Yeah this is entirely my opinion, but I wanted to point this out because it's really putting a :/ on my face these days. What am I talking about? Dubs.

I think wee're all familiar with japanese to english dubbing and reminded of the horrendous quality of the latter between the two. So it's only natural for viewers to stick with japanese voices and use subtitles in their native language so they can understand the stories.

So japanese VA's are good and it's always nice to watch/play something in the native tongue of where it was produced, but english dubbing has improved over the last decade leading to the question, why do you hate it so much? For example, I LOVED persona 3's english voice actors and in my opinion, made it a whole lot more easier to appreciate the story with the presentation of the voices.

You don't get that same feel when it's done in a foreign tongue, because you have to read emotion through words, ever cried at a book? Me neither.

So yeah yeah, the NEW argument would be "well then, why would you rape the source material and try to insert your own cultural difference (language-wise) into another language? Obviously Japanese dubs are the way to go!" Alas, this is true in some cases as translating honorific's is a big double you tee eff when you hear it in english, but, this is more to just get a feel for the differences between cultures.

Personally I liked it that they would attach the -kun -senpai to the english names because it would remind you of what the differences are in english and, it wasn't so bad as some people make it out to be. English dubbing like this keeps the culture intact while allowing people to enjoy the source material without having to look down every second to see what the characters are saying.

Final note: The argument that "english voice dubbing sucks" is kind of fading away as English VA's are starting to get better at playing their roles. I think that people need to at least start warming up to english dubs in general in terms of quality, I don't think it's an issue of quality any more but just personal taste now.

(This post was last modified: 09/12/2011 10:23 PM by Tetris999.)

(09/12/2011 10:18 PM)Tetris999 Wrote:  Personally I liked it that they would attach the -kun -senpai to the english names because it would remind you of what the differences are in english and, it wasn't so bad as some people make it out to be. English dubbing like this keeps the culture intact while allowing people to enjoy the source material without having to look down every second to see what the characters are saying.

I disagree.  Honorifics are just a very small part overall - you'll lose a lot more in other places.
IMO, just keep it to natural English.  Yes, you lose some culture related stuff, but that's always a given anyway.

Perhaps one of my biggest gripes about dubs and official translations (subs) is their fear of putting in translation notes (makes it look unprofessional?).  Some jokes, for example, simply cannot be translated without some explanation - fansubs will probably point it out, but US DVD releases usually won't.

Also some Japanese voices sound very weird when they try to get American VAs to mimic (eg high pitched female voice) - I'd probably prefer a more natural sounding voice there To be honest.

But I generally prefer dubs.

I watch dubs sometimes, because I'm lazy and can't be bothered reading subs when I can not do it.  Actually more like I can concentrate on the pictures more than the words, which is how stuff is supposed to be watched.

(09/12/2011 10:18 PM)Tetris999 Wrote:  Final note: The argument that "english voice dubbing sucks" is kind of fading away as English VA's are starting to get better at playing their roles. I think that people need to at least start warming up to english dubs in general in terms of quality, I don't think it's an issue of quality any more but just personal taste now.

Anyway, I think I mentioned this before... Another thing to consider is still the fact that most people watch the subs first.  Whatever you watch first will hold an impression on you after watching it, and set into your brain as how it "should be".  So then when you watch in English, it miss-matches with your previous impression you had in your mind resulting in a worse impression.  So even when the quality is the same, people will still prefer the subs.  And ofcourse, a lot of the times there's actually a real difference in quality.

Still yet to hear a dub I can bear.

I read subs quick enough to take time on watching the stillness of characters in conversation anyway ~_~

If the voices are good and I'm given the chance, I'll watch dubs.