Watching Anime in Japanese vs. English

GregBe · 09-22-2003, 01:27 PM

I just watched my first Anime this weekend (Cowboy Bebop the Movie) and absolutely loved it. I started to look through the beginners anime thread, but with over 600 posts, it is a bit daunting.
My dilemma is this, I watched it on Friday night in the English version and thought it was awesome. On Saturday morning, I was feeling guilty that I did not watch it in its original language. After all, I would not even think of watching Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Life is Beautiful or Brotherhood of the Wolf dubbed. I started to watch it in Japanese several times, and was missing the English voices. I am thinking that my mistake was watching it first in English, and putting certain voices with certain characters.
My question is this. Is this a common problem? I am planning on picking up several new titles today. (Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Princess Monoke, Metropolis, Ninja Scroll). Do some of you watch your anime in English and enjoy it, or am I better off by watching all of these in Japanese and just getting used to it.
Thanks
Greg

Rob Lutter · 09-22-2003, 01:38 PM

Uh oh

There's usually an argument about this in the Advanced Anime thread every few months so you can probably find quite a few pages with the pros/cons.

I prefer subs (which many of ya know) because I think that english dubs suck both the Japanese culture and substance out of anime. Some say they prefer dubs because they can focus on the animation and subtitles distract them ("I don't wanna read the entire film!"). My main reason for watching subs are the script changes that are made in the ADR (dubbing) process to match the lip flaps of the characters. Even a small change to the dialogue or a missed/added line here/there can change the mood of an entire series. There ARE some screen-compression issues for subtitles sometimes and even some censorship for ratings at times (for instance, I am REALLY doubting that ADV will allow all the "fuck"s to stay in Azumanga Daioh so they can shoot for a lower rating), but the problems are really mimimal compared to the other choice. Also, the Japanese participate in group readings of the script instead of individual recordings... so when you hear two characters arguing, they are doing so to each other and not into a microphone days or weeks apart from each other.

Plus American girls just aren't as KAWAII (er, cute

) sounding as Japanese girls to me

I wouldn't say "dub" vs. "sub" has a definate champion... it's a personal choice that you have to make (I know that some people prefer to switch back and forth too). DVD kinda squashed the argument by giving people the choice on the same disc (as opposed to separate VHS releases). The best way, in fact, to watch anime is to learn Japanese and listen to it yourself

Jeff Ulmer · 09-22-2003, 01:49 PM

Quote:

(for instance, I am REALLY doubting that ADV will allow all the "fuck"s to stay in Azumanga Daioh so they can shoot for a lower rating)

Depends if Stephen Foster does the dub or not...

I'm a sub guy.

Quote:

Plus American girls just aren't as KAWAII

I completely agree, nor can they scream like the Japanese. There is not the intensity in the English dubs I have heard that anywhere near match their Japanese counterparts.

Stick with Japanese and get used to reading, it is much better, IMHO of course.

MichaelGH · 09-22-2003, 01:50 PM

I'm a sub only kind of guy with Anime. Two primary reasons: As the previous poster said, English dubs tend to remove the Japanese culture aspect of the shows which I really enjoy, secondly Voice Acting is an artform in Japan...the Voice actors spend a long time honing their craft and, to be honest, if you compare the japanease language versus english language tracks it shows...I really have never liked english voice actors in any cartoon (even as a kid watching Transformers)...so to sum up, I recommend trying to get used to the subs (which really shouldn't be hard if you watch other foreign language films subbed).

Michael

Michael St. Clair · 09-22-2003, 01:57 PM

I watch subs about 90% of the time. But there are rare titles where I find the dubs to be as good.

I suggest you listen to releases both ways (or at least the first 10 minutes or so both ways) and then make up your mind. Do this for a few releases and you'll start to form your own impressions.

**HTF Ads**

Andy_Bu · 09-22-2003, 02:19 PM

In general, my wife and I watch dubbed first and then if we hate it (or find our ahead of time that it is poor) we switch to the subs.

We find that we miss to much by spending all our time reading through the movie.

Even though I am a dub first person, I will admit that many of the dubs are horrible. You happened to hit upon one of the best group of english VA's I have heard in the Cowboy Bebop cast which may be causing some of your confusion in terms of which one you thought was better.

Even many of the hard core sub only anime viewers will begrudgingly admit that the dub for Cowboy Bebop is very good. I for one could never picture Spike, Ed, Jet or any other character other than their english voices.

If you are interested in dubs, what I usually do before starting a new series or movie is to simply research the quality of the dub on Chris's awesome web site. If the majority say the dub is average or worse, I go with the sub. If most agree that it is very good (like Cowboy Bebop), then we go with the dub.

Since there are more bad dubs than good IMO, I end up watching more subs. It is no coicendence that some of my favorite anime are ones with good dubs I guess.

Here is the board where you can read about dubs in great detail.

http://forums.animeondvd.com/postlis...d=englishforum

Andy

Neil Joseph · 09-22-2003, 02:38 PM

All I can say to this is that I love to watch films in their original languages, especially the Japanese and Chinese (Cantonese or mandarin) titles with the english subtitles on.

MartinTeller · 09-22-2003, 02:45 PM

I don't know much about anime, but I can tell you that the changes made on the English versions of the Miyazaki films are pathetic. Here's a good example: in Kiki's Delivery Service, there's a scene where two girls are hitchhiking, and a guy stops for them. In the Japanese version, nothing is said. In the English version, one of the girls says: "it's okay, I know this guy!" (paraphrasing, don't remember the exact words). In Castle in the Sky, there's a scene where a boy and girl are standing on a roof, and the boy falls off. In the English version, they make the girl a LOT more concerned than she is in the Japanese version (at least, if the subtitles are accurate). Also, the English version of Castle in the Sky has wall-to-wall music, while the Japanese has much sparser scoring.

I have fun just going back and forth comparing the two, to see how much they dumbed it down/niced it up for the American audience.

Bolivar G · 09-22-2003, 02:47 PM

I must be one of the few PPL who watches Brotherhood of the Wolf and crouching tiger in english:b I hate reading thru a whole movie, I miss to much of the action that way. It distracts me to much, I must have A.D.D or something

Eric F · 09-22-2003, 02:49 PM

Lol. If you really want to get a sense of how good/bad the dub is (not to mention the acting) just watch in English w/English subs on. Some of the translations are not even close and take on a totally different meaning.

That said, Bebop has one of the best dubs going- I'd say it's better than the original Japanese for a number of different reasons (don't hurt me) which has been covered in this forum many times. Do a search for anime, dub, etc.

Peter Mazur · 09-22-2003, 02:54 PM

I always watch the dubbed version a few times first. I really want to concentrate on the visuals. Once I am familiar with the film or show I will watch it with the subtitles.

A film like Akira or Ghost in the Shell has way too much visual information that you miss if you are trying to read the subs.