Thread: Do you prefer to watch dubbed episodes or the Japanese originals?

I watch the episodes in Japanese first, then I watch them again when they've been dubbed. No reason for this really--I just enjoy both versions. I think they're both done well.

For DP and up, I prefer the Japanese original.

I still enjoy the dub more for Kanto through AG, mostly nostalgic reasons. Its also probably because DP was the first saga I watched in Japanese from the beginning, whereas I've never seen the Japanese versions of all the earlier seasons.

And goodness, a lot of DP's epic moments were killed in the dub simply because of the music replacements. I feel as if the music "made" DP in some scenes, because parts of DP were so lackluster in the dub after being so epic in the original. I think a lot of people who hated DP only really hated the dub of it.

BW is the first series that I'm watching in Japanese from the beginning on. I think that the characters' voices fit better in Japanese.

I still love the 4Kids dub of the original series and AG, mainly for nostalgia and because I got a lot more laughs and enjoyment out of 4Kids than TPCi. I really wished I watched DP in Japanese because I probably would have enjoyed it much more. I had the unfortunate pleasure of hearing Team Rocket's awful alliteration dialogue throughout the dub of DP. I actually like the BW dub mainly because I can tolerate TPCi's Team Rocket now.

Originally Posted by JeSashi

I still love the 4Kids dub of the original series and AG, mainly for nostalgia and because I got a lot more laughs and enjoyment out of 4Kids than TPCi. I really wished I watched DP in Japanese because I probably would have enjoyed it much more. I had the unfortunate pleasure of hearing Team Rocket's awful alliteration dialogue throughout the dub of DP. I actually like the BW dub mainly because I can tolerate TPCi's Team Rocket now.

At some point you should really watch DP all in Japanese. There was a reason DP had so much hype in the fandom when it was airing for the first time, and it was from the people following the Japanese version of it.

The dub of DP was very watered down. The music changes alone killed it.

Believe me, once I get the chance I'll watch DP in Japanese. I've only seen the first episode and the last episode in Japanese and those were better than how the dub handled them. You have a point of people hating DP because of the dub. I didn't necessarily hate it, but Team Rocket's dialogue, Piplup's bootleg Torchic voice, keeping like 2% of the original music, and so many dialogue changes was enough to turn me off of it compared to other sagas.

English dub. I don't have time to waste deciphering the Japanese version, when I could just watch it in my language.

Originally Posted by Ampharos King

I prefer to watch the Japanese dub over the original dub.

um.... what?

Japanese original for me. Hell, for several years now, I've barely watched any anime in English. Though, like most people, I started on the English dub, but I made the switch over to the original somewhere in the middle of Houen (though I would've done it sooner had I known where to find downloads, as even by that point, I had an inkling for the language). Not only did I watch every episode in Japanese from that point on, but I discoverd downloads for the first series, watched through all of that and gradually displaced the English version from being the "default" version in my mind altogether.

More recently, I've even taken it a step further: I imported Black and White (and, you know, I'm actually READING through the text rather than continually tapping a button through all the dialog). I've also read raw manga scans before that, so I'm experiencing the original version across numerous forms of media.

I enjoy both.

I watch the Japanese episodes because they come out first and I'm curious to see what happens in the episode. However since I don't understand Japanese I have to watch the English dub to understand the dialogue.

I honestly like both the English dub and the original. From DP128 to BW008, I was waking up (or staying up) early in the morning to catch the Japanese episodes live. For my favorite episodes, I'd download subs as soon as they became available, but I'd still watch the dubbed version as soon as it came out. I enjoy both for better or worse; I enjoyed DP in both languages and I'm loathing BW in both languages.

Honestly, I don't care at all about how much music was retained from the original in the dubbed version, so that obviously doesn't upset me. I cared about the original music being retained only once this entire series, and it was only for one particular scene, and it was retained in the dub. So I'm cool with it. I honestly don't have strong feelings one way or the other for the BGM tracks in Pokemon... which contrasts to how strongly I felt for the BGM tracks being retained for, say, Sailor Moon or Ojamajo Doremi (neither of which retained a bit of their original music in their original dub). Or Winx Club, which literally the best thing about that shallow show was its music, and 4Kids was at its worst with that show for sure... how dare they think they can outdo the Italian music. I dunno how, but Italian dub music is by far the best dub music around. It's honestly on par with Japanese music, I think. But enough about the music.

In the episodes I care about, I usually closely analyze the dialog in both versions and see how much the dub retains. I've written transcripts of a few DP episodes for my story, so I'm quite familiarized with TCPi's method. It doesn't really bother me; not even Team Rocket's tendency to be OOC (which they weren't much in the episodes I transcribed, surprisingly).

I gotta say, even when the new dub was at its worst, it was better than, say, the initial new dub of DBZ was on its best day, both in terms of music AND voices. Anyone who was unfortunate to watch Funimation's first take on DBZ without the Ocean Group cast should know what rock-bottom is for replacement dubs. Besides that, Japanese VAs aren't exempt from being terrible, either. Sometimes the dub voices can be a lot less appealing if they say their lines with a certain delivery (which I'd sooner blame the voice director rather than the VAs themselves), but there are some Japanese voices I find inherently annoying no matter how well they emote and deliver their lines.

But I'm also one of those people who prefers to actually watch the show over reading the subtitles and watching the show simultaneously (I suck at multi-tasking), plus even though I've watched enough Japanese raw episodes to get a good feel of what's going on without knowing what exactly is being said, I obviously prefer knowing EXACTLY what is being said and the enjoyment I get from watching the raws with no prior knowledge of what's going on is limited.

So yeah. Each version has their perks and drawbacks. I'd love it if the dub got the full extent of the OP and ED songs that modern dubbed anime gets these days; I'd even love to see the eyecatches in the dub one day (hell, Beyblade's dub gets that much, at least), but they are perks I can live without... especially since I can just see them on Youtube or when I watch the live feed, anyway. Um, yes. So I like both.

From like the 3 episodes I could find of the raw Japanese, it was amazing. Of course, they were either from the Indigo League or Best Wishes, which were the 2 best dubbed sagas, imo. I usually stick to the dubbed stuff, mainly because I can't find the raw Japanese.

The Japanese original, definitely. America like to sensationalize everything and that's why we have Ash trying to appeal to youngsters with his annoyingly 'hip' phrases and attitude and Iris is basically Hannah Montana of the Pokemon World.

The Japanese versions are much more innocent and sweet with generally better names and voices, especially as far as the Pokemon are concerned.

I like the English dub for one reason, I can understand it.

I liked the english dub best because its what I am used to and It is just too hard to watch the japanese version even with the subtitles. The voice actors just don't do it for me (voice actors are a big thing for me when I watch anime). I don't care much for the music though so Its not a big deal for me if the english dub of pokemon historically changed their music from the original.

Polish dub. Mostly because it was first version of anime i've seen; it was also very good, voice-wise (translation quality... varied). The recast (see Bulbapedia if you're interested) and "comeback" of old voices brought the good quality back along with better translation, and when SDI got the dub "back", they needed time but finally started doing it in acceptable way.

Sadly, the changed music really makes DP look worse than previous series.

Both. When I watched the early episodes in Japanese, the VAs were more natural than the English VAs then (though, to be fair, it was 4kids just starting out). I thought Rica Matsumoto did a great Ash and every other voice actor worked wonders for their characters but, nowadays, they kinda sound stale. Not in comparison with the English Voice actors but in their own right. Mostly because of the characters themselves and the dialogue. Believe me, when you know what they're saying in Japanese, it can sound pretty uninspiring. I will give them props for trying though. Speaking of natural voices, unlike most of TPCi's Pokemon voices, the JPN voices don't sound annoyingly forced. When the Pokemon is cute, its voice is cute. When the Pokemon is tough, its voice sounds tough. When the Pokemon is annoying, well, you get the picture. As for the music, it ROCKS! 'Nuff said.

That's not to say that the dub is bad because the JPN version is better. When 4kids started out, they were a bit rocky with the voices but Veronica, Rachel, Eric and everyone else grew into their roles as time went on and got more experienced. Admittedly, I don't like the unneeded changes and edits but I'm always willing to look past them for my entertainment. Plus, the 4kids music score is kinda good. Not Shinji Miyazaki material by any means but it's good in its own right.

TPCi started out rougher than 4kids due to the VA switch and the whole controversy among fans but the voices did get better. Not as good as 4kids but not too shabby. During the DP series, they really screwed the pooch on their dub music. It was just awful. BW had improved dub tracks but DP... ugh. My problem is the dialogue since it sticks to the original dialogue too much and makes their own sound pretty awkward at times. So I don't mind if they spiced up the script but I don't want them to change the stories at all or add stuff that's unneeded.

Overall, I prefer the JPN version a bit more but I'd prefer the English dub if it appealed to my tastes stated above.