i must watch all my animes with subtitles. i can't stand the english voices trying to match the emotions of the characters. most the time id rather hear the original actors with horrible engrish than joe blow off-the-street (or mary jane im-that-one-whiny-girl-voice-in-every-other-english-dub) add to that they often change the dialogue and sometimes add censorship, its really just a butchery of what is already perfectly done. i hate to think there are any people would sacrifice the original dialogue and voices for characters just to be so lazy as to not read subtitles, but some do

Wow. What's it like back there in 1995? Have they started showing Animaniacs yet?

This just flat out isn't true anymore, except maybe for 4Kids translations.

I remember watching one episode of Last Exile in english and it didn't bother me THAT much, I prefer subtitles though.

Depends on the anime. Dragonball Z, for example, I'd much rather the Funimation dubs, rather than the original Japanese subbed episodes, only because I'm not that fond of any of the Japanese voices in DBZ. When it comes to other things like Bleach, I don't really find a difference between dubbed and subbed episodes.

Yeah, depends on the anime (and sometimes the company). For instance, FLCL has some puns that only make sense in Japanese, and the people who subtitle it are kind enough to add explanations to it. And sometimes the voice actors are just more interesting. On the other hand, I do applaud many companies for their excellent dubs on a myriad of series. Honestly, I used to be anti-Funimation until I realized that they actually did a good job with Fullmetal Alchemist. Now they're doing pretty well, I'd say.

In the same way, Japanese companies are hit and miss, too. I can sort of agree with whoever said that it's because we don't understand Japanese that makes the language appealing, but, hey, there are some times when a bad voice is just... bad, no matter what language it's in. Subs are more convenient when you're watching a show airing in Japan, though.

You lose allot of story when a manga is animated, then a little more when the anime is re-dubbed.

fan of dubbing, eh? and 4 kids gets a "MAYBE"??? this is why they can keep putting these horrible versions of the animes on, cause people will still watch them and think any sort of subtitling is "ancient technology". and if you think '95 is the cutoff date for bad dubs you are sorely mistaken.

4Kids gets a maybe because I'm not convinced the shows they get weren't terrible before they got ahold of them, not because I think their dubs are acceptable. I mean sure, fans of the show assure me they're great....but everything I've seen suggests that they were pretty awful from the start. I haven't seen Tokyo Mew Mew (dubbed OR subbed), but I know that Pokemon, YuGiOh, Shaman King and One Piece all seem to have much deeper problems than the voice acting and what their weapons look like.

and what part did you think was not true? They still cant capture the emotion right, they still use recycled english voice actors, and dubbed over anime is still getting censored and having its lines/dialogue changed.

No, you see, those are just things that fans of stupid anime say so that they get to feel like it was the dub that made their favorite show seem stupid, when really the only reason they didn't think it was stupid in Japanese was that they didn't understand what was going on. And the Japanese studios also reuse voice actor after voice actor, too--look at Megumi Hayashibara or Kotono Mitsuishi's filmographies! And most of them are definitely from the Wendee Lee and Steven Blum/David Lucas school of voice acting ("use my regular voice for everything") rather than the Mel Blanc or (to use a more modern example) Tara Strong school of voice acting ("actually try and succeed at making different characters have a unique voice").

And yeah, lines get changed. But they get changed to make them fit english better. For example, people complain about Naruto's stupid little "Believe it!" all the time....but it's pretty much exactly as annoying as his stupid "-ttebayo!" thing was in Japanese, and gets across the same idea. But the fans complain because it makes them realize how silly what they're watching was to begin with. Again, 4Kids is an exception, but most companies translating anime now get the lines fairly right unless they're having to fix issues with pop culture references. But I don't see it as a butchering to change a reference to Pocari Sweat into a reference to Crystal Pepsi, since no one in America knows what Pocari Sweat is. Or if they do, they're probably super nerds, and super nerds complain about everything anyway.

in japan, the voices for the anime chars are chosen to best fit the characters in the story. And their voice acting in the booth is monitored and directed by people actually involved with making the movie. Not some non-related studio with very little if ANY input/guidance from the actual creation team.

In Japan, mostly, voices are chosen based on how much it will cost to get them to work, and whether or not they're available. How they fit the character is a consideration, but not a whole lot more than in America. The main difference between the industries in the two countries is that there's a lot more cross-pollination in Japan, so that most singers and actors are willing to do voice acting gigs. Other than that, it's pretty much the same.

Yeah, like I said before: most of these arguments sound like they're coming from people who got disgusted by the way things were handled in 1995 and decided to hate dubs forever without ever listening to them again. Add that with the natural tendency for anime fans to want to like things better in Japanese (since you get to tell people "I watched it in the original Japanese," which impresses people, except not really), and you get this whole subculture of "purists" that just make it all seem so silly.

Uh... French dubs are bad too  , the rythmic is not the same, it's normal !! Japanese is an oriental language

I just don't understand how people can say that the authentic Japanese is better when they clearly can't understand what they are saying in the first place, it's just phonetic jargon when it enters your eardrums, how could that constitute for superiority.

The fact of the matter is this,  subs can translate 100% literally because they don't have to deal with syncing with the talking animation, in the meanwhile dubs have to consider that they have to translate and sync up with the animation.  The Japanese language usually has a lot more words within a sentence and when translated into English it could only be 2-3 words, so of course they have to fill those extra frames with extra words.

As for whats better it really depends, people who have SEEN the cartoon first as a fansub will be used to the voice and when a few months later when it hits state-side it will feel foreign to them because they have the character's voices already in their heads and what they should sound like.

What matters is how you watch the cartoon initially, weather you start with English or Japanese,  other than that you really can't say one is better than the other unless you can understand Japanese, because honestly, there are some pretty terribly voice acted Japanese cartoons that sounds better in English (eg. Cowboy Beebop). 


Shit I prefer in Japanese:  Japanese themed shows like Rurouni Kenshin, Yakitate Japan, anything that has to deal with japanese culture I prefer to watch in it's native form

Shit I prefer in English: ANY Japanese Cartoon that has a western setting, why? because it just feels wierd having a middle eastern kid talking in japanese the whole time like in Gundam 00,  that's actually one of my beefs with Gundam, and other western themed shows.  It just doesn't suit well when you watch it in Japanese because it just doesn't.  Shows like Full Metal Alchemist I prefer in English as well...

Edowarudo!!!!!!!  (Edward)

ARU!!!!!!!  (Al)

wtf.

English names should be said in English thats just how it is.  I mean I can understand that it's like that in japanese because thats their language.  But when I watch it, seeing as I know English I would rather watch that show in the language where the theme is set.

for me it depends on the show. I am american and I dont speak japanese. but some shows I prefer subbed. the dub of Love hina is bad. same with now and then here and there.  and Lain. I know these are older animes. but the voice acting seems so much better in japanese. only new dub i've seen is Tales of Earthsea. which I thought was well done. and have to say I prefer the dub releases of Ghibli movies. and I guess it had to do with the quality. since they are released by disney you would expect professional voice acting and a quality dub.