Thread: Dubs or Subs?

Depends.

For example, the dub version of 'Grave of the Fireflies' is absolutely horrendous and completely ruins the emotional effect of the movie.

I only watched subs of Inazuma Eleven. As it didn't ever air here, I was restricted to YouTube, and then YouTube ran out of dubbed eps. So yeah.

Originally Posted by Ranger Jack Walker

Comparing english dubs with subs is still like comparing two cars while knowing the statistics of only one. Even if the car whose statistics are known is horrible, you can't say the other is better when you only know how it looks like.

I still feel that you can. You don't need to be fluent in any language to know where there should be inflection and such in the way a character is voiced. If you're exposed to it (the language or the people who speaks said language) enough, it should be obvious, imo.

Even if the dub is horrible(as many actually are) unless you are fluent in Japanese, you have no business saying the Japanese Voice acting is better.

What does fluency have to do with identifying emotion? You can feel emotion and you can hear it in one's voice. If you watch both versions of a series, and in one version, the character is energetic and hyper (and sounds that way) and for its dub, said character doesn't, then something is wrong, and I gave a prime example of Shuuichi from Gravitation. He's known for being energetic, optimistic, and hyper to the point of driving Yuki crazy, and yet Yuki loves him all the same. He showed this in the way he spoke and the way he acted. For the dub, he sounded dull, boring, and pessimistic which didn't go along with his actions.

No actual fluency is needed in that regard, imo. It's sorta like Heero from Gundam Wing. I like the dub fine, but in the original, he actually speaks with more emotion compared to his dub counterpart. He didn't come across like a robot soldier like he did for the dub.

Anyway, as you can see, this is why I said it depends on the actual series and how all dubs/originals should be treated on case by case basis. I've given quite a few examples.

Most of the mistakes in subs that you talk of are because the those who do the subs are often not fluent in Japanese either and some of them just use direct word for word translations.

The example I used was Ninja Warrior, though. Those aren't "fansubs". The changes I caught was to benefit an American audience. Takeshi is shown only once or twice a year in Japan (even though the show was finally cancelled over there...I missed watching the final competition when I was living there). Here, they break it up into many episodes as opposed to showing it in its entirety in the way that it's broadcast in Japan (and also cut out a lot of the competitors). Over there, everything happens in one day. Over here, they break it up to make it seem like the show was done over multiple days, so the subtitles will reflect that.

There are other shows (anime) that probably do that as well. Crayon Shin-chan comes to mind. That show has a lot of political and pop culture humor so a dub of that would probably work better for an American audience or for those who aren't too knowledgeable about these types of things from a Japanese perspective. I've never seen the dub of it, and only saw the raw a few times on television, which were recent episodes, but I'm sure the earlier ones made more references to political stuff. The recent eps were easier to follow.

As for those who say the originals are much more mature and use curse words which the dubs censor, most of the time, you have been a victim of bad subbing. From what I know, the curse word 'Kuso' which I thing means shit is often delibrately translated into more extreme versions. Besides, as someone already pointed out, it takes real skill to write a mature story without resorting to curse words.

This I agree with and you're right about "kuso". I've watched raws/subs of series and have read where they have tossed in extra curse words where in Japanese, it doesn't really come across as a curse at all. Of course there's some and it does depend on the series, where you may end up with a character who does speak in rude Japanese (like that abusive character from Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu Final), but sometimes, I just feel that the subber is just trying to make it more "extreme" or "exotic".

I also find that those who are against dubs are much more picky. They complain about 'pointless' changes (Riceball-Donut, I'm looking at you) They rage and curse the dub. But if the chage really is 'pointless' why get so worked up about it? You know what it really is. You know that when the dubbers say a character passed on/away/went to the next dimension, they really mean that they died. This is especailly egregious in DBZ where death means crap and characters die and come back more all the time.

I personally was bothered by the "next dimension" thing. It's like an insult to American audiences, imo, like we can't accept the fact that a character dies. I know it bothered me when it happened for Sailor Moon's dub. When originally seeing those episodes, I was about 14 at the time. The way they set it up, to me, was that all the girls just left Serena by herself. The original made more sense. They died and she had no choice but to go on by herself. I felt more sorry for Usagi in the original than I did for Serena in the dub. Even Serena's fight against Prince Endymion was cut up for the dub and I didn't feel too bad for Serena, but seeing Usagi fight against him, I felt really sorry for her, especially since she was beat up pretty badly and how he was killed too.

Anyway, the main things that bother me about a dub change wise is actual characterization and cut in content that probably shouldn't have been cut in the first place. As far as voicing a character goes, as I mentioned before, the main gripe I always had with this (and this goes for ANYTHING, even non-anime related stuff) are animated series where the characters don't sound the age that they're supposed to. I don't want to see a 10-year-old kid sounding like a 30-year-old man. This is one thing I liked regarding Beyblade's dubs (the first three series). Kyoujyou and Max were voiced by children. Their voices changed a bit, but it sounded natural since the characters they were voicing were aging too. Seems I mostly have this issue with young male characters sounding too old for their parts. Personally, for young characters (that will age), they should just use children for the roles, like the Peanuts casting has always had children voicing the characters. It sounded more natural. With the exception of Reggie, all of the main kids on Rocket Power were voiced by kids.

Dubs superior, Subs inferior.

Originally Posted by SSJ_Jup81

Anyway, the main things that bother me about a dub change wise is actual characterization and cut in content that probably shouldn't have been cut in the first place. As far as voicing a character goes, as I mentioned before, the main gripe I always had with this (and this goes for ANYTHING, even non-anime related stuff) are animated series where the characters don't sound the age that they're supposed to. I don't want to see a 10-year-old kid sounding like a 30-year-old man. This is one thing I liked regarding Beyblade's dubs (the first three series). Kyoujyou and Max were voiced by children. Their voices changed a bit, but it sounded natural since the characters they were voicing were aging too. Seems I mostly have this issue with young male characters sounding too old for their parts. Personally, for young characters (that will age), they should just use children for the roles, like the Peanuts casting has always had children voicing the characters. It sounded more natural. With the exception of Reggie, all of the main kids on Rocket Power were voiced by kids.

The problem with young males is that you can't use grown men for their voices as they end up sounding too rough and using children is not encouraged because they are harder to work with(this is espcially true for very young males) Using women is just a matter of convinience for everyone.

Originally Posted by RaccoonGoon

Dubs superior, Subs inferior.

I don't know if that was your intention or not but what you said reminds me of G1 Soundwave from Transformers.

It was my intention, yes.

SUB! I almost cried when they dubbed Hetalia.

Originally Posted by Ranger Jack Walker

The problem with young males is that you can't use grown men for their voices as they end up sounding too rough and using children is not encouraged because they are harder to work with(this is espcially true for very young males) Using women is just a matter of convinience for everyone.

I don't have a prob with women voicing them either, just saying that children or women are a better alternative than using adult males.

Subs subs subs subs subs subs subs subs subs subs. Subs.

After watching the terrifying Bleach dub years ago...I permanently switched to subs. I prefer their original voices over the English ones...

The only exceptions to that is Inuyasha, Pokemon, Hamtaro...yeah.

i dont usually mind, but for inazuma eleven i prefer the subs anyday. the dub voices just dont go at all.

It depends upon the show. I won't ever try to watch the Japanese Cowboy Bebop; the voices are terrible; I think its one of a few examples where the dub was superior to the original. One some other shows, I don't mind watching dub or sub, such as Genshiken. FLCL is also great either way, but that's just my opinion. Black Lagoon is funny to watch in Japanese when they try and speak English; but I can work with either dub/sub.

Originally Posted by Autumnbreeze-49

SUB! I almost cried when they dubbed Hetalia.

I am actually watching Hetalia dubbed on Netflix right now.

The voices seem better than your average dub, but I do wonder how much of the humor was actually in the original version of the show.

Originally Posted by Nicoleta01

It depends upon the show. I won't ever try to watch the Japanese Cowboy Bebop; the voices are terrible; I think its one of a few examples where the dub was superior to the original. One some other shows, I don't mind watching dub or sub, such as Genshiken. FLCL is also great either way, but that's just my opinion. Black Lagoon is funny to watch in Japanese when they try and speak English; but I can work with either dub/sub.

Really? You didn't like Tada Aoi as Ed? I like her voice in both versions and don't prefer one over the other, but Japanese Ed singing Tank! is one of the cutest things ever to me! Getting down to it, voice wise, I'm pretty neutral on both and Hayashibara Megumi as Faye was fun since she'd voiced characters with Faye's personality traits before. I like how she is when portraying exasperation.

Ishizuka Unshou as Jet...well, aside from his Pokemon work as Ookido-hakase and Mr. Satan in Dragon Ball Z/Dragon Ball GT, I have nothing else to compare the roles to as I don't know of any right off aside from those....but thinking about it, I can hear Satan in Jet a bit.

Given the choice between Spike's dub and Spike's original, I probably might lean more towards Steven Blum, but not by much.

Either way, I like both its original and English version about the same when it comes to voices...and pretty much everything.

Originally Posted by Autumnbreeze-49

SUB! I almost cried when they dubbed Hetalia.

Uh, I just watched Hetalia(As in Hetalia Axis Powers, right?) the English Dub and I personally think it's better that way than in the Japanese.... Don't get me wrong, I like subs, but Hetalia is so hilarious with all their over the top stereotypical accents....!!! It makes me constantly smile.

Depends on the show of course. Most of the time I will watch subs. Sometimes I prefer the dub and watch it instead. Sometimes I watch both. One time I actually alternated sub episode, dub episode as I watched, just for fun.

Not every show is dubbed, too. Sometimes subs are the only option, but that doesn't bother me at all. The original is how they were meant to be. At the same time there are times where the dub will be just as good or better! (: