Cicero
Honestly, it’s all about what’s available. Plenty of newer shows haven’t been licensed for dubbing yet. I’m for whatever gets people to watch more anime. I can’t pick a side.
King Solomon
Subs preserve the nuance of the original. Look at something as basic as Princess Mononoke – I’m not saying Gillian Anderson doesn’t have a great voice, but in traditional Japanese anime, dogs are voiced by men, and cats by women, and that gets lost when you recast without respect for the original.
Hannibal Barca
That’s actually not even true? Moro was a wolf goddess. She was clearly female. Did you even watch the whole movie?
The Trưng sisters
Dubs make shows accessible. Not everyone is alive to the nuances of Japanese culture, you know? Subtitles tell you what’s going on, but dubs make the little details come alive. And isn’t that what anime is all about?
Boudica
I think if you’re not willing to take a few minutes to learn about Japanese social structures, you’re probably not going to get much out of anime in the first place. Honestly, it’s basic research. Subs separate the dabblers from the real fans. If I see something I don’t understand, I look it up, I don’t ask for a second-rate German voice actor to hold my hand and explain things to me.
The Venerable Bede
Okay, don’t flame me, but I actually thought the dubbed version of Sailor Moon was better. Sailors Neptune and Uranus actually made really cute cousins! This way I could watch it with my kids without having to explain stuff they’re not ready for.
Maimonides
I don’t even know what to say to that. Subs. Obviously. Would you dub over the Mona Lisa? No. You couldn’t.
Empress Chadi
One word: Robotech. I rest my case.
Huldrych Zwingli
I’d rather someone watched the dubbed version than illegally torrented it. Torrenters are f*cking ruining the anime industry.
Abraham Lincoln
Look, just because some dubs have been subpar doesn’t mean that dubbing as a practice is always bad. You can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Benito Juarez
Dubs are basically cultural erasure. I don’t understand the point of dubs. It’s like eating baby food when you have a full set of teeth.
Charles Dickens
SUBS ONLY IF I WANT TO HEAR RUSSELL CROWE’S VOICE AS TOTORO I WILL KILL MYSELF AND GO DIRECTLY TO HELL
Ulysses S. Grant
Have you seen Hellsing? I swear I’m not trolling, but I think the English dub is actually better than the original in some ways. Also, I’m not watching anime because I want to read a book, you know? If I want to read a book, I’ll read a book.
Gen. George McClellan
I don’t watch anime.
Ida B. Wells
You can’t even get a series like Ao no Exorcist in dub. Good luck trying to watch episode 21 of Guilty Crown while you’re at it, dubbers. You’re living in a dream world.
Joseph Stalin
Either one is fine.
Tags: history, subs vs. dubs
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I love that Lincoln’s argument essentially boils down to #notalldubs.
That was Gillian Anderson playing Moro? Ohh. Oh man. That’s so great. Her voice was so good. (Get loose, King Solomon!)
RIGGGGHHHHTTTT? Like, it almost makes up for Billy Bob Thornton except what am I saying, no. But if anything could make up for Billy Bob it would be Gillian.
(If I was good at gifs this thread would be entirely Gillian Anderson gifs from here on out.)
The timing on this was perfect. I’ve just recently started getting into anime after going to A-Kon in Dallas and asking my boyfriend to “drag me to Anime Hell.” Currently I’m watching the subs of Danganronpa after playing the first game, and the dubs of Ouran. I think I prefer dubs, but I don’t mind subs at all, since I watch most things with subtitles anyway because it helps me process what I’m hearing better.
I only got back into anime when I started cosplaying again. I am now confirmed anime trash.
that reminds me, I still have to watch Ouran… it’s one of those many many series I missed during my decade-long break from anime (and now I’m happily back in Anime Hell).
WATCH MONONOKE!!!! ALSO KIDS ON THE SLOPE!!!
#animetrashinallupinhere
YES to Kids on the Slope, oh mannnn. right in the feels. I need to add Mononoke to my to-watch list – I really love the art style!
I agree with Ida B. Wells, that’s all I needed to know.
As always, Ida B. Wells is unafraid to speak truths others just aren’t ready for.
BRB, gonna go flame the Venerable Bede pretty hard right now.
OK, as someone who is definitely a dabbler, I’ve seen more dubs than subs, but some of the subs I’ve seen are…really bad. Like, very broken English, the person talks for five minutes and two words come up, it’s legitimately hard to figure out what’s happening.
Is this usual? Have I just got bad versions? Is figuring this out part of the appeal of subs?
No no no. Those do not sound like any subs I’ve seen. I mean, there is a bit of learning curve in getting used to translated Japanese into English (it has a distinct cadence) but it’s not broken, just slightly different than what a native speaker might say.
Edit: however, if you prefer dubs I’m not going to criticize. I’m with Stalin on this one.
It sounds like those were maybe bad fansubs? (Do people even make fansubs anymore?)
Where are you getting these subs? Back in my weeb days, there were these big compilation sites with 3 or 4 subbed versions of an episode, and you figured out which was best by how incensed the comments were. There are some remarkable fansubs out there if you’re committed to th cultural context or just hate Vic Mignonette.
Azumanga Daioh: just as good dubbed as subbed! *creed arms into a sea of haters*
That being said you will rip my VKLL fansubbed Sailormoon Stars from my cold dead hands.
Yes on VKLL! Favorite VKLL quote: “I’m still waiting for reality to get subtitles.”
The dubs for Ranma 1/2 and Tenchi Muyo (first tv series) were actually pretty good. Even the opening and closing credits for Tenchi Muyo were done in the same style as the original. However, I can’t watch most dubs for more than about half an episode. I blame the US custom of recording all the voice acting parts in isolation, rather than in a group session where the voice actors can interact with one another, as in the Japanese productions. Also the lack of exposure US voice actors (and possibly also voice directors) have to the Japanese original productions means they often completely change the character personality– not ok.
And stupid censorship, of course (cough ~COUSINS~ cough). But that seems to be partly caused by broadcasting companies, rather than being an aspect of dubbing vs. subbing. The decision to skip most episodes of Card Captor Sakura until the male character shows up (and drop the name of the female character from the title) had nothing to do with dubbing and everything to do with idiot marketing assuming that no one would want to watch an action show about a girl. :rolleyes:
I AM STILL MAD ABOUT WHAT THEY DID TO CARDCAPTOR SAKURA.
For whatever reason my brain read the title as “subs versus doms” which would be a very different thing.
You are not alone
Definitely not alone.
Nope.
Nope nope nope. I was really really excited for a second there.
I’m slightly disappointed, TBH, because I need to know what King Solomon’s views on subs versus doms are.
He probably wrote a song about it. Various things are compared to gazelles and palms, etc. I’d read it.
My friend and I once plotted a Harlequin romance based on King Solomon, and while we only wrote a few pages of it, we managed to work in most of our favorite lines from Song of Songs. Lots of things about flocks of goats, etc.
I will not be complete until I know Cicero’s views on the subject, personally.
Nope, not at all alone. It made the picture of Neptune and Uranus puzzling, to say the least.
Glad it wasn’t just me!
Yep. I was very confused.
yes I thought this would be a very different article.
Not alone (it took me until Lincoln to realize my mistake) but I still don’t know what the sub-dub argument is?
Subtitles vs. overdubbing, in translating audiovisual media (particularly anime) from its original language.
My brain tried to read it Subs vs Doms but when I read Dubs it turned into Subs vs Dubious Consent.
Which when I think about what I’ve read about some bdsm scenes, isn’t funny anymore.
Wait, the Venerable Bede was a monk, why is he talking about his kids?
WAS THAT REALLY THE PART THAT BROKE YOUR SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF
YES. IMMERSION RUINED.
I quit Le Chevalier D’Eon a few episodes in because I couldn’t take the voice acting anymore, and it was dub-only on Crunchy Roll. Give me subs any day.
That said, the Princess Mononoke dub is very good.
ETA: In other words, I follow the non-dogmatic subs-preference view first articulated by Christine de Pisan.
McClellan continues to be Wrong.
OF COURSE GEORGE MCCLELLAN DOESN’T WATCH ANIME
I’M DYIN HERE
This got me too. Why McClenan… other than I hated his guts when I read Battle Cry for Freedom, made me laugh I dunno 🙂
that’s actually a falsely attributed Dickens quote, that was Hemmingway
also I recentlyish rewatched Princess Mononoke as the only anime thing I can stand and I didn’t even recognize Gillian Anderson in spite of X-Files also being relatively recent for me, but as soon as I read that I was like OH YEAH THAT TOTALLY WAS HER, which speaks to a performance as far as I’m concerned
I’m with Cicero here.
ps, what series is everyone watching right now? I need to catch myself up with Sailormoon Crystal, Cute High Earth Defense Club Love, and I need to finish Kill La Kill. REC ME THINGS. I have heard good things about Shirokuma Café and the new one with the really big dude and his tiny girlfriend? Oh man, what is that called?
Sailor Moon Crystal. I am almost caught up. It is basically the only anime series I have ever watched much of, but the Crunchyroll ads are starting to get to me, so there may be more anime in my future.
I had a crunchyroll pass for a bit, but cancelled it because all I watched was Crystal! I think my BFF picked one up though, because she watches a zillion more than I do.
Oh, not the ads for the premium so much as the ads for other shows. There’ve been a fair number of them lately, I guess to break up the monotony of Residence Inn ads.
I kind of miss the very American PSAs that had no relevance to my life,* like the one explaining that I should keep my guns locked up so children can’t get to them, or the one that explains that I should be a good father to my children by playing with them occasionally but doesn’t suggest that fathers should do any of the cooking or cleaning or diaper changing or discipline or anything else that isn’t fun.
*I am a Canadian lady with neither guns nor children.
For a while Hulu kept showing me ads about working for the Veterans’ Administration hospitals–and they clearly meant as a doctor or nurse, because it talked up how you can carry your license from state to state if you work in the VA system. This seemed like a very odd way to find medical personnel, to just hope some of them were catching up on Parks & Recreation.
Sailor Moon says! *giggling*
I’m watching Attack on Titan, and also Fullmetal Alchemist because I am super late to the party on that one.
I will say that if you have watched any amount of magical girl anime and have not seen Puella Magi Madoka Magica, you are missing a glorious heartbreaking treasure with trippy fight sequences.
I have been avoiding AoT because I am irrationally terrified of cannibals (same with Hannibal, sorry fannibals) but I have to admit it has the CATCHIEST THEME SONG EVER.
I am a fine connoisseur of magical girl anime and have heard conflicting things about Madoka, but I am leaning more towards yes on it!
Absolutely absolutely +1000 for Madoka if you like really, really, deeply fucked up yet amazing deconstructions. Like, Gundam ; Evangelion :: Sailor Moon : Madoka. It’s FANTASTIC. (and yes, give it three episodes before you decide to keep going or not)
The one with the big dude is “My Love Story”
If you want what’s popular now, “Sound! Euphonium” and “Blood Blockade Battlefront”
If you just want something funny with good dialogue, “Yuyushiki”
YES, that is definitely the one I have seen going around in photosets on tumblr, thank you!
Just finished watching Gourmet Graffiti GIrl, which gave new meaning to the expression “food porn” (but probably not in the way you’re thinking). Currently watching Planetes (best non-text science fiction I’ve ever encountered), and next up is Mushishi. Also recently watched Kamichu! and Mōrestu Pirates, either of which might appeal to Sailor Moon fans.
Mushishi is wonderful! one of my favorite series ever. enjoy!
Planetes is sooo good
I don’t know if I should admit this, but my kids and I are watching the sub’ed version of Tsuritama. It’s freakin’ hysterical. Fish aliens from another planet, and a spy duck.
really big dude and tiny girlfriend = ORE MONOGATARI!! aka My Love Story 🙂 i’m watching it right now (along with Sailor Moon Crystal, though I’m a few eps behind on that), and it’s very very funny and cute. Have you seen Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun? that was probably my favorite series from 2014. Hilarious and meta as hell.
Any other series… I just finished Fate/Zero for the first time and liked it much more than I thought it would. I’m probably gonna start Fate Stay/Night: Unlimited Blade Works next… also I need to finally watch Death Note before my next con or I think my anime card will be revoked.
If it makes you feel any better, I’ve been back in the anime con circuit since 2013 and literally the only “new” anime I’ve watched since, oh, 2006? have been what I listed in the initial post and the stupid Naruto spinoff with Rock Lee, because Rock Lee is amazing. I will check out Ore Monogatari, because I have seen it all over Tumblr and it looks PRECIOUS and I’ll look into Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun!
Seconding the rec for Nozaki-kun!
Shirokuma Café is probably my favorite lately, so that’s another to add to the good things you’ve heard about it. I’ve also been meaning to check out Ore Monogatari since it seems well liked, but haven’t started it yet (especially since I’m still behind on Cute High Earth Defense Club Love).
I’m waiting for S2 of Sidonia. Waitin’ reel hard.
So, I like subtitles when I watch a lot of English-language shows because if there is background noise or whatever it makes it easier to understand what is going on.
Having said that, I have found that in some of the anime I have watched, the subtitles don’t make any sense, because they are not well-translated. I feel like dubs tend to have more idiomatic English. Additionally, one of the things I find really difficult about anime is that it is often hard for me to tell the characters apart, and subs compound that problem, because I can’t always tell who is talking. Of course, sometimes in the dubs I STILL can’t tell who’s talking because the voices sound too much alike.
Anyway, bad subs/dubs are a huge part of why I am not an anime fan.
In college, we were going to watch “Macross: Do You Remember Love”, but it turned out that the copy we had was a dub by a bunch of Australians.
No mercy.
I’m on Stalin’s side except when it comes to Yu Yu Hakusho, where it’s generally accepted that the English dub is 100% funnier and better-written than the original Japanese, and it’s actually really entertaining to watch the dub *with* subtitles to see how different they are.
Has anyone heard of the rule-of-thumb where if the characters were Japanese, you should watch it subbed, but if they weren’t (e.g. Cowboy Bebop) the dub was a better choice? I guess it’s kind of a Boudica argument, now that I think about it.
The dubs of the Studio Bones stuff have historically been incredible – Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, and more recently Space Dandy (that one was simulcast in Japan and on Adult Swim/Toonami, with AS actually airing it BEFORE it aired in Japan! They must have a hell of a relationship with Cartoon Network.)
I’m usually a subs only all the time guy, but I will say Cowboy Bebop’s dubs are really good.
Pretty much the only dubs I will watch are Cowboy Bebop and Trigun. (Unless I don’t have a choice then I will take whatever I can get.)
It is very catchy! I am usually a credits-skipper, but I almost never do it with AoT.
With Madoka, I’d say give it about three episodes before you decide if you like it or not–that’s about when it takes a sharp turn, thematically and plot-wise, and when I started getting a sense of it as a show.
ETA: (in response to Elyse’s comment about anime recs)
Oh those slight cultural differences that make all the difference.
There basically isn’t a Brazilian movie industry (it’s all about TV serials here), which means movies are always foreign, so the dub vs sub argument is rampant. Everyone has an opinion, but it’s generally considered that Real Adults watch subbed things (an essential part of everyone’s high school experience being making fun of friends that won’t go to a subbed movie because they don’t like to be distracted by reading), which lead to an incredibly strong fanssub culture, which lead to subbed anime being found in illegal street vendors, which lead to anime being officially released here with subtitles *on TV*.
The weirdest part is that brazilian dubbers are incredible. So much, that they have fans and cult followings. When the official dubber for Silvester Stallone died, there was such a commotion that it was picked up by nation-wide news and there was a huge obituary.
I would love this article in Buzzfeed-type quiz form. As in, “WHAT HISTORICAL FIGURE ARE YOU WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR OPINION ON SUBS VS DUBS???”
I would get Stalin, and then re-take it three times so my friends would think I got Ida B. Wells.
this might be my favorite thing ever.
(as for me: subs 90% of the time, but I’ll make an exception for Cowboy Bebop and Studio Ghibli stuff. THAT SAID, it’s very hard for me to multitask while watching subbed anime, which is a shame because I am such a multitasker.)
Dirtbag Ulysses S. Grant is the dirtbag I never knew I always wanted.
How is there no one talking about how it kinda depends on the dub, and also it kind of matters whether you first saw it in the sub or dub because once you’ve seen one it’s really hard to switch between. #isanimetrash
Planetes is sooo good
ugh I really dislike the disney version of Kiki's They were constantly inserting dialogue any time nobodies mouth was visible. It ruined the sort of smallness and calmness that i loved so much about the original, and a lot of it sort of assumed kids were morons (see Kiki exclaiming that she's never seen such a busy city in the dub, while in the original it just cut around between scenes of hustle and bustle AND WE ALL UNDERSTOOD)
I think for comedy Anime I basically across the board prefer dubs, as often the jokes don’t make sense with out context and timing, everything else I’m happy either way.
I am TEAM SUB all the way (Tried watching Fairy Tail with the dub…uuuuuugh. Everyone’s voice is so much squeakier than in the original!), EXCEPT. There are occasional shining gems where the dub is actually better than the sub. Hellsing is a great example, as is the wonderful, if horrendously obscure Shinesman. Most dubs are honestly trash, but those brilliant examples almost make up for it.
I might be projecting a wee bit (I too am Team Sub), but I can’t believe that the Trưng sisters, who said this:
Foremost, I will avenge my country,
Second, I will restore the Hung lineage,
Third, I will avenge the death of my husband,
Lastly, I vow that these goals will be accomplished.
and then rode on elephants to lead armies to battle would be okay with dubs. They don’t care about accessibility! They want scrubs to stay the fuck out, and that means DUBS.
I might be projecting a wee bit (I too am Team Sub), but I can't believe that the Trưng sisters, who said this:
Foremost, I will avenge my country,
Second, I will restore the Hung lineage,
Third, I will avenge the death of my husband,
Lastly, I vow that these goals will be accomplished.
and then rode on elephants to lead armies to battle would be okay with dubs. They don't care about accessibility! They want scrubs to stay the fuck out, and that means DUBS.
I generally prefer dubs just because it is my mother tongue, and I get more out of it, but there are some animes where the difference in quality is such that like, really? YOU SHOULD WATCH THE SUB. So I'm thinking case-by-case. Maybe I'm Abe Lincoln? Maybe Cicero? (Probably Stalin. *sigh*)
Like, Ghibli movies? Dubs. One Piece? Sub. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood? Both – hate Vic Mignogna, love everyone else, love being able to glance away from the screen and still know what's going on. Love Romi Park, like everyone else, dislike having to read everything instead of watching properly. etc etc.
I will generally choose dub unless they've really screwed with the material or the performances are just bad, ala 4kids.