Sub Or Dubbed Anime? (or Original?)
By McCreeper
@McCreeper (777)
United States
January 19, 2013 3:55pm CST
Which would you choose if you were watching an anime? (and why?)
I have a personal taste for subtitles, as dubbed animes tend to have voices that don't "fit" with the expression.. in my opinion of course. I so far haven't really found an anime that has voice actors that fit really well with the character inside of the story, but I'm still searching.. :)
Subs on the other hand (could) have poor translations, but what is your opinion on it?
1 person likes this
15 responses
@AkamaruKei (5219)
• Malaysia
20 Jan 13
I prefer to hearing original Japanese voices. Like you say dubbed anime tend to have voices that don't "fit"with the expression. When i compare dubbed voice and original i think Japanese voices really match with anime. Their voice very fit with the experession in anime. So when i watch anime i change to Japanese voice and read subtitle. Sometime i learn some Japanese words from anime.
1 person likes this
@McCreeper (777)
• United States
21 Jan 13
I haven't really been able to learn many Japanese despite watching many anime videos in subtitles, but I think it's a start. Can't say I'll be able to speak fluent Japanese out of it, but I guess it's better than having dubbed English. :)
@AkamaruKei (5219)
• Malaysia
21 Jan 13
Ha i still cannot speak Japanese but i learn some words from anime if i like that words example like 'mada mada dane' from Ryoma Echizen in Prince of tennis. I just know basic in Japanese language.
1 person likes this
@McCreeper (777)
• United States
21 Jan 13
So if that's the case, then I'm guessing when you want to rest from learning English, you just switch to watching the anime in Japanese? That sounds great.
@cupkitties (7421)
• United States
20 Jan 13
It depends on the anime.
Hetalia is one example of something I prefer to watch dubbed. Reason is because the characters have different accents as they represent different countries. When everyone is speaking in Japanese I can't pick out the differences in those accents. Sometimes I can pick out an Italian person speaking in Japanese though. Now the reason I care so much to hear those things is because that's part of the humor of the anime.
Most of the time I want to watch subbed because I can't stand the voices and the bad acting of the English speaking cast. I feel like the Japanese speakers are much easier on my ears and easier to follow.
@McCreeper (777)
• United States
21 Jan 13
Hm, the first anime that had dub really put me on the side to liking subbed animes, and that was Naruto. Perhaps it's just me, but the voicing they have when they put it on Cartoon Network was absolutely horrendous, in comparison to simply listening to the Japanese speech & English subtitles.
@IntrovertShy (2780)
• Marikina, Philippines
13 Apr 13
I like both. I do not like subtitle at first. It is because I can't follow the words in subtitle especially if it is too fast. It is difficult for me to keep up. It is difficult for me to read all of them that is why I prefer english dub but because in animax channel is more on subtitle rather than english dub when I first watch this, well, I realize that subtitle is also fine with me. I have learned to read subtitle because of that channel but, I still like the english dub. What I do not like is some anime that has english dub is not original. It is because subtitle is more original rather than english dub. Some of them were changed from original subtitle.
@ChiVirgo (31)
• Paris, Tennessee
19 Jan 13
I've come to find that I like both. I grew up with the dubbed, but as an adult have been going back and checking subbed. In the hopes that it's translated correctly, indeed you do get a better feeling sometimes. Some companies do great translations, and it's interesting to compare the subbed vs the dubbed. Poor translations sorta make me laugh, though. I've seen a few of those. In the end, I would lean closer to subbed.
1 person likes this
@scarlet_woman (23463)
• United States
20 Jan 13
it depends.they're being more careful nowadays with dubbing.
i remember in the 80's a lot of times the off the wall japananime such as "dirty pair" or "queen millenia" could only be gotten from fan-cons..and were often badly subtitled or dubbed,possibly by the taper.
in that case,i'd prefer the original japanese,and just figure out what's going on..
@Bionicman (3958)
• Czech Republic
24 Jan 13
I prefer to watch all movies, series and anime in the original language with subtitles. but there were a couple of exceptions in anime where I enjoyed the dubbing more. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Akira. Cowboy Bebop was pretty close too.
@meipan (746)
• Philippines
14 Feb 13
I love dubbed here in the Philippines, dubbers were so great and talented, especially the dubbers of slam dunk and ghost fighters... you will understand what's the story all about and you will highly entertained.. well, i love anime because of that... i really appreciate them, how about you?
@ReViewMeMedia (3785)
• United States
24 Jan 13
I prefer dubbed because I speak English and I don't always feel like reading subtitles. When I write reviews, I always talk about the English dub because I want new people to watch the show, I'm not going to make people read subtitles. Most dubs are just fine these days.
@cecil04 (409)
• South Africa
28 Jan 13
It really depends on what you're watching, if I'm watching old anime from the 90's than I would watch it in english dub. If I'm watching new anime than I would most likely watch it with eng subs. The older english voice actors were passionate about their work than the ones of today. I just started learning japanese so I wont need the subs for much longer. It's funny but english is not my home language but I don't even remember learning it, I guess it must be because most of the television programs in my country are in english.
@BabyCheetah (1911)
• Australia
22 Jan 13
I prefer my anime subbed. I like the original dialogue left in. The Japanese seiyuu are simply better than the people they find to dub it. As you said the voices don't fit, I've found they don't have enough emotion and are not convincing in the least! So subs
@Otanetix (508)
• United States
20 Jan 13
Although I grew up listening to dubbed anime, I have learned to prefer hearing the original Japanese voices. There are just some dialogue that gets lost in translation because it's not always easy to try to express a situation in a different culture. For me, I enjoy hearing the original voices because it helps me practice my Japanese. I usually try to learn hirigana, katakana, and kanji on my own, but hearing the speech patterns of the Japanese language via anime is quite interesting.
@LetsPlayUp (22)
• Philippines
21 Jan 13
I prefer subbed than dubbed.
I want to expose myself to Jap culture and want to learn their language.
So by reading the subs, I know the meaning on what they're saying.
When I'm ready, maybe I'll go to Raw (original) ones.
@silverfox09 (4708)
• United States
19 Jan 13
I rather watched Dub because I am a native English speaker . I have not seen any Dub tat is too far off from the cation so I dont mind . Once the Dub is professionally made I have no problem .