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Watching Anime in Japanese vs. English (1 Viewer)

Richard Kim

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Most anime is animated, then dubbed by the voice actors. In other words, the original intent comes from the animators and the actors are taking their direction from that.
I agree. This is why I'm more tolerant with dubbing in anime than in live action, since in live action the actor's voice IS synonomous with his/her performance.
 

Dome Vongvises

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I think there's some compelling arguments for both subs and dubs. Quite frankly, I hate dubs, but people should be more than welcome to enjoy whatever suits their tastes. And I'm not going to make the whole "understanding culture, OSL has nuances argument" either because I like OSL just for the sake of purity (Japanese speak Japanese, and German bad guys speak German, although there was a neat intersting camera trick/edit in The Hunt for Red October).

If I had my Druthers (I miss that place), I'd go for fan subs, because I think that not only does it maintain the original language track, but you also get little notes onscreen and after the show that explain some of the aspects/nuances of Japanese culture/humour. Unfortunately, companies seem too lazy to do this.
 

Peter Rohlfs

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Greg,
If you are watching Bebop on Cartoon network and then watch the movie, you are probably are used to the voice actors from the english language version.

Try out some anime where you don't know either cast.

One more minor dub vs sub issue...
Though the japaneese cast are usually stable with a given title, it sometimes happens that diffrent studios handle diffrent aspects of the same title, i.e. 1 studio does the movie another the tv show. Often you will then get a totally diffrent cast on the english dubs.

Peter
 

JonZ

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"since in live action the actor's voice IS synonomous with his/her performance"

This can also be true in anime if your used to watching a certain film with subtitles.

Along comes a dubbed version and your turned off right away because the english voices are just "wrong".

This is a good example of what I experienced when I mentioned Akira earlier.

I dont understand why they dont use english speaking Japanese for these tracks. Who wants to hear a kid from Tokyo speak with a Brooklyn accent.
 

Jim_K

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Since you asked, Sub's are the only way I'll watch any Foreign laugauge film/show be it Anime, Hong Kong action films, Kaiju, Samurai, etc, etc. All of the dub's that I've sampled are always laughably bad. Yes even Cowboy Bebop's which is one of the better Dub's but that ain't saying much.
 

Ted Lee

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sorry guys...i was running over here, but tripped over that dead horse. ;) :)

me...i like it both ways.

typically i watch it dubbed the first time. that's because i generally like watching the animation the first time. someoe mentioned GITS...that's a great example. there's so much visual candy going on that i don't want to miss out.

afterwards (especially if i really like the show) i'll watch it subbed. i like to see how it differs from the dub and hear the different nuances in the japanese voice-acting.

if the anime is really story driven, i'll tend to focus more on the sub...as i feel i'll get a better sense of what the story is all about. but for light fluff, i'm still okay with dub.

as already mentioned, the choice should really be up to the viewer. what i dislike is when someone tells someone else there is only one "right way" to watch anime.
 

Dan Rudolph

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typically i watch it dubbed the first time. that's because i generally like watching the animation the first time. someoe mentioned GITS...that's a great example. there's so much visual candy going on that i don't want to miss out.
Wasn't Ghost in the Shell produced from the ground up with the US and Japanese markets in mind and the audio tracks recoreded around the same time? That would give both version equal claim on OSL, wouldn't it?
 

Lew Crippen

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I’m probably missing something here, but what is the difference in watching anime with either subtitles or dubbed voices and watching any other non-English language film with the same options?
 

Ted Lee

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lol. no difference lew. the subject specifically mentioned anime...so i guess that's where the focus has been. but the argument can certainly be stretched to any non-english viewing experience.
 

Tony-B

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I think that anime dubbing is not as bad as live action dubbing. I have no idea why I think that way, but I just do! :D
 

DaveGTP

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I can read the words in the subs and attach them to the words being said on screen quite easily actually.
Unless you know at least enough basic Japanese to know the sentence, verb, and adjective placement, or a large smattering of Japanese, you can't attach the English words to the Japanese language with any accuracy at all. I will draw on my limited Spanish here for an example as best I can (I'm ignoring the fancier present tense here) "I have a fat, friendly blue dog" would be "Tengo un perro azul, gordo y amistoso" or, Ihave a dog blue, fat, and friendly.

The differences are deeper than that even, but my spanish from memory without a refresher is iffy. Syllable emphasis is also based around a different concept than english. The point is, the word order, number of words, and syllable emphasis is very different. And Spanish is a Latin-based language just like English!! Asian languages come from an entirely different language base (as far as I know).

Of course, with RobLutter, Kong, and JohnAD, they have so much anime that maybe some of the Japanese has stuck :D
 

Tony-B

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Unless you know at least enough basic Japanese to know the sentence, verb, and adjective placement, or a large smattering of Japanese, you can't attach the English words to the Japanese language with any accuracy at all.
Dave, you are exactly right! That is the stage I am at, where I do know some basic phrases, but just do not understand much else. When I watch something subtitled I only understand less than 1% of it.

Dave, the subtitle defenders will say that you don't need to understand the language in order to watch it subtitled. However, understanding it makes everything easier. Right now when I watch something subtitled, I get NOTHING out of it. I do not get the word emphasis, order, or anything! The only thing I can understand the emotion, but usually the dubs do a good job conveying that.

Of course, I am just an illiterate moron with a short attention span. :rolleyes
 

Rob Lutter

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Tony B said....
Of course, I am just an illiterate moron with a short attention span.
Is it just me or are you guys arguing to yourselves? ;) I am not saying you HAVE to listen to OSL... do whatever you want. I could actually care less, it's your choice. :D

I am just saying that if you ever come over and wanna watch anime at my place that I have paid for on my TV, you are gonna be watching subtitled animation 100% of the time :)
 

Dan Rudolph

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I’m probably missing something here, but what is the difference in watching anime with either subtitles or dubbed voices and watching any other non-English language film with the same options?
That was my point. With live action and most US animation, performances originate with the actors. An attempt to replace the vocals is stripping out the very basis of the performance. In anime, with a couple notable exceptions like Akira, the performances originate in animation and are dubbed as practically the last step of production. The dubbers are recording to complete animation based on a script, just like the original voice actors.
 

Richard Kim

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With live action and most US animation, performances originate with the actors. An attempt to replace the vocals is stripping out the very basis of the performance. In anime, with a couple notable exceptions like Akira, the performances originate in animation and are dubbed as practically the last step of production.
This would explain why even the most crudely animated American cartoons have precise lip sync, while Japanese anime use simple lip flaps.
 

DaveGTP

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Honestly, I couldn't care less if the lip flaps match up at all.

On a related subject, I am glad for DVDs, though. I'm one of those people that didn't buy VHS. I had no interest whatsoever. The only VHS I had was a couple volumes of Lodoss War from '96ish, and a couple of movies my Grandma gave to me when my Grandpa died. A format that wears out and is chop&scanned didn't appeal to me. I spent money on books and videogames instead. I feel bad for you longtime anime folks switching over to DVD from your subtitled VHS. Plus, you aren't nearly as grumpy at us Dub watchers, since they release both on one disc now. I'm glad that DVD helped lesson the civil war between the 2 camps. I can get Share The Love from all the animeondvd.com anime-obsessed folks without getting subtitles only. :)
 

Bryant Trew

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For me it's basically sub only, because dubs normally sound weird - especially lacking in emotional content. But it can vary from film to film - Ghost in the Shell has fantastic english, while I think that Mononoke's all star english cast is vastly outdone by the Japanese dialog.

Ninja Scrolls and Akira are AWESOME in English. So is Vampire Hunter D and Blood the last Vampire.
 

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