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English anime dub is always horrible because japanese vocals moves way too fast

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Jan 16, 2023
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Anime dubs is always gonna be bad (Not to be confused with video games)
But its because japanese vocals move so fast, so it sounds so cringe and stupid when its dubbed over to english, it just isnt made for literal translation audience like some other languages are.

The only way it could work is if 4Kids was in charge to localize the words to natural sounding ones, rather than literal translations by a bad company like Funimation. Now i guess if they were to try to sound japanese speaking english it would just sound too funny like in Speed Racer dubs from the 1960s.

But bottomline, get a localizer, dont emote same as japanese voice actors do, it sounds stupid. Nobody is gonna moan like they broke their nails with that bad voice acting, you just go AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH and there you go. Just natural sound like it would be your language.

Now this doesnt prevent consumer garbage however. But just interms of the argument of bad dubs, its really bad localizers. I rather play Symphony of the Night PS1 game on Xbox 360/Ps1 over the redub of PSP and PS4 just as one example
 

ExLight

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There are good dubs and bad dubs regardless of the language. imo, if a dub is bad it's a matter of having to get better actors + better script + better audio mixing, not really a matter of pacing of the language.

That being said, most of the time I prefer to stick with the subbed material so I can experience it as close of the original as possible so I don't really care much about dubs.
 

TheGreatCthulhu

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There's good and bad dubs. It all depends on the quality of the voice actors, quality of the audio mixing, and a better script.

Some anime I refuse to watch in Japanese. For example, Vinland Saga. I don't historically accept the concept of Norsemen speaking Japanese, thus, English is far more reasonable, though ideally, I'd much prefer they speak Danish or Old Norse.

Some anime I refuse to watch dubbed as the Japanese is better or far more entertaining.

It just depends.
 

accio boomerang

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I tend to always watch dubs because I'm one of those people that tend to look away for awhile and I know that if I watched a subbed show that I would miss something and I don't like that. The only time I've ever watched a subtitled show/movie was when I was in the movie theater as I had no outside distractions.
 

twilitfalchion

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I used to be more of a subs kinda guy but with my attention span being what it is, I actually prefer dubs nowadays. Lets me keep up with what's going on if my ADHD brain decides to jump to something else. And as I've explored more options, there's more and better dubs out there than I expected too.
 

Jimmu

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The subtitles themselves can also often be a poor portrayal of the conversations and all the layers of cultural context that are weaved into them, so that isn't exclusively an issue with dubs. Unfortunately when translating that is bound to happen and being able to translate something effectively is truely an art form in its own right.

I'm also generally not a fan of watching a dubbed version of anime and while it is true that the pacing and tone of speech can often feel awkward when translated into english I think it is good that at least the existence of the dub is opening the experience up to those who for whatever reason can't watch or don't want to watch a subbed version.
 

Bowsette Plus-Ultra

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I'd disagree. There are plenty of good dubs and plenty of bad dubs. Personally, I like to watch my shows instead of reading them, so I always prefer dubs when I can. I think the one exception was One Punch Man, where something about the dub just didn't click with me.

And consider this: the reason I think people prefer subs is that they can't tell if the voice acting is bad since they don't speak the language.
 

Stitch

AKA Patrick
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Aug 13, 2013
I'd disagree. There are plenty of good dubs and plenty of bad dubs. Personally, I like to watch my shows instead of reading them, so I always prefer dubs when I can. I think the one exception was One Punch Man, where something about the dub just didn't click with me.

And consider this: the reason I think people prefer subs is that they can't tell if the voice acting is bad since they don't speak the language.
I don't care if people watch subs or dubs and people have good and silly reasons for watching both. But I don't think lumping together people who prefer one of them all in with the same reasoning is healthy discourse. Hell, a lot of people choose to have subtitles on for shows and movies in their own language. The conversation is a lot more complex than simply being an issue with voice acting. Voice acting often actually takes up a small portion of the audio space of a tv show or movie and mixing that audio is an art of itself. By the time the voices have been directed and the audio mixed for a dub, it is easy to consider it an entirely different work of art, as if it was another transformative piece of art. Not that the subtitles don't qualify that as themselves, but there is an argument that from an equally done job of subtitling and dubbing the sub in the original language is still closer to the original work. Not to say that anybody has to care about this and it is perfectly valid to watch a dub, but there are good reasonings for both that generally come down to why you are watching what you are watching in the first place.
 

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