January 30th, 2010
dub vs sub war...A hypocrisy
We all know about this war. We all have way of watching anime in either English dub or Japanese with English subtitle. For me, I always watch it both way. Why, because I'm no weeaboos or a dub haters. No, I believe that anime can be watch in dub form no matter what language it is. Also, I'm very tired of people bashing the English dubs with the "dub sucks"
ANN has a link that show dub vs sub fallancies.
As a researcher in various topics of anime. The dub vs sub is one of my research I always look at. I have found evidence that can end this pointless war. Allow me to show you my evidence and to break down the "why anime should be watch in sub and hate all dub".
One Piece 4kids dub
Yes, we all know about how 4kids destroy One Piece and a lot of other good anime (Pokemon is an exception because of Nintendo involvement until Pokemon USA took over the dub). But using 4kids dub of One Piece is not a reason to say that all dubs are bad. Did you forget Funimation save the anime and also gave One Piece a better and faithful dub? Using 4kids One Piece dubs is not an excuse to say that all dubs are bad.
weeaboos/wapanese and double standard
It just came to my attention that most of our dub haters and the one that are involved with the dub vs sub war are also pulling double standard. Dub haters are pulling double standard by listening to thing in Japanese not only in anime but also in American video game in Gears of War and even to American live-action movie and TV show. Let me ask you all this: Why would a dub hater hate dub in anime but love and choose Japanese dub in American video game and live-action movie/shows? This really destroy the meaning of "dub haters". I don't see dub hater even complaining about Japan dubbing over some of our stuff.
2018 update: OK, if you want evidence that dub haters show of their love of anything Japanese, look at how western anime fan reacted to Skullgirls, an American video game that play like Street Fighter or any 2D animated fighting video game from Japan. When it got a Japanese dub:
When it announced that Rie Tanaka and Kana Hanazawa was added to the dub cast for Skullgirls, people that didn't wanted to play Skullgirls now wanted to play the game in Japanese voices despite the game was originally voiced in English just because "it sounded better" in Japanese and because of Rie Tanaka and Kana Hanazawa's involvement in the Japanese localization. Suddenly these same dub haters that declare their hatred for English dub for anime now wants to play an American fighting game because it has 2 well-known Seiyus doing the dub.
to dub haters: so let me get this straight, it's ok for Japan to dub over American stuff, but it's not ok for western countries to dub anime. So you're saying because Rie Tanaka and Kana Hanazawa lend their voice to American video game like Skullgirls, that makes the Japanese dub superior over the original English voice.
fansubs anime are not reliable and lousy translation
If you're watching fansub anime, I think you may want to stop and I can give you a reason for that. There are fansubs that has lousy translation and it may not give you the right translation as official subs (but then again most translation get lost). You might want to have a look at these pic:
<img src="http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/clubs/4/80195.jpg" border="0" />
<img src="http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/clubs/1/81413.jpg" border="0" />
<img src="http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/clubs/3/81513.jpg" border="0" />
Most of these fansubs are not accurate and fansubbers may not have enough Japanese to English translation. I'm not bashing fansubs since most anime companies like Bandai thank fansubbers for deciding to bring Haruhi Suzumiya to USA. But howver, fansubs with mistranslation and lousy dialogue still plague in anime.This is one of the reason why I lost faith in fansubs. the other reason is up ahead. Note: when Japanese translate things from English, a lot of thing get lost in translation also applied to Japanese also.
censorship
When anime is broadcasted in USA, they get censored because well due to FCC's law and we like our anime uncut which is true. But we can't overpower the FCC. At least Adult Swim and Sci-Fi kept anime lightly edit. censorship of anime does not only happen in US and elsewhere but in Japan too, don't believe me? Well I guess you haven't heard about Dragonball Kai censorship in Japan or Rosario+Vampire season 2 infamous panty censorship. Anime in Japan are subjected to censorship, there's no such thing as uncensored anime on Japanese TV. Japan has a strict rule about violence and sex on TV, that applies to anime also. Unfortunately, the fansubs anime you watch are network version shown on Japanese TV. You'll see that censorship on fansubs anime. A lot of anime fans are not aware of this. I remember watching the anime, Girls Bravo. It was fansubs and I didn't become aware of it's censorship until I saw the dub which was uncut. This is why people should watch anime that has been licensed by companies like Viz, Funimation, Bandai, Media Blaster. and etc. They are uncut and censor free. Fansubs (most, but not all) anime equal censorship from Japanese TV and lousy translation.
editing and Americanization
I can understand why people don't like this. But remember, not all anime were heavily edited. Astro Boy and Gigantor were kept uncut when they were first debuted in USA. After that, anime face bunch of slaughter between 1970's to late 1990's. This was common practice. 4kids are in debt and can't get anymore anime. So the era of Americanization and reckless editing of anime are over. Although some or more of the edited anime can be considered classics (Voltron, Sailor Moon). Also, I like to bring up that when American cartoon get brought over to Japan, they get edited too!!!! It might be a suprise, but it's true. I got evidence to back this up. Did you know Hanna-Barbera cartoon like the Flintstone, Jetson, Scooby Doo, and Wacky Racer was popular back in Japan during the 60's when anime was still in it infancy. Did you know several of them got edited in Japan the same way US did to anime long time ago. One HB show had that:
The Herculoids when they were brought over to Japan and many of the character had name changes.
The Herculoids became 怪獣王ターガン Kaijû Ô Tâgan (Monster King Targan)
Sandor became Targan in the Japanese dub
Tarra became Marm
Dorno became Kane
Zok became Maryû
Tundro became Tangurô
Igoo became Rikira
Gleep and Gloop became Bôbô and Hyûhyû
Update as of 2018: After
ANN has a link that show dub vs sub fallancies.
As a researcher in various topics of anime. The dub vs sub is one of my research I always look at. I have found evidence that can end this pointless war. Allow me to show you my evidence and to break down the "why anime should be watch in sub and hate all dub".
One Piece 4kids dub
Yes, we all know about how 4kids destroy One Piece and a lot of other good anime (Pokemon is an exception because of Nintendo involvement until Pokemon USA took over the dub). But using 4kids dub of One Piece is not a reason to say that all dubs are bad. Did you forget Funimation save the anime and also gave One Piece a better and faithful dub? Using 4kids One Piece dubs is not an excuse to say that all dubs are bad.
weeaboos/wapanese and double standard
It just came to my attention that most of our dub haters and the one that are involved with the dub vs sub war are also pulling double standard. Dub haters are pulling double standard by listening to thing in Japanese not only in anime but also in American video game in Gears of War and even to American live-action movie and TV show. Let me ask you all this: Why would a dub hater hate dub in anime but love and choose Japanese dub in American video game and live-action movie/shows? This really destroy the meaning of "dub haters". I don't see dub hater even complaining about Japan dubbing over some of our stuff.
2018 update: OK, if you want evidence that dub haters show of their love of anything Japanese, look at how western anime fan reacted to Skullgirls, an American video game that play like Street Fighter or any 2D animated fighting video game from Japan. When it got a Japanese dub:
When it announced that Rie Tanaka and Kana Hanazawa was added to the dub cast for Skullgirls, people that didn't wanted to play Skullgirls now wanted to play the game in Japanese voices despite the game was originally voiced in English just because "it sounded better" in Japanese and because of Rie Tanaka and Kana Hanazawa's involvement in the Japanese localization. Suddenly these same dub haters that declare their hatred for English dub for anime now wants to play an American fighting game because it has 2 well-known Seiyus doing the dub.
to dub haters: so let me get this straight, it's ok for Japan to dub over American stuff, but it's not ok for western countries to dub anime. So you're saying because Rie Tanaka and Kana Hanazawa lend their voice to American video game like Skullgirls, that makes the Japanese dub superior over the original English voice.
fansubs anime are not reliable and lousy translation
If you're watching fansub anime, I think you may want to stop and I can give you a reason for that. There are fansubs that has lousy translation and it may not give you the right translation as official subs (but then again most translation get lost). You might want to have a look at these pic:
<img src="http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/clubs/4/80195.jpg" border="0" />
<img src="http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/clubs/1/81413.jpg" border="0" />
<img src="http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/clubs/3/81513.jpg" border="0" />
Most of these fansubs are not accurate and fansubbers may not have enough Japanese to English translation. I'm not bashing fansubs since most anime companies like Bandai thank fansubbers for deciding to bring Haruhi Suzumiya to USA. But howver, fansubs with mistranslation and lousy dialogue still plague in anime.This is one of the reason why I lost faith in fansubs. the other reason is up ahead. Note: when Japanese translate things from English, a lot of thing get lost in translation also applied to Japanese also.
censorship
When anime is broadcasted in USA, they get censored because well due to FCC's law and we like our anime uncut which is true. But we can't overpower the FCC. At least Adult Swim and Sci-Fi kept anime lightly edit. censorship of anime does not only happen in US and elsewhere but in Japan too, don't believe me? Well I guess you haven't heard about Dragonball Kai censorship in Japan or Rosario+Vampire season 2 infamous panty censorship. Anime in Japan are subjected to censorship, there's no such thing as uncensored anime on Japanese TV. Japan has a strict rule about violence and sex on TV, that applies to anime also. Unfortunately, the fansubs anime you watch are network version shown on Japanese TV. You'll see that censorship on fansubs anime. A lot of anime fans are not aware of this. I remember watching the anime, Girls Bravo. It was fansubs and I didn't become aware of it's censorship until I saw the dub which was uncut. This is why people should watch anime that has been licensed by companies like Viz, Funimation, Bandai, Media Blaster. and etc. They are uncut and censor free. Fansubs (most, but not all) anime equal censorship from Japanese TV and lousy translation.
editing and Americanization
I can understand why people don't like this. But remember, not all anime were heavily edited. Astro Boy and Gigantor were kept uncut when they were first debuted in USA. After that, anime face bunch of slaughter between 1970's to late 1990's. This was common practice. 4kids are in debt and can't get anymore anime. So the era of Americanization and reckless editing of anime are over. Although some or more of the edited anime can be considered classics (Voltron, Sailor Moon). Also, I like to bring up that when American cartoon get brought over to Japan, they get edited too!!!! It might be a suprise, but it's true. I got evidence to back this up. Did you know Hanna-Barbera cartoon like the Flintstone, Jetson, Scooby Doo, and Wacky Racer was popular back in Japan during the 60's when anime was still in it infancy. Did you know several of them got edited in Japan the same way US did to anime long time ago. One HB show had that:
The Herculoids when they were brought over to Japan and many of the character had name changes.
The Herculoids became 怪獣王ターガン Kaijû Ô Tâgan (Monster King Targan)
Sandor became Targan in the Japanese dub
Tarra became Marm
Dorno became Kane
Zok became Maryû
Tundro became Tangurô
Igoo became Rikira
Gleep and Gloop became Bôbô and Hyûhyû
Update as of 2018: After
Posted by mdo7 | Jan 30, 2010 6:18 PM | 1 comments