Dubbed or Subbed?

[Frozeninja]

Subs all the way. A lot of dubbing quality is just generally bad from my experience. On some especially I find that they're more concerned with getting the lip synching right than what's actually said, resulting in some pretty terrible translations.

[Crymic]

Also there are some things that can't be dub'd. Men and women in the japanese language have 2 different words when referencing to things. A tomboy girl will tend to talk like a guy. Using "boku" instead of "atashi" when referening to ones self.

If any have played Onimusha dawn of dreams. If you played the dub version there's a line where Sosuke asks Jubei why she talks like a guy. In the dub it wouldn't make any sense. In the original japanese dialogue you can tell by the words she uses.

Jokes never make it correctly into dubs, they often use "nyari" (grin) or other verbal sound effects.
Also repsective honor titles as well don't get transfered correctly.. It really tells you about the person they are talking about.

[DARK_KNIGHT]

Subtitled or Dubbed???

they both have their drawbacks in my opinion...

I have the same probs as every1 else when it comes to dubbing.It doesnt feel natural,it can make the movie look farcical if done badly,you cant directly dub things because there are some words that dont translate directly or that dont exist in english ect.

On the other hand...

Everone on this thread seems to be in love with subtitles,but I dont find them much better than dubbing.When a movie is subtitled you spend most of your time staring at the bottom of the screen reading whilst the action plays above the point of your attention.Because of this I find that you miss the actors expressions or that you can miss things that flash up on screen very quickly whie you are busy reading.Also sometimes if a movie is badly subtitled the speed of the subbing can vary greatly.you can be stuggling to read one piece of subbing as it is only on the screen for about a mili-second and then other times the actor is talking for about fifteen minutes after you are done reading the words!

[Talysia]

The reason I like subtitles is probably because I'm a purist. I like to see an anime - or any type of film from another country - in its original language. That, and because I've been watching anime for quite a while now, there have been some shocking examples of dubbing over the years. It's improved a lot. And it's true that there are some bad examples of subtitling - I've seen a couple. Still, for the most part it's ok.

[Crymic]

Never buy HK rip anime dvds.. LOL they have the worst subbing ever and they often changes characters names.
Generally for subbing I tend to be picky about who I get my anime from. Yes there are alot of groups out there who will "mistranslate" stuff or use bad grammar. They tend to translate on the fly and alot of times english isn't their first language.

[AJS]

Subbed all the way. I have tried to watch dubbed anime and even when they employ big name stars the voice acting still lacks the emotional impact of the original.

[Connavar]

Dubbed sucks and to say subtitles is bad just cause you have to watch the bottom of the picture is.....


Dubbed sucks mostly cause you dont wanna hear Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee sounding like some redneck. Its the worst sound i know.

[raise-an-empire]

Hmm, I'd definately have to choose Subtitles.
However, I disagree that people are saying you miss half of the action, I never miss a thing!

Dubbing has only been good once. And that was with Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. I might be wrong but I SWEAR that film was dubbed for the English version, surely the whole film wasn't re-lipsynced?

[Tillane]

Subtitled, definitely. I find it really difficult to watched dubbed films, even if they're done well, because they just look...wrong. This even goes for anime, even though I realise all anime is necessarily dubbed. Watching Akira or Spirited Away in English just doesn't work as well.

[j. d. worthington]

With Spirited Away it didn't work at all for me, I'm afraid.... Besides, the English script was lacking in subtlety and felt aimed for the kiddies; while the subtitled was both subtle and intelligent, and multilayered....

[scalem X]

Subbed. In Belgium we have a lot of foreign shows English/American/French/... and all are subbed. I hardly read the subs anymore (in subs too there are a lot of things lost). Same goes for Japanese, I use the subs as a tool to understand stuff when I misheard or wasn't paying attention.

Dubbed can be okay I guess, but when you have a choice...

[montycircus]

Mhmm, subtitled for sure.

But, I wonder if I would rather see those old 70's grindhouse Gong Fu flicks (and Shogun Assassin from the Lone Wolf & Cub series) dubbed. I've heard so many fun clips from all my Wu-Tang albums, I think it would be fun to watch them dubbed.

[chrispenycate]

Originally Posted by raise-an-empire

Hmm, I'd definately have to choose Subtitles.
However, I disagree that people are saying you miss half of the action, I never miss a thing!

Dubbing has only been good once. And that was with Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. I might be wrong but I SWEAR that film was dubbed for the English version, surely the whole film wasn't re-lipsynced?

Why not? It'd take a with-it technician perhaps three- four days to redo the lipsync with modern technology.
And practically all Hollywood films are intensively, frequently exclusively, ADR- which means the original actors (usually) but taken in a studio, to remove all the original emotion (and the original distractions) so you can concentrate on comprehensibility and clean sound without the interfering noise (added later, for verisimilitude, in carefully measured doses.

[Overread]

I will say that I do not prefer either subs or dubs. I prefer the mode which conveys to me the best story and display of emotion in the characters. JD has sighted examples of where the dubs have been worse - or lacking - in comparision to the subs; so I will offer the opposite:
In Ghost in the Shell Inoccence- the subsmake little senese - they are badly worded and do not follow the story; whilst on the other hand the dubs do.
Thus in the end it depends entirly on the quality of each - though I will say that there is a tendency with the dubs to aim the production (if it is anime) for a younger audience, which is wrong.