Opinion/Anime #38 - Dub vs. Sub

I have this argument all the time, and an incident just now on MyAnimeList.net incited me to write about it.

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.

Opinions -- OneManga Closing

I'll be sorting my posts more and more, instead of just labeling everything "anime" like I used to. This "opinion" label will be just that, opinions on things going on in the anime world. I thought of having a "news" label, but a dedicated news site like ANN would be a much better place for you to get your anime news. I'll just offer my opinion when I have one.

Popular scanlation website OneManga announced last Thursday that it will close this week. For once, I think the fan reaction means nothing. Whether fans like it or not, OneManga is over. The importance of this is in the industry. I admit, I read Naruto, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Eyeshield 21 all on OneManga. I also buy all of those titles, which doesn't make what I did any less wrong, but it makes me feel better. Now, I will still finish buying those titles.

What does this mean to all the people who only read things online and did not pay? Theoretically, it will help the manga industry. There are other manga scan websites, though. Mangafox, for one, which has no notice of closing. Some people will shift to other websites, and some people will try to buy. There will always be somewhere online to find these things. But it's possible that OneManga closing might trigger some peoples' consciences, and they'll feel bad about not paying for the manga. I certainly do. I don't have the money to spend more than I already do, so I'll order more manga from the public library.

The industry's response should be to put manga online, but I don't know if it will happen as readily as it did for streaming anime. People are used to getting manga online, and they will want to continue. I hope some will be free, and some will be paid-only. For example, 3 chapters free, pay to download the rest of the volume or series.

This shakes up the industry all the way to Japan, though. Manga is printed. It's always been printed. Putting it online takes away the point of printing it. It hurts the printers, too. Anime has TV, DVD, and internet, but manga has only printing and internet. People like to own hard copies, but print is not as suited to download-to-own as video. It will be interesting to see if the manga companies offer download-to-own or not, and how well it does. Ad-based revenue might start to crop up to allow people to read manga online.

It's good of OneManga to step down. Now we wait and see what Viz, Tokyopop, Del Rey, and the like do with their new opportunity to reach the internet manga readers. I'm not too optimistic. Images are harder to control than video. More sites will pop up. Manga is harder to stick ad-based revenue on. I think that someone else will replace OneManga, and publishers will only have single chapters or the like available to read on their sites. I want to be optimistic because of how great FUNi has been about posting shows for free on youtube and its website, but I just don't see online manga taking off right now. A lot of people, myself included, like having a book in their hands. I'm glad their closing, and I hope this means that more titles get printed, not that another website takes over.

Opinion: Anime #35--Addressing the FUNimation Leaks

There's been a big to-do in the anime community recently about FUNimation's One Piece and Phantom streams downloaded and leaked before their Japanese airdates. Also, their FMA: Brotherhood stream which was leaked before its intended airdate but at least after its Japanese airdate. Because I am now done with classes, I now have the time to not only read these articles on ANN, but explore the forums. I need to learn to not do that. Exploring ANN forums only makes me hate the anime community. There are two basic views on this issue, those who think that FUNi's been wronged, and those who think that FUNi got what they deserved.

The majority of people blame FUNi completely and insult people in very condescending terms when they say otherwise. Someone stole these episodes and illegally redistributed them. Shouldn't we blame them? Yeah, FUNi's security was nonexistent, but they actually care about their fans. They get us boxsets and put extras on their DVDs and offer the option of translated and non-translated theme songs and ARE TRYING TO GET US THE SIMLUCASTS WE'VE BEEN WHINING FOR. So this person/persons thank FUNi by bitorrenting the episodes before they come out in Japan?! HECK YES IT'S THEIR FAULT. FUNi needs to improve security, yes, but that's no excuse for stealing their stuff. Just because it's easier to steal doesn't make it less wrong.

The last time I was on the ANN forums was when the Sakuracon commercial aired. The silly commerical that didn't do any real harm, but then I got on the ANN forums. So all you otaku out there, I caution you if you visit the ANN forums. People there tend to think too much of themselves and be very insulting if you don't agree with them. I can't stand it.

You can have your own opinion, and I don't care what it is. But I blame whoever redistributed the episodes. All the people who defy the industry just because they like their fansubs--guess what? Without the industry, THERE IS NO ANIME IN NORTH AMERICA. You have no conventions, no merchandise, no English-dubbed anime. Maybe you don't care, but the majority of us do. Stop being jerks and follow the legal process.

Opinion: Anime #31--Otaku Identity

Being American and being a fan of Japanese animation has always been an interesting position. The animation is from a different culture, and those things from other cultures can appeal to us, who do not live in that culture. I believe every otaku has gone though a "Japanphile" phase. You buy a yukata, you pretend to celebrate a Japanese holiday, you eat sushi, you employ phrases picked up from watching things subbed, etc. When the interest in Japanese culture reaches the "everthing about Japan is amazing and Japan can do no wrong" phase, it has gone too far.
I think that part of it is a sort of rite of passage. If you know more about Japan than someone else, you're a better otaku. Makes sense, right? Until you start objectifying Japanese people's culture as a state in life that can be obtained by eating enough soba, watching enough fansubs, and calling everything you see "kawaii". For most, it's a stage of being a fan, and doesn't get to that nasty objectifying place. I certainly went through the "learn Japanese and spout words picked up from subs" phase. When it persists, that's not so good.
That isn't to say that wanting to know more about Japan is a bad thing. I have a sincere desire to learn Japanese now. I did a 40-minute long presentation on the history of anime and its cultural significance in Japan last year for World Literature. I'm interested in Japanese literature. I like knowing those little cultural things in series that Americans don't usually know. (example: just yesterday in Ouran High School Host Club, there was a scene where a character saw a tea stalk sticking up in his tea. In Japan, that's a sign of good luck.)

This was spawned by a commericial for Sakura-Con.


The commercial has sparked some heated debates between otaku, though most of it was two months ago when the commercial actually AIRED. ^_^;; But I was so sick of the debate, I never wanted to post it. I saw it in my unposted posts today, and felt I needed to address the topic. Rewatching the video, I don't think it's THAT bad. They were going for something like "we all like different aspects of anime culture! sakura-con has ALL those things! isn't that cool?" but came off more like "WE'RE OBSESSED JAPANAPHILES WHOO SAKURA-CON". Anime fans took offense. But it's over now, and not that big a deal anymore.

In summary, liking Japan = good. Japanaphile, Japan can do NO WRONG, Japan is better than everything else, spouting off random Japanese words means you can speak Japanese = BAD.