Subbed or Dubbed?

[Steph McCloud]

If you watch anime, do you prefer to watch the subbed version or the dubbed version?

 

Personally, I prefer whichever version I see first. If I first start liking a series after watching it on Toonami, I will prefer the dubbed. But if I get into a series before it has been dubbed, I will end up preferring the subbed version way more.

 

[Xortberg]

If the dub is even passable, I prefer it even if the original Japanese is better, just because having to divide my attention between the onscreen action and reading the subtitles can lead to me missing some subtle hints, or a really nice bit of animation, or what have you.

 

That said, I have very little patience for bad dubs, even if I've been told they get way better as the series goes on. I was completely unable to watch Evangelion dubbed, even though I'd seen some clips of the later scenes and they were quite good, just because of how awkward the voice acting in the first episode was.

[Battlechili]

Almost always dubbed. I like watching things in my own language. That said, there are....rare exceptions. (Sailor Moon S, I'm looking at you. I think.)

Cool to see that you watch Toonami by the way. I watch it too.

If the dub is even passable, I prefer it even if the original Japanese is better, just because having to divide my attention between the onscreen action and reading the subtitles can lead to me missing some subtle hints, or a really nice bit of animation, or what have you.

That said, I have very little patience for bad dubs, even if I've been told they get way better as the series goes on. I was completely unable to watch Evangelion dubbed, even though I'd seen some clips of the later scenes and they were quite good, just because of how awkward the voice acting in the first episode was.

I know Eva didn't have a very good dub, especially not in the beginning, but if you are that impatient with them, then shows like Sailor Moon S (I think) would murder your ears.

[Geo Stelar]

I like the dub

[Steph McCloud]

Cool to see that you watch Toonami by the way. I watch it too.

 

My only complaint with Toonami is how they keep repeating Cowboy Bebop. Don't get me wrong, I love Bebop, it's one of my favorites, but they could cycle through a lot more series if they used that one hour time slot for other shows. Bebop is good every now and again, but I think this is the 3rd or 4th time in a row now that they have repeated it. I would prefer to see them bring in some new series, if possible.

[The Shaper]

I honestly can't make a choice. I've had fun with the emotional side of subs, as they are not a distraction to me even in the slightest, but I also enjoy actually knowing what the characters are saying, as often times the dubbed animes I've watched had passable voice acting. Though, largely I am sure that the subs are a lot closer to what the authors originally wanted their characters to say than the dubs, coupled with the voice acting involved.

[Xortberg]

And speaking of dub or sub, do any of you folks have any favorite voice actors? When it comes to dubs, I'd have to say my top 5 are, in no particular order, Cristina Vee, Michelle Ruff, Jamieson Price, Johnny Yong Bosch, and Liam O'Brien. I love them in pretty much every role they've ever had, even if I didn't like the character (coughCristinaVeeasLouiseinTheFamiliarofZerocough)

 

I don't know any Japanese VAs by name, which is another reason I prefer dubs to subs since I like being able to play "Name That Voice," but there have been cases where I was able to recognize one's voice. I listen to enough K-On! music to have been able to recognize Yui's VA in Kokoro Connect, for one XD

[Gene Inari]

On the question of VAs:

1. Steve Blum

2. Wendee Lee

3. Crispin Freeman

4. Vic Mignogna

5. Sean Schemmel

[Steph McCloud]

Steve Blum is definitely at the very top of my list for favorite dub voice actors.

[Xortberg]

Blum is hella good, but he's never had a role that really stood out to me. Even if he's consistently better than, say, Cristina Vee, who has had some shaky performances, her standout roles like Homura in Madoka Magica just make my love for her skyrocket.

 

Maybe my list will change as I come across more of Blum's roles XD

[Steph McCloud]

He has a very distinct voice. I can't think of a lot of examples at the moment but I know he does Spike on Cowboy Bebop, Mugen in Samurai Champloo and Amon in Legend of Korra. I really liked his performance as Amon, because Amon's face was covered with a mask for almost all of the series, so you had to rely on his voice to show his emotions and thoughts instead of facial expressions.

[Xortberg]

Yeah, I knew he did Spike, and I had forgotten he was Amon. That was a pretty badass performance, I'll admit. I just felt the writing in Korra wasn't quite up to par compared to Last Airbender, at least so far.

 

I think my favorite role of his was Leeron in Gurren Lagann. It was a great performance, and the character just had so much personality and presence. Not quite enough to make him a top 5-er, but still great nonetheless.

[Steph McCloud]

Legend of Korra really didn't meet my standards. I still enjoyed it, but it had so much wasted potential and the writing was really rushed. Is Gurren Lagann good? I've heard it mentioned before and was thinking about checking it out.

[Xortberg]

Yes yes yes. It is amazing and everyone everywhere should watch it.

 

And, to stay relevant to the topic's subject matter, it has one hell of a dub, including four of my top five. Johnny Yong Bosch, Michelle Ruff and Jamieson Price all have fairly large roles, while Liam O'Brien shows up as a side character in the second half.

 

It also has a whole lot of other amazing fucking voice actors. I could go on for days about how awesome the dub for TTGL is, so I'll spare you the wall of text. Just know that it is my primary argument for how good a dub can be. 

[Cage Blackpaw]

Subbed, for me.  Like, I started watching Naruto dubbed, which was good, then I ran out of English episodes so I switched over to subbed.  It grew on me, and since then I've watched the subbed of other anime.

 

It sounds cooler, in my opinion.  lol

[Dublinthefox]

For me it all depends on who does a better performance.

 

 

 

And speaking of dub or sub, do any of you folks have any favorite voice actors? When it comes to dubs, I'd have to say my top 5 are, in no particular order, Cristina Vee, Michelle Ruff, Jamieson Price, Johnny Yong Bosch, and Liam O'Brien. I love them in pretty much every role they've ever had, even if I didn't like the character (coughCristinaVeeasLouiseinTheFamiliarofZerocough)

 

Johnny Yong Boach (met him), Steve Blum and Robert Axelrod (met him).

[Xortberg]

I had to look up Robert Axelrod to see if I'd heard of him. Unfortunately, the only roles I've heard him in that were listed on his Wiki page were some various Digimon characters. I remember liking his performances, so I'll have to watch some of his other roles.

 

Also, the dub talk has been pretty overpowering in this topic. Does anyone have any Japanese VA's they know and love? I'd love to get to the point where I can start recognizing them, so I try to, but it's hard to recognize voices when I can only understand an odd word or phrase out of everything they say XD

[mjakob42]

I always lean toward dubbed. I have no idea why; whenever I watch a foreign animated film, I always watched it subbed, but for whatever reason I cannot watch anime unless it's dubbed.

[conaly]

Hi,

I prefer subs. Mostly because the Japanese language sounds much more beautiful than any other I heard so far. Besides that, many German or English dubs just aren't that good.

@Xortberg: yes, I can recognize some Japanese voice actors. I don't know the names of them all, but when I watch a new anime, I do often have feeling, that I already know the voice. Sometimes I can recall a series, where he/she already worked on, other times I just look for the voice actor and the shows, he already did.

One of my favs is Rie Kugimiya, the 'Tsundere Queen'. She has IMHO one of the most distinctive female voices. Shana (Shakugan No Shana), Nagi (Hayate no Gotoku), Aria (Hidan No Aria), Taiga (Torodara) or Mizore (Rosario+Vampire) where voiced by her, just to name some of the most famous ones.

I also really like Mamoru Miyano. He voiced Light (Death Note), Death the Kid (Soul Eater), Okabe (Steins;Gate) or Cinque (Dog Days). I like him for his extremely flexible voice. If you just compare the four characters I mentioned, you'll notice, that they are completely different. So I'd never expected him to do Cinque from Dog Days, I was really surprised when I read his name as Cinque's voice actor!

[Dr. Orange]

I chose dubbed just to make the votes even since I'm OCD.

[Vy'drach]

It tends to depend on the character/voice combination. Such as Tenchi Muyo, I much prefer the dubbed version of that since subbed, every character's voice seems to be way too high pitched, especially the men.

 

But I'd have to lean more towards dubbed because as Xort said earlier, subbed splits your attention.

 

Though there are those voice/character combinations that just can not be beat. This is why I will watch the subbed version of Fist of the North Star when I get around to it, and the Umizatou from Mononoke:

 

 

This thing, had the perfect voice courtesy of Norio Wakamoto, that one requires a sub there.

[Sarita]

(Sailor Moon S, I'm looking at you. I think.)

 

Yes, in the case of Sailor Moon, the Japanese is usually better. Sailor Moon S was actually a turning point in voice acting for the series, it was worse before that. There's a reason there's not a boxset with the English dubs of the first two seasons.

 

As for me, I actually don't care. Like Xort said, it can be bothersome to have to split my attention, but when I was watching SAO, I was watching it every Saturday as it was coming out, so I didn't have much choice. It just depends on what I'm using to watch it, I guess. Crunchyroll has anime in Japanese, and Netflix usually only has English. That's usually the only way I watch anime unless Steve downloads it, and he hates dubs.

[Battlechili]

My only complaint with Toonami is how they keep repeating Cowboy Bebop. Don't get me wrong, I love Bebop, it's one of my favorites, but they could cycle through a lot more series if they used that one hour time slot for other shows. Bebop is good every now and again, but I think this is the 3rd or 4th time in a row now that they have repeated it. I would prefer to see them bring in some new series, if possible.

Good news is is that it seems that IGPX will take up one of the two Cowboy Bebop slots.

 

 

Legend of Korra really didn't meet my standards. I still enjoyed it, but it had so much wasted potential and the writing was really rushed. Is Gurren Lagann good? I've heard it mentioned before and was thinking about checking it out.

I liked Korra. I liked how similar to anime it was, and how it stuck to a story and had little filler. I liked the art too.

And as far as Gurren Lagann goes....Gurren Lagann is amazing. It's really great.

 

 

On the question of VAs:

1. Steve Blum

2. Wendee Lee

3. Crispin Freeman

4. Vic Mignogna

5. Sean Schemmel

Remove Wendee Lee and Sean Schemel, and throw in Tara Strong and whoever plays Soul in Soul Eater, and this is pretty much my list, with a few choices switched around.

[Vulvokunvrii]

I don't hate dubbs, but I'd like it if they didn't hack and slash the animes up and then show us whats left.

[Xortberg]

Yeah, in some cases the sub is infinitely superior if only because it actually has the full story. Cardcaptor Sakura actually had 31 episodes cut and the remaining episodes re-ordered to try and make it appeal to boys, since they didn't think the original story would sell well in America. 

 

Thankfully, that seems to happen considerably less often nowadays, from my own experience.