This age old question is a favorite breaking the ice conversation starter both online and at cons. No matter who you are, no matter how long you've avoided the question, if you're an anime fan and talk to other anime fans you WILL be asked this… so subs or dubs?
Well as some sub person will say "Only noobs watch dubs! American voice actors suck" and as dub people will say "I don't want to read while I watch tv! Besides American voice actors are awesome" (I've seen both soooo many times)
And with that I have boiled down the biggest stereotypes of the subs vs dubs people.
Dub people all hate reading and sub people are kinda snobs.
While I have met dub people who annoy me with their "I will ONLY watch things in English" and sub people with their "Subs are for the REAL fans" attitudes most people enjoy a healthy mix depending on the show, its availability in their home language, and whether they are a fan of that particular voice actor.
So what are the real pros and cons to subs and to dubs?
To answer this I shall focus on the positives!
Subs
PROS:
You tend to get a better flavor of the actual dialogue being spoken.
You're not limited to what has been dubbed, one of the biggest changes I've noticed in anime DVDs over the last few years is that their are more movies being translated but not dubbed. (Oh yeah and the internet)
Dubs
PROS:
You do not have the fight between written words and images which does give the benefit of being able to focus on the artwork.
It's kind of nice not having to read….
So time for the big question! There's the DVD menu, haunting, offering the dub or sub option…
So which side am I on?
Well honestly, I am a sub person.
I prefer the Japanese voice actors to English ones 90% of the time. Full Metal Alchemist, YuYu Hakushou and Rurouni Kenshin I will only watch in english. (And Descendants of Darkness because the voice acting is so miscast and awful that its kinda amazing.) On the other hand I would never dream of watching Trigun in English, the Japanese voice actor for Vash gives such an amazing and powerful performance that I just can't…
I have also come across censorship in dubs as well as official subs in the past, and since I have some knowledge of speaking Japanese (Two years and a minor later...) I can catch some of these in the subs whereas I can't in a dubbed version.
Which side are you on?
~Tsu
PS.
I will still be doing a review later this week. (Probably vampire manga or Towan no Quan) But I had some time and was thinking about this so… XD
Also I do want to try a little video, but despite all this time I have floating around I've just been a bit lazy. lol
