Subtitled! Its just not worth watching otherwise.

Hmmm, did I spell dubbed and subbed right?
Oh well.

It depends on the company doing the dubbing...

Until very recently, there has been this persistance in the states that "anime is a cartoon", and the tendancy is to not take it very seriously at all. I've sometimes been given the impression that some of the VAs they use are people they found by looking out of the window at casting time, and saying: "See that person at the bus stop? Ask them if they want this part."

In Japan, however, voice acting is considered a very serious and respectable career, and anime is a huge part of the culture; there are long running soap operas on a par with our own Coronation Street or East Enders that are entirerly animated Therefore it's no surprise that a far creator attempt to produce a well acted film is made.

A lot of imported anime dubbings have been...questionable at best.

However, the trend is changing With the market growing, most companies are starting to realise how much money is to be made from anime, and are making more of an attempt to dub it well. Recent releases like Full Metal Panic, Excell Saga (although obviously, it's hammed up beyond belief because of it's genre), Noir, Najika Blitz Tactics...as well as old classics like Trigun, Burnup Excess, and Tenchi (although granted, most of the supporting cast in Tenchi...with the exception of Kagato...were absolute Turkeys) and others have actually had some very good voice actors all round.

Overall, I prefer seeing things in dub for the most part...the only situations which I can remember finding the dub so unbearably aweful that I had to watch the Japanese version were the two most recently released DBZ movies (man did they butcher Brolly with that horrible dub...) and Azumanga Dio (absolutely amazing series...just...the dub kills it stone dead).

Since we're on the subject, here's bad dubbing at its worst...

In Japanese

Picollo: ....You're a monster...

Brolly (with saddistic grin): ...Monster?...heh....No...I'm the devil.

In English

Picollo: (can't recall the exact line...something like: "What an animal...")

Brolly: Of course...what do you expect...from a true freak!



...what the hell is that!?

I agree that Sub is the way too go...99%of the time.

Still though, I love accents, and when a character has an accent, I just fall in love with it. I watch Evangelion in English just to hear Asuka's German accent. I was very disappointed with the new Secret of Blue Water, because they did away with Nadia's French accent.

I prefer dubbed, just cus I like to know what's going on and subtitles confuserate me **remembers watching MKR** mmmhmm...

i just see all things animated as being cartoons *shrug*

i'm not saying it's all childish. as there are childish anime along with adult ones, there is also adult cartoons with childish ones.

anime isn't really an untouchable amount of seriousness. but i like how it's far reaching int hat there's something for everyone, like ya say.

The only anime I ever watched in which case I liked the dub was hellsing .


Everything else however ( such as the DBZ bullsh*t of a dub ) is almost always crap dubbing .

Xeno - you should keep an eye out for some of the newer releases I mentioned above You might be pleasantly surprised The VAs are not only pretty good, but there's actually an active attempt nowadays to make as direct translation as possible from the japanese script.

Totally agree with you on Azumanga...

Osaka seemed... well. too smart for Osaka in the dub

*Watches Osaka again in the SUb and laughs.*

lol, it was her accent I couldn't deal with...I know it's as close as comparrison as they could make to the western version of an Osakan dialect, but it was just....so badly done I can't think of a single VA in the dub who wasn't either wooden, or hamming.

The Japanese VAs, on the other hand, all did an excellent job....Osaka's a real show stealer, and I love Yomi's dead pan counter to Tomo...it's just a great series overall, and I want to string up whoever dubbed it, given they managed to utterly butcher one of the best comedies of the past decade

Thank ADV

They screw up almost everything they touch.

I'd rather dubbed, more time watching and less time reading

dubbed. only because subtitles distract me and i miss something...

They hack anime to pieces when they bring them to the UK.

Pokemon, for instance, is a 15/18 certificate in Japan. The pokemon dont get KOd...they die.
Bloodily.

Card Captor Sakura? One of the most perverse things I ever saw O_O

Anyhow.
Dubbing can be good if it's done right.
As of yet, I have seen one show when they've dubbed it right. Cowboy Bebop.
Seriously, Cowboy Bebop is the only show where I'd recommend the dub over the sub.

Generally I prefer subs...but only if theyre done right.
Again drawing on cowboy bebop, the DVD I have is horribly subtitled.
"Subeiko, what be you go?"
["Spike, where are you going?"]

It wasn't dont that bad over here in the states....


I watched it both ways.

And I can't beleive what they did to CCS.... I'm a magoc CLAMP fan and I was totally appalled by how they edited it. They took out all the cute scenes with Touya and Yuki.

*Grumbles* And don't get me started on FAKE.

The sub on that one is worth watching... The Dub.... Gah....

I prefer dubbed, so I can actually watch the thing without having to be constantly reading. However, there are some great anime which you have no choice in the matter with, e.g. Magical Project S and Card Captor Sakura are only avialable in Japanese.

And although I agree that certain animes do need to watched in Japanese because the English dubbed killed them dead e.g. Azumanga, the Canadian DBGT, Sailormoon etc There are very goods dubs out there. Older animes on the market such as Tenchi, Escaflowne, Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop (although I hate that show), Oh My Goddess and so forth I think are very good, Tenchi's cast in particular have more character in the English version than the Japanese (feel free to criticise me if you disagree), others such as Slayers have awful supporting cast but good main character VAs. And like Sera says, of the new animes which have appeared over the last few years such as Excel, Noir, FMP, Fruits Basket, Angelic Layer, Burn Up Excess, Najica Blitz Tactics, Die Guard etc are treating anime seriously and putting effort into the voice acting with one or two exceptions when dealling with supporting cast members.

Since the UK doesn't dub its own anime, we recieve the american or candian dubs of anime, and suffer the same censorship you do. And much of it is sad...

One of the shows that really got me into anime was Dragon Ball Z....it's so delightfully simple, has fantastic fight scenes, and none of that wishy washy plot garbage The characters just go from one jaw dropping fight scene to the next, and it's the sorta thing that'll get a bored teenager's attention

However....the dub is utter rubbish. Not quite as bad as Dragon Ball GT, or more recently the absolute slaughtering they've done of Dragon Ball, but DBZ was just...badly done. When they had to exchange every mention of death for "moving to the next dimension" it's just...bah, way too uptight.

Fortunately, the funimation dub was actually a vast improvement....I still do stand amazed that funimation managed to dub something without completely screwing it up, and Pioneer were the ones who released the Turkey It's like...stepping into a parallel universe....

As anyone will tell you the only anime I have the chance to watch is on tv, so guarnteed it is dubbed. I would reccomend subbed though, unless you've already seen it dubbed. Once i get used to a voice, I don't like it to be changed. When they showed DBZ on Cartoon Network, every time they would show new episodes two or three characters would have different voices. Also the editing on tv is usually strict. Like cartoon network showed evangelion for three days and there was no blood in sight.

Oddly enough, even though I haven't seen any anime for over a year, whenever I draw a character it looks like anime. (even when I drawn Ernst Stavro Blofeld)

I am a dubbed man all the way. I hate it when people are anime purists and think that the subs are that better. I figure that if I don't speak Japanese and I'm not learning Japanese than there's no point in watching it in Japanese.