It is a bitter battle between Anime fans – do you watch your shows with the original voice actors and language or are you a fan of your own language and the performances of English voice actors! It’s been a while since anyone had the courage to take on the Arcade machine but an opponent has stepped forward and brought his challenge!
Our Player 1 challenger this time is Tommii is a die-hard Anime and Manga fan, a well known cosplayer and on top of that a fan of video games with a special place in his geeky heart for the Silent Hill series. With the guts to take on the Arcade, he has issued us with the debate and taken his side…
Subtitles are better than Dubs – Discuss!
Player 1 – Subs are better!
In my personal opinion I find that although when growing up, all that most of us had anime wise was Pokémon,Digimon,Cardcaptors, Dragonball Z etc. but my point is that we grew up with some decently dubbed Anime shows, but now when we watch anime a lot of us rather watching it subbed because of the voice actors who seem to fit the anime perfectly.
Take Kuroshitsuji or Black Butler as it is known in English as an example. The Japanese voicing is absolutely magnificent and the characters are actually portrayed with voices that suit them. From personal opinion only about 3 characters in the English dub have actually suited the character they’re voiced for. I mean come on, how many of you have watched an episode of Naruto or One Piece in English, then watched it in Japanese and thought, OH MY GOD ITS SO MUCH BETTER!!
It’s because English voice acting is often overdone and doesn’t suit the character well. Few anime series have good voice acting except for the likes of Elfen Lied, Dragonball Z and Outlaw Star. These shows have good voice acting which is a rare thing to say the least. I couldn’t imagine my favourite characters from certain Anime speaking English now because of the fact when i first heard the Japanese voices they automatically suited the character that I fell in love with.
I can’t bring into question Anime such as Gurren Lagann for example as personally I’ve never watched them or haven’t had the chance to yet. Although I know most of you will agree with me that sub is better, a lot of people disagree saying that English voice acting is better to watch then Japanese. While I respect other people’s choice to watch in dub, I can’t watch a lot of anime in English because of the fact that Japanese voices just work so much better.
Yeah it’s nice seeing that people that are new to the anime/manga scene are starting with English dubbed Anime, and it’s easier for them to get into it, but i think it takes away the authenticity of actually watching an anime the way it should be. In its original voices but with English subtitles so you can understand what the characters are saying. In essence a lot of anime series are forgotten about or not given a chance because they’re not in English dub, which i think is ridiculous. Some series makers don’t have the money or the chance to take it to American companies like Funimation to take their anime and make it more popular.
It’s everyone to their own opinion but I think that subbing wins over dubbing any day of the week.
Subs have had their say now to find out what Dubs have to offer click below for page 2 and to cast your vote!
Editor-in-Chief, part-time super villain and hoarder of cats. If you can’t find me writing, I’m probably in the kitchen!
Subtitles are better than Dubs – Discuss!
Dubs are better!
How did we know that Player 1 was going to focus on Anime? As geek it tends to be the one thing many of us have experience with of course…or is it? How quickly Player 1 has forgotten about video games and movies from around the world – they don’t always come with the English Vernacular and will need to be redubbed in order for us who can’t speak Japanese/French/German/Spanish fluently!
Don’t get us wrong dear reader, we love our subtitles, it has and always will be a bragging right, something to show off our cultured side but we’ve found that too often are people ready to dismiss the dubbing work of voice actors who have worked at trying to capture the same performance of their counterparts in the original version.
Before we go on, we would just like to quickly point out the Anime subtitles are never perfect and unless you’re about to wait for the Official release of the Anime with the correct translation then it is quite likely that you’ve gone and found a fan translation… well… they aren’t always the best option:
Moving swiftly on from how awful Anime subtitles can be, it is important that we look at other media that has been dubbed over. Many of our video games come to us from Japan where the games have gotten an earlier release date so when we get them they’ve been through the process of dubbing – the Final Fantasy series, Street Fighter, The Tales Games, they have all been redubbed by English speaking voice actors. Many of our beloved characters, Lightning, Tidus, Ryu, Chun Li, Bison, Rita and so many others were all Japanese speaking until studios had them dubbed over.
What about foreign films? Final Fantasy: Advent Children, Spirited Away, Amelie, Pan’s Labyrinth – They have found places in our collections and having watched them all in the subtitled and dubbed versions there is no magic lost in the translation from their native language to English.
Dubbing serves a very important function too – not everyone is able to read subtitles for many reasons. Dyslexic people, people with learning difficulties or even people with poor eyesight can find them a hindrance especially when engrossed in the beautiful animation or dramatic performances, tracking subtitles can prove a problem for the best of us.
Dubbing also has an advantage for geeks over subtitles! With dubbing it’s possible to follow a story without always having to remain glued to the screen leaving you free to browse the web, continue gaming or stuff your face with delicious things!
At the end of the day, it really is a matter of preference but don’t be ready to discount the work of all English speaking voice actors, dubbing isn’t about to disappear or go anywhere not as long as it serves a vital role for those of us who need it… and before we end let’s just take a look at how wonderfully crap Anime subtitles can be…
Ok so you’ve read both sides of the argument, it’s up to you now to have your say! Is it Subs or Dubs?
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Editor-in-Chief, part-time super villain and hoarder of cats. If you can’t find me writing, I’m probably in the kitchen!
