Is subbed better than dubbed?

i say dubbed, DBZ, POKEMON all sounded pretty good

I say it depends. Most of the time I don't really mind. However, I refuse to watch Cardcaptor Sakura dubbed, or any dub that censors too much of the original (like, to the point that it takes from the series itself).

True that Cardcaptor Sakura dubbed is pretty bad but the production that was trying to localize it was attempting to appeal to all genre (I know, wrong vocabulary there). That genre being shonen and shoujo.

Yeah, the original Cardcaptor Sakura (both anime and manga) is shoujo and well... there were some weird stuff going on there. "There's more then one kind of love" in that manga.

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Addressing the real question though, I'd personally agree on the sub but there are some dubbed anime that are really good. Take DBZ for example, check the original version. The main character sounds like he hasn't hit puberty yet even though he's an adult. Once again, this is entirely my opinion.

Then again, there are some anime that are poorly dubbed. Taking 4kids' One Piece as an example, most of the voice acting is pretty bad (Luffy's and Ussop's were pretty bad). There were some voices that didn't need any accent (Wapol's Russian accent, Nico Robin's South-Western Accent and Sanji's Brooklyn accent).

The only good voice actor in that show is David Moo who voiced Roronoa Zoro. The only redeeming factor that made 4kids' One Piece barely watchable.

So yeah, sub all the way for me.

@hiroshima_X - It's more the name changes that I objected to in the CSS dub.

I don't recall the accents on One Piece. (I saw some of it on TV in the morning. This was before I really got into anime so I wasn't fussed with the dub/sub thing. Since I'd never seen the subs, I didn't know the difference...)

Once again. trying to appeal to the audience of all kinds (most like the North-Americans). Though I have to give it to you, the name changes do bug me a little. If they are going to make name changes, do it properly. Change the entire cast instead of half-assing it.

They got names like:

Tomoyo -> Madison
Toya -> Tori (if memory serves me right)
Yukito -> Julian

And then you have Sakura who doesn't get the name change at all. Kinda weird right there.

And the new names sound nothing like the originals. Well Yukito --> Julian isn't that bad, but Tomoyo --> Madison?

Sakura probably stayed the same because if they changed her name, they'd have to rename the series.

I prefer subs mostly. But I'm finding heaps of pros for dubs too

Haha I actually enjoyed the cardcaptors dub, it still had the shoujo-y atmosphere.

What really annoyed me was romeo x juliet dub, the voice actors had this whispery voice which I absolutely loathed! No one in real life talks like that!

They also have to change the jokes that are meant to be in Japanese to English but it usually takes away the humour factor

Although I do notice English speaking voice actors had a much deeper voice for male main characters ~

I must give a notable mention of duel masters, they had awesome dubs, the OVER 9000 meme was better in English.

Subs are better. Spoken Japanese is so much more emotive. English doesn't let you shout out stupid awesome things.

Although Iron chef dubbing is just funny!

I have to go with dubbed. I don't know any Japanese so any intricate cultural things I might miss don't bother me. If the story can't be adapted to English well then it's probably not something meant for a Western audience.

I prefer subbed. Because well, Japanese sounds beautiful and occasionally confusing at the same time. Japanese art and English voice-overs only really worked (in my perspective) for Pokemon and Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Nowadays, I watched subbed, and pretty much only subbed.

As it has been said before me, It entirely depends on the series. Some dubs are absolutely fantastic, on par or even surpassing their Japanese counterparts (I'm looking at you Baccano!) While at times, they can sound completely horrid; Like the wails of a cat being thrown into the stratosphere with it's primary mode of transport being a blender.

Then again, I often wonder if ambiguity is the saving grace for a great deal of anime, I'm assuming (Please do correct me if I'm wrong as I'm quite new here) that a large portion of us aren't familiar with the Japanese language, possibly meaning we might be unintentionally overlooking bad voice acting or presentation due to a lack of understanding.

I usually prefer subbed to dubbed, but i really do appreciate the fact that it's usually the dub version that gets people hooked onto the whole anime/ manga genre. But when i listen to subbed versions, I sometimes wonder if that's how the original manga-ka envisons' their characters voice...

A mix of both. Back when I first ventured into the anime frenzy, a high school friend lent me his box collection of Love Hina and Happy Lesson which had English dubs, and I loved it. Being attached to some of the characters when watching the dubbed version made me prefer the English voice actors over their Japanese counterparts for a while.

These days I'm pretty lax about Eng dubs, though most of the things I watch are in subtitles. My general rule of thumb is that If a series has my fave Japanese seiyuus, then it's subs for me.

For me, it depends purely on the quality of the dub. If it's good, I'd rather watch it in english.

Subs for me~

Dubs are rare but sometimes i like them c:

My friends to me subbed will always be better then dubbed, simple fact is its original...
Dubbed animes like DBZ by funimation made DBZ crap i ahve the original Jap version with its full violence and story much better then the US versions, However Dragonball Kai is a remake of DBZ and its hectic...
get it while u can !!!!

giga_sennin wrote:

simple fact is its original...

Being original doesn't automatically make it the best.

giga_sennin wrote:

Dubbed animes like DBZ by funimation made DBZ crap

Absolutely ridiculous.

giga_sennin wrote:

i ahve the original Jap version with its full violence and story much better then the US versions,

And I have an English dub set that contains all 291 episodes that are completely uncut, filled with all the blood and violence of the japanese release. Not to mention the infinitely superior Bruce Faulconer score.

I'm pretty surprised that people here watch dubs, when I look back and watch dragonball or pokemon I feel like slamming my face into a wall...

Otoha wrote:

I'm pretty surprised that people here watch dubs, when I look back and watch dragonball or pokemon I feel like slamming my face into a wall...

Yes, because Pokemon/DBZ is indicative of all english dubs.

Actually it is!
Otoha: 1
Sarcasm: 0

im going with subbed, if anyone has watched bleach or even one piece in both sub/dub they will understand the horror of dubbed versions
the only anime i reckon has a good dubbed version is Black Lagoon

I reckon 90% of dubs are crap. Exceptions include Pokemon, Dragonball and various Ghibli movies.

I liked FMA: Brotherhood dubs, they were pretty good.

Hetalia Dubs are excellent~