To sub or not to sub

Joined Sep 2012
42 Posts | 0+
While my Japanese is improving it is nowhere good enough to watch a full episode of any anime and know exactly what is going on. Since this is probably the case for all of us here we are left with two options; sub or dub. Which do you prefer? I used to watch all my anime dubbed, but I became kind of an anime snob and I will only watch it subbed with the original Japanese audio.

Anime dubbed in English usually sounds absolutely ridiculous compared to its raw counterpart. The only exception to this rule that I have been able to find is FLCL which sounds equally as good in English as it does in Japanese.
 
I think I have only watched FLCL in english. I watch Kenshin and fairy tail with subtitles tho, and I think that is what I was doing with Inuyasha too, but One Piece I was watching in English. I watched some other anime in english too bout a lil girl who is a school teacher but can't think of name of that. I guess I like it in japanese with subtitles best in general, but if i first see something in english, I usually continue watching it that way...also in english a lot of the females sound very high pitched and whiney I find. lol
 
Gelfwings said:
I think I have only watched FLCL in english. I watch Kenshin and fairy tail with subtitles tho, and I think that is what I was doing with Inuyasha too, but One Piece I was watching in English. I watched some other anime in english too bout a lil girl who is a school teacher but can't think of name of that. I guess I like it in japanese with subtitles best in general, but if i first see something in english, I usually continue watching it that way...also in english a lot of the females sound very high pitched and whiney I find. lol

I agree with your statement about the girls voices. They're still pretty whiny in Japanese too, but it's far more tolerable.

Sometimes I like to put things in perspective. I'll watch an episode in Japanese then in English and vice versa. If I watch the English one second I usually can't make it through it because the voice is just terrible in comparison
 
If you start watching an anime dubbed then it doesn't seem as bad. Bigger budgeted animes aren't as bad either, stuff like Naruto, One Piece, Death Note, FLCL, etc. If you watch the subbed or raw version first the dubbed versions usually seem crappier.
 
I usually have to think about it to recall if I watched something in English or japanese. lol. It feels like everything was in English aftwards. And unless the ppl have very annoying voices in English, I usually just continue watching a series the same way I started it...whether in english or japanese. I feel like sometimes the english versions lose something tho. I dunno. lol
 
targetrasp said:
If you start watching an anime dubbed then it doesn't seem as bad. Bigger budgeted animes aren't as bad either, stuff like Naruto, One Piece, Death Note, FLCL, etc. If you watch the subbed or raw version first the dubbed versions usually seem crappier.
Out of that entire list I would only say that FLCL did a truly great job on dubbing the series. I literally started laughing at some parts of Death Note because it was so bad. But like I said I'm an anime snob XD
 
In general it seems people only gripe about One Piece's dubbing because of the choice of voice actors. If you watch the english version first it's seriously fine, if you watch the sub or raw versions you do get spoiled.

Bleach was another one that I was really ok with in english until I got ahead of the american releases and started watching the subbed versions. Afterwards I didn't like the voice acting in the english one.


Then theres stuff like Sekirei .... its horrible for me to try to watch it sub titled. I much prefer the english voice actors, Cowboy Bebop is the same......... Gundam Seed I think is another, there's a lot thats so much better (IMO) dubbed than subbed, but honestly, it depends on which you watch first. It's kinda like hearing a cover of a favorite song, you rarely like the cover, but if you hear a cover of a song you've not heard before a lot of times the cover is preferable.
 
Oh, I thought of another one that I liked in English...Fruits Basket was perfectly fine in English in my opinion
 
There are a few good English VAs for Bleach, but overall I just really prefer to watch subs for that. But there are some good dubs.

Some that I recommend:
Fullmetal Alchemist
Durarara
Soul Eater
Witch Hunter Robin
Scrapped Princess
El Cazador de la Bruja