Anime: English dub

[Zafire]

Most English dubs before the year 2000 are pretty bad. Starting with the 2000s you have the English dubbing company FUNimation who start doing a lot of dubs and they usually tend to be not totally awful. By 2010 most English dubs are decent.



If I'm watching a show as it's coming out, I have pretty much no choice but to watch it subbed because that's what comes out first.

If I have the option between an English dub or subbed, it depends on when the show came out. Older shows I almost always watch subbed.

Anyway, here are some recommendations for anime with amazing English dubs:

• Fate/Zero

• Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Speed Grapher and Trigun were good dubbed, and they're older animes. Only two I watched dubbed that I thought were just as good or better. Not being biased either because this was back when file sharing was a thing, and you'd get one episode dubbed and the next one would be subbed.

[AkundaMrdal]

Funny thing. Odds are to native watchers, the Japanese acting is probably weird, emotionless, and in general out of place but because you can't understand it, it doesn't sound off to you.

This may be truth, maybe if there is some Jap, they can tell us how they see Jap voice acting in anime, compared to how people talk in real life, or in acted tv shows.

I guess dubing quality depends on how mainstream said anime is, they have bigger budget to pay for better VA, while less known anime gets these "text to speech translators". But I don't intend to find out, I will stick to original + subs.
English is not my native language so I need subs anyway. If there are no czech subs I can read english one, but when I listen audio only I miss some things. Subs are easier to translete since I can pause video and think what does that sentence exactly mean.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Speed Grapher and Trigun were good dubbed, and they're older animes. Only two I watched dubbed that I thought were just as good or better. Not being biased either because this was back when file sharing was a thing, and you'd get one episode dubbed and the next one would be subbed.

Trigun's english dub was decent.

[Pendulous]

Best way is to watch the D4DJ dubbed because the Japanese voice for Maho also voices her in English.

(it's hard to even understand her at times)

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Some dubs are good, majority are crap though as they use the same talentless voice actors in so many of them that sound the same throughout with zero variation.

This. FUNimation's average dub quality is... okay. Nothing really awful like your usual pre-2000's dub, but nothing really standout either. The English dubs have a bad tendency to butcher the characters, for example making someone sound more monotone or detached or unemotional or vindictive than they were in the original japanese voiced version (looking at you, Chuunibyou and Toradora dubs).

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Another recurrent problem with English dubs is that they almost always botch loli voices. Unlike Japan, America doesn't have voice acting schools that teach women how to voice young girls, so it's always either awful screaching or an obviously older woman which breaks your immersion.

[Pendulous]

This. FUNimation's average dub quality is... okay. Nothing really awful like your usual pre-2000's dub, but nothing really standout either. The English dubs have a bad tendency to butcher the characters, for example making someone sound more monotone or detached or unemotional or vindictive than they were in the original japanese voiced version (looking at you, Chuunibyou and Toradora dubs).

Gonna have to explain Toradora there, that dub is pretty widely considered to be great even among sub fans.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

If it's in English, I'll watch it in English.

Best one is the people who don't understand Japanese but insist that you HAVE to watch it in that. An old friend of mines brother is a total weebo. Like, he watched Avatar: The Last Airbender in Japanese, despite the fact it was done in English first, becuase "it's the best way"..... Fucking weirdo.

Japanese voice actors are overall more talented than English voice actors.

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Gonna have to explain Toradora there, that dub is pretty widely considered to be great even among sub fans.

I thought that the English dub made Ryuuji sound like a loser and the blue hair girl sound more bitchy than she was in the sub. Taiga and Minori were good.

[Tronski]

I accidentally started one episode in English and I had to turn it off after few minutes. Voice acting was wierd, emotionless and in general out of place. I think they tried to use cartoonish voice, but it felt unnatural and almost inhuman, like it was dubed by text to speech program.

How about you, do you watch anime with English dub and do you like it?

Dubbing in general is horrible. The worst thing about it is that dubbing is more expensive than just dubbing, and it makes you wonder why dubbing is a thing at all. Sure, I get some shows are aimed at small kids, but even porn and shows for adults gets dubbed, as if they are unable to read their own language.

My gear get equally grinded when I watch blockbuster movies where i.e. russians in Russia speaks english with russian accents with each other, because the audience is unable to read three sentences worth of subtitles.

[Katchii]

Yeah, this just isn't true. Whatever the language, you can spot bad VAs pretty easily.

Agreed, for me it's just easier to get passed when it's in a language I don't understand anyway and can just read the dialogue. I still get a sense of the emotion from the bad VA's, so reading the subs is good enough to understand what's going on, so long as the actual subtitles aren't complete garbage, which is rare in my experience.

[Pendulous]

I guess dubing quality depends on how mainstream said anime is, they have bigger budget to pay for better VA, while less known anime gets these "text to speech translators".

This isn't even kind of true. You're saying that they put more effort into more popular shows, which is just super wrong. Look at my favorite recent example of Hensuki, which takes a script and just rolls with the absurdity of the story, and the dub makes the show even better. Ever heard of that show? No? Exactly.

[Katchii]

Gonna have to explain Toradora there, that dub is pretty widely considered to be great even among sub fans.

The statement isn't saying the dub is bad, just that the VA makes the character comes across differently than they did in the non-subbed version. The tone, emphasis on words or syllables and such can have a pretty profound effect on how a character is perceived. If they're supposed to sound sarcastic or joking, but the VA instead changes their inflections and tone to make it sound more angry or something, it changes the whole tone of the character and the scene that it's in.

[Pendulous]

Dubbing in general is horrible. The worst thing about it is that dubbing is more expensive than just dubbing, and it makes you wonder why dubbing is a thing at all. Sure, I get some shows are aimed at small kids, but even porn and shows for adults gets dubbed, as if they are unable to read their own language.

My gear get equally grinded when I watch blockbuster movies where i.e. russians in Russia speaks english with russian accents with each other, because the audience is unable to read three sentences worth of subtitles.

You're assuming the reason people watch dubs is because they can't read? That's incredibly ignorant of why people like it, and why it's an industry in the first place.

[deenman]

I accidentally started one episode in English and I had to turn it off after few minutes. Voice acting was wierd, emotionless and in general out of place. I think they tried to use cartoonish voice, but it felt unnatural and almost inhuman, like it was dubed by text to speech program.

How about you, do you watch anime with English dub and do you like it?

dub or sub for me usualy depends on 2 things

am i super lazy and dont feel like readin?dub it is

is the dub fairly good?dub it is

i just prefer dub as long as its atleast decent,sometimes dubs are even superior to subs,like deathnote or full metal

[Jotaux]

Oh I should mention I also watch shows with subs on even if they are in english. I'm starting to get old and need the extra help following along.

[Echeyakee]

The only dubs I would accept are abridged dubs.

In all seriousness, I avoid all dubs, regardless if it's anime, or normal TV/movies. I hate it when lip sync is bad, so dubs bother me.

[Khain]

I am Portuguese and I always watch anime with the Japanese original voices and then English or Portuguese subtitles. Dubs are really bad most times, Dragon Ball is one of the few acceptable ones.

LOL what? Portuguese DBZ is an international meme.

[Very Tired]

Most anime I watch anime I watch is in dub, but it's more of the mainstream stuff so it's understandable a bit more effort went into making them better than subs. In the worst case for what I watch, I feel like sub and dub are equal, so I just default to English since I can understand it.

My main problem with Japanese voice actors is there's so much less variation in their voice, so a lot of different characters can sound the same. They also tend to over exaggerate their lines a bit more, which a lot of people seem to confuse with being more talented for some reason.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Dubs, never subs.

[Couchpotato2013]

Dubs, after like 900+ episodes of detective conan (when I quit like 2 years ago or something). I just can’t take it anymore. Too many narahudos and ah le le (which is not restricted to the series alone, db/z sub is just intolerable). Feels better to have a series in english being listened/watched for the 10+ time while doing something else than Japanese. Like right now I have 97 berserk on the 5th time, works a bit like music.

[Kithelle]

Some dubs are good, majority are crap though as they use the same talentless voice actors in so many of them that sound the same throughout with zero variation.

Happens when there are so few, like unfortunately Funimation has a monopoly on things here...quality definitely isn't job one for them in any way, even their customer service is trash