English Vs Japanese Voices

[Raging Panda]

So I know I'm opening a can of worms here, but I'm gonna drop my balls onto the table and ask:
Why is it people say Japanese voices are less awkward. I get that's the original intended voice acting, but, I'll be honest, most media just sounds more natural to me, as an English native, in English. Japanese voice acting just sounds overly childish. This is probably a perception gained from the fact that the bulk of my experience with in Anime. Don't get me wrong, I love anime, but I just always feel self concious with Japanese voice acting. I don't let it stop me from enjoying a good anime, but if a remotely decent dub exists, I'm enjoying it that way (plus, I can work on stuff as I don't have to focus on reading while watching). But let's be real, Japanese people DON'T talk as they do in voice acting.
And yeah, before a smart ass wants to say it's all opinion, I know. We're all allowed to have opinions. I just want to hear what people think causes this. I know I like English voices, not just because I then don't have to worry about subs, but also because it just sounds more natural to me, allowing me to feels these are people, not just a writer's characters. So I wanna hear why people prefer Japanese voices. I'm curious why, and I think I don't need to point out I mean specifically native English speakers, some think that Japanese sound more normal.
Also, side note, I think they did a really good job on Ringo's English VA. All the marketing material I heard was in Japanese (since I watched the trailers at reveal and didn't come back to see English trailers), and I didn't mind the Japanese VA, but I like the voice of the English VA for her a lot more.
Anyways, let the uncivilized discourse begin.

[TotemMX]

Notice Im not native english speaker, but Im used to watch stuff in their original language.

I just don't like English dub, not because I think is bad, is only because English dub makes the English sub worse. Sometimes they need to change dialogues in order to match the dub.

I know all games are localizated, instead of direct translation, but thats the impression I have from playing Japanese Dub with Spanish sub (if avaliable).

[Musou]

I'm german and the 1st time I heard Dragonball Z in english I literally thought it's a fake dub because it sounded just so bad even compared to the german dub. But I generally just love hearing asian languages (japanese, indonesian, thai etc.), on the other hand I'm not too fond of other european languages like spanish, french (ugh one of the worst imo) and scandianavian languages.
But I'm also a purist, if something is actually created in an english speaking country I want to hear it in english, not german, when i see Dave Chappelle on the screen I want to hear Dave Chappelle, not some german VA pretending to be Dave Chappelle. It's the same with japanese, when I see Kiryu-chan I expect his iconic japanese voice.
I mean just imagining that my favorite japanese Vtubers get dubbed, ew no, Kizuna Ai appeared in an anime and the dub of that feels just wrong, that's not Kizuna Ai.

Now tbf, there are exceptions due to childhood memories, Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill and also Louis De Funes had all super iconic german dubs which I prefer over the original voices, so I can understand americans who prefer the american dubs of their childhood anime, somewhat, but most movies and cartoons I saw as child were american productions which nowadays I just watch in english.
There are also a few license games that in english don't have the original actor voicing the characters but in the german dub they use the original VA from the movies, Die Hard Vendetta and the Jedi Outcast games do that.

[iqscur]

Originally posted by Musou:

Now tbf, there are exceptions due to childhood memories, Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill and also Louis De Funes had all super iconic german dubs which I prefer over the original voices

I never thought I would find someone talking about Louis De Funès on steam

[RPGLover88]

Hello! Moi is from Canada and my primary language is french.

For me, the reason is simple. I prefer JP voices because they feel more... natural, I guess you could say? When I was a kid, I used to watch animes like InuYasha, Gundam SEED and FMA on YTV and the VAs in those shows were great, but several years later, I watched other, shorter animes, in japanese and I immediately saw the difference. JP VAs put a lot more emotions in their voices compared to EN VAs. It feels like EN VAs are just reading a script, y'know? Their voices feel cold and kinda... soulless.

On another note, do NOT watch animes or play games with FR VAs. I know this has nothing to do with your topic, but I still had to say it. Like Musou said, FR VAs(especially France FR VAs) are horrible! Not only their voices, but also the words and expressions they use. I watched one episode of Bleach in FR and believe me, Im NEVER watching an anime with FR voices ever again! They totally destroyed Ichigo and Rukias character... T_T

[zuppaclub]

I already used to japanese VO , especially in JRPG

rarely I like english VO, maybe only DMC or RE series.

[allknowingeel]

i'm planning to do two playthroughs. Right now I am on my first and am using the sub, next playthrough I will use the dub. So far, from what little I have heard of the dub, I think both work. I like the Japanese slightly more as it feels more natural I guess? This is coming from a guy who generally likes dubs on amine btw.

[Musou]

Originally posted by iq gallagher:

Originally posted by Musou:

Now tbf, there are exceptions due to childhood memories, Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill and also Louis De Funes had all super iconic german dubs which I prefer over the original voices

I never thought I would find someone talking about Louis De Funès on steam

I'm old.

[<color=#CD3210>Lunatic]

I went english, atlus hires great dubs.

[borizb]

Originally posted by Lunatic Heretic:

I went english, atlus hires great dubs.

This. True for all Atlus games i have played. And i hate reading subtitles as i can either read or follow the action, but not both.

When JP voice acting sounds over the top, i think it's because you want to stand out from others as there are 1500 voice actors in Japan as opposed to maybe 50-100 in most other countries. And if you sound like everybody else, you won't get the job. Where i live, it's the same voice for 10-15 chars and it really messes with my head sometimes. Especially bothersome when one of our voice actors dies and they replace them with someone who doesn't even sound remotely similar. In Japan, you'd have propably 50 options that could replace them more closely.

[iqscur]

Originally posted by Musou:

Originally posted by iq gallagher:

I never thought I would find someone talking about Louis De Funès on steam

I'm old.

no, good culture

[Jeffer'son Airship]

Nah the over the top Japanese voice acting style is simply due to theater being more prevalent there.

In theater the emotions of a character have to be delivered more via voice because the audience isn't all going to be able to see the actor's face so they have to be melodramatic to ensure the audience gets it. This carried over to most voice acting.

It sounds really hammy when a dub adopts the same style because that's simply not how we're used to voice acting being done.

[Evangela]

English dub is awkward because:

1. A lot of English VAs simply can't act.

2. In games set in Japan, it's even more awkward, like watching Hollywood film with Chinese dub or some other language than the original.

[GiantPixie]

I'm in the exact opposite camp. I don't know Japanese and I hate reading subtitles when i'm trying to watch what's going on so I always only use English dub.

[Raging Panda]

Originally posted by borizb:

Originally posted by Lunatic Heretic:

I went english, atlus hires great dubs.

This. True for all Atlus games i have played. And i hate reading subtitles as i can either read or follow the action, but not both.

When JP voice acting sounds over the top, i think it's because you want to stand out from others as there are 1500 voice actors in Japan as opposed to maybe 50-100 in most other countries. And if you sound like everybody else, you won't get the job. Where i live, it's the same voice for 10-15 chars and it really messes with my head sometimes. Especially bothersome when one of our voice actors dies and they replace them with someone who doesn't even sound remotely similar. In Japan, you'd have propably 50 options that could replace them more closely.

The only time I really had that was, after seeing lots of Bob's Burgers, someone introduced me to Archer, and it was like "Bob no! Why are you saying such harsh things? What would Linda think?"

[Raging Panda]

Originally posted by Mokinokaro:

Nah the over the top Japanese voice acting style is simply due to theater being more prevalent there.

In theater the emotions of a character have to be delivered more via voice because the audience isn't all going to be able to see the actor's face so they have to be melodramatic to ensure the audience gets it. This carried over to most voice acting.

It sounds really hammy when a dub adopts the same style because that's simply not how we're used to voice acting being done.

This makes sense. I guess American VAs don't overact the same amount, and I'm more adverse to that facet of it.