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Which do you prefer, subs, dubs or both?


Zen Wistaria

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I used to think I prefer subs over dubs, but honestly I enjoy both! Dubs can be nice because we usually wind up watching stuff while we're eating, and it can be hard to follow subtitles when you're trying to fork food into your mouth haha. If I like the way the dub sounds, then I'll probably choose that. If it's awful, then I try subs instead and choose whichever one I like the sound of more.

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  • 1 month later...

I prefer subs if they are available. I can understand maximum of their dialogues due to watching anime all these years so at this point, I'd even prefer raw anime since I don't need to look at the subtitles much. But a few series, I feel like the dubs are better than the subs. Like Ghost Stories and Pokemon. Although I liked watching a few episodes which were only subbed in Pokemon but the names and voices are just too different from the dub. I'm so used to hearing dubs of Pokemon that hearing the voices and reading the subs felt weird to me.

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I also prefer the subs, or often just the original audio with the subtitles off entirely.  I'll have to take your word for some dubs being better though.  To be honest I don't listen to dubs much at all.  I'm a super fast reader (like, a whole novel between bedtime and breakfast) and I understand a lot of spoken Japanese, so after a few bad experiences with dubs I just don't even go there anymore.

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11 hours ago, efaardvark said:

I also prefer the subs, or often just the original audio with the subtitles off entirely.  I'll have to take your word for some dubs being better though.  To be honest I don't listen to dubs much at all.  I'm a super fast reader (like, a whole novel between bedtime and breakfast) and I understand a lot of spoken Japanese, so after a few bad experiences with dubs I just don't even go there anymore.

Oh, me too! The only dubs I've listened to are of Pokemon and Ghost Stories but other than that, all of the anime I've watched are subbed. I once tried to watch the abridged version of Fairy Tail (in English) and it felt strange. Like it's not the Natsu or Lucy I'm used to. I stopped it at the first episode.
And yes, I'm a super fast reader as well. Especially if it's a novel I really like.

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for me it will totally depend on what I am doing, if i am pottering round the house or eating etc dubs is easier for me. I will watch subs if i am totally focused on a series. I think they both have a place mainly because dubs can help get people into anime in the first place, I think subs can take a bit of practice especially when younger generations spend a lot of time buried in their phones

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  • 2 weeks later...

Generally I prefer dub. But sub just has a different feeling to it. Somehow more authentic or something like that. Emotions definetly get me more in dubs (when they are good^^), because the reading distracts me to an extreme extent and I dont really ingest (not sure about that word) the pictures anymore. Also specific scenes or lines stay in my memories far better when dubbed, because I can combine visuals and accustics and so its just a stronger experience. The only anime I watched first subbed, then dubbed was Scums Wish and it comrifmed exactly that. Still I liked the sub more here, because it just felt more, as I said, authentic, more fitting, more right. I dont know. Its just a completely different style of voicing

edit: Most important: never again I will watch the same anime in sub AND dub

Edited by eCapter
crucial information were missing
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I like it all :3 As long as the dubbing isn't terrible. If it's bad...it can still be okay if it's so bad it's funny XD

I lost some hearing when I was a kid...and probably even more from going to concerts, but I always have the subtitles on even if it's dubbed or a just a show in English.

Sometimes I like the voice actors in one better than the other, so I guess it just depends :D 

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i like subs better.. i think dubs could be better done, but in the us the same people are used over and over again, the redone scripts are bad, and the voice acting is unnatural and embarrassing. not to say that the original voice actors dont exaggerate, but the english ones are just trying too hard. people don't really talk that way.

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  • 4 weeks later...
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I preffer subs. It's unatural to hear German or English instead of Japanse.. If you listen to an Anime-Episode or Movie in Japansese, it gives you the feeling, you are part of it.

That's my opinion.

Edited by BlackTooth
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My go-to are dubs, but some shows don't have dubbed versions (e.g. Pandora Hearts, Zetsuen no Tempest, etc) so I'm forced to watch in sub. 

I'm very tolerant with dubs and poor voice acting or off-putting dialogue doesn't really phase me. There are some occasions where I have chosen sub over dub because the dub really was THAT bad (e.g. I will never watch the Netflix dub of NGE again, and the Revolutionary Girl Utena dub isn't even properly synced with the animation). 

There's also probably a lot of terrible subbed shows out there too that we simply don't pick up on because we're not Japanese speakers.

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I'm no purist so I will watch what feels and sounds right to me. There are some examples of Dubs being just better than original Japanese, and there's lots of examples of Subs being objectively better than dubs.

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt is 100% Absolutely intended to be listened too and watched in English, there is no debate about that, That was Gainex's intent with it, as it was heavily inspired by western cartoons and has jokes and tropes that Non Japanese people will pick up on that natives will not if they dont watch anything western.
So there's no reason for someone to watch PSG in Japanese. But that's a pretty unique case.

What I typically will do is watch the first few episodes of a show in both English and Japanese and pick which one feels and sounds better. 

There are several anime that just are better in English. 
A lot of people tend to forget that both Japanese and English voice over work will have their own Voice Directors and casting talent, and that some Directors are just better than others. So being a purist and only watching Japanese, or being lazy and only watching English makes you lose out on an experience you could have.

DearS, Girls Bravo!, Elfen Lied, Panty and Stocking, Argento Soma, and Gunsmith Cats are good examples of better Dubs than Subs.

I will always give both audio tracks a shot until one simply sounds better than the other and I will go with that one.

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  • 1 month later...

I watch subs, muted. Yes, you heard me. Muted subs. For some reason I don’t like Japanese or American  voices. No voices at all. 

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