Dubbed vs Subtitled anime - your opinion

[Kazuya_UK]

I'm just curious as to how most people feel about dubbed anime vs subtitled anime. I know that most of the more hardcore anime fans are obviously gonn say they prefer to watch in the original language (and with good reason usually), but are there any exceptions to the rule in your opinion?

Nine times out of ten I personally prefer watching subtitled these days, but there is a VERY small selection of anime's that I prefer dubbed:

• GITS: Watched it this way when it came out way before the advent of DVD's, meaning I had no choice... I'm used to it now so it's hard to watch the Japanese version.
  
  
• Cyber City Oedo 808: I kinda like the swearing that Manga Entertainment added in to their dub (lame I know) and in my opinion the English music is 100 times better than the Japanese mix. One of the few anime soundtracks I have bought.
  
  
• Streetfighter 2: Same as above, I have the Japanese version of the movie too, but I prefer the English cut as I'm used to the dubbing and I LOVE the addition of KMFDM/Silverchair/Alice in Chains to the soundtrack. Some of my fave early nineties music, so it really added to the film for me... and that KMFDM track (Ultra) was possibly the most suited piece of music ever used in any film PERIOD
  
  
• Trigun: I watched the Japanese language up until about episode 12 (from SVCD's I downloaded), but then I bought the DVD's and thought "hey let's give the dub a try". I never thought that I'd like it dubbed... but for some reason the series seems even funnier in English and the voice cast is as perfect as can be imho. To be honest I did prefer the main bad guys near the end of the series in Japanese as they were acted out very well, but overall dubs don't come much better; and even if it is a little bit cheesy at times, that is in keeping with most of the series. Pioneer tend to do some decent dubs, Tenchi was pretty good too.

Other than those I watch most stuff subtitled (for instance I couldn't even entertain the thought of watching Kenshin dubbed) - when it comes to dubbed stuff it's mainly just the older anime that I watched when I was a kid and didn't have the choice back then to watch it in Japanese, as there were no DVD's. I'm so used to hearing English voices on those series/movies that the Japanese tracks seem strange to me.

So, how do the rest of you feel? Is dubbing good in some cases? Or do you feel that dubbing a crime against humanity? Or........... do you watch *EVERYTHING* dubbed? (shudders)

Kaz

[Goemon]

"Must be subtitled! Dubbed is the work of the DEVIL"

Even if the japanese voice actors are bad, i can't tell and i'd like to keep it that way. I've never watched an english dubbed anime movie where all the voice acting was appropriate and even matched with the mouth movements accordingly. GITS didn't had one of the only dubs where there was almost no one in the cast that had the voice of a 16-18 year old dork for some 30 year old character from what i can remember so thats always good but i still prefer subbed.

[Daaren]

It depends, some dubs are, great some are bad
Like Cowboy Bebop and Hellsing, those are great
I always try the dubs but normally i stick with the subs

[Raiken]

I watch dubs only when neccessary which is basically just stuff I see on tv these days. I personally hated the dub of Trigun because they changed many lines which is a commen flaw I find with dubs in general.

[sukotsuto]

i personally prefer subs but i'm not totally against dubs. some series i need to watch subbed so that i can understand it fully, but some anime have a different feel if dubbed, and sometimes funny.

for instance, if you watch Fist of the North Star in japanese, it's kinda serious, but if you watch FotN in english...maaaaaann... forced american accents, cheezy dialogue, b-movie one-liners, messed up talking... it's totally hilarious in a good way! that's why i sometimes enjoy it dubbed

another case, (though this one's cool serious) the new Vampire Hunter D. there are a few annoying voices there but D and Meier Link's voice are very well done! makes me prefer to watch it dubbed.

i'd name a lot of series that's horrible when it was dubbed if i weren't so lazy now...

[Kazuya_UK]

Actually as far as I am aware Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust was originally done in English, so technically speaking the Japanese version is the dub

Hellsing I didn't like dubbed at all... mainly because they gave everyone the stereotypical posh English accent... I swear some people think all us English people talk that way, they'd be in for a shock if they came over here lemme tell ya ;D. Cowboy Bebop is a decent dub though.

Kaz

[Marco]

Excuse my language but...Subbed rawks dubbed is just plain out BULLSHIT!!! I mean I dont wanna watch sumthin thats dubbed and most of the things they say are either censored or replaced with another word! I watched DBZ subbed the watched tv version and a word was said different!!! I dont mean the swearing word I just mean something like... "we must stop this guy" was changed to "we gotta stop this guy" it sucks! so flat out subbed rawks! 

[Kazuya_UK]

Marco said:

Excuse my language but...Subbed rawks dubbed is just plain out BULLSHIT!!! I mean I dont wanna watch sumthin thats dubbed and most of the things they say are either censored or replaced with another word! I watched DBZ subbed the watched tv version and a word was said different!!! I dont mean the swearing word I just mean something like... "we must stop this guy" was changed to "we gotta stop this guy" it sucks! so flat out subbed rawks! 

I think the change you mentioned in DBZ is pretty minor compared to some the ones I have seen. I mean, I've seen entore storylines messed up because the dubbers though that it would be better to make characters say different things (probably cos us westerners are too dumb to get it apparently ).

Smaller words being changed aren't so much of a big deal for me, but major changes or messing up a characters personality is the main reason I'd agree with ya that subbed is the best way. See Kenshin for one of the worst examples... they took away his biggest personality traits and it totally fucked things up for me. Although I won't even entertain the thought of watching Kenshin dubbed, I did have to watch a few episodes of it with a friend of mine who is dyslexic and finds it hard to keep up with subs. One of the most painful experiences of my life

Going back to VHD: Bloodlust though; as I said from what I know it was made with the backing of an American studio and originally done in English (and a Japanese track made later on for the JPN release), so for people who like to listen to the original language normally, would you consider English to be the best track to listen to? I am stuck with English either way as my DVD only hs that track... but it is an interesting and very debatable point for the people that usually argue that the original language is always best (even if I would normally agree with them)

Kaz

[nh]

I hate how all these otakus are calling themselves "purists" and bragging about their love of subtitles.

Seriously, I don't give a fuck about my anime's language.

[sukotsuto]

Kazuya_UK said:

Actually as far as I am aware Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust was originally done in English, so technically speaking the Japanese version is the dub

Kaz

it was? so that's why the anime was done very nicely

one thing to keep in mind though, if the anime's settings is in japan, then the best version for it is a sub. try hearing a japanese guy, who only knows japanese, be dubbed in an american/english accent and it will usually turn out to be painfully "earitatting" (mind the pun ).

[Kazuya_UK]

nh said:

I hate how all these otakus are calling themselves "purists" and bragging about their love of subtitles.

Seriously, I don't give a fuck about my anime's language.

Different strokes for different folks I guess... I just don't like to see an anime (or any other movie etc for that matter) get ruined by lousy dubbing that either sounds plain wrong or messes up the storyline cos they decided to translate things differently. Another way of looking at it would be to imagine Samurai Shodown getting redubbed... with Haohmaru talking in an American accent... hell, they'd probably even translate the move names into their literal English meaning, can you imagine how bad that would be?

That was at least one thing I was thankful for in the Kenshin dub though... at least they didn't translate his move names into English, cos he does shout them out a lot while fighting. It would be hilarious to see his "Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, Ryu Sou Sen" get translated into "The School of the Regal Skyfaring Sword, Dragon Nest Strike!!!", which is what it means in English. They did EXACTLY that in the Fist of the North Star TV series dub, and it turned something that was supposed to be fairly serious into something that made your sides split cos you were laughing that hard at it

Suko, I totally agree with what you said... but then again in many animes that are set in England or other countries, the people in those still speak Japanese which can seem kinda weird... there was an episode of GITS: SAC where the Major goes over to England and all the people there still spoke Japanese. Kind of reminds me of Once Upon A Time In China though, where there's a scene where some people were actually speaking in English and Jet Li says something like "what language are they speaking, I don't understand". That's fine in the original soundtrack, but when you watch it dubbed and everyone is speaking English anyway, it REALLY makes no sense at all..........    

Kaz

[Kazuya_UK]

Oh, about that VHD: Bloodlust thing:

www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=4197

Continuing with the audio side of Bloodlust purists are challenged by the fact that although the story and animation for this film was solely the work of the Japanese studio this was a collaborative effort and as such the audio side of the film was created in the US which means the original dub track is English. Fortunately the collaborative effort was pulled off and the principal English dub cast is generally good with the most important character handled with great ease by Andrew Philpot who delivers a subtle yet appropriately deep voiced 'D'. As was to be expected though not all the characters are blessed with equally strong voice-acting performances as many of the secondary characters are quite mediocre and even a few main characters (such as the Markus Brothers) are merely adequate and uninspired.

Geeky fact... Borgoff is voiced by the same guy who did Aurons voice in Final Fantasy X... I noticed that when I was watching it not so long ago

Kaz

[Goemon]

nh said:

I hate how all these otakus are calling themselves "purists" and bragging about their love of subtitles.

Seriously, I don't give a fuck about my anime's language.

Well, i personally like to watch any foreign film in subtitles cause i just want to hear the voice acting in its original form the way the director had it done.

[Tezuka0]

hah the funniest thing is watching dragon ball z dubbed in tagalog which i watched when i was in hawaii haha the funniest thing in the world. I tend to stay away from dubs but some are fine like season 1-3 in ranma 1/2 but when they changed his voice ehhhh it got annoying.

[sukotsuto]

Kazuya_UK said:

Different strokes for different folks I guess... I just don't like to see an anime (or any other movie etc for that matter) get ruined by lousy dubbing that either sounds plain wrong or messes up the storyline cos they decided to translate things differently. Another way of looking at it would be to imagine Samurai Shodown getting redubbed... with Haohmaru talking in an American accent... hell, they'd probably even translate the move names into their literal English meaning, can you imagine how bad that would be?

That was at least one thing I was thankful for in the Kenshin dub though... at least they didn't translate his move names into English, cos he does shout them out a lot while fighting. It would be hilarious to see his "Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, Ryu Sou Sen" get translated into "The School of the Regal Skyfaring Sword, Dragon Nest Strike!!!", which is what it means in English. They did EXACTLY that in the Fist of the North Star TV series dub, and it turned something that was supposed to be fairly serious into something that made your sides split cos you were laughing that hard at it

Suko, I totally agree with what you said... but then again in many animes that are set in England or other countries, the people in those still speak Japanese which can seem kinda weird... there was an episode of GITS: SAC where the Major goes over to England and all the people there still spoke Japanese. Kind of reminds me of Once Upon A Time In China though, where there's a scene where some people were actually speaking in English and Jet Li says something like "what language are they speaking, I don't understand". That's fine in the original soundtrack, but when you watch it dubbed and everyone is speaking English anyway, it REALLY makes no sense at all..........

Kaz

"The Neck-Twisting Head-Breaking Kick!!" one of the best FotN move name ever translated in english ;D when you mentioned Once Upon A Time In China's english language thingy it reminded me of the english dub of Bruce Lee's Way of the Dragon (Return of the Dragon in some areas).

Tezuka0 said:

hah the funniest thing is watching dragon ball z dubbed in tagalog which i watched when i was in hawaii haha the funniest thing in the world. I tend to stay away from dubs but some are fine like season 1-3 in ranma 1/2 but when they changed his voice ehhhh it got annoying.

i also liked the filipino (tagalog) dubs because most of the time the translation between japanese-tagalog are pretty flawless since the original flavor of the anime doesn't alienize the people 'ere. for some reason i'd rather watch DBZ (especially DBZ!), Hajime no Ippo and Slam Dunk in Filipino than in English .