Subtitles or dubbing?

[Pants]

Here's a query:

Who finds dubbing more annoying, American viewers (watching a foreign film being voice-dubbed in English) or non-American viewers (watching an American film being voice-dubbed in their respective languages)?

I'm an American viewer and I only find dubbing annoying if it's done poorly and nowadays, it's not always the case.

Miyazaki's stuff, for example, seems to attract an all-star English voice cast.

Spirited Away was fantastic. Mononoke? Not so much. All-star cast of people who did not fit their characters or were phoning it in.

I could never understand this viewpoint. I prefer English dubbing simply because I think the original Japanese voice acting is spork-to-eardrums bad.

Pretty much 90% of any young female or male character will have a painfully high pitched or obnoxious voice, too many male characters have bizarrely deep voices, and pretty much all narration just sounds weird to me. Even in shows which have only a mediocre English dub, the dub is preferable to the inevitably annoying Japanese voice acting. Besides, I find that most anime dubs I have seen tend to have rather good voice acting.

It does take some getting used to, especially the rather high-pitches that a lot of characters seem to achieve. I've gotten used to it, but I don't have the same reverential attitude towards subtitles that a lot of anime fans seem to have

Anime dubs have come a long way since the horrors of things like Slayers: The Movie (*shudder*).

That is very true.

 

[Ranger REG]

I can't really enjoy the voice acting in a foreign language that just sounds like gibberish to me. *sheepish look*

Really? Because that's what I think about English.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Subtitles anytime. But I can understand if kids prefer dubbing.

Mea Culpa - this was reported, and on first reading it seemed like the post was implying that you are a kid if you like dubbing.

After some private conversation, it is clear that isn't the point, so I've removed my comment.

I've also removed the posts that people made in this thread about the moderation - you should know by now that if you've got a question about moderation you should either email the moderator or report the post so that it gets seen. Sometimes we make mistakes, and we'll fix them, but we like people to talk to us in the first instance rather than shout about it to the world.

Thanks

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I actually prefer Closed Captioning and if thsa isn't available, then subtitles.

 

[Krug]

Mea Culpa - this was reported, and on first reading it seemed like the post was implying that you are a kid if you like dubbing.

After some private conversation, it is clear that isn't the point, so I've removed my comment.

I've also removed the posts that people made in this thread about the moderation - you should know by now that if you've got a question about moderation you should either email the moderator or report the post so that it gets seen. Sometimes we make mistakes, and we'll fix them, but we like people to talk to us in the first instance rather than shout about it to the world.

Thanks

Ok I meant that most kids can't follow subs. They can't read fast enough and so dubbing helps. They might still watch it to see what's on screen, but they can't really understand what's going on.

 

[YourSwordIsMine]

I could never understand this viewpoint. I prefer English dubbing simply because I think the original Japanese voice acting is spork-to-eardrums bad.

Pretty much 90% of any young female or male character will have a painfully high pitched or obnoxious voice, too many male characters have bizarrely deep voices, and pretty much all narration just sounds weird to me. Even in shows which have only a mediocre English dub, the dub is preferable to the inevitably annoying Japanese voice acting. Besides, I find that most anime dubs I have seen tend to have rather good voice acting. Anime dubs have come a long way since the horrors of things like Slayers: The Movie (*shudder*).

It all stems from how I got into anime in the first place. I started back in the early 90s. Most of my collection is raw Japanese straight from TV or what was fan subbed. That’s all there was. When the American Anime industry was first starting they began to do subs and then dubs of things I’d already seen and it was very hard to transition over from that. To be honest the dubbing back then was horrid. Not that all the voice actors were bad but suffered more from poor direction and scripting. Mostly it’s a matter of taste though. If I'm going to watch something I would rather watch it as it was originally created. Also why I prefer widescreen *grins*

 

[Jeysie]

I can't really enjoy the voice acting in a foreign language that just sounds like gibberish to me. *sheepish look*

Really? Because that's what I think about English.

*chuckle* I sincerely don't have a problem with that. I'm not an English Supremacist (or however you would call it). I know the fact that I'm in a position where having no knack for learning other languages doesn't cause me hardships makes me very lucky, not superior. I always have respect for anyone with a foreign native tongue who comes to live in the US and learns to speak/understand English - even "badly" - because that's better than I could do!

Basically, my written comprehension is quite good - I could probably learn to *read* a foreign language. My aural comprehension is not, however: I have to actively concentrate just to comprehend English unless it's spoken fairly clearly. So trying to discern words and base patterns - and thus voice acting nuances - in a foreign language is just nearly impossible for me.

Peace & Luv, Liz

Note: Yes, I suppose it sounds weird that I still consider voice acting more important than the animation. But I don't have much of an eye for *art/visuals*, just *words*, so I'm geared to appreciate the writing of a story the most. If I don't have voice acting nuances to add to the writing, I'd rather just read a book.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

You mean when JD thinks narratively for the TV audience? Just change the reverb.

Or is it the rapid-firing insult by Dr. Cox?

No, I meant it's the voice that puts me off. The German JD has a pretty high pitched (naturally, I presume) voice, and it so nails down his sometimes "female" actions/attitude that it's hard to switch to the actors real, lower pitched voice.
That said maybe the American voice makes these scenes even more funny due to the contrast? (at least for the American audience)

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

For me, it's:

Live-Action: Subtitled.

Animation: Dubbed.

Pretty much the same. I'm used to dubbed animation, but the foreign language stuff I prefer to have subs. Even Brotherhood of the Wolf, though that's because I took French in school and could sort of understand the dialogue.

Brad

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Subtitles. I find dubbing to be much more distracting.

My wife prefers dubbing. She hates to read movies.