The "dub vs. sub" debate stretches far and wide. It's a topic everyone is aware of, and probably one everyone talks about, but I hear very little of it. It's more an unspoken rule in the anime community that the sub is better than the dub. My impression is, if you watch the dub, you're just a fair-weather mainstream/Adult Swim anime fan, not a "true" anime fan. Only real fans go and illegally download fansubs.
While I love my anime community, we can be elitist pricks sometimes. This goes double for myself, for I have no right to judge those who like to watch subs. I do it all the time. But I get defensive about my uncommon love for dubs. I'll try to refrain from lashing out at fans who have every right to prefer the original Japanese to localized languages.
I am a filmmaker. One of the principles of filmmaking is mise-en-scene, which has many definitions, but basically refers to everything that appears before the camera. Other definitions are worked out by academics, and people who want to sound smart. Anyway, everything you see on the screen. While the audio is what was originally intended by the creators, the subtitles are not. Subtitles distract from what else is on the screen. I prefer to see the visuals as the creator intended, as opposed to listing to the audio as the creator intended.
But isn't the audio just as important? Sure, it is! But I don't know Japanese. I prefer to listen to English speakers. Differences in Japanese and English voice acting have very little bearing on most shows that have been dubbed within the past 10 years. I hate to pick on 4kids, but well, just about everything not dubbed by 4kids isn't that bad. There are exceptions, but English does not equal bad voice acting. Nor does it equal bad translation. Another complaint of dubs is that they don't accurately translate shows. One of the reasons for this is because fansubs (and scanlations) love to throw in stronger curse words than are actually being used. Hiruma in Eyeshield 21 isn't really saying "f***ing pipqueaks!" He actually does say "damn". The stronger word makes it look like they're translating more "accurately".
Finally, watching dubs supports the anime industry in America. There are companies out there that are busting their butts so we can watch this stuff, and hopefully so they can turn a profit. Instead of helping them to earn that profit, and in turn, help them acquire more shows, subs thumb their noses at the system and people who watch them just steal what they want.
Now, I watch fansubs. I'm a big fat hypocrite. I also watch dubs illegally online. Who am I to lecture you? No one. I'm awful. I get DVDs from the library, and I watch things on FUNi's youtube channel when I can, but in the end, if I want it, I'll stream it (preferably dubbed) from Animefreak.tv or the like. But I'll lecture anyway. Whether you give me any credit or not is up to you. I guess my real point here is, should you be one of those people who refuses to watch dubs, try to see it from the other point of view. I'm tired of getting so defensive about my dubs. There's merit to both subs and dubs. That's why we have these debates.
4 comments:
Ain't nothin' wrong with liking dubs. I personally prefer subs most of the time, but I recognize that there are probably good dubs out there. I personally have not encountered any, but I've only seen a few shows dubbed, so I know I can't make a judgment call there. I also enjoy subs because I like hearing the language and trying to pick out what I can and seeing how it's translated. Call it scholarly curiosity. I'm a fast reader, too, so subtitles only distract from what's on screen if there's a particularly lengthy screed. Ah, but this is all YMMV territory, and my experiences are purely anecdotal. Just throwing in my two cents, really.
I appreciate the two cents! I only watched subs for a long time, too. I would watch the sub, then watch the dub and dislike it. I found that if I watched something from the beginning dubbed, I liked the dub just fine. So I wonder if some people dislike dubs only because they're used to the original Japanese voices, and not because there's anything particularly wrong with the dub. Gurren Lagann, for example, I watched entirely subbed. I would see bits and pieces dubbed and I hated it. Then I watched the entire series dubbed, and it was actually a really good dub. Not the best series to use as an example with you, I know, but it's the first that came to mind. XD
You may have a point there. But nothing will induce me to appreciate Asahina-san's dubbed voice. Nothing.
If it were easier to find dubs online, I'd probably try more of them. I actually think I liked Fruits Basket's dub better than the sub version. Of course, neither was very good, but...
Aww, no Stephanie Sheh? XD Yeah, she's a bit much as Mikuru. She's a good Eureka, at least.
Haha, yes, the manga's much better for Furuba.
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