| This matter is exactly why I prefer to watch the dub, worse voice acting or not. I can't focus on the show if I have to read the whole thing... |
 I'm level  on MAL-Badges. View my badges. |
| The only anime I find myself getting distracted with sometimes is reading the subs for Gintama, because of how long some of translator notes are or how long the explanations are on some of the parodies. I find myself pausing the video at times to read them. Other than that I don't find myself getting distracted because I am pretty used to reading subtitles. However I don't mind going back and rereading them, if I miss something. |
SevenJun 23, 2012 6:19 PM
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| Like everyone else in this thread, I read very fast so, I'm not distracted by subtitles. |
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| I can't stand to watch dubbed anime, so reading the subtitles is a must. And generally, it's not a problem. Sometimes, though, I really wish I didn't have to read the subtitles because of some visual spectacle that reading causes me to miss. This was happening frequently the other night when I was watching Berserk: Egg of the High King. > < |
| Eh, it might hold true for a more well made live action series, but in anime, there are usually very very little subtle stuff to note at all. You never get very interesting facial expressions for example, so just a quick glance usually tells you everything. Body language as well is usually strongly exaggerated so it's hard to miss anything. And not to mention that with the bland or bad animation in most anime, there's usually not much to miss, even in a fight scene. And as with most of the others, I read so fast anyways that I never lose anything either way. The only exceptions are stuff like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei where the background is filled with gags and all that text on the blackboard, or when there are otherwise extended subs for whatever reason. But that just means I pause to read all the extra subs, no problem. And I almost always watch anime with the sound off anyway, no point when I don't understand it. njd09 said: Lol, I always do that too. Plus, with subs, it's a lot easier when you have to turn down the volume for some reason, you can still continue.Before I even watched anime, I would always play games with subtitles on. Sometimes I can't catch what the characters are saying, whether it's because I had the volume too low or I just missed it. Subs leave no room for misinterpretation, and that's why the first thing I do when starting up a game that has cutscenes is turn on the damned subtitles. |
| I read pretty damn fast, so unless my computer decides to have a brain fart and freeze the video or they said something remarkably fast that i only got a small glimpse of what they said, i can appreciate the visuals and OSTs fine when i watch Anime. I read, look at them and put the words to the character with the knowledge of what they said. It's second nature. The only time i have a problem with subs is when they're HUGE, all over the place, or take too long to appear. Chihayafuru had a couple of problems with that and it irritated me to no end. I only remember part of maybe three of the poems from that show because the subtitled version i was watching had them all over the place. Other Anime had their subtitles a couple seconds behind and i had to connect the subtitles on screen with previous scenes- annoying. I would say my only impacting problem when it comes to appreciating Anime when you have to read subtitles is that, because it's subtitled, i tend to only want to know what they said, but don't really think about it as much as i would if i could simply stare and listen and create theories on the story from there. This is the reason i tend to go to forums and blogs for a recap of the episode so i don't have to pause the video every time some clue to solving the mystery comes up and i have to take a minute to think about it. I just don't like pausing in the middle of an episode. Sometimes i catch the clue, but other times i don't. Otherwise, subtitles don't bother me when i'm watching Anime. I hear every beautiful OST, i notice tone of voices and bad acting, and i take in most of the visuals well (if there is an easter egg somewhere i might not notice, but i have sometimes in the past so i suppose it depends). After a while you just get used to the subtitles and develop methods to multitask. Most of the time it's pretty straight forward anyway, so there's nothing really distracting you from the rest of the visuals. You have to admit that sometimes subtitled is better than dub anyway. I recently finished watching the World God Only Knows in dub, and it was pretty bad that i could barely concentrate on anything other than the terrible lip syncing and acting in certain scenes. |
| Can subtitles distract you so much from the actual anime? For me,that depends.Sometimes I'm like "NEXT!",other times I'm like "Wait,I'm a slow reader!Give me a chance to figure this out!". But there are times when subs are a nuisance for me.When?When I'm trying to enjoy & absorb the level of detail & beauty in the art,background & animation. |
| My Devianart Oh & Space Brothers is still the best anime ever,in my opinion.Even when competing with Attack on Titan. |
| When I used to use subs they never distracted me, and I've never understood how they can distract people but I guess not everyone is a fast reader. |
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| I generally don't have a problem reading subs, only in a few shows do I have some difficulties (ie. Gintama/Bakemonogatari) or otherwise only when there's cultural notes/play-on-words in the form of a paragraph. |
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| Reading subtitles is pretty much a must for me, since I want to get the context of what the characters are saying. I know there's body language and face expressions, but knowing what the person is saying is needed. Therefore, it's not a distracton to me. I sticked to subtitles for anime all the way through. Never a single dub episode of an anime did I watch, which explains why I need subbed episodes so much. Also wouldn't prefer raw episodes. |
| I'm a fast reader so I have no problem. Sometimes the sub's font or colour can be distracting though. |
| Tatami Galaxy is a good example of this. Seriously, the main character is like Blurr from Transformers The Movie. In other words talks so fast that the subs can sometimes last up to a millisecond. If I were to it again, i'd watched dubbed just so I can enjoy the amazing visuals more. |
| I mostly fly through subtitles and then focus on what's being shown. I don't think that they've ever really distracted me from the anime itself unless it was this huge block of text that I had to focus all of my attention on. There's always when the subs don't match what's being said, but if you can recognize the phrase, then the subs don't distract from the actual meaning. |
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| It was definitely something I had to get used to and even now I sometimes am not even able to read the whole sentence because they talk too fast, but often times I have noticed that I read the dailouge faster and then end up waiting for them to say something else ^.^ |
| Generally I wouldn't say they are distracting, since I can read fast enough and can understand 90-95% of the dialogue from the audio for all but the most difficult shows. Ironically enough, subtitles are only distracting to me when fansubbers try to be "unobtrusive" with them. These attempts to be "unobtrusive" can take several forms, including: * Putting subs way too close to the bottom of the image, thus forcing viewers to look down at the subs and then back up at the main area of the video. * Spreading subs too wide on the image, thus forcing viewers to expend effort doing side-to-side scanning... which causes eye fatigue and increases the chances of missing out on visuals. (In other words, subs should be overscan compatible.) * Making subs microscopically tiny. * Using colors that are extremely common in the anime (like frequent background shades or character hair colors) with insufficient border/shadow to separate them from the image. In extreme cases, this can result in an experience akin to deciphering CAPTCHAs, if you have to spend too much time trying to read green words against green grass or something. Luckily, official DVD and Blu-Ray subs avoid these pitfalls and are actually readable almost all the time. On the other hand, they tend to have more distracting timing issues like "flash" (short gaps between subtitles), scene bleeds (subtitles starting just before / ending just after scene changes), and "flicker" (subtitles starting just after / ending just before scene changes). Most but not all fansubs do better in the timing department. |
on 
| i dunno, i always watch with subs. After awhile you start learning words and such and stop reading them as much as you used to. |
| None of you actually exist do you? |
| It seems I am not as mentally capable as the other people on here and I completely agree with what you're saying and therefore also attempt to find the dubbed version first. Plus I feel like people are exaggerating how bad dubs are. It's not like we're talking about 4kids over here... I personally prefer a lot of of dubbed versions to subbed, like TTGL or Code Geass. One of the most ridiculous arguments I've heard against dubbed anime is that the japanese put more effort into their work than the foreign dubbers. If anything it makes more sense to say english dubbers attempt to surpass the seiyuus, they can inspire themselves from the original work, but still put their own twist on the character. And it's not like the director of the anime has no say on what the dubbers should sound like. Plus since I have the attention span of a fly I many times get completely lost in what the characters are saying when it's a very dialogue heavy show. Also, this isn't very general, but for example with bakemonogatari I definitely felt I couldn't enjoy the show completely, since I still don't get half of the word play puns. This reminds me of how fansubbers sometimes explain jokes at the top of the screen ... then I have no clue what the characters are saying or what's happening visually. |
merurinJun 25, 2012 3:20 PM
sedahinabox said: i dunno, i always watch with subs. After awhile you start learning words and such and stop reading them as much as you used to. Your Avatar.....Is hilarious. Haha, i died looking at it. yokaii said: It seems I am not as mentally capable as the other people on here and I completely agree with what you're saying and therefore also attempt to find the dubbed version first. Plus I feel like people are exaggerating how bad dubs are. It's not like we're talking about 4kids over here... I personally prefer a lot of of dubbed versions to subbed, like TTGL or Code Geass. One of the most ridiculous arguments I've heard against dubbed anime is that the japanese put more effort into their work than the foreign dubbers. If anything it makes more sense to say english dubbers attempt to surpass the seiyuus, they can inspire themselves from the original work, but still put their own twist on the character. And it's not like the director of the anime has to say on what the dubbers should sound like. Plus since I have the attention span of a fly I many times get completely lost in what the characters are saying when it's a very dialogue heavy show. Also, this isn't very general, but for example with bakemonogatari I definitely felt I couldn't enjoy the show completely, since I still don't get half of the word play puns. This reminds me of how fansubbers sometimes explain jokes at the top of the screen ... then I have no clue what the characters are saying or what's happening visually. I wouldn't take it as far as mental handicap, because i don't feel like i'm superior to people who watch dubs and can't read subs quite as fast. I used to be the same way. It's all just personal preference really. It's just something you pick up after watching subs. Bakemonogatari i never got any of the puns......I never paid much attention to them though, mostly just the story since none of the puns were canon. I agree with you on that people do exaggerate on how bad dubs are, but at the same time i understand where they're coming from. After being told dubs are bad for years then it's ingrained. People take this, and don't expect to enjoy the show. They will watch the dub and dislike it just out of pure spite, because that's the way everyone says dubs should be treated. I have a feeling that's what's going on here. I like Code Geass dub over the sub. I think Johnny Yong Bosch did an excellent job as LeLouch. |
| I read subs pretty fast but I dont blame people who prefer to watch dubs because of this reason. Heck, I'm a Godzilla fan. Bad dubs adds to the fun. |
| The Art of Eight |
| I'm used to reading subtitles, so it doesn't bother me. And if I want to see the visuals, I'll just re-watch the episode, this time without looking at the subs much. |
| Signature removed. Please follow the signature rules, as defined in the Site & Forum Guidelines. |
Yvese said: It really just boils down to how fast you can read. For me, I'm like Anime_Name; I read fast. As soon as subs appear on screen, it takes me a second to read it then my eyes are back on the screen. That and you can always use peripheral vision. Just because you're looking at the subs doesn't mean you can't see what's happening on-screen. After watching a lot of subbed anime it's become second nature. Pretty much this for me. |
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| I'm used to subtitles. Good subtitles are not distracting at all. Unfortunately, subtitles on DVDs and some blu-rays from official releases of anime can be obnoxious. Eg. Overly large fonts that covers a third of the screen, placing them closer to the middle instead of the lower part of the screen, using colors that are impossible to read on bright scenes, etc. Now those are distracting. Fansubbers mostly do a good/better job in making the subtitle to be not obnoxious by using smaller fonts, matching fonts, artsy, to the point that some seem to be actually part of the anime itself. |
| After Yojouhan shinwa taikei and Excel saga, I have no problem with subtitles. |
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clow_card said: --The more subs you watch, the more this skill will develop. Just as in speed reading, your eye learns to take in the phrase rather than the word. Same with the video screen, your eye eventually learns to convey the words and picture to your mind at the same time. That said, some people are more adept at it than others. I'm good at it, but not great. If a show is dialog heavy, I have no problem pausing or backing up to re read something. The pictures seem to "filter" the words for some with dyslexia but not others. It all depends on how your brain processes information. Nothing wrong with you. You just do things different.Yvese said: It really just boils down to how fast you can read. For me, I'm like Anime_Name; I read fast. As soon as subs appear on screen, it takes me a second to read it then my eyes are back on the screen. That and you can always use peripheral vision. Just because you're looking at the subs doesn't mean you can't see what's happening on-screen. After watching a lot of subbed anime it's become second nature. Pretty much this for me. |
| -animeS - The plural of anime is anime. More than one deer is still deer. There is no damn "s". -epic |ˈepik| noun•a work portraying heroic deeds/adventures covering an long period of time - adjective • heroic/grand in scale or character Active Military, Prior Service, and Veteran's Anime Club http://myanimelist.net/clubs.php?cid=25937&time=1299710079 |
| Well most of the time nothing really goes on when people are talking, I mean all you're missing out is the mouths moving in a still frame picture of the character. |
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| This is why in my ideal, fantasy world, every anime would have a great, Bebop-tier english dub and they would be be available as instantly as fansubs are. But unfortunately, that is not the case and we gotta deal with the subtitles. |
SecretAgent194 said: This is why in my ideal, fantasy world, every anime would have a great, Bebop-tier english dub and they would be be available as instantly as fansubs are. But unfortunately, that is not the case and we gotta deal with the subtitles. In my ideal world fans of shows from Japan would learn Japanese. So whenever a show is made the fans understand instantly. The fun thing is my fantastyactually happens, sometimes... |
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| If I don't agree with the phrasing or grammar of the subtitles, then I'll come up with an alternate translation in my head - this is something I seem to have an inability to turn off. Mentally rewriting the subs distracts me from anime more than the subtitles themselves. |
Anime_Name said: In my ideal world fans of shows from Japan would learn Japanese. So whenever a show is made the fans understand instantly. The fun thing is my fantastyactually happens, sometimes... Part of me wants that. But part of me doesn't. It would be great not having to wait on subs and dubs. But at the same time, we would miss out on a lot "better than original" dubs. Hmm. |
Anime_Name said: SecretAgent194 said: This is why in my ideal, fantasy world, every anime would have a great, Bebop-tier english dub and they would be be available as instantly as fansubs are. But unfortunately, that is not the case and we gotta deal with the subtitles. In my ideal world fans of shows from Japan would learn Japanese. So whenever a show is made the fans understand instantly. The fun thing is my fantastyactually happens, sometimes... I don't have the comprehension to learn another language though. At least i don't think i'd be able to......I've never tried learning a second language. |
| I've been learning Japanese casually for the last 3 years. It has helped me so I can focus more on the actual anime instead of reading everything. I also have noticed some places where the subtitles are mistranslated or where they took shortcuts to make it less complicated. I can see how subtitles could take away from some anime, especially thoes that subtite EVERYTHING and explain every little thing. The best fix for subtitles is learning Japanese. Just spend a few hours a week learning new words. Heck, I memorized all the Hiragana and Katakana in one afternoon. I can read some manga raw. Actually, the only manga I own is in Japanese. It takes me a while for each page, but I can still read it. Maybe I just love anime and manga (and Japan in general) too much. |
| ------------------------------------------------------------ "Time waits for no one." |
| i only watch subs so i gotten used to it. and i like the original language. |
| only read what you like. |
| This is precisely why I prefer English dubs as opposed to Japanese with English subtitles. I can read the text just fine but I would prefer to simply focus on what is actually happening. |
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Shuhan said: I need to learn Japanese, i hate reading while watching anime. 3 months later my stance has completely changed, i prefer subs and i dont think they distract me at all. |
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Shuhan said: Shuhan said: I need to learn Japanese, i hate reading while watching anime. 3 months later my stance has completely changed, i prefer subs and i dont think they distract me at all. omedetou on moving into subs. if your used nay watched sub from the time you watch anime, then you'll get used to it. but you know there's something you'll never going to get used to, bad quality dubs, or dubs in general. XD |
| vote here:http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=486633 its a poll on what you prefer when watching anime subs dubs both |
| The only time I run into problems is when im watching a show where the charcters have special abilities and they say the japanese name on the bottom and the english equivalent on the top. Sometimes I have to play back to understand what it is. Other then that I read pretty fast so I don't think that it detracts from my viewing pleasure. |
| Ive only ever experienced this with the Carnival Phantasm OVA Iyla's Castle. Otherwise I'm a very fast reader, so ive never had any problems. |
| This can only be a problem in scenes with massive narration over lots of scenery (I'm thinking Limit Cycle or something). There is nothing going on when the characters are actually talking. Plus you can read faster than you can listen and it's not like you have to actually stare at the subtitles. The only major downside is visual impurity, but it is either that or accepting a completely altered soundscape. |
| Yeah, it does prove to be distracting from time to time. Especially during long talks. |
| I generally read really fast like others have said and been watching subs for so long it takes a simple look and I read the whole sentence. I think the only anime that might have gave me a bit of trouble in that department is bakemonogatari with just a shit ton of visuals and dialogue thrown at your face it was a lot more difficult to watch.(Kept up with it though after getting use to it. Deserve a medal pl0x!) |
Touch me, you filthy casual~ |
| Subtitles can distract you so much from the actual anime... By now, only sometimes. I actually enjoy watching non-English films because I can smoothly see all of the screen - visuals & subs. My other friends balk at the idea since they'd be 'reading' rather than watching. And I do know that they are missing a huge amount of gorgeous films because of the inability to read subs almost instantaneously. Of course nothing actually beats understanding Japanese. I have tried watching without the subs for some films I really wanted to see that hasn't been subbed yet/ever. It stressed me more trying to figure out what they're saying and wound up not enjoying the film as much. I do try watching a favorite of mine without subs just to see how much Japanese I've learnt. Let's see...baka, ohayou, teme, shiine, chikara, kokoro, oniichan, nee-sama, gonkigenyo, etc. Ah, not much. Back to subs then. |
| No they don't. |
Anime_Name said: I read fast. I only have to glance at the subs when they change to understand the sentence. I already spend most of my time focused on how words are said and the visuals going on. I'm sure others might have similar experiences as you but subtitles don't impact my viewing anywhere near as bad as they do you. I do as well. I feel sad when I can't show my friends some of those awesome original media subtitled (be it american movies/TV Series or japanese anime) as a bunch of them are slow to read... But when you read fast (usually you write fast too) it's a pleasure, the best of both worlds: hearing the voice acting, watching the visuals. And usually get the original jokes (something the dubs can't bring more often than not) |
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| I read the subtitles much quicker than the character saying what they want to say in Japanese, mainly because some times it takes longer for them to say it in Japanese than in English. *credit to google translate* example: "I don't get it" takes much quicker to say compared to "Watashi wa sore o shutoku shinaide kudasai". |
| LOL no. |
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| Hmm, the OP does have a point. I'm totally partial to subs, don't get me wrong - but I suppose one can miss out on the visual areas when only concentrating on the subtitles. I've come to be able to read the subs fast enough that I can glance at both the text and the visuals, but maybe I'm not getting the "full" visual picture. Who knows. Maybe I should look at some raws just for fun. Compare it to my experience of subs. |
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