Subs VS Dubs!

Viper718 wrote:

someone who can convey emotion well with a large range of pitch variation can then produce a much higher quality emotional dialogue or scene.

Not really. You see, it's pretty much the same thing, just in a different pitch.

Viper718 wrote:

Another thing I will bring up, even though I dismissed it earlier in this post, is that some of the time, a voice fits a character. I will give a terrible example for it, mostly because it's fresh in my mind, but Suzume (Suzie) from Koniki no Gash Bell (Zatch Bell) is god awful in the English dub, and makes you just not want her around ever. In the japanese dub (which I JUST started watching recently, as I had watched the English dub prior, and can say I very much enjoyed it), she has a much more enjoyable voice, and it makes you want to like her more. Now, this arguement has no great amount of substance, as another VA could have been put in that place to make the role better/worse. This statement is very true, and it is not often the case that a voice is incorrect for a role in the English dubs, but it does happen from time to time.

Slightly related point of interest: It seems that the more kid-friendly an anime is, the worse it's dubbing is likely to be, especially with young female voices. Well, any female voices, actually.

Viper718 wrote:

My biggest problem, though, with English dubs is sometimes, to meet the lip flaps, they change the line to something terribly awful, or even worse, change the dialogue to something totally different that changes the type of person you see the character as. This scenario doesn't happen all to often, but it does happen on ocassion.

It's far more common to just edit the video than to change the dialogue... It often isn't even really that noticeable when it does occur.

Viper718 wrote:

And obviously there are those who WILL say things like that, and those that will argue that their point is the only valid point, but the cold hard truth is that it isn't.

That is my exact reason for even creating this thread. Almost all anime fans I know think like that.

i don't like eng dubs much I only watch them when I have no other choice, Japanese dubs are the best for me, I guess.

KEN-OH wrote:

i don't like eng dubs much I only watch them when I have no other choice, Japanese dubs are the best for me, I guess.

Care to give your reasoning for this?

I agree with KEN-OH.

Reasoning?

After watching many, many series I guess I simply got used to japanese voices and, frankly, english dubbing feels awkward to me. While some dubbings are, in fact, very professional and high quality, they somehow don't fit for me. It's probably because japanese voices tend to carry more emotions than english.

Not to mention all those lousy dubbings where voice actors don't even bother to actually spell japanese names correctly... This must be some kind of revenge for horrible english lines told by most japanese voice actors in many series...

I prefer subs, but only for certain anime.

Dubs are good for some of the more licenced anime series that hit us in the western world. I couldn't imagine watching GitS or Bebop in Japanese to be honest. I find the voice acting to be too damn good to want it any other way.

For the lesser known/internet downloaded series fresh from the east (that probably never made it's way to us) or a series that has god awful English voice acting, then subs are the way. Also, the raw Japanese you get from these types of anime is a very good way of learning the language, if you are into that sort of thing. I've learnt a great deal more on grammar rules, sentence structure and just general words and mannerisms from watching Japanese voice acted anime with subtitles. Also a good way to test out what know.

I would actually like to be able to watch a series without subs or dubs, but I'm not quite at that level of fluency. In fact, since I stopped studying it as an elective at university, I've all but forgotten a great deal. But you get the original, as intended, script this way. Often, due to translation issues, you lose a lot of the actual meaning behind the story/script. This is also true with games from Japan. There's a difference between the story we see (as westerners) compared to the story that the Japanese see. Sometimes, this is minor and just a few wording/grammatical things, but sometimes we don't get the full picture or something is missed out completely.

So, in terms of subs or dubs, definitely subs unless the English acting is amazingly brilliant (if it has my favourite voice actors it gets a watch just for that) that I can actually watch the series.

Cromell wrote:

I agree with KEN-OH.

Reasoning?

After watching many, many series I guess I simply got used to japanese voices and, frankly, english dubbing feels awkward to me. While some dubbings are, in fact, very professional and high quality, they somehow don't fit for me. It's probably because japanese voices tend to carry more emotions than english.

Not to mention all those lousy dubbings where voice actors don't even bother to actually spell japanese names correctly... This must be some kind of revenge for horrible english lines told by most japanese voice actors in many series...

totally agree with you too
thats exactly how I feel, I mean I can't feel like watching an anime if I watched it dubbed really....

I still completely disbelieve that Japanese voices carry any more or less emotion than English voices. I think you sub-lovers are just unable to recognize the more subtle emotions of the English-speaking people's voices.

As for the spelling of Japanese names in dubs... How often do you actually see a name spelled out in dubs? At any rate, it doesn't matter how it's spelled, it matters how it's pronounced.

The fact that I believe japanese voices carry "more emotion" is entirely based on my own feeling. Maybe because it's not as "subtle" as you say English is. Plus, I really, really like how this language sounds. Again, it's a matter of personal tastes.

PS. You got me there, Ryojin, by spelling I meant pronouncing. Totally my bad, man.

Ryojin wrote:

I still completely disbelieve that Japanese voices carry any more or less emotion than English voices. I think you sub-lovers are just unable to recognize the more subtle emotions of the English-speaking people's voices.

This is a bit biased, on both sides. People who say Japanese voices "carry" more emotion are just blind and fooling themselves. People who say english voices are more subtly emotional are also kidding themselves. Neither is necessarily better. The reason a lot of people prefer japanese over english is not because of how emotional they sound, but because you identify the voice to the art better, and thus hear the emotion more when the voice you feel fits the character best is present.

The biggest reason people say that japanese carries more emotion, also, is because as english speakers, we can hear the fuck ups of the dubbers. If you don't know japanese, and the mannerisms of their speach in daily life, then when you hear a japanese dub (w/ sub), you hear it as flawless, because you are not naturally adept to the language. Hell, who knows, Japanese people might think of their dubs and go "god, those people suck at voice acting".

But hey, that's what I think. I still prefer most japanese voices to english voices cause I feel they fit the art better, but I do enjoy the occassional english dub, and won't really complain if forced to watch in english.

You can't deny the English emotions are more subtle than Japanese in speaking voices... It might not be an enormous amount, but there is a noticeable difference. You do have a very good point about the native languages, though...