it applies to fictional settings, but it's kind of interesting.

...I want my first experience with a series to be with the original Japanese VA so that I experience all the emotional nuance and vocal subtleties that the Japanese director & VAs decided on when they were creating the show.

If I really really like a show then I might rewatch it with the dub (if it has one) to re-experience it from another angle....