i wanted to ask which is better: the english dub or the original japanese with english subtitles? I have never watched an anime in japanese, but maybe the english dub is really bad or something? So thats why i asked, which is better to watch, especially for someone who never watches japanese shows... I have listened to the theme songs and i do like the japanese one more but thats just a small factor...
shareI've only seen a few episodes of the dub, and I thought it was fairly rubbish. If you stick to watching anime in japanese you'll almost always be watching the best version. I can only think of a handful of shows which were better in english.
I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
Always go with the Japanese dub with English subs when it comes to anime. Some of the English lines they use to fill in the gaps are just atrocious or the voices don't go with the characters at all.
shareI watched it in Japanese with English subtitles, and English isn't even my native language! I too feel like it loses something with the dubbing. I does seem a bit silly, though, given that none of the characters are Japanese.
shareI'm watching it in English because I couldn't stand the Japanese dub. The men over act and the girls voices are all sexualized into this sickly attempt to sound cute and sexual and vulnerable, which is the usual in Japanese culture.
Honestly the English version is fine, like FA.
What I never get is that all anime seems to use the same 5 or 6 US-centric actors to do the voices.
They all have that bland youthful mid-atlantic accent that makes characters hard to distinguish or give them any well...character. They all sound disposable.
Now watch Adventure Time or Archer and half the fun is the voice characterisations as they are all distinct.
Attack on Titan, the very anime you're posting on the board for, doesn't have 5 or 6 VAs voicing all the characters. There's no one voicing multiple characters. So that criticism that "all anime" do that is a null point for this anime, and many other recent popular anime for that matter. Sword Art Online and Space Dandy and Kill la Kill don't reuse a tiny pool of VAs in their dubs either.
But usually when an anime does reuse voices, it's due to a low budget. Anime in America has had lower sales since the bubble burst a decade ago. Using a smaller VA pool is a way to cut costs. Rampant fansubbing kind of put a dent in the sales of anime, though the prevalence of legal streaming simulcasts has largely put an end to the fansubbing of licensed anime. Dubs have made a bit of a comeback under the few companies still standing, namely Aniplex and Funimation and Viz. If an anime is a massive hit, it's still highly likely to get a dub release.
Adventure Time has a lot of recycled voice actors too. Maria Bamford voices most of the secondary princesses, Pendleton Ward voices LSP and the Snail and Shelby among other others, and John DiMaggio voices extra characters in most episodes too, as does Tom Kenny. I love Adventure Time, but it reuses VAs too. That doesn't have to be a bad thing. Just look at Futurama, where the VAs are so talented you'd be hard pressed to realize the same guy voices Fry, Farnsworth, Zapp, and Zoidberg.
And since I'm here, Attack on Titan's dub is great. Very enjoyable and you're not for lacking by watching it. Hell, the dub actually has a male voicing Armin, unlike Japan. No "bland youthful mid-atlantic accent"s in this Texas-based dub.
Ah well most of the voices in AoT just sound pretty typical and dull to me.
Yes Adventure Time uses a regular group of actors and so do other western cartoons but they are very distinctive characterisations.
You can take Family Guy or Archer without actually seeing it and know who is talking at any one point.
With AoT they all blend into one as do most anime IMO. There is very little effort put into giving the voices any real character or difference.
I guess as you mention they just have to use cheap talent.
You have the advantage of understanding the English language and not the Japanese language. If the Japanese dub is poorly acted, you wouldn't know any better since you can't understand anything they're saying. The acting could be terrible with little effort into the voicework and you'd never know otherwise. So that already puts dubs in a losing battle for someone who watches subs.
Space Dandy, Attack on Titan, Sword Art Online, Kill la Kill, all distinct voices throughout. There are a few VAs with similar range, but it's a minority and more a coincidence. Johnny Yong Bosch and Micah Solusod overlap, as do David Vincent and Matthew Mercer, but they're exceptions.
English dubs actually have a small pool of male voice actors who can believably voice younger males while Japan is still using women for them. See Dragon Ball Z having a middle-aged woman voice Goku and Gohan, while the very male Sean Schemmel voices Goku in English, or AoT's Armin's being voiced by the male Josh Grelle over the female Marina Inoue, or Eureka 7's Renton being voiced by the male Johnny Yong Bosch over the female Yuko Sanpei. So many Japanese women VAs sound similar, but I'll admit to not watching subs if I can help it.
Maria Bamford's minor princesses on AT all sound alike. The woman has little voice range, similarly heard with her as Pema on Legend of Korra. John DiMaggio pretty much only has one voice too. If you've heard Bender, you've heard Jake the Dog and everyone else DiMaggio has ever voiced. Family Guy's terrible about having about 3 different guys voice all the background characters. You can't tell them apart by voice at all. I'm avoiding invoking Archer because it's a brilliant show with a very small voice actor pool and I've got no beef with it.
I'd ascribe your hearing too much similarity in English dubs to unfamiliarity with them as a whole. I only watch dubs so my ear is very used to them.
These "cheap talent" tend to be pretty damn skilled. It's hard work acting believably whilst matching lips synced to another language. Some of the biggest gaming and cartoon VAs today got their start in anime. Troy Baker was put on top of the VA world after The Last of Us, but he'd been doing brilliant voice acting in anime dubs for a decade before that. Steve Blum's in that pool too, though he still does anime sparingly.
You'll find a lot of anime VAs doing non-anime work, mostly because anime dubs pay very little and they have to do other work just to get by. Generally if a VA is doing anime, they do it for the love of the medium, not for the money. They aren't half-assing a job for a cushy paycheck. Videogames and cartoons pay a buttload by comparison, even for minor roles.
Well this got long-winded about nothing, guess I'll stop now.
So Armin is voiced by a male in the dub? I guess that means he's not a girl after all.
shareI've heard Josh Grelle briefly transitioned as Male-To-Female before backing out of it early into the process, so that could help his androgynous voice. He's definitely a male voice actor though.
Maybe his nemesis Legout is the girl.
Blum and Baker are two of the lucky ones, they have been able to be part of big projects and showcase their talents and are liked by many and Considered greats.
I honestly think their are lots of voice actors that are more talented than they get credit for and are underappreciated like some of the Anime voice actors you mentioned.
Class is Pain 101. Your instructor is Casey Jones
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I watched it with the Spanish (Castellano) dub and that's pretty intense. Mostly for learning purposes, but it's a lot better than the English which is too soft and bland, or the Japanese which seems very out of place with all the European looking characters and which I do not understand one bit. There are also French and Italian dubs, so it might be interesting to try one of those instead of the *beep* English or the incomprehensible Japanese dubs.
shareI usually watch my anime twice... first in subs and then on second viewing with the English audio.. the English audio isn't bad in this and its fine if you don't want to watch it in Japanese.. some of the characters do sound similar but overall its one of the better dubs.. definitely watchable. (best with subs though obviously)
shareSome dubs are good (Death Note, FMA BH, anything from Ghibli), and some are bad.
This dub is bad, and for that reason, I stuck with the sub.
Personally preference, really. But unless you understand Japanese and watch it in it's original language, you'll never get the most out of it.
I also went with the sub, I hate dubs.
shareI prefer the English Dub for any anime. I don't wanna have to concentrate on the subtitles plus everything thats going on.
sharewatching it in English dub. No complaints because I'm not a pussy
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