Subbed or Dubbed?

[Dante]

So, to the members here who watch anime, do you like to watch subbed (original Japanese with English subtitles) or dubbed (English voiceover) anime?

I prefer subs, but sometimes I'll watch dubs if the situation requires it or something like that (I watched Death Note dubbed after watching it subbed because I liked it so much, and also because I watched it again with my sister and she only watches dubbed).

So, do you liked subbed or dubbed, and why?

[no_id]

Subbed without doubt.
Luckily I come from a pro-sub country. Everything's subbed here and people throw in complaints whenever something's dubbed. The only dubbed things I adore are Disney animated films (the 'ole ones) which is due to nostalgia.

[Fenrir]

Subbed, but that's only because American voice actors they get for these things are often terrible.
I will watch dubbed stuff though, eg. when I am watching anime with my very dyslexic friend, and I have a great affection for the dubbed versions of Shaman King and Pokemon. 
Post Merge: June 22, 2010, 10:15:22 AM
Actually, on second thought, I should change my vote to 'I watch both', I voted 'I prefer subbed'. >.<

[muiredachau]

I watch both mainly because channels Ten & ABC2 usally show the dubbed version, but thanks to Madman Entertainment we can subbed Anime in Oz

[Epigania]

Ok, I admit.  I prefer dubbed.  I get distracted reading the text that I miss what's happening visually.   I love to watch Anime because I find the artistic style of the shows beautiful and vibrant.  If I'm forced to read all the time to catch what's going on, it turns me off of the show.

[Silver]

Definitely subbed. It's not butchered to make room for commercials, don't mind reading as I watch and the voices fit better even if I can't understand them.

Edit: Death Note's dub was good though. Didn't hate the voices, and it wasn't butchered. I read the manga too. Most are not so lucky.

[Dante]

@SilverFang - I love listening to the Japanese voices, so I like subs even more for that reason (I'm going to learn Japanese someday, hopefully soon!).

Death Note had pretty good dubs, which is why I like both in that case. And it only kept the pause for the one commercial in the middle (I loved reading the rules in the middle, too). Ranma 1/2 had an ok dub. But they changed the voice actor for Ranma halfway through. They sounded nothing alike and it made me even more happy watching the subbed.

Another good reason to watch subbed is that you can watch it sooner; you can watch right after someone translates it, instead of having to wait until years after the show has ended to watch the dubbed version.

[muiredachau]

I know of one anime that if you watch with japanese audio it will actually be a dub not orginal language.

Go Afro Samurai

[Hikari]

I prefer subbed anime definitely. Japanese voice actors are usually much better, I will concede that in recent years there have been plenty of series that I thought were dubbed well enough to watch in that dub (Gundam SEED, Bleach, Code Geass, a few others) and if that keeps up then great, both the American's and Japanese win.

I still will prefer the subs just so that I can pick up on the nuances that are lost in English, even if all of the American voice actors become competent. Being called -Sama vs -Chan is a pretty big difference that takes some creative writing to convey properly in English. It can be done and done well, but there are always compromises.

[Dante]

I know of one anime that if you watch with japanese audio it will actually be a dub not orginal language.

Do you mean that it wasn't originally in Japanese? (Kind of like Avatar: The Last Airbender, maybe?)

I still will prefer the subs just so that I can pick up on the nuances that are lost in English, even if all of the American voice actors become competent. Being called -Sama vs -Chan is a pretty big difference that takes some creative writing to convey properly in English. It can be done and done well, but there are always compromises.

Very true.

[Yakshini]

I prefer subbed anime since, you know, english voice actor are terrible. But sometimes subbing can be just as terrible.  But I'm also okay with watching dubbed anime. I don't watch too terribly much, but I certainly enjoy it.
I always think it's ridiculous when people don't watch anything with subtitles. It's always people who hate reading or something silly like that.

[Kairi]

I always watch mine subbed, as the original Japanese voices are much better than the English counterpart... and in the case of female characters, cuter too. The only time I watched dubbed anime is the Chinese dub of Lucky Star, which is not too bad in my opinions.

But sometimes subbing can be just as terrible.

From my experience, terrible subbing is often due to Asian DVD releases, especially Malaysian anime DVDs. The problem is that they don't speak English natively so the translation is sometimes flawed. I've seen mistakes from typos, to incorrect grammar to English subtitles suddenly switching to Chinese for a set of dialogues!

If you download anime releases from popular fansub groups, they are usually error free due to the amount of checking done before it is released to the community, not to mention that the translators are fluent in English and Japanese.

[ClaudiaJ]

Most certainly subbed. I absolutely cannot stand English-speaking voice actors. They're fine in something made here in America, but the culture is so different that they just stick out like a sore thumb. And they're usually terrible at being expressive.

[Zack]

Subbed, definitely.

[Shang]

Bah, I clicked the wrong one.  I prefer subbed because voice actors that do the dubbing are almost always disappointing...it's why I don't watch my anime online over Netflix because I go crazy because it ruins the characters.  Like in Saiyuki...I love it when it's subbed, but once it's dubbed I about scream...or Death Note or Bleach or FMA and so forth and so forth.  Subbing all the way!

[Jessi_the_red]

subbed or dubbed don't care ether way as long as it's not bad fan subbed. kill me now if I have to watch an subbed anime i can't read because the words are tiny, bright pink and in cursive