Anime, English Dubs vs Subs?

I'm pretty in to anime, depending on which ones i watch i generally view them in Japanese with english subs, mainly ones that havn't had english translations or the dubs are poor. Ghost in the Shell was probabaly the major exception having some pretty awesome dubs (although the Tachikoma conversations were a billion words a second). I'm going to get back into Cowboy bebop, an anime i watched a bit on cartoon network ages ago. It had english dubs at the time and I thought they were pretty good. I watched a few youtube clips and the dubs still seem solid although i see that they sometimes change the words around when i compared it to subs. So I'm wondering what makes for a better viewing, the dubs or the subs? And with the dubs if the sentences are sometimes changed (like they sometimes are for various reasons) will i miss the meaning of anything important? And also do the english dubbed versions have content cut out?

Subs. Anything else is unacceptable unless it's done right.

So far one of the only anime that isn't ruined by dubs is Cowboy Bebop.

Subs. Anything else is unacceptable unless it's done right.

So far one of the only anime that isn't ruined by dubs is Cowboy Bebop.

Shad0ki11

That seems to be the general consensus these days, I have seen some horrible dubs. The dubbed version of cowboy bebop is however extremely easy to get a hold of and cheap so if the dubs are of good quality then i may go with it.

English dubs about 99% of the time sucks, honestly, the English voice seems so generic at time (i.e. Lucky Star - how dare they kill Konata's and Kagami's unique voices!!!)

Therefore it's subs for me.

i don't mind subs but adultswim usually has english dubs and now it makes me feel bad for still liking the anime shows since they aren't in original subs :(

now i'm not even sure if there are subs worth getting over english dubs but apparently i'm losing out...dragon ball z, fooly cooly, cowboy bebop, trigun, ghost in the shell, and fullmetal alchemist

the more i think about it i don't think i've watched a single anime in subs :o

am i a bad person? :cry:

Definitely subs for me, I thought the Cowboy Bebop dubs were horrid, so I just take the subs whenever possible. The Ghost in the Shell dubs were ok, but I still preferred the subs.

100 posts btw, yey :P

it really depends how well the dubs are done.

The two shows where I really liked the dubs are cowboy bebop and fullmetal alchemist.

Ghost in the Shell works fine with English dubs. I don't watch much anime but I've never come acorss anything with horrible English, no more so than any other English show. Subtitles also take away from the action.

Tbh (or my opinion) those saying "subs are the only way" are being a bit elitist.

Tbh (or my opinion) those saying "subs are the only way" are being a bit elitist.

DigitalExile

it just depends how well it is.

for example with Naruto, you would probably want to have subs unless you like hearing believe it all the time.

English dubs about 99% of the time sucks, honestly, the English voice seems so generic at time (i.e. Lucky Star - how dare they kill Konata's and Kagami's unique voices!!!)

Therefore it's subs for me.

TicTac8745

Lucky Stars dubbings were dreadful. They made them sound like they were about 10 years older then they were.

I honestly don't have a preference, per se. If the dubbing is good; such as Evangelion, Haruhi or Full Metal Panic, then I'll watch the dub over the sub. Most of the time I'll watch the subs because the voice acting is stale, or just plain doesn't fit the character.

That and because I watch a lot of new anime that hasn't had any dubs done to it. :P

Dubs, I don't watch much anime but from what I've seen the bad English voice acting is just way over exaggerated, seems like people who only watch in subs are just being elitist and want to feel special because they're watching anime the "right" way. I watch in dubs because I find it difficult hear emotion in foreign languages and quite frankly I don't like the sound of the Japanese language in general, call me racist if you must, also, constant reading sucks when you're trying to watch something.

i use subs because i know quite a lot of Japanese and i think you should too.

English Subs, though it takes some adjusting too lol

Your just so use to looking and hearing, and not reading but yeah.

I much prefer Japanese Audio - English Subs [done properly]

Subs. Anything else is unacceptable unless it's done right.

So far one of the only anime that isn't ruined by dubs is Cowboy Bebop.

Shad0ki11

agreed, and I haven't seen Cowboy Bebop (shame on me, I know) yet, but I watched Full Metal Alchemist in both japanese with subs and with english dubs. I must say I enjoyed the english dub more than the subbed version. "Nii-san!" just got tiring..

Tbh (or my opinion) those saying "subs are the only way" are being a bit elitist.

DigitalExile

Dub just feels unnatural to me, I don't like anything with dub voice acting, not just anime.

Subs. Anything else is unacceptable unless it's done right.

So far one of the only anime that isn't ruined by dubs is Cowboy Bebop.

Shad0ki11

Outlaw Star is awesome.

then again, same people...

English Subs, though it takes some adjusting too lol

Your just so use to looking and hearing, and not reading but yeah.

I much prefer Japanese Audio - English Subs [done properly]

greenleaflink

Subtitles... Dubs are for paranoid nationalists, who can not tolerate hearing nothing but their own language... And childrenSteingrimur

Lol i don't know why that made me laugh but it did.

Mmm from what i can see even though some people say Bebops dubs are good, subs are the better way to go. Since i watch mainly subbed anime (except when i watch dubs first) i think I will go with the subbed version. And i heard some people mention the sound quality of the originals, I completely forgot about that. But yeah that is pretty much true.