Subtitled/Subbed or English Dubbed anime (aka Subs vs. Dubs v2)

sendoh12 said:
I much prefer subs. For me, the english voice acting just doesn't do it. It doesn't have as much quality to it as the japanese version. The emotion just isn't there. Just try watching Grave of the Fireflies with english dubbing. It's just not as emotionally engaging

2Handed_Cutlass said:
But I watch subs just as equally if the dub is average to below or I just know the dub will be terrible like say a Clannad dub. I know that would just be awful so I watch the sub respectively.

AironicallyHuman said:
What's the point? Seeing two or more try to win at online argument retardation showdowns loses its luster, after awhile.

But one certainity is that, if there isn't much between the voice acting, it's better to listen and watch, rather than read.

On a site filled with as many ignorant sheep as MAL is, threads like this should just be closed. What's the point?

Seeing two or more try to win at online argument retardation showdowns loses its luster, after awhile.

Anime_Name said:
You repeated that didn't experience a problem while making the context misleadingly negative.

Schonn said:
Funny how the exact same situation happened to me too. I watched it first with subs and I got to admit, I teared or maybe cried a little. But when it was English dubbed, I felt nothing. Absolutely nothing, lol. Makes me wonder how Clannad would've affected me if I watched it dubbed.

Onibokusu said:


Lol, what? I think you must have been a bit tired when you posted that. Anyways, we're good now.



For me, it's actually the opposite. This has nothing to do with quality though, but more so to do understanding the emotion. As I've posted earlier in this thread, and in previous threads, just having the emotion there doesn't cut it. When I'm reading a sad book, I can imagine the emotion being portrayed by the characters, so I can sometimes feel sad. When I'm watching, or listening, to something in English and I can understand the words being portrayed along with the emotions, I can also have my emotions plucked in a similar manner. Combining the emotion of a language I don't understand, with text that leaves nothing to my imagination, kinda kills it for me. It's similar to the difference in response to a horror/slasher flick watched in the day, to a horror/slasher flick watched at night. It's hard to explain, really. I guess I feel a greater connection to the moment when the emotion is portrayed auditorily in a language I understand?

I mean, I did feel something when watching CLANNAD: After Story, but that was because the sad moments were extremely, extremely visual in their representation.

Redfoxoffire said:

I find it odd you call yourself neutral when you can somehow "know" that a dub will be bad.

fishergirl16 said:
Sorry pressed post already ;p but it makes you have a biased view of what you watched first.

fishergirl16 said:
When you watch in dub, it just feels like less of an anime, and more regular tv show. And subbed is how the director intended to be.

2Handed_Cutlass said:


Its just certain things I've come to expect from certain types of anime. Watching Clannad subbed which I thought was freaking amazing will to me most likely feel like the dub is garbage. I consider myself neutral because I don't prefer one or the other, Mostly its what's directly available to me. If I'm not sure about a dub I just watch it subbed you can never go wrong there and if a dub is really good usually people will let me know.

At least I'm not the "OMG ITS NOT HOW ANIME SHOULD BE!!!!" types. I can easily accept both.

Drunk_Samurai said:


Not true at all. I started with dubs and prefer subs.

Drunk_Samurai said:


Not true at all. I started with dubs and prefer subs.

it's foolish to say that SUBS >>>>>DUBS as that will not always be the case

Anime_Name said:


If I like and finish more subbed anime than dubbed then SUBS >>>>>>>>>DUBS seems like a fine statement for me to have, as long as bigger number > smaller number.

fishergirl16 said:

I watched Clannad in sub, and I enjoyed it extremely. When I watched it in dub again, I admit I felt the same emotions. I liked it in sub and dub but sub more, but I think alot of it accounts for the one you watched it first through. It's just how you know the voices from the beginning and it sticks with you. Watching again, whether you watched it in sub or dub, somewhat makes you have a biases view of

Redfoxoffire said:



I think he meant show-by-show. Like if you start watching a show dubbed (and like it), you will tend to prefer it that way. If you start watching it subbed, same thing. This is very common.

Onibokusu said:


That's an extremely simple way of putting it, but it is how it usually works out for people (what you experience first tends to be what you prefer). I give both versions a chance though, and usually decide on which I prefer after seeing both (if both the English and Japanese languages options are available for a title).

People like to pin me as a dub-lover, whilst the truth is I just don't agree with the mindless bashing of English dubs. I'll watch an anime in either language, and I have dubs (from both languages) that I don't like. But, when it comes to emotions, it happens for me like the above. I feel a greater connection, or something, when watching media in my native language.

Drunk_Samurai said:


Again, that is not true. I started dubs on shows and then started watching their subs.

Meh_93 said:


In general, people prefer what ever they hear first. That's obviously not true 100% of the time, but you can say it's true the vast majority of the time.

Anime_Name said:


Only if that person wants to make unprovable shit up.

Do you think it's just because they have stellar dubs?

Anime_Name said:

That would be the proper question to ask people who have said they like any particular dub instead of assigning a reason to them that supports a generality, which is confirmation bias.

Redfoxoffire said:

It is true, actually. It does not always apply and people can still switch, but I never said it is always the case that you'll prefer the first version you experience, just that it's common.

Redfoxoffire said:

If you knew anything about deductive reasoning, I doubt you'd be saying this. If you can't see the common themes here, I have nothing left to say.

Drunk_Samurai said:


"you will tend to prefer it that way." Nice try.

Anime_Name said:


It does not mean the person doing the deducing is not a complete loon and is grasping at straws. Inspector Gadget used deductive reasoning too. You two might get along.

I get the feeling you're arguing just for the sake of arguing because you don't want to agree with me on something, or because you don't want to agree that there's even the slightest chance that a person could have a legitimate reason for preferring an anime English dubbed.

Anime_Name said:


I just called the theory that goes "In general, people prefer what ever they hear first." baloney. It is not a legitimate reason. It is a cop-out attempt to speak on someone else's behalf and it makes it seem that happenstance plays a larger part in forming a preference rather than any of the reasons people have actually given for themselves.

So if you want to keep talking in big sweeping generalizations I am going to disagree when you are observable truths are you jumping to conclusions.

Anime_Name said:
if you want to keep talking in big sweeping generalizations I am going to disagree

Drunk_Samurai said:

Since when do you like subs? You hate all fansubs.

Anime_Name said:
I know there was a typo in that last sentence but don't misquote me by leaving out important conditional statements.

Anime_Name said:
I just called the theory that goes "In general, people prefer what ever they hear first." baloney. It is not a legitimate reason. It is a cop-out attempt to speak on someone else's behalf and it makes it seem that happenstance plays a larger part in forming a preference rather than any of the reasons people have actually given for themselves.

So if you want to keep talking in big sweeping generalizations I am going to disagree when your observable truths are you jumping to conclusions.

Anime_Name said:
No.

itsthatguy said:
In the end though I think it really boils down to which you listen to first and get used to. Once you get used to how characters sound it just sounds weird/bad hearing it any other way. Imagine if they remade something like Toy Story or the Lion King with a new cast? Even if the actors were goodd people wouldn't like it because it wasn't what they were used to.

Meh_93 said:


Yup, I agree with this. It's like, "In general, people prefer what ever they hear first".

Anime_Name said:
Not true. It also does not say anything about people that buy anime DVDs before ever seeing the show and what causes them to have a audio preference, if any. Like I said before trying to speak for others' just doesn't work for this type of generalization.

itsthatguy said:
I watch both ways because then watching is so much more accesible so it doesn't really matter to me.

I started off watching English dubbed shows on Toonami (although at the time I didn't know they were dubbed). The first time I watched a sub was Cardcaptor Sakura because I found out that the English version changed a RIDICULOUS amount of stuff related to the story and I was much better off for having watched the sub. True it was weird at first to watch and read at the same time but I got used to it eventually.

It's nice to be able to watch subs because a lot of shows don't get a dub (which is another reason I started watching more subbed anime). However with dubs it is nice to be able to watch anime and actually know what the characters are saying just by listening.

The only real problem I have with watching dubs is when things get lost of translation or when I watch too many in a row. There are only so many dub companies out there and after a while some of the voices become familiar and it makes each new show seem less unique when voices are reused. With subs I don't recognize voices as easily so there doesn't seem to be much repetition and there seem to be A LOT of Japanese voice actors.