is it subbed or dubbed?

[Empanda]

i hope they keep the original japanese voice or at least have the options to go to english or japanese.

[Zycora Elite]

I almost always watch/plays with original japanese audio, because it's better and I'm trying to learn japanese. BUT I must say that not all dubs are bad, look at the Death Note DVDs, sure the original voices are way better but the english dub is actually not that bad imo

[Village Idiot]

The days of terribad dubs are mostly gone.

Dubs are actually decent now, sometimes even superior (IMO) than the original Japanese cast.

Of course there are exceptions.

I'm looking at you Arc Rise Fantasia

[Lavian]

Raijinken の投稿を引用：

Japanese voices fit Japanese-designed characters better. American voices fit American-designed characters better.

That said, if more dub companies would put forth effort to get the good dubbers (relatively few as they are), or if more voice actors would put some believable and non-forced emotion behind what they're saying, people might have actual reasons to prefer dubs. I, for one, can read fast enough that there's more lost putting up with a half-hearted voice than by reading for a moment before watching the action intently.

Well, there are some things that just make more sense to watch in English. Like Black Lagoon. The characters in that are literally all supposed to be speaking English except for the last arc of the Second Barrage, where they're in Japan.

That aside, the only time I've found where I really preferred the English voices to the JP ones is in Hoshi no Koe/Voices of a Distant Star, and it didn't make more sense there... they were just better imo. That particular work wasn't exactly super high budget though.

But yeah, English dubs aren't known to be particularly good in most cases. Sometimes they're great. Other times... well... other times they're not so great. I'm honestly fine as long as they're not GRATING, but it's harder to get emotially invested if the acting isn't good.

Most of the time I just auto turn to JP and turn off subtitles now though, since they get distracting sometimes (like when they're wrong.. or desynced like the FREAKING CANAAN DVDs).


... or right. Also Sakura Wars 5 makes 1000% more sense in English, and Gemini sounds 10x more adorable with her southern accent in English rather than her JP voice.

[Lavian]

You don't have to know a language to understand emotion behind a voice. That's what really matters here. =/



Also yes, some people do learn Japanese just for Anime and games. I can't say I was any different. So here's a rant:

I'm Japanese by blood, but my Japanese blood had nothing to do with my interest in the Japense language. All that mattered was that there were things that were not translated that I really wanted to play, read, and watch. (Turns out to be a kind of expensive hobby though. PS2 games went up to being as much as 90 USD. Newer games are no different.)

The first game I played without full voicing was Prism Ark: Awake, and that was because I was led to believe that Hyaweh would be voiced since he does have a voice actor (for combat and just a few scenes). Was nice realizing I could pull it off though. I got more bold with my selection of imported games after that. That was in high school. I actually took 3 years of Japanese in high school and just a bit more than 2 years in college.

ALL FOR A HOBBY (or three). Well that, and my General Education requirements in College required a foreign language, so that was the obvious option to me.

At this point I'm importing light novels and manga (as well as games and anime). Specifically, Tasogare Otome X Amnesia, Boku wa Tomogachi ga Sukunai, and Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai (well, not this one I guess since it's done now, I got the last volume a month or two ago). Reading takes some time for me though. I also Actually bought a copy of Strange and Bright Nature Diety when I saw that in a bookstore.

Learning Japanese has been great. It's one of the best things I've done in terms of what I enjoy. It means I can get into visual novels without wating for some SUPER SLOW TRANSLATION (For example, I watched Shuffle! in hich school, and an English translation of the visual novel did not come out until I was in college). It means I can play all the Gundam games that Bandai Namco doesn't want to translate, like SD Gundam G Generation, Extreme VS, and 0081. It means I can play those crossover games that never make it to the U.S., like Another Century's Episode, Super Robot Wars, and Queen's Gate. It means I can buy light novels without waiting for someone to translate it, only to drop it a few volumes in (LIKE ALWAYS, I don't recall a single series that's been fully traslated). It means that I can read manga from artists and writers that I'm fond of, such as Maybe, without hoping for some non-existant translation.

Probably around half of my PS3 and PSP games are imported. I bought a Japanese PS2 just so I could play JP games (I have no desire to use a mod chip).

When I started learning Japanese, the only visual novel traslation that wasn't doing just straight up porn was Hirameki, and they went down eventually, and I was underage. I REALLY liked visual novels (and still do). This is largely why I got a Japanese PS2. Console visual novels are pretty much gauranteed to be "all-ages" versions, and generally they're pretty solid considering they tend to be ports of more popular titles. A.C.E. was a big plus though... and eventually Gundam Climax U.C..

So yes, some people do indeed have a desire to learn Japanese just for a hobby. (Or multiple I guess) I'm still not too good at it, but hey, It's not as if I'm stopping just because I'm not taking classes. I actively engage in Japanese media and make use of dictionaries when there things that I don't understand. People may look at me less funny than the next guy because I am Japanese by blood, but I'm not really that different from the next guy.

You can go to great lengths when you're having fun. People aren't "pretending" they have some desire to learn Japanese. At least in my case, that was a very real desire. (I do more than just watch anime, but the hobbies are closely related)


Also yes, most of the time, even before I knew Japanese, I still liked subtitles more than dubs. ADV had some dubs I really liked (REALLY liked. Rune Soldier Louie is freaking gold in English), but anyone else at the time was pretty much a bunch of NOPENOPENOPE (with a few exceptions here and there) as far as I recall.


Also... Naruto is voiced by a woman in Japanese. Please don't tell me you prefer him in English.

[Vashe]

Desolater IV の投稿を引用：

I really despise American Japan fanatics or Anime freaks. No matter how much you love Japan, it simply does not make any logical sense to enjoy watching something in a language you have absolutely no knowledge of.

Unless you truly know Japanese, please do not suggest that subtitles are greater than english voice-overs. (Also...don't pretend you have some desire to learn Japanese when all you do is watch Anime)

(Side Note: Japanese anime voices often sound like extremely young children or sexually arousing high piched squels which can be extremely irritating after a while. An example, I love DBZ, but can not watch it in Japanese because the main character Goku (a extremely masculine adult male) is voiced by a woman in japanese..)

I do prefer subtitles for multiple reasons (I watch US/UK series subbed too, in English lol, it's faster to read than French).
1)You can watch anime/series with low volume
2)"Real" voice are always better... well because it's the original voice
3)What's the problem with loving extremely cute japanese voice ???
4)Man... Skills and techniques are just way better in Japanese, they shout things " YAAAAAA DORYAAAAAAA " "MAJINKEN", it's just more epic this way ! I hate "Tales of" battle voices in English, they sound "forced".

... In DBZ french dub version gohan's "Masenko" is translated "vague d'énergie" (energy wave... so lame)

And man you're so ethnocentric !! Non-English speaking people (the majority of the planet !!!!) couldn't care less about English dubs because they won't understand it.

For me it's like saying that you can't listen to English (or other language, including Japanese) music if you don't understand the language... I do enjoy music in different language A LOT even if I dont understand it (I search for the lyrics translation) like Russian, Korean, Dutch, German,...

[Egro]

Desolater IV の投稿を引用：

I really despise American Japan fanatics or Anime freaks. No matter how much you love Japan, it simply does not make any logical sense to enjoy watching something in a language you have absolutely no knowledge of.

Unless you truly know Japanese, please do not suggest that subtitles are greater than english voice-overs. (Also...don't pretend you have some desire to learn Japanese when all you do is watch Anime)

(Side Note: Japanese anime voices often sound like extremely young children or sexually arousing high piched squels which can be extremely irritating after a while. An example, I love DBZ, but can not watch it in Japanese because the main character Goku (a extremely masculine adult male) is voiced by a woman in japanese..)

And how do you know they have absolutely no knowledge of it ? You and your bias, try to have an empirical backing next time otherwise whatever you said have zero trustworthy.
No point to cherry pick the evidents either. There are good but there also bad. There are plenty bad Japanese VA out there, yes I'm looking at you Toki to Eien. But because of the overhelming numbers of low quality dubed, people will oftern regard dubed as a bad thing.
Like I said some where in this thread, the more global company have a much higher quality VA. Take Square Enix for example, their dubs are very high quality.

And I study Japanese Mythos and Mythology so you cant say that I have absolutely no knowledge of Japan.

[Lavian]

Square Enix didn't exactly have the best dubbing record half a decade ago as far as I recall, and as someone who can turn on Japanese voices and understand what I'm hearing, they're not particularly uh... literal with thier translations.

There's some pretty obvious moments in FFXIV, for example, even if you don't know any Japanese really. (There is no character named Mad Snake, and that line was certainly not designed to be a joke that referenced Metal Gear... which is unfortunate since that scene is not supposed to be comical.)

Then there's the whole Dave/David thing in The Last Remnant. I realize there was NO WAY to represent what was going on there in English well, but it annoyed the crap out of me.

[DarkestLight]

Seaman JC kuruigi の投稿を引用：

DesmaX の投稿を引用：

Subbed. No English voiceovers, only japanese ones

the way it should be :3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAtC1SzWSXg



Even as a white guy who knows all of 2 words in Japanese I prefer subs...
Where the hell do we find our English voice actors... so bad...

[lolCindered]

DarkestLight の投稿を引用：

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAtC1SzWSXg

:D:

Even as a white guy who knows all of 2 words in Japanese I prefer subs...
Where the hell do we find our English voice actors... so bad...

Rumor has it that for Chaos Wars, the "Voice actors" were members of the CEO's family. I'd certainly believe it.

[Lavian]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Chaos Wars dubs were half assed because SEA requires pretty much ALL games to have English voice tracks (the one exception I know of is the Yakuza series). Thus Chaos Wars has dubs, but the localization team REALLY wants you to leave it in JP.

[Desma]

DarkestLight の投稿を引用：

Seaman JC kuruigi の投稿を引用：

the way it should be :3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAtC1SzWSXg

:D:

Even as a white guy who knows all of 2 words in Japanese I prefer subs...
Where the hell do we find our English voice actors... so bad...

Yeaaaaah. because that's totally not an isolated case

[DarkestLight]

DesmaX の投稿を引用：

DarkestLight の投稿を引用：

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAtC1SzWSXg



Even as a white guy who knows all of 2 words in Japanese I prefer subs...
Where the hell do we find our English voice actors... so bad...

Yeaaaaah. because that's totally not an isolated case

Frankly its not. Now this is about the worst of the worst but... there is plenty of bad voice acting to go around.

[Desma]

DarkestLight の投稿を引用：

DesmaX の投稿を引用：

Yeaaaaah. because that's totally not an isolated case

Frankly its not. Now this is about the worst of the worst but... there is plenty of bad voice acting to go around.

Honestly, the only one that actually made me cringe was Star Ocean IV.

And I mostly play Japanese games. I think the English VA are good enough (And certainly better than the ones in Agarest. Trust me, this game doesn't have good VA)

[Vashe]

Do you remember FF-X with English dubs (thank the great mana tree, there is an undub version for several years) ? I absolutely HATE Tidus' and Rikku English voices... so annoying I want to punch him in the balls everytime he opens his mouth, it's really much better in japanese. I also think there is a game where all the characters have some weird british (Elizabethian ?) accent when they speak "normally" in japanese, I don't remember the name

[Egro]

Vashe の投稿を引用：

Do you remember FF-X with English dubs (thank the great mana tree, there is an undub version for several years) ? I absolutely HATE Tidus' and Rikku English voices... so annoying I want to punch him in the balls everytime he opens his mouth, it's really much better in japanese. I also think there is a game where all the characters have some weird british (Elizabethian ?) accent when they speak "normally" in japanese, I don't remember the name

Haha, yeahh..it was pretty annoying but I kind of find with the dub. Some time characters personality change as you change the voice over..Like I hate the gut of Vanille in FFXIII but she was so lovable in Japanese version.... :(