ItsOnRandom Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 (edited) Hope this is okay to post here, looked for similar topics but was unable to find any. If mods are unhappy with this post feel free to remove Simple question... Do you prefer to watch your anime Subbed or Dubbed? I'm going to admit, I think I'm apart of the very small minority that actually prefers to watch their anime dubbed. Personally for me, after 3 or 4 episodes of watching subbed anime my brain starts to get fed up of reading subtitles. However when I watch Dubbed anime, I feel it's a lot easier to binge watch and turn my brain off; one instance of this happened recently while watching Monster. I understand that realistically Subbed is clearly better, I just prefer watching dubbed as it feels a lot easier and relaxing. Edited May 24 by ItsOnRandom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animedragon Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 2 hours ago, ItsOnRandom said: Hope this is okay to post here, looked for similar topics but was unable to find any. If mods are unhappy with this post feel free to remove Simple question... Do you prefer to watch your anime Subbed or Dubbed? I'm going to admit, I think I'm apart of the very small minority that actually prefers to watch their anime dubbed. Personally for me, after 3 or 4 episodes of watching subbed anime my brain starts to get fed up of reading subtitles. However when I watch Dubbed anime, I feel it's a lot easier to binge watch and turn my brain off; one instance of this happened recently while watching Monster. I understand that realistically Subbed is clearly better, I just prefer watching dubbed as it feels a lot easier and relaxing. Ah, the age old perennial question, also known as the "Great Sub vs Dub Debate". When I first started watching anime everything was on VHS tape and dubs were all that were available from my local video shop* and as I got more into watching anime I was introduced to subs from another source, (no names no pack drill). After watching subs for a while I came to the view that I preferred to hear the original voice actors so now I only watch subs. Initially I had problems reading the subs quick enough, but now I find I don't actually read the subs word for word my brain seems to just 'absorb' the text, I do the same thing when reading books, which probably accounts for why I find it so difficult to read out loud in public. Ultimately there is no "right" or "wrong" answer to the question and people should be free to watch anime in whatever from they prefer and while I'm a sub only person I object to those who try to claim that you're not a "true anime fan" if you watch dubs. * For several years I had the advantage of working in London and within easy travelling distance of Tottenham Court Road where there were a couple of large video shops and a specialist Sc--Fi shop all of which had quite large collections of anime tapes and if I searched their shelves diligently I could occasionally find a sub release or two. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItsOnRandom Posted May 24 Author Share Posted May 24 (edited) 6 minutes ago, Animedragon said: Ultimately there is no "right" or "wrong" answer to the question and people should be free to watch anime in whatever from they prefer and while I'm a sub only person I object to those who try to claim that you're not a "true anime fan" if you watch dubs. I don't entirely understand people's points when they explain watching dubs as not being a true anime fan personally, Glad to know someone agrees. Edited May 24 by ItsOnRandom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animedragon Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 40 minutes ago, ItsOnRandom said: I don't entirely understand people's points when they explain watching dubs as not being a true anime fan personally, Glad to know someone agrees. I've encountered similar attitudes in other areas, it's a kind of "elitism" promoted by a small group of people usually to make themselves feel superior. When I was a member of the local photographic club there were those who claimed that if you didn't use a certain make of camera you weren't a "true photographer", it was the same when CB was popular if you didn't have a rig from a certain manufacturer you weren't a "true CBer". I was once told that I couldn't take part in my employer's hobbies exhibition because my models were constructed from kits, and no "real modeller" made models from kits. ( I suspect that they didn't know how complicated and difficult to build a Tamiya kit could be!) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItsOnRandom Posted May 24 Author Share Posted May 24 5 hours ago, Animedragon said: I've encountered similar attitudes in other areas, it's a kind of "elitism" promoted by a small group of people usually to make themselves feel superior. When I was a member of the local photographic club there were those who claimed that if you didn't use a certain make of camera you weren't a "true photographer", it was the same when CB was popular if you didn't have a rig from a certain manufacturer you weren't a "true CBer". I was once told that I couldn't take part in my employer's hobbies exhibition because my models were constructed from kits, and no "real modeller" made models from kits. ( I suspect that they didn't know how complicated and difficult to build a Tamiya kit could be!) They sound like lovely people... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animedragon Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 30 minutes ago, ItsOnRandom said: They sound like lovely people... One of the really great things about this forum is that everyone accepts other people's choices and preferences, there's no "elitist attitudes", and that's how it should be. After all, we're all here because we like watching anime. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admiral_Fall Posted May 25 Share Posted May 25 I always like this question, there are the two sides to it who always have their more vocal advocates on other parts on the internet. When in reality most people don't care. I'd say more newcomers to anime prefer dubs, but that's because anime is becoming more mainstream for younger people. The fact is that there is no real answer to this, some subs are better, some dubs are better. It's really a subjective thing entirely. I personally prefer to watch subbed, but I always give the dub a chance unless it's not available. Subs usually just have a different feel to them, it's an entirely different experience than most subs. However there are some absolutely great dubs out there, some of them beat the subs out of the water. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItsOnRandom Posted May 25 Author Share Posted May 25 3 minutes ago, Admiral_Fall said: However there are some absolutely great dubs out there, some of them beat the subs out of the water. Death Note is definitely a contender for beating the original. L's voice is other worldly. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admiral_Fall Posted May 25 Share Posted May 25 Agreed, some shows wouldn't be the same if it weren't for their dubs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holywhippet Posted May 25 Share Posted May 25 My preferences run in this order: 1) A well done dub - ie. skilled, professional voice actors that fit the character 2) A well done sub - ie. subtitled text is an accurate translation and has correct spelling and grammar 3) A badly done dub - ie. Poor audio quality or mediocre voice actors 4) A badly done sub. - Spelling and/or grammar seem to have been done by someone barely familiar with the language I'll highlight a failure that pushed one anime from a 1) to a 3) in my mind - the Negima!? anime, For some reason, they made Negi sound like a snooty young English professor. This was annoying by itself, but especially irksome since his character he grew up in Wales, not England. To make things worse, Evangeline sounded like a haughty English noblewoman. She was't English either though. They never indicate where she was from exactly but eastern europe would be more likely. If I have one minor peeve it's that some type 1) anime still has voice acting where you can't quite make out what someone is saying on occasion. Switching on the subtitles doesn't help since they are a translation of the japanese dialog and not the localised dialog that the actor is speaking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animedragon Posted May 26 Share Posted May 26 13 hours ago, holywhippet said: If I have one minor peeve it's that some type 1) anime still has voice acting where you can't quite make out what someone is saying on occasion. Switching on the subtitles doesn't help since they are a translation of the japanese dialog and not the localised dialog that the actor is speaking. Quite a few years ago I had a sort of similar experience. I bought the UK release of an anime film rather than the US release but when I started watching it I found that the "English subtitles" that were mentioned on the cover were in fact English subtitles for the hard of hearing, which are a totally different type of subtitles! Top marks to the company for thinking of people with hearing difficulties, but they should have made the type of subtitles clearer on the packaging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clayton Posted May 26 Share Posted May 26 Sometimes dubs are even better... And sometimes they're terrible... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holywhippet Posted Monday at 10:39 PM Share Posted Monday at 10:39 PM On 5/27/2023 at 8:13 AM, Clayton said: Sometimes dubs are even better... I know two decades ago that political correctness wasn't nearly as prevelant as it is today. But how the [insert expletive here] did that dub ever get approved? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Key Visual Posted Monday at 11:25 PM Share Posted Monday at 11:25 PM Usually prefer to watch things in their original language. Feels like some movies and shows loose emotion and some things are lost in transition to a dub. I may not get a joke or a reference but allows me to look up what they are talking about and find something new. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stina Posted Monday at 11:42 PM Share Posted Monday at 11:42 PM Subbed because emotions are clearly better reflected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohayotaku Posted Tuesday at 02:43 AM Share Posted Tuesday at 02:43 AM (edited) I generally prefer the subtitled version. Like @Key Visual said, I feel like a lot of times the original VAs bringing emotion & energy to the role that the dubs miss. Plus I’ve watched anime long enough that I can usually get the cultural humor & references that they sometimes try to localize in the dub with questionable results. Exceptions where I prefer the english dub: Cowboy Bebop • Star Blazers 2199 & 2205 • Monster • Steel Angel Kurumi. Edited Tuesday at 02:44 AM by Ohayotaku Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ANGELF Posted Tuesday at 06:45 AM Share Posted Tuesday at 06:45 AM I used to be something of a "Sub elitist," but I wasn't gatekeeping. I just only ever watched my anime subbed. Eventually though, I got a girlfriend who had dyslexia, so we ended up watching a lot of dubbed anime together. Today, I'm really just indifferent. 8 hours ago, holywhippet said: I know two decades ago that political correctness wasn't nearly as prevelant as it is today. But how the [insert expletive here] did that dub ever get approved? The studio just told their over-seas dubbers to more or less just make it popular in the U.S. Other than that they were given a lot of freedom in the dubbing. They decided to come out with this. To their merit it did end up incredibly popular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clayton Posted Wednesday at 11:23 PM Share Posted Wednesday at 11:23 PM (edited) Well as someone who doesn't speak japanese, I gotta go with a decent dubbed anime. Provided they stick to the script and don't edit it to hell Edited Wednesday at 11:24 PM by Clayton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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