Anime: English dub

[Pendulous]

There's not a lot of amazing english voice actors, and the ones that do exist are often famous via other avenues and thus cost a pretty penny to use. More than distributors and studios are willing to pay, basically getting whoever they can to do a half-decent job for as little as possible because often in their minds it's just kids watching that don't know better anyway. Not many places in the world are homegrown voice-actors paid enough to make a living/care enough about their job to improve/make it a career and treat people of all ages with stellar voice acting performances complimenting the cartoon and taking them both to another level.

Wow, this is the wrongest thing in this thread in a sea of grand assumptions. For the last fucking time, they don't "pull people off the streets". many of them have a theater background. Why that is I don't know, but it happens. And no, they're not completely stupid and assume kids are watching these shows. because they have thoughts, and logic.

[ldev]

Few jap cartoons I've watched (trigun, elven lied, code geas) were all in english. Because with subtitles you actually have to stare at the screen 24/7 and these weren't that great, with english dub you can browse your phone while watching.

[Florena]

I watch with english dub generally. Unless the english voice cast is just awful.

But I oddly also often have subttitles on so I can catch places where the dub deviates from a more straightforward translation. For me, 'having' to read and not understanding what the people are actually saying doesn't killt he experience, but takes me a bit out of it.

I don't watch a ton of anime though and the stuff I do watch tends to have good voice acting so that probably helps. If I watched a lot more and had more samplings of bad dubs maybe I'd be swayed to watch subs more.

[kail]

It depends and I started Anime with the dubbed shows on Adult Swim (Inuyasha, Mobile Suit Gundamn, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Yu-Yu Hak, etc.) and those older series honestly sounded fine in the dub state. Subbed acting looking at them today just doesn't fit the characters IMO, especially Spike Spiegel of Bebop. Spice and Wolf, one of my personal favorites is one I started and loved in dubbed format. The Holo and Kraft VAs were just amazing.

Normally now I watch and appreciate Subbed anime but that's not to knock on dubbed. Sometimes too dramatic in some minor moments but the language and VAs fit most of the characters I've seen. Best part of subbed anime? Their attempts to pronounce English phrases.

[mickybrighteyes]

It really depends on the series. A lot of early dubs were so bad it set the stereotype that dubs are bad. Blame 4Kids imo....

Generally I find the japanese more tolerable because I'm not familiar enough with japanese to fully catch halfassed line delivery and just assume more shit is going as intended. I think the first time I started catching things was after sitting through Cowboy Bebop in both languages and... well that one the dub just plain stomps all over the original. Spike in english just feels more like what Spike should be while the japanese seemed like the VA was alternating between serious and comedy too much. (and I don't know why i got that feeling exactly).

Typically i still prefer going with subs unless I find the translator taking their own liberties with what they decide to put in... i.e. a manga from early 2010's having dialogue referencing something from post 2014 because it's anime released post 2015...

[kail]

It has its moments.

Aqua is the only redeemable VA there IMO. The other 3 characters sound better in JP. Megumin's "explosion" sounds so much better because the VA says it in English.

[Leyre]

FMA: BH Is the only good dubbed anime

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Yeah, I never got why that was so popular... same with One Piece. Anime with that many episodes seem like they are 90% filler or recap.

While I personally haven't watched One Piece at all (I started the manga, but dropped it after two dozen chapters or so), from what I've heard from people whose opinions I trust it at least has things like very good world building and foreshadowing. I've seen manga readers complain about the anime adaptation, so I guess there is some filler garbage, but still, there are some upsides to the franchise, even if I'm not going to personally partake in something this long.

One Piece has two different fandoms.

• The people who can enjoy the same formula of "Luffy and friends and go to an island have an adventure and battles!". That's 90% of the series. Likely overlaps with the people who have been watching Pokemon for the past 20 decades and still don't get bored of the same formula. Probably overlaps with the people who are still watching Dragon Ball. Has a small online presence. I suppose they are a silent majority that is content.

• The people who only really enjoy the political intrigue with the world government and the pirate emperors in between adventure arcs. That is 10% of the series. These people are the most vocal about One Piece, constituting the majority of the series' online presence on reddit and such, but they are also the most dissatisfied because they tend to not like the formulaic adventure stuff and wish that the whole series was more about the political intrigue.

[Zergin8r]

Dragonball is literally the same 2-3 episodes though... bad guy shows up they fight, seems like 50% of the time they are just talking mid fight. Goku gets more powerful, bad guy joins him for no real reason. That's pretty much it.

[Pendulous]

Aqua is the only redeemable VA there IMO. The other 3 characters sound better in JP. Megumin's "explosion" sounds so much better because the VA says it in English.

The Japanese...is better...because...she says it in English.

wat

[draynay]

The Japanese...is better...because...she says it in English.

wat

Everyone loves Engrish.

[Queen of Hamsters]

I prefer subs.

People say Castlevania has really bad voice acting but I honestly do not think it's any worse than original Japanese VO in most releases.

[Djuntas]

I dont wanna read a book while I watch something...Also english dub is good. I rarely get annoyed.

[Faesroll]

i cant stand the japanese voice actors, especially the women sound like screeching sirens, makes my ears bleed. ill take a shitty english dub over that, thanks

[Dead Moose Fandango]

Dubbed if available because I like to multi-task. If it's only subbed, then I'll pick some time to focus and watch it. But prefer dubbed.

[FarmerEd]

In 90% of cases the english dub does feel very cringy to me, but also as a general rule I prefer to watch movies in their original language and subbed - there's always a lot that is lost in translations.

Also, there are too many "dead frames" in anime where hardly anything is visually happening, it honestly feels better if a bit of your focus is away from the picture in the talking scenes.

[Vakir]

Varies by the anime. I'd say the majority favor sub. But the reality is that certain settings simply work better with English voices if they're more West inspired or adjacent and have quality. Cowboy Bebop, Big O, both flavors of Fullmetal Alchemist, Black Lagoon...

[Dakhath]

I was really expecting more people saying they watch subs because that's how they learn nihongo, but I'm pleased to be mistaken. I've only really liked mecha which is practically a dead genre right now, but on topic I've split it about half way down the middle.

[schwank05]

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?

I watch in English if I wanted to read a tv show or movie Id read a book.

[Rennadrel]

Only way to watch, the Japanese voice "actors" just scream and squeel instead of any actual acting. It's really bad. I'll listen in a language I can understand with actors who can actually speak and act.

Did you ever stop to think that Japanese VAs portray characters a certain way because that is how the creators want them portrayed? This reminds me of the whole debacle with the dubbing of Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out. I read some of the manga, and the original animation does a great job at portraying the creators intentions with how awfully annoying and outright cringe Uzaki is as a character. But good god, the FUNimation dub is an absolute dumpster fire because they chose one of the most drab, emotionless female VAs to do the character and it's horrid. Like, she has zero personality or charisma as an actor.