subbed or dubbed thats the question.

[Soup045]

Sometimes I like sub and sometimes I like dub. I like dub because the voices seem to fit better. I feel as though American voice actors are more...I dunno...have more dimension to their voice acting...like they can go from really high and squeaky voice to an angry or low voice and that just seems to fit the characters better, imo. Whereas, in the subbed version, the voices sound cute or normal and fit the characters but really I can't tell the difference between good voice acting and bad voice acting and the characters voice kinda sound the same. But sometimes I perfer subbed because I like the voices better sometimes despite all that. Also, if I start watching either dubbed or subbed, that's the one I'm gonna like more.

[fureagai]

Subbed all the way it's a great way to learn the language and you understand the full emotion of the story that dubbed usually butcher.

[KouShuurei]

I always watch the subbed ones
The dubs really sucks, the background sounds are always much louder than the voices, and they don't fit the characters. In the beginning I thought that the japanese voices were weird but I got used to it and now I can't stand the english voices. I watch the subs, even if that means that I must read it in french!
I finnaly found a good reason for those 8 years of french in class ^^

[manganimefan227]

Dubs are easier to enjoy. Subs make it hard to see the action while watching the subs.

[SSJup81]

It depends on the series. Some series are good both subbed and dubbed, some are better subbed, and some are better dubbed.

An example of some series where I like it both subbed and dubbed are: Cowboy Bebop; .hack//SIGN; Noir; Najica: Blitz Tactics; Gunsmith Cats.

I can't think of any other series right off that I like the sub and dub for. I do know that most dubs that are, well, bad, to me, in some way are shows like Sailor Moon S and up, Naruto, DBZ, Digimon Adventure/Adventure 02/Frontier (I've never seen Tamers' dub or Savers).

As for voice acting, imo, I don't care one way or the other where DBZ is concerned. I have issues with both its dub and original.

As for Digimon, I've only seen some of Frontier and didn't like its dub. I saw the originals prior to the dub, and I liked that, but didn't care for that season as a whole in general.

Even though Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R put out by DiC wasn't the best in the world, I actually liked their version of it...but I would still watch subs over it.

Seems that the series that do get the "bad dubs" are the series that were kiddy to begin with.

In conclusion (I know I talk too much), I probably would watch something subbed before a dub. Subtitles don't bother me since I've been reading closed captioning since I was about 11 or 12, so I'm used of reading. For me, it's easy to keep up with what you're watching and reading the subs.

[Amnell]

I prefer subs because the whole reason I watch anime any more is to hear the Japanese language. Okay, it's also 'cause anime is just awesome... But still!

I've heard all the things about how one shouldn't attempt to learn any Japanese from Anime/Manga because it's very colloquial and informal on top of being different from "real" spoken Japanese, etc. To that, I say that it still doesn't hurt to be learn to recognize the breaks in between words, and the only way to do that is to listen to a native speaker of the language. Since I'm not acquainted with any of those, anime is my only option.

I don't want to repeat my experience with learning Spanish: After five classes (six if you count the one I was in the middle of when I moved to California), I can speak Spanish fairly well, I can read it, and I can write it. For all of that, I couldn't have a conversation with a native Spanish speaker to save my life because I've only had three different teachers and my ear is trained to hear the way THEY speak--and none of them were native speakers (one was actually a native Mandarin-speaking Chinese, in fact).

I'm hoping to avoid replicating that by listening to the voice actors from anime when they speak their native language. So far it seems to have worked... With just one Japanese class so far, it's hard to tell, though.

[01001100]

Subbed or dubbed, either way you're getting a butchered form.

The problem with dubs is that, yes the voice acting can sometimes be piss poor because outside of celebrity voice overs (like for Studio Ghibli dubs) most voice acting is not top tier like in Japan. And sometimes things will be changed, sometimes not for the better like the change or addition of music where it's unnecessary.

On the other end, subbed will still not give you a literal translation because the Japanese language is about understanding context. When you read the subtitles, you just read the translators interpretations of the script and not what's really there. If everything was translated literally, it would be very bland and uninteresting to read in English (one of the reason why you don't learn Japanese by watching subs). Plus by constantly reading, you miss out on actually watching the anime no matter how much you can multi-task.

[narutoluvr]

i like subbed better...

[KikiBunny23]

I got .hack//lott the other day [i had started watching it subbed] but the dvd was dubbed and i kinda like it better dubbed but i also wish it was subbed cus i enjoy hearing japanese being spoken. it helps me to understand how things are said. like there were some words in japanese i didn't pronounce correctly but....i watched subbed anime and its all better ^_^

[SSJup81]

Originally Posted by 01001100

On the other end, subbed will still not give you a literal translation because the Japanese language is about understanding context. When you read the subtitles, you just read the translators interpretations of the script and not what's really there. If everything was translated literally, it would be very bland and uninteresting to read in English (one of the reason why you don't learn Japanese by watching subs). Plus by constantly reading, you miss out on actually watching the anime no matter how much you can multi-task.

I don't miss out on anything, so the latter, I can't agree with it. If you start out young, it becomes second nature. I've been reading closed-captioning since I was about 11 years old. My grandmother is hearing impaired, so we got her a closed captioned television back then. I'm going on 27 now, and I'm so used to having words up, I have a tough time following shows without them. For me, I miss out on stuff when I actually have to concentrate on just listening.

You are right about how things are translated though. My Japanese is very limited, but I've noticed how I might translate something literally and what it is actually put up. It means the same thing, only the subtitled version makes it more interesting, or choose different words.